vangelical
rector of St. Mary's, to whom he said on one occasion when indirectly
charged in humorous fashion with "sheep-stealing:" "Mr. Robinson, I am
a dissenter, and you are a churchman; we must each endeavour to do good
according to our light. At the same time, you may be assured that I
had rather be the instrument of converting a scavenger that sweeps the
streets than of merely proselyting the richest and best characters in
your congregation." Dr. Arnold and Mr. R. Brewin, a botanist, opened
to him their libraries, and all good men in Leicester soon learned to
be proud of the new Baptist minister. In the two chapels, as in that
of Moulton, enlarged since his time, memorial tablets tell succeeding
generations of the virtues and the deeds of "the illustrious W. Carey,
D.D."

The ministers' meeting of 1792 came round, and on 31st May Carey seized
his opportunity. The place was Nottingham, from which the 1784
invitation to prayer had gone forth. Was the answer to come just there
after nine years' waiting? His Enquiry had been published; had it
prepared the brethren? Ryland had been always loyal to the journeyman
shoemaker he had baptised in the river, and he gives us this
record:--"If all the people had lifted up their voices and wept, as the
children of Israel did at Bochim, I should not have wondered at the
effect. It would only have seemed proportionate to the cause, so
clearly did he prove the criminality of our supineness in the cause of
God." The text was Isaiah's (liv. 2, 3) vision of the widowed church's
tent stretching forth till her children inherited the nations and
peopled the desolate cities, and the application to the reluctant
brethren was couched in these two great maxims written ever since on
the banners of the missionary host of the kingdom--

EXPECT GREAT THINGS FROM GOD.
ATTEMPT GREAT THINGS FOR GOD.

The service was over; even Fuller was afraid, even Ryland made no sign,
and the ministers were leaving the meeting. Seizing Fuller's arm with
an imploring look, the preacher, whom despair emboldened to act alone
for his Master, exclaimed: "And are you, after all, going again to do
nothing?" What Fuller describes as the "much fear and trembling" of
these inexperienced, poor, and ignorant village preachers gave way to
the appeal of one who had gained both knowledge and courage, and who,
as to funds and men, was ready to give himself. They entered on their
minutes this much:--"That a