The beloved friend of Andrew Fuller and William Carey, Samuel Pearce (1766- 1799), personified the living relation between doctrinal purity and passion for God's glory in evangelism. Pearce participated with boundless energy and sacrifice in the Missionary society work and served as editor of the Periodical Accounts. Not only did he promote the mission cause in England with all his might, he urged William Rogers of the Philadelphia Association to begin a Baptist foreign mission society in America that would involve the energies of the entire denomination. Cathcart's Encyclopedia calls him 'one of the warmest advocates of foreign missions that dwelt on earth since the Son of Mary came from his heavenly home on a foreign mission to this lost world.' He has been compared to Robert Murray McCheyne and David Brainerd for combination of fervent piety and zeal.