HIS   ARDOUR    FOR    MISSIONS.  7

It  was  from  the  perusal  of  Cook's  voyages,  while  instruc-
ting his  pupils  in  geography,  that  Mr.  Carey  was  first  led  to
contemplate  the  moral  and  spiritual  degradation  of  the
heathen,  and  to  form  the  design  of  communicating  the
Gospel  to  them.  The  idea  took  complete  possession  of  his
mind,  and  absorbed  his  thoughts.  It  was  still  uppermost,
when  he  was  obliged  to  relinquish  his  school  and  fall  back
upon  manual  labour.  Mr.  Fuller  has  related,  that  on  going
into  his  little  workshop,  he  saw  a  large  map  suspended
on  the  wall,  consisting  of  several  sheets  of  paper  pasted
together,  on  which  he  had  noted  down,  in  their  respective
places,  all  the  information  he  had  been  able  to  gather  re-
garding the  national  characteristics,  the  population,  and  the
religion  of  the  various  countries  then  known.  While
engaged  in  making  or  mending  shoes,  his  eye  was  frequently
raised  to  the  map,  and  his  mind  was  employed  in  traversing
the  different  regions  of  the  globe,  and  devising  plans  for
communicating  the  truths  of  Christianity  to  them.  It  was
to  this  circumstance  Mr.  Wilberforce  alluded  in  the  House
of  Commons  twenty  years  after,  when,  urging  Parliament
to  grant  missionaries  free  access  to  India,  he  said:  —  "A
sublimer  thought  cannot  be  conceived  than  when  a  poor
cobbler  formed  the  resolution  to  give  to  the  millions  of
Hindoos  the  Bible  in  their  own  language."  But  these  views
met  with  but  little  encouragement  from  his  own  ministerial
brethren.  At  a  meeting  of  ministers  held  at  this  time  at
Northampton,  Mr.  Carey  proposed,  as  the  topic  of  discus-
sion, The  duty  of  Christians  to  attempt  the  spread  of  the
Gospel  among  heathen  nations;  when  Mr.  Ryland,  senior,
sprang  to  his  feet  and  denounced  the  proposition.  "  Young
man,"  said  he,  "sit  down:  when  God  pleases  to  convert  the
heathen,  He  will  do  it  without  your  aid  or  mine."  Mr.
