A man stood at the edge of a dark, unexplored cavern. He looked down and wondered what it may cost him to descend into it and away from the life he knew. As he returned to his friends he said, “Well, I will go down, if you will hold the rope.”
A small group of English pastors in the late 18th century looked at what seemed to be an insurmountable task before them. The spiritual darkness they saw clouding India could no longer be ignored and these friends desired to bring the Gospel to the distant nation. William Carey said that he would go if his colleagues who stayed behind would commit to “holding the rope.”
Andrew Fuller was one who stayed in England. He championed for his friend and the ministry to unreached peoples as fund-raiser, promoter and pastor. He continuously battled the western world’s ill-formed doctrines and he visited churches to represent those who followed Carey’s path overseas. He even took the lead role of selecting new missionaries.