But our departed friend was something more than a Christian business man. For years and years a large proportion of his time was devoted to religious and benevolent work of various kinds. He enjoyed such work, for God had bestowed upon him gifts that peculiarly fitted him for it,—a vigorous mind, a sound judgment, a strong will, a happy temperament, sweet affection, and ready speech. And had you asked him how it was that he gave so much of himself, so much of his time and labor to these causes, he might have been surprised at the question, and would have answered, simply, “The love of Christ constraineth me.” For where has the philanthropy of our day its real root and inspiration? Not in atheistic and communistic theories,—no indeed,—but solely in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and distinctively in the great ideas of the incarnation and the atonement of Christ,—the practical constraint of those wondrous conceptions of God’s unspeakable love in the gift of His Son.
Mr. Carter was one of the founders of the New York Sabbath Committee, and an interested member of it to the last. He gave much of his time to the work of the American Bible Society, while the cause of Foreign Missions lay very near his heart. One of the last acts which he did was to make arrangements for the payment of his annual contribution to that Board, of which he had been a member for many years, and a useful member. Princeton Seminary was very dear to him. In the general cause of education he always took a special interest, and for a very good reason. Like many another Scotch youth who has achieved success in life, he had in his early life to fight hard for an education. When nine years of age he was taken from school and set to work at the loom with his father in his humble
