INDIA AND THE EAST IN THE YEAR 1806
Henry Martyn reached India, and entered on his official duties as
chaplain and the work of his heart as missionary to North India, at a
time when the Anglo-Indian community had begun to follow society in
England, in a reformation of life and manners, and in a corresponding
desire to do good to the natives. The evangelical reaction set in
motion by the Pietists, Moravians, and Marrow-men, John Wesley and
Whitfield, Andrew Fuller and Simeon, John Erskine and the Haldanes,
had first affected South India and Madras, where Protestant Christian
Missions were just a century old. The Danish-Halle men, led by
Ziegenbalg and Schwartz, had found support in the Society for
Promoting Christian Knowledge from the year 1709. So early as 1716 an
East India Company's chaplain, the Rev. William Stevenson, wrote a
remarkable letter to that society,[19] 'concerning the most effectual
way of propagating the Gospel in this (South India) part of the
world.' He urged a union of the several agencies in England, Denmark,
and Germany into one common Society for Promoting the Protestant
Missions, the formation of colleges in Europe to train missionaries, the
raising of an annual income of 3,000_l._, and the maintenance therewith
of a staff of at least eight well-qualified missionaries. By a century
and a half he anticipated the proposal of that union which gives
strength and charity; the erection of colleges, at Tranquebar and
Madras, to train native ministers, catechists, and schoolmasters, and
the opening of free schools in every considerable place superintended by
the European missionaries on the circle system. Another Madras chaplain,
the Rev. George Lewis, was no less friendly and helpful to Ziegenbalg;
he was Mr. Stevenson's predecessor, and wrote in 1712.
In North India--where the casteless races of the hills, corresponding
to the Shanars around Cape Comorin, were not discovered till far on in
the present century--almost everything was different. By the time that
the Evangelical Church directed its attention to Calcutta, the East
India Company had become a political, and consequently an intolerant,
power. It feared Christian proselytism, and it encouraged Hindu and
Mohammedan beliefs and institutions. Whereas, in Madras, it gladly
used Schwartz, subsidised the mission with 500 pagodas or 225_l._ a
year, and had always conveyed the missionaries' freight in its ships
free of charge, in Bengal it kept out missionaries, or so treated them
with all the rigour of the law against 'interlopers,' that William
Carey had to begin his career as an indigo planter, and seek
protection in Danish Serampore, where he became openly and only a
preacher and teacher of Christ. North India, too, with Calcutta and
Benares as its two Hindu centres, and Lucknow and Delhi as its two
Mohammedan centres, Shiah and Soonni, was, and is, the very citadel of
all the non-Christian world. The same Gospel which had proved the
power of God to the simple demonolators of the Dravidian south, must
be shown to be the wisdom of God to the Koolin of Bengal, the Brahman
of Kasi, the fanatical Muslim from Dacca, and ultimately to Peshawur
and Cabul, Persia and Arabia. The Himalayan and Gangetic land--from
which Buddhism overran Eastern and Southern Asia--must again send
forth a missionary message to call Cathay to Christ.
The Christianising of North India began in 1758, the year after the
battle of Plassey, when, as Governor, the conqueror, Clive, welcomed
his old acquaintance, of the Cuddalore Mission, the Swede Kiernander,
to Calcutta, and gave him a rent-free house for eight years. Even
Burke was friendly with Clive, writing of him: 'Lord Clive once
thought himself obliged to me for having done what I thought an act of
justice towards him;'[20] and it is pleasant thus to be able in any
way to link that name with the purely spiritual force which used the
Plassey and the Mutiny wars, as it will direct all events, for making
India Christ's. The first church, built in 1715 by the merchants and
captains, had been destroyed by a hurricane; the second had been
demolished by Suraj-ood-Dowlah, in the siege of Calcutta, two years
before, and one of the two chaplains had perished in the Black Hole,
while the other was driven away. For the next thirty years the few who
went to the chaplains' church worshipped in a small bungalow in the
old fort, where Kiernander opened his first school. By 1771-4 he had
formed such a congregation of poor Christians--Portuguese, Roman
Catholics, and Bengali converts--that he built and extended the famous
Mission Church and School-house, at a cost of 12,000_l._, received
from both his marriages. When, by becoming surety for another, the old
man lost his all, and blindness added to his sorrows, he left an
English congregation of 147 members, and a Native congregation of 119,
half Portuguese or Eurasians, and half Bengali.
Kiernander's Mission Church was the centre of the religious life of
Calcutta and Bengal. Six years after its foundation there came to
Calcutta, from Madras, Mr. William Chambers--who had been converted by
Schwartz--and John Christian Obeck, who had been one of the catechists
of the Apostle of South India. Chambers had not been a year in the
capital when he found out Charles Grant, at that time overwhelmed by a
domestic sorrow, and brought him to Christ. Grant soon after went to
Maldah as Commercial Resident, where he had as his subordinates,
George Udny, Ellerton, W. Brown, W. Grant, J. Henry, and Creighton.
These men, with their families, Sir Robert Chambers, of the Supreme
Court, Mrs. Anne Chambers who was with her sons, Mrs. Chapman, and
others less known, formed the nucleus of a Christian community which
first supported Thomas as a medical missionary, then welcomed Carey,
and, with the assistance of two Governor-Generals, Sir John Shore and
Lord Wellesley, changed the tone of Anglo-Indian society. Sir William
Jones, too, in his brief career of six years, set an example of all
the virtues. Henry Martyn had two predecessors as Evangelical
chaplains and missionary philanthropists, the Yorkshire David Brown,
and the Scottish Claudius Buchanan.
David Brown, an early friend of Simeon and Fellow of Magdalen College,
was recovering from a long illness in 1785, when a letter reached him
from London, proposing that he should seek ordination, and in ten days
he accompanied Captain Kirkpatrick to Calcutta to superintend the
Military Orphan School. The officers of the Bengal Army had unanimously
resolved to tax themselves for the removal and prevention of the scandal
caused by the number of boys and girls left destitute--no fewer than 500
at that time. This noble school, the blessings of which were soon
extended to the white and coloured offspring of non-commissioned
officers and soldiers also, was organised at Howrah by Brown, who then
was made chaplain to a brigade, and afterwards one of the Fort William
or Presidency chaplains. He found the Mission practically non-existent,
owing to Kiernander's losses and old age. To save the buildings from
sale by the sheriff, Charles Grant bought them for 10,000 rupees and
vested them in himself, Mr. A. Chambers, and Mr. Brown, by a deed
providing that they remain appropriated to the sole purposes of
religion. Until the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge could send
out a minister, David Brown greatly extended the work of Kiernander. At
one time it was likely that Henry Martyn would be sent out by Mr. Grant.
Under the Church Missionary Society the Mission Church of Calcutta has
ever since been identified with all that is best in pure religion and
missionary enterprise in the city of Calcutta.
When sending out the Rev. A.T. Clarke, B.A. of Trinity College,
Cambridge, who soon after became a chaplain, the Christian Knowledge
Society, referring to Schwartz and Germany, fertile in missionaries,
declared, 'It has been the surprise of many, and the lamentation of
more, that fortitude thus exemplified should not have inspired some of
our own clergy with an emulation to follow and to imitate these
champions of the Cross, thus seeking and thus contending to save them
who are lost.' That was in 1789, when the Society and Dr. Watson,
Bishop of Llandaff, along with Simeon, Wilberforce, and the other
Clapham men, had before it, officially, the request of Charles Grant,
Chambers and Brown to send out eight English missionaries on 350_l._ a
year each, to study at Benares and attack Hinduism in its very centre.
Not till 1817 was the first Church of England missionary, as such, the
Rev. William Greenwood, to settle in Ceylon and then in Bengal. Even
he became rather an additional chaplain to the invalid soldiers at
Chunar.
After a career not unlike that of John Newton, who first directed his
attention to India, Claudius Buchanan, whom his father had intended to
educate for the ministry of the Church of Scotland, wandered to
London, was sent to Queen's College, Cambridge, by Mr. Thornton of
Clapham; there came under Simeon's influence, and was appointed to
Bengal as a chaplain by Mr. Grant. That was in 1796. For the next ten
years in Barrackpore and Calcutta as the trusted chaplain of Lord
Wellesley, by his researches in South India, by his promotion of Bible
translation, and by the interest in the Christianising of India which
his generous prizes excited in the Universities and Churches of
England and Scotland, Dr. Claudius Buchanan was the foremost
ecclesiastic in the East. He at once gave an impulse to the silent
revolution which David Brown began and the Serampore missionaries
carried on. His Christian statesmanship commended him to all the
authorities, and soon the new Cathedral of St. John, which Warren
Hastings had erected to supersede the old Bungalow Church, became
filled with an attentive and devout congregation, as well as the
mission church. These two men and William Carey formed the pillars of
the College of Fort William, by which Lord Wellesley not only educated
the young civilians and military officers in the Oriental languages, and
in their duties to the natives, but developed a high ideal of public
life and personal morality. Such was the growth of Christian feeling
alike in the army and the civil service, and such the sense of duty to
the rapidly increasing Eurasian community, as well as to the natives,
that by 1803 Claudius Buchanan submitted to the Governor-General, the
Archbishop of Canterbury, and Bishop Porteus, his _Thoughts on the
Expediency of an Ecclesiastical Establishment for British India_. It
took ten years, covering the whole period of Henry Martyn's activities
and life, from this time for the proposal to be legislatively carried
out in the East India Company's Charter of 1813.
Practically--except in Maldah residency during the influence of Grant,
Udny, and Carey at the end of last century--the reformation was
confined to Calcutta, as we shall see. It was a young lieutenant of
the Company's army who was the first to draw the attention of the
Governor-General, Sir John Shore, in 1794, to the total neglect of
religion in Bengal. Lieutenant White wrote that he had been eleven
years in the country without having had it in his power to hear the
public prayers of the Church above five times. He urged the regular
worship of God, the public performance of Divine service, and
preaching at all the stations. He proposed 'additional chaplains to
the Company's complement for considerable places which now have none
to officiate. Unless places were erected at the different stations for
assembling to Divine service, it must be impossible for chaplains even
to be able to do their duty, and to assemble the people together.'
The letter delighted the Governor-General, who said of it to David
Brown, 'I shall certainly recommend places to be made at the stations,
and shall desire the General who is going up the country to take this
matter in charge, and to fix on spots where chapels shall be erected.'
Nothing was done in consequence of this, however. It was left to
Martyn, and the other chaplains who were in earnest, to find or create
covered places for worship at the great military stations. Claudius
Buchanan himself could not hold regular services at Barrackpore, close
to Calcutta, for want of a church, and that was supplied long after by
adapting and consecrating the station theatre!
The figures in Buchanan's published Memoir on the Expediency of an
Ecclesiastical Establishment, enable us to estimate exactly the
spiritual destitution of the Protestant subjects of the British
Government in Asia. Twelve years after Lieutenant White, Sir John
Shore, David Brown, and Claudius Buchanan first raised the question,
and when Henry Martyn began his ministrations to all classes, there
were 676,557 Protestant subjects in India, Ceylon, Java, Sumatra, and
Canton, Roman Catholics and Syrian Christians not included. In the
three Presidencies of India alone there were 156,057, of whom 7,257
were civil and military officers and inhabitants, 6,000 were the
Company's European troops, 19,800 were the King's troops, 110,000 were
Eurasians, and 13,000 were 'native Protestant Christians at Tanjore.'
In Bengal alone--that is, North India--there were fifty stations,
thirty-one civil and nineteen military, many of which had been
'without the offices of religion for twenty years past, though at each
there reside generally a judge, a collector, a commercial resident,
with families, together with their assistants and families, and a
surgeon;' also indigo planters, tradesmen, and other European
inhabitants and the alarmingly large number of Eurasians. In Bengal
alone there were 13,299 European Protestants, of whom 2,467 were civil
servants and military officers; of the whole 13,299, 'a tenth part do
not return to England,' and desire Christian education and confirmation
for their children. Yet 'at present there are but three churches in
India, the chief of which was aided in construction by Hindu
contribution.' The India _Journals and Letters_ of Martyn must be read
in the light of all this.
It was thus that the successive generations of soldiers and civilians
who won for Christian England its Indian Empire in the century from
Clive to Wellesley, Hastings, and Dalhousie, were de-Christianised.
Not till the close of the Mutiny war in 1858 did John Lawrence, first
as Lieutenant-Governor of the Punjab and then as Viceroy, and Sir
Robert Montgomery as Lieutenant-Governor, lead the Queen's Government
to do its duty, by erecting, or helping Christians to erect, a chapel
in every station up to Peshawur and Burma--that, to use Buchanan's
language in 1806, 'the English soldiers and our countrymen of all
descriptions, after long absence from a Christian country, may
recognise a church.' Including Ceylon, Buchanan's scheme proposed an
annual expenditure of 144,000_l._ for four dioceses, with 50 English
chaplains and 100 native curates, 200 schoolmasters and 4 colleges to
train both Europeans and natives for the ministry; of this, Parliament
to give 100,000_l._ The ecclesiastical establishment of India--without
Ceylon, but including Church of Scotland chaplains, and grants to
Wesleyans and Roman Catholics--now costs India itself 160,000_l._ a
year, while the annual value of the lands devoted to the non-Christian
cults is many millions sterling. With all this, and the aid of the
Additional Clergy and Anglo-Indian Evangelisation Societies, and of
the missionaries to the natives, Great Britain does not meet the
spiritual wants of the now enormous number and scattered communities
of Christian soldiers and residents in its Indian Empire.
Henry Martyn went out to India at a time when the government of India
had been temporarily entrusted to one of the only three or four
incompetent and unworthy men who have held the high office of
Governor-General. Sir George Barlow was a Bengal civilian of the old
type, whom Lord Wellesley had found so zealous and useful in matters of
routine that he had recommended him as provisional Governor-General. But
the moment that that proconsul had seated the East India Company on the
throne of the Great Mogul, as has been said, and Lord Cornwallis, who
had been hurried out a second time to undo his magnificent and just
policy, had died at Ghazipore, Sir George Barlow showed the most
disastrous zeal in opposition to all his former convictions. By
withholding from Sindia the lamentable despatch of September 19, 1805,
which Lord Cornwallis had signed when the unconsciousness of death had
already weakened his efficiency, Lord Lake gave the civil authorities a
final opportunity to consider their ways. But Barlow's stupidity--now
clothed with the almost dictator's power of the highest office under the
British Crown, as it was in those days--deliberately declared it to be
his desire, not only to fix the limit of our empire at the Jumna, a
river fordable by an enemy at all times, but to promote general anarchy
beyond that frontier as the best security for British peace within it.
The peace of Southern Asia and the good of its peoples were postponed
for years, till, with difficulty, the Marquis of Hastings restored the
empire to the position in which Lord Wellesley had left it. Sir George
Barlow is responsible for the twelve years' anarchy of British India,
from 1805 to 1817. His administration, which became such a failure that
he was removed to Madras, and was from even that province recalled, must
rank as a blot on the otherwise unbroken splendour and benevolence to
the subject races of the government of South Asia in the century and a
half from Clive to Lord Lansdowne.
The man who, from dull stolidity more than from Macchiavellian craft,
thus again plunged half India into a series of wars by chief upon
chief and creed upon creed, was no less guilty of intolerance to
Christianity within the Company's territories. On the one hand, in
opposition to the views of Lord Wellesley, and even of the Court of
Directors led by Charles Grant, he made the Company's government the
direct manager of the Poori temple of Jaganath and its dancing girls;
on the other, he would have banished the Serampore and all Christian
missionaries from the country, but for the courageous opposition of
the little Governor of that Danish settlement. All too late he was
relieved by Lord Minto, whom the Brahmanised officials of 1807 to 1810
used for a final and futile effort to crush Christianity out of India,
to the indignation of Henry Martyn, whose language in his _Journal_ is
not more unmeasured than the intolerance deserves. But in his purely
foreign policy Lord Minto proved that he had not held the office of
President of the Board of Control in vain. He once more asserted the
only reason for the existence of a foreign power in India, 'the
suppression of intestine disorder,' clearing Bundelkhund of robber
chiefs and military strongholds. Surrounded and assisted by the
brilliant civilians and military officers whom Wellesley and Carey had
trained--men like Mountstuart Elphinstone, Metcalfe and Malcolm--Lord
Minto proved equal to the strain which the designs of Napoleon
Bonaparte in the Treaty of Tilsit put upon our infant empire in the
East. He sent Metcalfe to Lahore, and confined the dangerous power of
Ranjeet Singh to the north of the Sutlej. He despatched Elphinstone to
Cabul, introducing the wise policy which has converted Afghanistan
into a friendly subsidised State; and through Malcolm he opened Persia
to English influence, paving the way for the embassy of Wellesley's
friend, Sir Gore Ouseley, and--unconsciously--for the kindly reception
of Henry Martyn.
It was on April 22, 1806, at sunrise, that the young chaplain landed
from the surf-boat on the sands of Madras. His experience at San
Salvador had prepared him for the scene, and even for the crowds of
dark natives, though not for 'the elegance of their manners.' 'I felt
a solemn sort of melancholy at the sight of such multitudes of
idolators. While the turbaned Asiatics waited upon us at dinner, about
a dozen of them, I could not help feeling as if we had got into their
places.' He visited the native suburb in which his Hindustani-speaking
servants dwelt, and was depressed by its 'appearance of wretchedness.'
His soul was filled with the zeal of the Old Testament prophets
against idolatry, the first sight of which--of men, women, and
children, mad upon their idols--produces an impression which he does
not exaggerate: 'I fancy the frown of God to be visible.' He lost not
a day in commending his Master to the people. 'Had a good deal of
conversation with a Rajpoot about religion, and told him of the
Gospel.' The young natives pressed upon the new-comer as usual. 'Rose
early, but could not enjoy morning meditations in my walk, as the
young men would attach themselves to me.'
He was much in the society of the Rev. Dr. Kerr[21] and the other
Madras chaplains; one of these was about to proceed to Seringapatam,
where Martyn urged him to 'devote himself to the work of preaching to
the natives.' This was ever foremost in his thoughts. He spent days in
obtaining from Dr. Kerr 'a vast deal of information about all the
chaplains and missionaries in the country, which he promised to put in
writing for me.' Schwartz was not then dead ten years, and Dr. Kerr,
who had known him and Guericke well, gave his eager listener many
details of the great missionary.
Felt excessively delighted with accounts of a very late date
from Bengal, describing the labours of the missionaries, and was
rather agitated at the confusion of interesting thoughts that
crowded upon me; but I reasoned, Why thus? God may never honour
you with a missionary commission; you must expect to leave the
field, and bid adieu to the world and all its concerns.
On his first Sunday in India, April 27, 1806, Henry Martyn assisted in
the service in the church at Fort St. George, and preached from Luke
x. 41, 42, 'One thing is needful.'
There was much attention, and Lord William sent to Dr. Kerr
afterwards to request a copy of the sermon; but I believe it was
generally thought too severe. After dinner, went to Black Town
to Mr. Loveless's chapel. I sat in the air at the door enjoying
the blessed sound of the Gospel on an Indian shore, and joining
with much comfort in the song of divine praise. With young
Torriano I had some conversation respecting his entering the
ministry, as he spoke the Malabar tongue fluently. Walked home
at night enjoying the presence of God.
_April 28._--This morning, at breakfast, Sir E. Pellew came in
and said: 'Upon my word, Mr. Martyn, you gave us a good trimming
yesterday.' As this was before a large company, and I was taken
by surprise, I knew not what to say. Passed most of the day in
transcribing the sermon. There was nothing very awakening in it.
About five in the evening I walked to Dr. Kerr's, and found my
way across the fields, which much resembled those near
Cambridge; I stopped some time to take a view of the men drawing
'toddy' from the tree, and their manner of ploughing.
_April 30._--Breakfasted at Sir E. Pellew's with Captain S. Cole
of the Culloden. I had a good deal of conversation about our
friends at St. Hilary and Marazion. Continued at home the rest
of the day transcribing sermon, and reading Zechariah. In the
evening drove with Dr. Kerr to Mr. Faulkner's, the Persian
translator, five or six miles in the country. We had some useful
conversation about the languages. On my return walked by
moonlight in the grounds reflecting on the mission. My soul was
at first sore tried by desponding thoughts: but God wonderfully
assisted me to trust Him for the wisdom of His dispensations.
Truly, therefore, will I say again, 'Who art thou, O great
mountain? before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain.' How easy
for God to do it! and it shall be done in good time: and even if
I never should see a native converted, God may design by my
patience and continuance in the work to encourage future
missionaries. But what surprises me is the change of views I
have here from what I had in England.--There, my heart expanded
with hope and joy at the prospect of the speedy conversion of
the heathen! but here, the sight of the apparent impossibility
requires a strong faith to support the spirits.
The 'Lord William' of the _Journal_ is the Governor of Madras, Lord
William Bentinck, whom, at the beginning of his Indian career, it is
interesting to find thus pleasantly brought into contact with Henry
Martyn--just as he became the fast friend of Alexander Duff, at the
close of his long and beneficent services to his country and to
humanity. In two months thereafter the Vellore Mutiny was to break
out, through no fault of his, and he was to be recalled by an act of
injustice for which George Canning and the Court of Directors atoned
twenty years after by appointing him Governor-General.
After a fortnight off Madras, the Union once more set sail under the
convoy of the Victor sloop-of-war. Every moment the young scholar had
sought to add to his knowledge of Hindustani and Persian. He changed
his first native servant for one who could speak Hindustani. He drove
with Dr. Kerr to Mr. Faulkner's, the Persian translator to Government.
'We had some useful conversation about the languages.' On the voyage
to Calcutta, he was 'employed in learning Bengali. Passed the
afternoon on the poop reading Sale's _Al Coran_.' Only missionary
thoughts and aspirations ruled his mind, now despairing of his own
fitness; now refreshed as he turned from the Church Missionary
Society's reports to the evangelical prophecies of Malachi; again
praying for the young missionaries of the London Society as he passed
Vizagapatam, and for 'poor India' as he came in sight of the Jaganath
pagoda, 'much resembling in appearance Roche Rock in Cornwall ... the
scene presented another specimen of that tremendous gloom with which
the devil has overspread the land.' After taking a pilot on board in
Balasore Roads, where Carey had first landed, the ship was driven out
to sea by a north-wester, and Henry Martyn suffered from his first
sunstroke. In three days she anchored in the Hoogli, above Culpee, and
on May 13 bumped on that dreaded shoal, the James and Mary. 'The
captain considered the vessel as lost. Retired as soon as possible for
prayer, and found my soul in peace at the prospect of death.' She
floated off, exchanging most of the treasure into a tender which lay
becalmed off the Garden Reach suburb, then 'very beautiful.'
Henry Martyn landed at Calcutta in the height of the hot season, on
May 16, 1806. Claudius Buchanan had passed him at the mouth of the
Hoogli, setting out on the tour of the coasts of India, which resulted
in the _Christian Researches_. David Brown was in his country retreat
at Aldeen, near Serampore.
The man whom, next to his own colleagues, he first sought out was the
quondam shoemaker of Hackleton, and poor Baptist preacher of Moulton,
the Bengali missionary to whose success Charles Simeon had pointed him
when fresh from the triumph of Senior Wrangler; the apostle then
forty-five years of age, who was busy with the duties of Professor of
Sanskrit, Bengali, and Marathi, in the College of Fort William, that
he might have the Bible translated into all the languages of Asia, and
preached in all the villages of North India.
_1806, May 16._--Went ashore at daylight this morning, and with
some difficulty found Carey: Messrs. Brown and Buchanan being
both absent from Calcutta. With him I breakfasted, joined with
him in worship, which was in Bengali for the advantage of a few
servants, who sat, however, perfectly unmoved. I could not help
contrasting them with the slaves and Hottentots at Cape Town,
whose hearts seemed to burn within them. After breakfast Carey
began to translate, with a Pandit, from a Sanskrit manuscript.
Presently after, Dr. Taylor came in. I had engaged a boat to go
to Serampore, when a letter from Mr. Brown found me out, and
directed me to his house in the town, where I spent the rest of
the day in solitude, and more comfortably and profitably than
any time past. I enjoyed several solemn seasons in prayer, and
more lively impressions from God's Word. I felt elevated above
those distressing fears and distractions which pride and
worldliness engender in the mind. Employed at times in writing
to Mr. Simeon, Mr. Brown's moonshi; a Brahmin of the name of B.
Roy came in and disputed with me two hours about the Gospel. I
was really surprised at him; he spoke English very well and
possessed more acuteness, good sense, moderation, and
acquaintance with the Scriptures than I could conceive to be
found in an Indian. He spoke with uncommon energy and eloquence,
intending to show that Christianity and Hinduism did not
materially differ. He asked me to explain my system, and adduce
the proofs of it from the Bible, which he said he believed was
the Word of God. When I asked him about his idolatry, he asked
in turn what I had to say to our worshipping Christ. This led to
inquiries about the Trinity, which, after hearing what I had to
say, he observed was actually the Hindu notion. I explained
several things about the Jews and the Old Testament, about which
he wanted information, with all which he was amazingly pleased.
I feel much encouraged by this to go to instruct them. I see
that they are a religious people, as St. Paul called the
Athenians, and my heart almost springs at the thought that the
time is ripening for the fulness of the Gentiles to come in.
_May 17._--A day more unprofitable than the foregoing; the
depravity of my heart, as it is in its natural frame, appeared
to me to-day almost unconquerable. I could not, however long in
prayer, keep the presence of God, or the power of the world to
come, in my mind at all. It sunk down to its most lukewarm
state, and continued in general so, in spite of my endeavours.
Oh, how I need a deep heartrending work of the Spirit upon
myself, before I shall save myself, or them that hear me! What I
hear about my future destination has proved a trial to me
to-day. My dear brethren, Brown and Buchanan, wish to keep me
here, as I expected, and the Governor accedes to their wishes. I
have a great many reasons for not liking this; I almost think
that to be prevented going among the heathen as a missionary
would break my heart. Whether it be self-will or aught else, I
cannot yet rightly ascertain. At all events I must learn
submission to everything. In the multitude of my thoughts Thy
comforts delight my soul. I have been running the hurried round
of thought without God. I have forgotten that He ordereth
everything. I have been bearing the burden of my cares myself,
instead of casting them all upon Him. Mr. Brown came in to-day
from Serampore, and gave me directions how to proceed; continued
at home writing to E. In the afternoon went on board, but
without being able to get my things away. Much of the rest of
the day passed in conversation with Mr. Brown. I feel pressed in
spirit to do something for God. Everybody is diligent, but I am
idle; all employed in their proper work, but I tossed in
uncertainty; I want nothing but grace; I want to be perfectly
holy, and to save myself and those that hear me. I have hitherto
lived to little purpose, more like a clod than a servant of God;
now let me burn out for God.
FOOTNOTES:
[19] _An Abstract of the Annual Reports and Correspondence of the
Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge from 1709 to 1814._ London,
1814, pp. 4-24.
[20] See a remarkable letter from Mr. Burke to Yuseph Emin, an
Armenian of Calcutta, in Simeon's _Memorial Sketches of David Brown_,
p. 334.
[21] Simeon thus introduced him to Dr. Kerr, in a private letter quoted
by a later Madras chaplain, Rev. James Hough, in his valuable five volumes
on _The History of Christianity in India_: 'Our excellent friend, Mr.
Martyn, lived five months with me, and a more heavenly-minded young man
I never saw.' In the same year, the Rev. Marmaduke Thompson, an
evangelical chaplain, arrived in Madras _viâ_ Calcutta.