History: The Heritage of Our Baptist Faith

spent in preparing the scriptures in twenty-three languages , including Sanscript, Hindu, and Bengali. In thirty years, Carey and his brethren are said to have rendered the Word of God accessible to one-third of the world. Before his death, 212,000 copies of the scriptures were issued from Serampore in forty different languages. It has been said, "The fires of missions be­ gan to burn until there was a Baptist missionary on the foreign field for every one thousand members at home." Of Carey, it has also been stated, "He never doubted the help of God in His own time to aid him in carrying out the plan of love which He had formed." Later, in America, God began to deal with others for a great Missionary work. Adoniram Judson, the son of a Congregational minister, attended Brown University and graduated at the head of his class in 1807. A college friend who Ted him to become an infidel suddenly died and this led Judson to examine the scriptures. He entered Andover Theological Seminary where he was saved and felt the Lord had called him to be a foreign missionary. He and others eventually went out as Congregational Ists to India in 1812. However, on ship­ board he studied the Greek New Testament and became convinced that believers were the only proper subjects for baptism, and that the mode was Immersion. After arriving on the mission field, he and his wife were baptized. Luther Rice, at about the same time, was sent out by the Congregational Ists on another ship to India. He studied the subject of baptism and also was led to accept Baptist views. Upon arriving in India he met Judson and they two were now foreign missionaries without support of their denomination. They came to an agreement that Rice should return to this land and visit the enurches while Judson carried on the work on the mission field. Rice came back to this country and met with many of the Baptist churches, challenging them for the mission cause. The Baptists called a meeting in May of 1814 to convene in Philadelphia. It was entitled to begin with "The General Convention of the Baptist Denomination in the United States for Foreign Missions" . It finally became known as the "Triennial Convention" since it met every three years. The first missionary of the organization was Judson who labored for - God seven years before he had his first convert. - 16 -