week, or 10s. 6d. a
year as a compromise between the tithes and the penny a week of the
Enquiry. The secretary was the courageous Fuller, who once said to
Ryland and Sutcliff: "You excel me in wisdom, especially in foreseeing
difficulties. I therefore want to advise with you both, but to execute
without you." The frequent chairman was Ryland, who was soon to train
missionaries for the work at Bristol College. The treasurer was the
only rich man of the twelve, who soon resigned his office into a
layman's hands, as was right. Of the others we need now point only to
Samuel Pearce, the seraphic preacher of Birmingham, who went home and
sent L70 to the collection, and who, since he desired to give himself
like Carey, became to him dearer than even Fuller was. The place was a
low-roofed parlour in the house of Widow Wallis, looking on to a back
garden, which many a pilgrim still visits, and around which there
gathered thousands in 1842 to hold the first jubilee of modern
missions, when commemorative medals were struck. There in 1892 the
centenary witnessed a still vaster assemblage.

Can any good come out of Kettering? was the conclusion of the Baptist
ministers of London with the one exception of Booth, when they met
formally to decide whether, like those of Birmingham and other places,
they should join the primary society. Benjamin Beddome, a venerable
scholar whom Robert Hall declared to be chief among his brethren,
replied to Fuller in language which is far from unusual even at the
present day, but showing the position which the Leicester minister had
won for himself even then:--

"I think your scheme, considering the paucity of well-qualified
ministers, hath a very unfavourable aspect with respect to destitute
churches at home, where charity ought to begin. I had the pleasure
once to see and hear Mr. Carey; it struck me he was the most suitable
person in the kingdom, at least whom I knew, to supply my place, and
make up my great deficiencies when either disabled or removed. A
different plan is formed and pursued, and I fear that the great and
good man, though influenced by the most excellent motives, will meet
with a disappointment. However, God hath his ends, and whoever is
disappointed He cannot be so. My unbelieving heart is ready to suggest
that the time is not come, the time that the Lord's house should be
built."

The other Congregationalists made no sign. The Presbyterians, with a
few noble except