<P> Carey acknowledged his humble origins and referred to himself as a cobbler (one who repairs shoes). However, the local community often knew him by the higher status of a shoemaker (or "cordwainer"). John Brown Myers entitled his biography of Carey William Carey the Shoemaker Who Became the Father and Founder of Modern Missions . </P> <P> Carey became involved with a local association of Particular Baptists that had recently formed, where he became acquainted with men such as John Ryland, John Sutcliff, and Andrew Fuller, who would become his close friends in later years . They invited him to preach in their church in the nearby village of Earls Barton every other Sunday . On 5 October 1783, William Carey was baptised by Ryland and committed himself to the Baptist denomination . </P> <P> In 1785, Carey was appointed the schoolmaster for the village of Moulton . He was also invited to serve as pastor to the local Baptist church . During this time he read Jonathan Edwards' Account of the Life of the Late Rev. David Brainerd and the journals of the explorer James Cook, and became deeply concerned with propagating the Christian Gospel throughout the world . John Eliot (c. 1604--21 May 1690), Puritan missionary in New England, along with David Brainerd (1718--47) and the Apostle Paul himself, became the "canonized heroes" and "enkindlers" of Carey . </P> <P> Carey's friend Andrew Fuller had previously written an influential pamphlet in 1781 titled "The Gospel Worthy of All Acceptation," answering the hyper - Calvinist belief then prevalent in the Baptist churches, that all men were not responsible to believe the Gospel . At a ministers' meeting in 1787, Carey raised the question of whether it was the duty of all Christians to spread the Gospel throughout the world . John Collett Ryland is said to have retorted: "Young man, sit down; when God pleases to convert the heathen, he will do it without your aid and mine ." However Ryland's son, Dr. John Ryland, disputed that his father made this statement . </P>

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