the evangelical preacher;
it turned the vicious peasant into the most self-denying saint; it sent
the village shoemaker far off to the Hindoos.

But the process was slow; it had been so even in Paul's case. Carey
found encouragement in intercourse with some old Christians in
Hackleton, and he united with a few of them, including his
fellow-apprentice, in forming a congregational church. The state of
the parish may be imagined from its recent history. Hackleton is part
of Piddington, and the squire had long appropriated the living of L300
a year, the parsonage, the glebe, and all tithes, sending his house
minister "at times" to do duty. A Certificate from Northamptonshire,
against the pluralities and other such scandals, published in 1641,
declared that not a child or servant in Hackleton or Piddington could
say the Lord's Prayer. Carey sought the preaching of Doddridge's
successor at Northampton, of a Baptist minister at Road, and of Scott
the commentator, then at Ravenstone. He had found peace, but was
theologically "inquisitive and unsatisfied." Fortunately, like Luther,
he "was obliged to draw all from the Bible alone."

When, at twenty years of age, Carey was slowly piecing together "the
doctrines in the Word of God" into something like a system which would
at once satisfy his own spiritual and intellectual needs, and help him
to preach to others, a little volume was published, of which he
wrote:--"I do not remember ever to have read any book with such
raptures." It was Help to Zion's Travellers; being an attempt to
remove various Stumbling-Blocks out of the Way, relating to Doctrinal,
Experimental, and Practical Religion, by Robert Hall. The writer was
the father of the greater Robert Hall, a venerable man, who, in his
village church of Arnsby, near Leicester, had already taught Carey how
to preach. The book is described as an "attempt to relieve discouraged
Christians" in a day of gloominess and perplexity, that they might
devote themselves to Christ through life as well as be found in Him in
death. Carey made a careful synopsis of it in an exquisitely neat hand
on the margin of each page. The worm-eaten copy, which he treasured
even in India, is now deposited in Bristol College.

A Calvinist of the broad missionary type of Paul, Carey somewhat
suddenly, according to his own account, became a Baptist. "I do not
recollect having read anything on the subject till I applied to Mr.
Ryland, senior, to bapt