Andrew Fuller

The organization with which i served with abwe we had our start in the philippines uh well early in our history serving in the philippines japan attempted to invade and annex the philippines the us was able to liberate it during world war ii and because of that the gospel has spread but What would the story of the gospel in the Philippines look like had it fallen under imperial, sun-worshiping Japan? It'd be very different, right? There are certain ways in which the Lord and his providence uses magistrates to establish the conditions of peace necessary to gospel flourishing as well.

It's something that Andrew Fuller talks about in his sermon on Christian patriotism.

And so what we need to do, and I'm speaking to my fellow evangelicals here, I'm speaking to my fellow missions-minded people, that doesn't mean we need to blend church and state.

that doesn't mean we need to quote unquote get political or get partisan but what it does mean is we need to not be naive about the use of means we are in a world that god has ordered under natural temporal governments If you want to look at the Noahic covenant, you know, if you want to use a two kingdom structure, however you want to do that.

Anyone who follows this channel is probably reading up on eschatology and knows that there's a variety of opinions about how the end of the world intersects with the Great Commission.

And I've seen the old hyper-Calvinist position is starting to become popular on the web again.

William Carey, Andrew Fuller, in their day, were contending against this idea that the Great Commission was only for the apostles and that it was completely fulfilled in the first century.

And there's some textual evidence that points you in that direction in Colossians 1.

Before departing also from Christian Germany, I felt like maybe William Carey had felt.

You know, when he first went to India, he told his close friend, Andrew Fuller, I go down the pit, you hold the rope, you hold the rope.

And I felt like going down the pit.

And after a while, I realized that there was as much pit inside my Christian self as there was outside in the heathen world.

One was five and a half years.

And once we had a home assignment of two years.

And then the terms were way too long for the family and connecting with German supporters and friends.

So there's no solution to that problem.

I couldn't possibly go to India.

And William Carey sent to his friend, Andrew Fuller, I will go down into the pit if you will hold the ropes.

And for his entire life, Andrew Fuller never, ever forsook his friend William Carey.

Most of us don't know there was another lady involved.

That was William Carey's sister.

To, to fund missions.

And this is kind of William Carey is like a superhero, right? So William Carey goes out, and you have Andrew Fuller and guys like that back at home rallying the troops.

In the IMB world, we have stayers and goers.

So William Carey's the goer.

Andrew Fuller's the stayer.

They're both very important to it working.

Andrew Fuller keeps trying to make sure William Carey's getting money.

William Carey is writing down basically the stories of his adventures.

Um, William War- uh, W.M. Ward, who was a, um, a historian of the 18th century particularly, uh, had a very, uh, distinctive essay in which he argued that the ecclesiology of, uh, Evangelicals and Baptists in particular, by the late n- 18th century had become centered on evangelism, that the church was a place for the winning of the lost.

The church was, uh, um, in the words of Andrew Fuller, the, the armies of the lamb, uh, that was designed to go out and win the lost, uh, throughout the world, which is obviously, uh, biblical and, um, important.

Uh, but the church becomes geared to becoming a vehicle for evangelism, and the Lord's Supper is not a converting ordinance, and thus there is a growing diminution of its importance, and so much so that by the time you hit the, the mid to late 19th century, it, it really is a, i- in many Baptist circles, it's just tacked on at the end of a service, uh, gotten through quickly, uh, done maybe monthly, uh, Spurgeon being the exception.

In, uh, North American context, uh, by the late 19th century, you've got the development of another vehicle within the, the context of worship, and namely the altar call.

Uh, they basically rejected the, the memorial view, and, uh, they were very committed to a Calvinistic view of the table.

So a real presence, but not a bodily presence.

Now, this kind of gets into the, the debate you mentioned earlier about John, uh, Bunyan, and, and then you, you talk about Andrew Fuller about open and closed communion, whether you can give communion to those who are not baptized as believers or who were baptized as infants, or I guess weren't actually baptized, or however you wanna, you know, phrase it.

And the tension I feel is, it seems to me, you know, like you mentioned, to have someone not take communion with you was a big deal.

i must go through with it

on monuments erected in honour of william carey on busts and plaques and pedestals on the title-pages of his innumerable biographies and under pictures that had been painted of him i have often seen inscribed some stirring sentence that fell from his eloquent lips but i have never seen that one yet the most characteristic word that carey ever uttered was the reply that he made to his mother that day if i begin a thing i must go through with it if you look closely you will see that sentence stamped upon his countenance as with a far-away look in his eyes he passes down the lane let us follow him and we shall find that he is beginning some tremendous things and depend upon it he will at any cost go through with them it is not an elaborately furnished abode this little home of his for although he is minister schoolmaster and cobbler the three vocations only provide him with about thirty-six pounds a year looking around i can see a few stools his cobbler's outfit a book or two including a bible a copty of captain cook's voyages and a dutch grammar besides a queer-looking map on the wall we must have a good look at this map for there is history in it as well as geography it is a map of the world made of leather and brown paper and it is the work of his own fingers look i say at this map for it is a reflection of the soul of carey as he came up the lane looking neither to the right nor to the left he was thinking of the world he is a jack-of-all-trades yet he is a man of a single thought perhaps he says to himself perhaps god means what he says the world the world the world for god so loved the world go ye into all the world the kingdoms of the world shall become the kingdoms of our god and of his christ it is always the world the world the world that thought haunted the mind of carey night and day the map of the world hung in his room but it only hung in his room because it already hung in his heart he thought of it he dreamed of it he preached of it and he was amazed that when he unburdened his soul to his brother ministers or preached on that burning theme to his little congregation they listened with respectful interest and close attention yet did nothing at length on may thirty first seventeen ninety two carey preached his great sermon the sermon that gave rise to the modern missionary movement the sermon that made history it was at nottingham lengthen thy cords so ran the text lengthen thy cords and strengthen thy stakes for thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left and thy seed shall inherit the gentiles and make the desolate cities to be inhabited lengthen thy cords said the text strengthen thy stakes said the text expect great things from god said the preacher attempt great things for god said the preacher if all the people had lifted up their voices and wept says dr ryland as the children of israel did at botcham i should not have wondered at the effect it would only have seemed proportionate to the cause so clearly did mr carey prove the criminality of our supineness in the cause of god but the people did not weep they did not even wait they rose to leave as usual when carey stepping down from the pulpit saw the people quietly dispersing he seized andrew fuller's hand and wrung it in an agony of distress are we not going to do anything he demanded oh fuller call them back call them back we dare not separate without doing anything as a result of that passionate entreaty a missionary society was formed and william carey offered himself as the society's first missionary if i begin a thing i must go through with it he said as a schoolboy we dare not separate without doing something he cried as a young minister lengthen the cords strengthen the stakes expect great things attempt great things i can never think of william carey without thinking of jane conquest in the little hamlet by the sea poor jane watched through the night beside the cot of her dying child then suddenly a light leapt in at the lattice crimsoning every object in the room it was a ship on fire and no eyes but hers had seen it leaving her dying boy to the great father's care she trudged through the snow to the old church on the hill she crept through the narrow window and climbed the belfry stair and grasped the rope sole cord of hope for the mariners in despair and the wild wind helped her bravely and she wrought with an earnest will and the clamorous bell spoke out right well to the hamlet under the hill and it roused the slumbering fishers nor its warning task gave o'er till a hundred fleet and eager feet were hurrying to the shore and the lifeboat midst the breakers with a brave and gallant few or came every check and reached the wreck and saved the hapless crew upon the sensitive soul of william carey there broke the startling vision of a world in peril and he could find no sleep for his eyes nor slumber for his eyelids until the whole church was up and doing for the salvation of the perishing millions it has been finally said that when towards the close of the eighteenth century it pleased god to awaken from her slumber a drowsy and lethargic church there rang out from the belfry of the ages a clamorous and insistent alarm and in that arousing hour the hand upon the bell-rope was the hand of william carey we dare not separate without doing something lengthen the cords strengthen the stakes expect great things attempt great things here am i send me send me now the life of william carey is both the outcome and the exemplification of a stupendous principle that principle was never better stated than by the prophet from whose flaming lips carey borrowed his text Thine eyes, said Isaiah, thine eyes shall see the king in his beauty.

They shall behold the land that stretches very far off.

the vision kingly stands related to the vision continental the revelation of the lord leads to the revelation of the limitless landscape what was it that happened one memorable day upon the road to damascus it was simply this saul of tarsus saw the king in his beauty and what happened was a natural and inevitable consequence there came into his life the passion of the far horizon all the narrowing limits of jewish prejudice and the cramping bonds of pharisaic superstition fell from him like the scales that seemed to drop from his eyes the world is at his feet single-handed and alone taking his life in his hand he storms the great centers of civilization the capitals of proud empires in the name of jesus christ no difficulty can daunt him no danger impede his splendid progress he passes from sea to sea from island to island from continent to continent the hunger of the earth is in his soul there is no coast or colony to which he will not go he finds himself a debtor to greed and to barbarian to bond and to free he climbs mountains fords rivers crosses continents bears stripes endures imprisonment suffers shipwreck courts insult and dares a thousand deaths out of the passion of his heart to carry the message of hope to every crevice and corner of the earth a more thrilling story of hazard hardship heroism and adventure has never been written on the road to damascus paul saw the king in his beauty and he spent the remainder of his life in exploring the limitless landscape that unrolled itself before him the vision of the king opened to his eyes the vision of the continents in every age these two visions have always gone side by side in the fourteenth century the vision of the king broke upon the soul of john wyclif instantly there arose the lollards scouring city town and hamlet with the new evangel the representatives of the instinct of the far horizon the fifteenth century contains two tremendous names as soon as the world received the vision kingly by means of savonarola it received the vision continental by means of christopher columbus in the sixteenth century the same principle holds it is on the one hand the century of martin luther and on the other hand the century of raleigh drake hawkins frobisher greenville and the great elizabethan navigators all the oceans of the world became a snowstorm of white sails the seventeenth century gave us first the puritans and then the sailing of the mayflower so we came to the eighteenth century and the eighteenth century is essentially the century of john wesley and of william carey at aldersgate street the vision of the king in his beauty dawned graciously upon the soul of john wesley during the fifty years that followed that vision fell through wesley's instrumentality upon the entire english people the methodist revival of the eighteenth century is one of the most gladsome records in the history of europe and then john wesley having impressed upon all men the vision of the king william carey arose to impress upon them the vision of the continents we must do something he cried lengthen the cords strengthen the stakes expect great things attempt great things the king the king the continents the continents having gazed upon these things our eyes are the better fitted to appreciate the significance of the contents of the cobbler's room there he sits at his last the bible from which he drew his text spread out before him and a homemade map of the world upon the wall there is no element of chance about that artless record there is a subtle and inevitable connection between the two in the bible he saw the king in his beauty on the map he caught glimpses of the far horizon to him the two were inseparable and moved by the vision of the lord which he caught in the one and by the vision of the limitless landscape which he caught in the other he left his last and made history lengthen the cords strengthen the stakes expect great things attempt great things do something do something it was at nottingham that carey preached that arousing sermon it was in india that he practised it with the eye of a statesman and a strategist he saw that the best way to regain the ground that was being lost in europe was to achieve new conquest in asia history abounds in striking coincidences and among them all there is none more suggestive than the fact that it was on november eleventh seventeen ninety three the very day on which the french revolutionists tore down the cross at notre dame smashed it on the streets an abjured christianity that william carey sailed up the hooghly landed at calcutta and claimed a new continent for christ and like a statesman and a strategist he settled down to do in india the work to which he had challenged the church at home lengthen the cords strengthen the stakes he started an indigo factory made himself the master of a dozen languages became professor of bengali sanskrit and mahratta at a salary of fifteen hundred a year all in order to engage more and still more missionaries and to multiply the activities by which the kingdom of christ might be set up in india his work of translation was a marvel in itself if i begin a thing i must go through with it he said that day with a bird's nest resting on his lap do something do something he said in his agony as he saw the people dispersing after his sermon and in india he did things he toiled terribly but he sent the gospel broadcast through the lengths and breadths of that vast land filled up the finest college in the indian empire and gave the peoples the word of god in their own tongue just before carey died alexander duff arrived in india he was a young highlander of four and twenty tall and handsome with flashing eyes and a quivering voice before setting out on his own life's work he went to see the man who had changed the face of the world he reached the college on a sweltering day in july there he beheld a little yellow old man in a white jacket who tottered up to the visitor received his greetings and with outstretched hands solemnly blessed him each fell in love with the other carey standing on the brink of the grave rejoiced to see the handsome and cultured young scotsman dedicating his life to the evangelization and emancipation of india duff felt that the old man's benediction would cling to his work like a fragrance through all the great and epic-making days ahead not long after kerry lay a-dying and to his great delight duff came to see him the young highlander told the veteran of his admiration and his love in a whisper that was scarcely audible the dying man begged the visitor to pray with him and after he had complied and taken a sad farewell of the frail old man he turned to go on reaching the door he fancied that he heard his name he turned and saw mr cary beckoning him mr duff said the dying man his earnestness imparting a new vigour to his voice

Here is a letter for a man like Wesley to write to a man like Law, Many a minister has since read that letter on his knees and prayed that he may never deserve to receive so terrible a reprimand.

chapter twenty william nibb's text could anything be more perfectly beautiful more wonderfully fair far as the eye can reach in every direction the eye is charmed and captivated by the loveliness of the landscape as we pace the deck of the steamer as she rides at anchor in the bay we turn from one prospect to another uncertain as to which of them all is the most delightful in the background the blue mountains stand out in sturdy and rugged grandeur against the deep blue sky even at this distance we get hints of the glorious forests that clothe those graceful slopes and of the thickly wooded valleys that divide range from range what a playground for the countless troops of monkeys what a paradise for the flock of gorgeously colored birds their gay plumage flashes like flames of fire amidst this riot of gigantic forestry nearer to the coast are the vast plains which built up in the course of ages by tiny coral insects now wave with their flourishing plantations and abounding fruitage for the island is as fertile as it is fair as rich as it is radiant coffee and sugar and arrowroot orange and lemon and grape cinnamon banana and pineapple this oval beauty spot in sun-bathed tropical seas is a congenial garden for them all even the ocean that caresses the island seems to feel that it must assume a beauty in keeping with the loveliness of the land its waters lave the masses of brilliant coral immediately beneath the surface impart to the shining waters a sheen of sapphire tints such as the sea but rarely boasts i have spent many years says a modern traveller in voyage from shore to shore but i know of no spot under heaven where the land is so luxuriously beautiful and the ocean so extravagantly blue this then is jamaica could anything be more abominable more repulsively hideous life in this scene of enchantment was the life not of paradise but of perdition from these fruitful plains and flowery valleys there rose to heaven not the song of praise but a scream of intolerable anguish for jamaica was the abode of slavery all day long the men must work and all day long the women must weep but the men will derive no satisfaction from their labor and the women will find no comfort in their tears they are not their own these people far less are they each other's there is no such thing as marriage among these ebony-skinned thick-lipped woolly-haired creatures and any unions that they form among themselves are subject to the exigencies of future sales these little children in which the missionaries interest themselves children with roguish eyes and laughing faces have been bred for the market and they will be sold as soon as their limbs are set young men and maidens are pretty much the same all the world over you may see a good deal of furtive love-making on an evening among the plantations but in each lover's heart there is a dagger that cupid never shot for as the stalwart youth sees his dusky sweetheart grow more shapely and more charming he trembles lest her beauty should catch the eye of the overseer and result in her being sold into a life that is worse than a thousand deaths the best that he can hope for is that he and she may be permitted to live together for a few years in some little hut among the bushes and produce children for sale at the monthly market and if any slave dares to lift his hand or even his voice in rebellion or resentment there are the treadmill and the lash and the knife the only thing that stands between the black man and a cruel death is his market value on the plantation or at the auction block like the asp that cleopatra concealed among the lilies this hideous evil cried to heaven from among the beauteous fields and forests of jamaica did heaven hear such piercing cries or even if heaven heard how could heaven help we shall see but in order to see we must recross the atlantic and here in a narrow street in bristol is a printer's shop the name over the door comparatively freshly painted is the name j g fuller in the printing-room behind the shop are a couple of apprentice boys They are brothers, Thomas and William Nibb.

Mr. Fuller is the son of the Reverend Andrew Fuller of Kettering, one of the founders of the modern missionary movement.

He has only recently come to Bristol, hence the newly painted name, and he brought the two Nibbs, Kettering boys, with him.

And that book on David Brainerd had a huge impact on Carey and on others of his generation.

Yeah, Andrew Fuller

is another well-known person that

is involved with all

Absolutely,

yeah.

And so Andrew Fuller, I think, is kind of the theologian of the movement.

And I think you could make the case that William Carey really is just building on Fuller's theology.