IN PERSIA--TRANSLATING THE SCRIPTURES
Great as saint and notable as scholar, in the twelve years of his
young life from Senior Wrangler to martyr at thirty-one years of age,
the highest title of Henry Martyn to everlasting remembrance is that
he gave the Persians in their own tongue the Testament of the one Lord
and Saviour Jesus Christ, and the Hebrew Psalms. By that work, the
fruit of which every successive century will reveal till the
consummation of the ages, he unconsciously wrote his name beside those
of the greatest missionaries in the history of the Church of Christ,
the sacred scholars who were the first to give the master races of
Asia and Africa, of Europe and America, the Word of God in their
vernaculars. Let us write the golden list, which for modern Africa and
Oceania also we might inscribe in letters of silver,[66] were not most
of the translators still living and perfecting their at first
tentative efforts, which time must try:
A.D.
350 ULFILAS Gothic (Teutonic)
368 FRUMENTIUS and EDESIUS (Brothers) Ethiopic
385 HIERONYMUS (Jerome) Latin
410 MESROBES (Miesrob) Armenian
861 C. CYRILLUS and METHODIUS (Brothers) Slavonic (Bulgarian)
1380 WICLIF (Bede in 735) English
1516 ERASMUS (new translation) Latin
1534 LUTHER (translation from Latin of Erasmus) German
1661 JOHN ELIOT (first Bible printed in America) Moheecan
1777 FABRICIUS (Ziegenbalg & Schultze first 1714) Tamul
1801 WILLIAM CAREY (O.T. in 1802-9) Bengali, &c.
1815 HENRY MARTYN Persian
1816 " (Sabat's N.T. version) Arabic
1822 JOSHUA MARSHMAN (Morrison & Milne 1823) Chinese
1832 ADONIRAM JUDSON (O.T. 1834) Burmese
1865 VAN DYCK Arabic
It was David Brown who was wont to call the Bible 'The Great
Missionary which would speak in all tongues the wonderful works of
God.'
From first to last and above all Henry Martyn was a philologist. His
school and college honours sprang from the root of all linguistic
studies, Greek and Latin, in which he was twice appointed public
examiner in his college and the University of Cambridge. For the
uncritical time in which he lived, and the generations which followed
his to the present, he was an enthusiastic and accomplished Hebraist.
No young scholar in the first quarter of the nineteenth century was so
well equipped for translating the Bible by a knowledge of its two
original languages. True, he was the Senior Wrangler of the year 1801,
but to him the honour was a 'shadow,' because the mathematical
sciences could do nothing for him as a translator and preacher of the
words of righteousness, compared with the linguistic. Only once, when
the rapture of his holy work had carried him away to the borderland of
a dark metaphysical theology, did he record the passing regret that
he had abandoned the rationalistic ground of mathematical certainty.
His devotion to the study of the languages which interpret and apply
to the races of India, Arabia, and Persia, the books of the Christian
Revelation, was so absorbing as to shorten his career. Like Carey, he
never knew an idle moment, even when on shipboard, and he jealously
guarded his time from correspondence, other than that with Lydia
Grenfell, Brown and Corrie, that he might live to finish the
Hindustani, Persian, and Arabic New Testaments at least. The spiritual
motive it was, the desire to win every man to Christ, that urged his
unresting course, and in the sacred toil he had the reflex joy of
being himself won nearer and nearer by the Spirit.
What do I not owe to the Lord for permitting me to take part in
a translation of His Word? Never did I see such wonder, and
wisdom, and love in that blessed book as since I have been
obliged to study every expression. All day on the translation,
employed a good while at night in considering a difficult
passage, and being much enlightened respecting it, I went to bed
full of astonishment at the wonders of God's Word. Never before
did I see anything of the beauty of the language and the
importance of the thoughts as I do now. I felt happy that I
should never be finally separated from the contemplation of
them, or of the things concerning which they are written.
Knowledge shall vanish away, but it shall be because perfection
has come.
On the other hand, he was ever on the watch against the deadening
influence of routine or one-sided study. 'So constantly engaged with
outward works of translation of languages that I fear my inward man
has declined in spirituality.'
Canon Edmonds expresses the experience of the present writer in the
remark,[67] that to read Martyn's _Journal_ with the single object of
noticing this point is to discover another Martyn, not a saint only,
but a grammarian. 'He read grammars as other men read novels, and to
him they were more entertaining than novels.' So early as September
28, 1804, in Cambridge we find him at prayer after dinner, before
visiting Wall's Lane, and then on his return finishing the Bengali
Grammar which he had begun the day before. 'I am anxious to get
Carey's Bengali New Testament,' which could not long have reached
London. Five days after, Thomas à Kempis, followed by hymns and the
writing of a sermon, seemed but the preliminary to his Hindustani as
well as Bengali studies. 'Engaged all the rest of the morning by
Gilchrist's Hindustani Dictionary. After dinner began Halhed's Bengali
Grammar, for I found that the other grammar I had been reading was
only for the corrupted Hindustani.' The first traces of his Persian
and Arabic studies have an interest all their own:
_1804, June 27._--A funeral and calls of friends took up my time
till eleven; afterwards _read Persian_, and made some
calculations in trigonometry, in order to be familiar with the
use of logarithms.
_November 23._--Through shortness of time I was about to omit my
morning portion of Scripture, yet after some deliberation
conscience prevailed, and I enjoyed a solemn seriousness in
learning 'mem' in the 119th Psalm. Wasted much time afterwards
in looking over _an Arabic grammar_.
When fairly at work in Dinapore he wrote almost daily such passages in
his _Journal_ as these:
_1807, August 25._--Translating the Epistles; reading Arabic
grammar and Persian. 27 to 29.--Studies in Persian and Arabic
the same. Delight in them, particularly the latter, so great,
that I have been obliged to pray continually that they may not
be a snare to me.... 31st.--Resumed the Arabic with an eagerness
which I found it necessary to check. Began some extracts from
Cashefi which Mr. Gladwin sent me, and thus the day passed
rapidly away. Alas! how much more readily does the understanding
do its work than the heart.
On reaching Calcutta in 1806 Martyn found this to be the position of
the Bible translation work. Carey's early labours had led to the
formation of the other English and Scottish Missionary Societies at
the close of the last century. By 1803 his experience and that of his
colleagues had enabled them, with the encouragement of Brown and
Buchanan, to formulate a magnificent plan for translating the Bible
into all the languages of the far East. The Marquis Wellesley, though
Governor-General, approved, and his College at Fort William, with its
staff of learned men, including Carey himself and many Asiatics, had
become a school of interpreters. In 1804, after all this, the British
and Foreign Bible Society was founded, under the ex-Governor-General,
Lord Teignmouth, as its first president. That Society, leaving India
to the Serampore Brotherhood, at once directed its attention to the
three hundred millions of Chinese, who also could be reached only
through the East India Company. But, until six years after, when Dr.
Marshman made the first reliable translation of the Bible into the
language, in its Mandarin dialect, there was no Chinese translation
save an anonymous MS. of a large portion of the New Testament in the
British Museum, probably of Roman Catholic origin. At that time the
infant Society did not see its way to spend two thousand guineas in
producing an edition of a thousand copies of a work about which the
few experts differed. So, while giving grants to the Serampore
translators, it invited the opinions, as to the formation of a
corresponding committee in Calcutta, of George Udny, who had by that
time become Member of Council, and the Rev. Messrs. Brown, Buchanan,
Carey, Ward, and Marshman. The Serampore plan and its rapid execution
had been communicated to all the principal civil and military
officials, who, after Lord Wellesley's tolerant and reverent action,
subscribed liberally to carry it out, and the Society continued its
grants. But when in 1807, under Lord Minto, the anti-Christian
reaction set in, caused by a groundless panic as to the Vellore
Mutiny, and the Fort William College was reduced, Dr. Buchanan
proposed to found 'The Christian Institution,' the Society preferred
its original plan of a corresponding committee, which was formed in
August 1809.
Martyn had not waited one hour for this. Almost from the day of
landing at the capital he was engaged in Hindustani translation, and
in studious preparation for his projected Persian and Arabic Bibles.
In the brotherly intercourse at Aldeen with the Serampore missionaries
it was arranged to leave these three languages entirely to him, under
the direction of Mr. Brown. Part of the Society's annual grant to
India and Ceylon of a thousand pounds a year was assigned to pay his
assistants, Mirza Fitrut, the Persian, and Nathanael Sabat, the
Arabian, and to print the results. The Corresponding Committee caused
an annual sermon to be preached in Calcutta, to rouse public
intelligence and help. On the first day of 1810 Mr. Brown preached it
in the old church, in the interest chiefly of the thousands of native
Christians who had been baptized in Tanjor and Tinnevelli, both Reformed
and Romanist, and needed copies of the Tamul Bible. Such was the result
of this appeal, headed by the Commander-in-chief, General Hewett, with
the sum of 2,000 Sicca-rupees (250_l._), that the committee resolved on
establishing a 'Bibliotheca Biblica,' combining a Bible Repository and a
Translation Library. The Scottish poet and friend of Sir Walter Scott,
Dr. Leyden, was foremost in the enterprise, and took charge of work in
the languages of Siam and the Spice Islands, as well as in the Pushtu of
Afghanistan.
On the first day of 1811 it fell to the Rev. Henry Martyn to preach
the second annual sermon.[68] His appeal was for not only the growing
native Church of India, but more particularly for the whole number of
nominal Christians, of all sects, in India and Ceylon, whom he
estimated at 900,000.[69] In 1881 the Government census returned
these, in the Greater India of our day but without Ceylon, as upwards
of 2,000,000, and in 1891 as 2,280,549. Martyn's figures included
342,000 of the Singhalese, whom the Dutch had compelled by secular
considerations outwardly to conform. The sermon, on Galatians vi. 10,
was published at the time, and it appears as the last in the volume of
_Twenty Sermons by the late Rev. Henry Martyn, B.D._,[70] first printed
at Calcutta with this passage in the preface: 'The desire to know how
such a man preached is natural and unavoidable.... His manner in the
pulpit was distinguished by a holy solemnity, always suited to the high
message which he was delivering, and accompanied by an unction which
made its way to the hearts of his audience. With this was combined a
fidelity at once forcible by its justice and intrepidity, and
penetrating by its affection. There was, in short, a power of holy love
and disinterested earnestness in his addresses which commended itself to
every man's conscience in the sight of God.'
Addressing the well-paid servants of the East India Company in
Calcutta, and its prosperous merchants and shopkeepers, the preacher
said: 'Do we not blush at the offers of assistance from home ... where
all that is raised may be employed with such effect in benefiting the
other three quarters of the globe? Asia must be our care; or, if not
Asia, _India_ at least must look to none but us. Honour calls as well
as duty.' He then continued:
Prove to our friends and the world that the Mother Country need
never be ashamed of her sons in India. What a splendid spectacle
does she present! Standing firm amidst the overthrow of the
nations, and spreading wide the shadow of her wings for the
protection of all, she finds herself at leisure, amidst the
tumult of war, to form benevolent projects for the best
interests of mankind. Her generals and admirals have caused the
thunder of her power to be heard throughout the south; now her
ministers of religion perform their part, and endeavour to
fulfil the high destinies of Heaven in favour of their country.
They called on their fellow-citizens to cheer the desponding
nations with the Book of the promises of Eternal Life, and thus
afford them that consolation from the prospect of a happier
world, which they have little expectation of finding amidst the
disasters and calamities of this. The summons was obeyed. As
fast as the nature of the undertaking became understood, and
was perceived to be clearly distinct from all party business and
visionary project, great numbers of all ranks in society, and of
all persuasions in religion, joined with one heart and one soul,
and began to impart freely to all men that which, next to the
Saviour, is God's best gift to man....
Shall every town and hamlet in England engage in the glorious
cause, and the mighty Empire of India do nothing? Will not our
wealth and dignity be our disgrace if we do not employ it for
God and our fellow-creatures? What plan could be proposed, so
little open to objections, and so becoming our national
character and religion, so simple and practicable, yet so
extensively beneficial, as that of giving the Word of God to the
Christian part of our native subjects?... Despise not their
inferiority, nor reproach them for their errors; they cannot get
a BIBLE to read; had they been blessed with your advantages,
they would have been perhaps more worthy of your respect.
The brief decade of Henry Martyn's working life fell at a time when
the science of Comparative Philology was as yet unborn, but the
materials were almost ready for generalisation. Sir William Jones, and
still more his successor as a scholar--Henry Thomas Colebrooke--had
used their opportunities in India well. The Bengal Asiatic Society, in
its _Asiatic Researches_, was laboriously piling up facts and
speculations. These awaited only the flash of hardworking genius to
evolve the order and the laws which have made Comparative Grammar the
most fruitful of the historical and psychological sciences. It might
have been Martyn's, had he lived to reach England, to manifest that
genius. His Asiatic career was contemporary with the most fruitful
part of Colebrooke's. He toiled and he speculated, as he mastered the
grammar and much of the vocabulary of the great classical and
vernacular languages which made him a seven-tongued man. But his
divine motive led him to grope for the philological solvent through
the imperfect Semitic. The Germans, Schlegel and Bopp, found it
rather, and later, in the richer Aryan or Indo-European family, in
Sanskrit and old Persian.
His longing to give the Arabs the Scriptures in their purity
intensified his devotion to the study of Hebrew; had he lived to give
himself to the Persian, he might have anticipated the German critics
who used, at second-hand, the materials that he and Colebrooke, and
other servants of the East India Company, were annually accumulating.
Nor did his Hebraism lead him, at the beginning of the century, to
that fertile criticism of the text and the literary origin of the
books of the Old Testament which, at the end of the century, is
beginning to make the inspired historians and the prophets, the
psalmists and the moralists of the old Jews live anew for the modern
Church. But how true has proved his prediction to Corrie in the year
1809:
I think that when the construction of Hebrew is fully
understood, all the scholars in the world will turn to it with
avidity, in order to understand other languages, and then the
Word of God will be studied universally.
Again in 1810:
I sit for hours alone contemplating this mysterious language. If
light does not break upon me at last it will be a great loss of
time, as I never read Arabic or Persian. I have no heart to do
it; I cannot condescend any longer to tread in the paths of
ignorant and lying grammarians. I sometimes say in my vain heart
I will make a deep cut in the mine of philology, or I will do
nothing; but you shall hear no more of Scriptural philology
till I make some notable discoveries.
Again in 1811, when at Bombay:
Chiefly employed on the Arabic tract, writing letters to Europe,
and my Hebrew speculations. The last encroached so much on my
time and thoughts that I lost two nights' sleep, and
consequently the most of two days, without learning more than I
did the first hour.
Happening to think this evening on the nature of language more
curiously and deeply than I have yet done, I got bewildered, and
fancied I saw some grounds for the opinions of those who deny
the existence of matter.... Oh, what folly to be wise where
ignorance is bliss!... The further I push my inquiries the more
I am distressed. It must be now my prayer, not 'Lord, let me
obtain the knowledge which I think would be so useful,' but 'Oh,
teach me just as much as Thou seest good for me.' Compared with
metaphysics, physics and mathematics appear with a kind and
friendly aspect, because they seem to be within the limits in
which man can move without danger, but on the other I find
myself adrift. Synthesis is the work of God alone.
Henry Martyn's first practical work was in Hindustani. His position in
Dinapore and Patna, the capital of Bihar with its Hindi dialects, his
duties to the native wives and families of the soldiers whom he taught
and exhorted, his preaching to the Hindus and discussions with the
Mohammedans, all led him to prepare three works--(1) portions of the
_Book of Common Prayer_, which Corrie finished and published seventeen
years after his death; (2) a _Commentary on the Parables_, in 1807;
(3) the _Four Gospels_ in 1809, and in 1810 the whole _New Testament_.
Let us look at him in his spiritual and scholarly workshop.
_1807, January 18._ (Sunday.)--Preached on Numbers xxiii. 19: a
serious attention from all. Most of the European tradesmen were
present with their families; my soul enjoyed sweet peace and
heavenly-mindedness for some time afterwards. The thought
suddenly struck me to-day, how easy it would be to translate the
chief part of the Church Service for the use of the soldiers'
wives, and women and children, and so have the service in
Hindustani, by which a door would be opened to the heathen. This
thought took such hold of me, that after in vain endeavouring to
fix my thoughts on anything else, I sat down in the evening, and
translated to the end of the _Te Deum_. But my conscience was
not satisfied that this was a Sabbath employment, and I lost the
sensible sweetness of the Divine presence. However, by leaving
it off, and passing the rest of the evening in reading and
singing hymns, I found comfort and joy. Oh, how shall I praise
my Lord, that here in this solitude, with people enough indeed,
but without any like-minded, I yet enjoy fellowship with all
those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ. I see myself travelling on with them, and I hope I shall
worship with them in His courts above.
_January 19._--Passed the morning with the moonshi and pundit,
dictating to the former a few ideas for the explanation of the
Parable of the Rich Fool. When I came to say that there was no
eating and drinking, etc., in heaven, but only the pleasures of
God's presence and holiness; and that, therefore, we must
acquire a taste for such pleasures, the Mussulman was unwilling
to write, but the Brahman was pleased, and said that all this
was in the Puranas. Afterwards went on with the translation of
the Liturgy.
_March 23._ (To Brown.)--It is with no small delight that I find
the day arrived for my writing to my very dear brother. Many
thanks for your two letters, and for all the consolation
contained in them, and many thanks to our Lord and Saviour, who
has given me such a help where I once expected to struggle on
alone all my days. Concerning the character in the Nagri papers
you have sent me I have to say, it is perfectly the same as the
one used here, and I can read it easily; and the difference in
both the dialects from the one here is so trifling, that I have
not the smallest doubt of the Parables being understood at
Benares and Bettia (a Roman Catholic village), and consequently
through a vast tract of country. A more important inference is,
that in whatever dialect of the Hindustani the translation of
the Scriptures shall be made, it will be generally understood.
The little book of Parables is at last finished, through the
blessing of God. I cannot say I am very well pleased with it on
the reperusal; but yet containing, as it does, such large
portions of the Word of God, I ought not to doubt of its
accomplishing that which He pleaseth.
_July 13._--Mr. Ward has also sent me a long and learned letter.
He is going to print the Parables without delay for me, and the
modern Hindustani version of them for themselves. He says, 'The
enmity of the natives to the Gospel is indeed very great, but on
this point the lower orders are angels compared with the
moonshis and pundits. I believe the man you took from Serampore
has his heart as full of this poison as most. The fear of loss
of caste among the poor is a greater obstacle than their enmity.
Our strait waistcoat makes our arms ache.'
_December 29._--Translating from Hebrew into Hindustani in the
morning. Wrote to Mr. Udny. Read Arabic and Persian as usual
with Sabat. We had some conversation on this subject, whether we
might not expect the Holy Spirit would endue us with
extraordinary powers in the acquisition of languages, if we
could pray for it only with a desire to be useful to the Church
of God, and not with a wish for our own glory. There seemed to
be no reason against such an expectation. I sometimes pray for
the gifts of the spirit, but infinitely greater is the necessity
to pray for grace, as I know by the sorrowful experience of my
deceitfully corrupt heart.
_1808, January 7._--As much of my time as was not employed for
the Europeans has been devoted chiefly to translating the
Epistles into Hindustani. This work is finished after a certain
manner. But Sabat does not allow me to form a very high idea of
the style in which it is executed. But if the work should
fail--which, however, I am far from expecting--my labour will
have been richly repaid by the profit and pleasure derived from
considering the Word of God in the original with more attention
than I had ever done.
_March 31._--I am at present employed in the toilsome work of
going through the Syriac Gospels, and writing out the names, in
order to ascertain their orthography if possible, and correcting
with Mirza the Epistles. This last work is incredibly difficult
in Hindustani, and will be nearly as much so in Persian, but
very easy and elegant in Arabic.
_June 1_ to _4_.--Employed incessantly in reading the Persian of
St. Matthew to Sabat. Met with the Italian padre, Julius, with
whom I conversed in French.
_June 6._--Going on with the Persian Gospel, visiting the
hospital, and with the men at night. My spirit refreshed and
revived by every night's ministration to them. Sent the Persian
of Matthew to Mr. Brown for the press, and went on with the
remainder of the Hindustani of St. Matthew. I have not felt such
trials of my temper for many months as to-day. The General
declared he was an enemy to my design in translating the
Scriptures. My poor harassed soul looked at last to God, and
cast its burden of sin at the foot of the cross. Towards evening
I found rest and peace. A son-in-law of the Qasi ool Qoorrat, of
Patna, a very learned man, called on me. I put to him several
questions about Mohammedanism, which confused him; and as he
seemed a grave, honest man, they may produce lasting doubts.
_1809, September 24._--Began with Mirza Fitrut the correction of
the Hindustani Gospels: _Quod felix faustumque sit._ Began with
my men a course of lectures from the beginning of the Bible.
_September 25_ to _28_.--Revising Arabic version of Romans;
going on in correction of Hindustani; preparing report of
progress in translating for Bible Society. Reading occasionally
Menishi's _Turkish Grammar_.
Completed in 1810, Martyn's Hindustani New Testament for Mohammedans was
passing through the Serampore press when the great fire of March 11,
1812, destroyed all the sheets save the first thirteen chapters of
Matthew's Gospel, and melted the fount of Persian type. The Corresponding
Committee of the British and Foreign Bible Society, for which it had
been prepared, put it to press the second time at Serampore, from finer
type, and it appeared in 1814 in an edition of 2,000 copies, on English
paper. The demand for portions for immediate use was such that 3,000
copies of the Gospels and Acts, on Patna paper, had been previously
struck off. The longing translator--who had once written, 'Oh, may I
have the bliss of soon seeing the New Testament in Hindustani and
Persian!'--had then been two years dead, but verily his works followed
him. Such was the reputation of the version that it was read in the
native schools at Agra and elsewhere; while an edition of 2,000 copies
in the Deva-Nagri character, for Hindus, appeared in 1817, and was used
up till a Hindi version was prepared from it by Mr. Bowley, the zealous
agent of the Church Missionary Society at Chunar, by divesting it of
the Persian and Arabic terms. Bishop Corrie's revision of this work and
portions of the Old Testament were circulated in many editions and
extending numbers, in the Kaithi character also, among the millions of
Hindus who speak the most widespread of Indian languages with many
dialects. The Bible Society in London welcomed Martyn's work, of which
Professor Lee prepared a large edition. Learning that the lamented
scholar had done some work on the Old Testament in Hindustani, and had
taught Mirza Fitrut Hebrew, to enable that able moonshi to carry on the
translation from the original, the Society first published Genesis in
Hindustani, under Professor Lee's care, in 1817, and then issued a
revision of the rough draft of the entire version of the Old Testament,
by Bishop Corrie and Mr. Thomason. In 1843 Mr. Schürmann, of the London
Missionary Society, and Mr. Justice Hawkins, an elder of the Free Church
of Scotland and an accomplished Bengal civilian, issued a uniform
revision of the Old and New Testaments in the Arabic and Roman
characters, in the course of which Mr. Schürmann 'saw reason to revert
in a great measure to the translation of Henry Martyn, especially in the
latter half of the version.'[71] Of the different translations of the
Bible into Hindustani, the Oordoo or 'camp' language understood by the
sixty millions of Mussulmans in India, this criticism is just: 'the
idiomatic and faithful version of Henry Martyn still maintains its
ground, although, from the lofty elegance of its style, it is better
understood by educated than by illiterate Mohammedans.'[72]
In the first generation, from 1814 to 1847, after the appearance of
Henry Martyn's work, sixteen editions[73] of the Hindustani New
Testament were published and sent into circulation among the then
fifty millions of Mussulmans in India. Before Martyn's work was
printed, he and Corrie used to dictate to inquirers translations of
Bible passages suited to their needs. When Corrie was at Chunar, he
tells us, because 'there was not at that time any translation of the
Scriptures to put into his hands, a native Roman Catholic took down
the translated texts on loose pieces of paper.' Years after, Mr.
Wilkinson, of Gorakpore, was called to visit the man on his death-bed,
and found him so well acquainted with Scripture that he asked an
explanation. 'The poor man produced the loose slips of paper on which
he had written my translations,' says Corrie. 'On these, it appeared,
his soul had fed through life, and through them he died such a death
that Mr. Wilkinson entertained no doubt of his having passed into
glory.' In the forty years since the sixteen editions made the Word of
God known to thousands of India Mussulmans, the Oordoo Bible has
caused the Word to grow mightily, and in many cases to prevail.
The entire Bible in Hindustani was again revised, by Dr. R.C. Mather,
after many years' experience in Benares and Mirzapore, and was
published, in both the Arabic and Roman characters, in 1869, after
continuous labour for more than six years. He stumbled, in the library
of the British and Foreign Bible Society, on sixteen manuscript
volumes of a Hindustani translation of nearly the whole Old Testament,
beginning with Martyn's Genesis. The folios were interleaved, and on
the blank pages were thousands of notes in English. At the end of the
Pentateuch the copyist records that 'the above has been completed, by
order of Paymaster Sherwood, for the Rev. Daniel Corrie, by me,
Mákhdum Buksh.' The copy seems to have been the accomplished
Thomason's, and to have been deposited in the library by his widow
after his death at Port Louis, Mauritius. This practically complete
translation of the Old Testament had been lost for forty years. The
eulogy passed by Thomason on Martyn's Hindustani New Testament, that
it 'will last as a model of elegant writing as well as of faithful
translation,' is pronounced by Dr. Mather,[74] after all that time,
as, 'in the main, just; the work has lasted and continued to be
acceptable, and will perhaps always continue to be useful. All
subsequent translators have, as a matter of course, proceeded upon it
as a work of excellent skill and learning, and rigid fidelity.'
The modern Arabic translation of the New Testament, by Martyn and
Sabat, was not printed (in Calcutta) till 1816, and the translation of
the Old Testament was continued under the supervision of Mr. Thomason,
who became virtually Martyn's literary executor, and whose labours as
Oriental translator and editor hurried him, like his friend, to a
premature death. Both had the same biographer--the good Sargent,
Rector of Lavington. As Thomason toiled at the Arabic, Persian, and
Hindustani editions, he wrote: 'I am filled with astonishment at the
opening scenes of usefulness. Send us labourers--send us faithful
laborious labourers!'[75] Martyn's Arabic New Testament, produced
with the assistance of an undoubtedly learned Arab, as conceited and
of temper as intolerable as Sabat, did its work among the 'learned and
fastidious' Mohammedans for whom chiefly it was prepared. Professor
Lee issued a second edition in London, and Mr. Thomason a third in
Calcutta. In common with the old translations, made for the land in
which St. Paul began the first missionary work, and reproduced in
various Polyglot Bibles, it has been superseded by the wonderfully
perfect and altogether beautiful Arabic Bible (Beirut) of Dr. Eli
Smith and Dr. Van Dyck, on which these American scholars, assisted by
learned natives of Syria and Cairo, were occupied for nearly thirty
years. In the Beirut Arabic Scriptures, Henry Martyn's troubled life
with Sabat found early and luxuriant fruit. How wisely and humbly the
missionary chaplain of the East India Company estimated his own, and
especially his Arabic, translations, and how at the same time he
longed to live that he might do in 1812-20 what Eli Smith and Van Dyck
did in 1837-65, may be seen from these early letters and journals:
TO THE REV. DAVID BROWN, CALCUTTA
Cawnpore: June 11, 1810.
Dearest Sir,--The excessive heat, by depriving me of my rest at
night, keeps me between sleeping and waking all day. This is one
reason why I have been remiss in answering your letters. It must
not, however, be concealed that the man Daniel Corrie has kept
me so long talking that I have had no time for writing since his
arrival.
Your idea about presenting splendid copies of the Scriptures to
native great men has often struck me, but my counsel is, not to
do it with the first edition. I have too little faith in the
instruments to believe that the first editions will be
excellent; and if they should be found defective, we cannot
after once presenting the great men with one book, repeat the
thing.
Before the second edition of the Arabic, what say you to my
carrying the first with me to Arabia, having under the other arm
the Persian, to be examined at Shiraz or Teheran? By the time
they are both ready I shall have nearly finished my seven years,
and may go on furlough.
I am glad to find you promising to give yourself wholly to your
plans. I always tremble lest Mrs. Brown should order you home;
but I must not suspect her, she has the soul of a missionary. If
you go soon we shall all droop and die. Your Polyglot
speculations are fine, but Polyglots are Biblical luxuries,
intended for the gratification of men of two tongues or more. We
must first feed those that have but one, especially as single
tongues are growing upon us so fast.
_June 12._--To-day I have requested the Commander of the forces
to detain D. Corrie here to assist me; he said he did not like
to make innovations, but would keep him here for two or three
months. This will be a great relief to my labouring chest, for I
am still far from being out of the fear of consumption. Tell me
that you have prayed for me.
Yours, etc. H.M.
_August 22._--I want silence and diversion, a little dog to play
with; or what would be best of all, a dear little child, such as
Fanny was when I left her. Perhaps you could learn when the
ships usually sail for Mocha. I have set my heart upon going
there; I could be there and back in six months.
_September 8._--Your tide rolls on with terrifying rapidity, at
least I tremble while committing myself to it. You look to me,
and I to Sabat; and Sabat I look upon as the staff of Egypt. May
I prove mistaken! All, however, does not depend upon him. If my
life is spared, there is no reason why the Arabic should not be
done in Arabia, and the Persian in Persia, as well as the Indian
in India. I hope your Shalome has not left you. I promise myself
great advantage in reading Hebrew and Syriac with him.
_September 9._--Yours of the 27th ult. is a heart-breaking
business. Though I share so deeply in Sabat's disgrace, I feel
more for you than myself, but I can give you no comfort except
by saying, 'It is well that it was in thine heart.' Your letter
will give a new turn to my life. Henceforward I have done with
India. Arabia shall hide me till I come forth with an approved
New Testament in Arabic. I do not ask your advice, because I
have made up my mind, but shall just wait your answer to this,
and come down to you instantly. I have been calculating upon the
means of support, and find that I shall have wherewithal to
live. Besides, the Lord will provide. Before Him I have spread
this affair, and do not feel that I shall be acting contrary to
His will.... Will Government let me go away for three years
before the time of my furlough arrives? If not, I must quit the
service, and I cannot devote my life to a more important work
than that of preparing the Arabic Bible.
Herewith you will receive the first seven chapters in Persian
and Hindustani, though I suppose you have ceased to wish for
them. The Persian will only prove that Sabat is not the man for
it. I have protested against many things in it, but instead of
sending you my objections I inclose a critique by Mirza, who
must remain unknown. I am somewhat inclined to think the Arabic
not quite so hopeless. Sabat is confident, and eager to meet his
opponents. His version of the Romans was certainly not from the
old one, because he translated it all before my face from the
English; but then, as I hinted long ago, he is inaccurate and
not to be depended upon. He entirely approves of my going to
Busrah with his translations, and the old one, confident that
the decision there will be in his favour. Dear Sir, take
measures for transmitting me with the least possible delay;
detain me not, for the King's business requires haste.
The King sent His eager servant to Persia, and did not give him the
desire of his heart to enter Arabia. Truly he hastened so unrestingly
that the Spirit of God led him to complete the Persian New Testament,
and then carried him away from the many tongues of mortal men, which
as they sprang from disunion, so they are to 'cease' in the one speech
of the multitudes of every nation and kindred and tribe and tongue who
sing the new song.
The following letter to Charles Simeon, the original of which was
presented by his biographer, Canon Carus, to Canon Moor, who permits
it to be published here for the first time, fitly introduces Henry
Martyn's translation used in Persia. Simeon received it on January 21,
1812, and thus wrote of it to Thomason:
From whom, think you, did I receive a letter yesterday? From our
beloved Martyn in Persia. He begins to find his strength
improve, and he is 'disputing daily' with the learned, who, he
says, are extremely subtile. They are not a little afraid of
him, and are going to write a book on the evidences of their
religion. The evidences of Mohammedanism! A fine comparison they
will make with those of Christianity. Oh, that God may endue our
brother with wisdom and strength to execute all that is in his
heart. He is desirous of spending two years in Persia, and is
willing to sacrifice his salary if the East India Company will
not give him leave. I am going in an hour to Mr. Grant to
consult him, and shall call on Mr. Astell if Mr. Grant thinks it
expedient.
TO REV. C. SIMEON
Shiraz: July 8, 1811.
My dearest Friend and Brother,--My last letter to you was from
Bombay. I sailed thence on March 25, in the Company's corvette,
the Benares. As the ship was manned principally by Europeans, I
had a good deal to do during the voyage, but through the mercy
of our Heavenly Father I was so far from suffering that I rather
gained strength, and am now apparently as well as ever I was. On
Easter day we made the coast of Mekran, in Persia, and on the
Sunday following landed at Muscat, in Arabia. Here I met with an
African slave, who tried hard to persuade me that I was in the
wrong and he in the right. The dispute ended in his asking for
an Arabic Testament, which I gave him. We were about a month in
the Persian Gulf, generally in sight of land. At last, on May
22, I was set down at Bushire, in Persia, and was kindly
received by the English Resident. One day I went to the Armenian
church, at the request of the priest, not expecting to see
anything like Christian worship, and accordingly I did not. The
Word of God was read, indeed, but in such a way that no man
could have understood it. After church he desired me to notice
that he had censed me _four_ times because I was a priest. This
will give you an idea of their excessive childishness. I took
occasion from his remark to speak about the priest's office, and
the awful importance of it. Nothing can be conceived more vapid
and inane than his observations.
As soon as my Persian dress was ready, I set off for the
interior in a kafila, or small caravan, consisting chiefly of
mules, and after a very fatiguing journey of ten days over the
mountains, during which time the difference in the thermometer
by day and night was often sixty degrees, I arrived at this
place about a month ago.
I had no intention of making any stay here, but I found, on my
producing Sabat's Persian translation, that I must sit down with
native Persians to begin the work once more. The fault found
with Sabat's work is that he uses words not only so difficult as
to be unintelligible to the generality, but such as never were
in use in the Persian.
When it is considered that the issue of all disputes with the
Mohammedans is a reference to the Scriptures, and that the
Persian and Arabic are known all over the Mohammedan world, it
will be evident that we ought to spare no pains in obtaining
good versions in these languages. Hence I look upon my staying
here for a time as a duty paramount to every other, and I trust
that the Government in India will look upon it in the same
light. If they should stop my pay, it would not alter my purpose
in the least, but it would be an inconvenience. I should be
happy, therefore, if the Court of Directors would sanction my
residence in these parts for a year or two. No one who has been
in Persia will imagine that I am here for my own pleasure. India
is a paradise to it. All is poverty and desolation without, and
within I have no comfort but in my God. I am in the midst of
enemies, who argue against the truth, sometimes with uncommon
subtlety. But I pray for the fulfilment of the Lord's promise,
and I am assured that He will be with me and give me a mouth and
a wisdom, which all my adversaries shall not be able to gainsay
or resist. I am sometimes asked whether I am not afraid to speak
so boldly against the Mohammedan religion. I tell them if I say
or do anything against the laws I am not unwilling to suffer,
but if I say nothing but what naturally comes in the course of
argument--it is an argument too which you yourselves began--why
should I fear? You know the power of the English too well to
suppose that they would let any violence be offered to me with
impunity.
The English ambassador, Sir Gore Ouseley, whom I met here on
his way to Tabreez, carried me with him to the court of the
prince, who, though tributary to his father, is a sovereign
prince in Elam, as the S. Scriptures call the province of Fars.
He has also recommended me to the prince's favourite minister,
so that I am in no danger. But there is certainly a great stir
among the learned, and every effort is made to support their
cause. They have now persuaded the father of all the moollas to
write a book in Arabic on the evidences of the Mohammedan
religion, a book which is to silence me for ever. I rather
suppose that the more their cause is examined the worse it will
appear.
I have had no news from India these four months, so I can say
nothing of our friends there. Let your next letters be sent not
to India, but direct to Persia, in this way: Rev. H.M., care of
Sir Gore Ouseley, Bart., Ambassador Extraordinary, etc.,
_Teheran_; care of S. Morier, Esq., _Constantinople_; care of
George Moore, Esq., _Malta_. My kindest love to all your dear
people, Messrs. Bowman and Goodall, Farish, Port, Phillips, etc.
I hope they continue to remember me once a week in their
prayers; to the _four godly professors_;[76] to your young men
though to me unknown, and especially to your brother. Believe me
to be yours ever most affectionately,
H. MARTYN.
_1812, January 1_ to _8_.--Spared by mercy to see the beginning
of another year. The last has been in some respects a memorable
year; transported in safety to Shiraz, I have been led, by the
particular providence of God, to undertake a work the idea of
which never entered my mind till my arrival here, but which has
gone on without material interruption and is now nearly
finished. To all appearance the present year will be more
perilous than any I have seen, but if I live to complete the
Persian New Testament, my life after that will be of less
importance. But whether life or death be mine, may Christ be
magnified in me. If He has work for me to do, I cannot die.
He had just before written this pathetic letter, of exquisite
friendliness:
TO THE REV. D. CORRIE
Shiraz: December 12, 1811.
Dearest Brother,--Your letters of January 28 and April 22 have
just reached me. After being a whole year without any tidings of
you, you may conceive how much they have tended to revive my
spirits. Indeed, I know not how to be sufficiently thankful to
our God and Father for giving me a brother who is indeed a
brother to my soul, and thus follows me with affectionate
prayers wherever I go, and more than supplies my place to the
precious flock over whom the Holy Ghost hath made us overseers.
There is only one thing in your letters that makes me uneasy,
and that is, the oppression you complain of in the hot weather.
As you will have to pass another hot season at Cawnpore, and I
do not know how many more, I must again urge you to spare
yourself. I am endeavouring to learn the true use of time in a
new way, by placing myself in idea twenty or thirty years in
advance, and then considering how I ought to have managed twenty
or thirty years ago. In racing violently for a year or two, and
then breaking down? In this way I have reasoned myself into
contentment about staying so long at Shiraz. I thought at first,
what will the Government in India think of my being away so
long, or what will my friends think? Shall I not appear to all a
wandering shepherd, leaving the flock and running about for my
own pleasure! But placing myself twenty years on in time, I say,
Why could not I stay at Shiraz long enough to get a New
Testament done there, even if I had been detained there on that
account three or six years? What work of equal importance can
ever come from me? So that now I am resolved to wait here till
the New Testament is finished, though I incur the displeasure of
Government, or even be dismissed the service. I have been many
times on the eve of my departure, as my translator promised to
accompany me to Baghdad, but that city being in great confusion
he is afraid to trust himself there; so I resolved to go
westward through the north of Persia, but found it impossible,
on account of the snow which blocks up the roads in winter, to
proceed till spring. Here I am therefore, for three months more;
our Testament will be finished, please God, in six weeks. I go
on as usual, riding round the walls in the morning, and singing
hymns at night over my milk and water, for tea I have none,
though I much want it. I am with you in spirit almost every
evening, and feel a bliss I cannot describe in being one with
the dear saints of God all over the earth, through one Lord and
one Spirit.
They continued throwing stones at me every day, till happening
one day to tell Jaffir Ali Khan, my host, how one as big as my
fist had hit me in the back, he wrote to the Governor, who sent
an order to all the gates, that if any one insulted me he should
be bastinadoed, and the next day came himself in state to pay me
a visit. These measures have had the desired effect; they now
call me the Feringhi Nabob, and very civilly offer me the
kalean; but indeed the Persian commonalty are very brutes; the
Soofis declare themselves unable to account for the fierceness
of their countrymen, except it be from the influence of Islam.
After speaking in my praise one of them added 'and there are the
Hindus too (who have brought the guns), when I saw their
gentleness I was quite charmed with them; but as for our
Iranees, they delight in nothing but tormenting their fellow
creatures.' These Soofis are quite the Methodists of the East.
They delight in everything Christian, except in being exclusive.
They consider that all will finally return to God, from whom
they emanated, or rather of whom they are only different forms.
The doctrine of the Trinity they admired, but not the atonement,
because the Mohammedans, they say, consider Imam Husain as also
crucified for the sins of men; and to everything Mohammedan they
have a particular aversion. Yet withal they conform externally.
From these, however, you will perceive the first Persian Church
will be formed, judging after the manner of men. The employment
of my leisure hours is translating the Psalms into Persian. What
will poor Fitrut do when he gets to the poetical books? Job, I
hope, you have let him pass over. The Books of Solomon are also
in a very sorry condition in the English. The Prophets are all
much easier, and consequently better done. I hear there is a man
at Yezd that has fallen into the same way of thinking as myself
about the letters, and professes to have found out all the arts
and sciences from them. I should be glad to compare notes with
him. It is now time for me to bid you good night. We have had
ice on the pools some time, but no snow yet. They build their
houses without chimneys, so if we want a fire we must take the
smoke along with it. I prefer wrapping myself in my sheepskin.
Your accounts of the progress of the kingdom of God among you
are truly refreshing. Tell dear H. and the men of both regiments
that I salute them much in the Lord, and make mention of them in
my prayers. May I continue to hear thus of their state, and if I
am spared to see them again, may we make it evident that we have
grown in grace. Affectionate remembrances to your sister and
Sherwoods; I hope they continue to prosecute their labours of
love. Remember me to the people of Cawnpore who inquire, etc.
Why have not I mentioned Col. P.? It is not because he is not in
my heart, for there is hardly a man in the world whom I love and
honour more. My most Christian salutations to him.
May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit,
dearest brother. Yours affectionately,
H. MARTYN.
Martyn's Cambridge Persian studies were continued for practical
Hindustani purposes at Dinapore, in 1809, and the following incident
unconsciously lights up his Persian scholarship at that date. Writing
to the impatient David Brown at Aldeen, from Patna, on March 28, he
says:
You chide me for not trusting my Hindustani to the press. Last
week we began the correction of it; present, a Sayyid of Delhi,
a poet of Lucknow, three or four literates of Patna, and Baba
Ali in the chair; Sabat and myself assessors.
I was amazed and mortified at observing that reference was had
to the Persian for every verse, in order to understand the
Hindustani. It was, however, a consolation to find that from the
Persian they caught the meaning of it instantly, always
expressing their admiration of the plainness of their
translation.
But when the Persian translation of the four Gospels was printed at
Serampore, nearly two years after, Martyn himself was dissatisfied
with it. His Cawnpore and especially Lucknow experience had developed
him in Persian style, and led him to see that in Persia itself only
could the great work be done of translating the Word of God into a
language spoken and read from Calcutta and Patna to Damascus and
Tabreez.
When Henry Martyn did the noblest achievement of his life, the
production of the Persian New Testament, he unknowingly linked himself
with the greatest of the Greek Fathers, near whose dust his own was
about to be laid. Until the Eastern Church ceased to be aggressive--that
is, missionary--Persia, like Central Asia up to China itself, promised
to be all Christian. Islam, a corrupted mixture of Judaism and
Christianity, took its place. Persia sent a bishop to the Council of
Nicæa in 325, and the great Constantine wrote a letter to King Sapor,
recommending to his protection the Christian Churches in his empire.[77]
Chrysostom (347-407), in his second homily on John, incidentally tells
us that 'the Persians, having translated the doctrines of the Gospel
into their own tongue, had learned, though barbarians, the true
philosophy.' In his homily on the memorial of Mary he puts the Persians
first, and our British forefathers last, in this remarkable passage:
'The Persians, the Indians, Scythians, Thracians, Sarmatians, the race
of the Moors, and the inhabitants of the British Isles, celebrate a deed
performed in a private family in Judea by a woman that had been a
sinner.' The isles of Britain, Claudius Buchanan well remarks, then
last, are now the first to restore this memorial to the Persians as well
as to other Mohammedan nations. Even so late as 1740 the tyrant Nadir
Shah, inquiring as to Jesus Christ, asked for a Persian copy of the
Gospels, and had presented to him the combined work of an ignorant
Romish priest and some Mohammedan moollas, which excited his ridicule.
The traveller, Jonas Hanway, tells us that when Henry Martyn saw this
production he exclaimed that he did not wonder at Nadir's contempt of
it.
Martyn arrived in Shiraz on June 11, 1811; in a week he began his
Persian translation of the New Testament, and in February 1812 he
completed the happy toil, carried on amidst disputations with Soofis and
Shi'ahs, Jews and Christians of the Oriental rites, while consumption
wasted his body. His 'leisure' he spent in translating the Hebrew
Psalter. Let us look at him, in that South Persian summer and winter and
summer again, now in the city of Shiraz, now driven by the sultry heat
to the garden of roses and orange-trees outside the walls near the tomb
of Hafiz. The Christian poet has pictured the scene--Alford, when Dean
of Canterbury in 1851. Twenty years after, he himself was laid in the
churchyard of the mother church of England, St. Martin's, under this
inscription--'Diversorium Viatoris Hierosolymam Proficiscentis':
_HENRY MARTYN AT SHIRAZ_
I
A vision of the bright Shiraz, of Persian bards the theme:
The vine with bunches laden hangs o'er the crystal stream;
The nightingale all day her notes in rosy thickets trills,
And the brooding heat-mist faintly lies along the distant hills.
II
About the plain are scattered wide, in many a crumbling heap,
The fanes of other days, and tombs where Iran's poets sleep:
And in the midst, like burnished gems, in noonday light repose
The minarets of bright Shiraz--the City of the Rose.
III
One group beside the river bank in rapt discourse are seen,
Where hangs the golden orange on its boughs of purest green;
Their words are sweet and low, and their looks are lit with joy,
Some holy blessing seems to rest on them and their employ.
IV
The pale-faced Frank among them sits: what brought him from afar?
Nor bears he bales of merchandise, nor teaches skill in war;
One pearl alone he brings with him,--the Book of life and death;
One warfare only teaches he--to fight the fight of faith.
V
And Iran's sons are round him, and one with solemn tone
Tells how the Lord of Glory was rejected by His own;
Tells, from the wondrous Gospel, of the Trial and the Doom,
The words Divine of Love and Might--the Scourge, the Cross, the Tomb.
VI
Far sweeter to the stranger's ear those Eastern accents sound
Than music of the nightingale that fills the air around:
Lovelier than balmiest odours sent from gardens of the rose,
The fragrance from the contrite soul and chastened lip that flows.
VII
The nightingales have ceased to sing, the roses' leaves are shed,
The Frank's pale face in Tokat's field hath mouldered with the dead:
Alone and all unfriended, midst his Master's work he fell,
With none to bathe his fevered brow, with none his tale to tell.
VIII
But still those sweet and solemn tones about him sound in bliss,
And fragrance from those flowers of God for evermore is his:
For his the meed, by grace, of those who, rich in zeal and love,
Turn many unto righteousness, and shine as stars above.
This was the beginning of the Persian New Testament:
TO REV. DAVID BROWN
Shiraz: June 24, 1811.
Dearest Sir,--I believe I told you that the advanced state of
the season rendered it necessary to go to Arabia circuitously by
way of Persia. Behold me therefore in the Athens of Fars, the
haunt of the Persian man. Beneath are the ashes of Hafiz and
Sadi; above, green gardens and running waters, roses and
nightingales. Does Mr. Bird envy my lot? Let him solace himself
with Aldeen. How gladly would I give him Shiraz for Aldeen; how
often while toiling through this miserable country have I
sighed for Aldeen! If I am ever permitted to see India again
nothing but dire necessity, or the imperious call of duty, will
ever induce me to travel again. One thing is good here, the
fruit; we have apples and apricots, plums, nectarines,
greengages and cherries, all of which are served up with ice and
snow. When I have said this for Shiraz I have said all.
But to have done with what grows out of the soil, let us come to
the men. The Persians are, like ourselves, immortal; their
language had passed a long way beyond the limits of Iran. The
men of Shiraz propose to translate the New Testament with me.
Can I refuse to stay? After much deliberation I have determined
to remain here six months. It is sorely against my will, but I
feel it to be a duty. From all that I can collect there appears
no probability of our ever having a good translation made out of
Persia. At Bombay I showed Moolla Firoz, the most learned man
there, the three Persian translations, viz. the Polyglot, and
Sabat's two. He disapproved of them all. At Bushire, which is in
Persia, the man of the greatest name was Sayyid Hosein. Of the
three he liked Sabat's Persian best, but said it seemed written
by an Indian. On my arrival at this place I produced my
specimens once more. Sabat's Persian was much ridiculed;
sarcastic remarks were made on the fondness for fine words so
remarkable in the Indians, who seemed to think that hard words
made fine writing. His Persic also was presently thrown aside,
and to my no small surprise the old despised Polyglot was not
only spoken of as superior to the rest, but it was asked, What
fault is found in this?--this is the language we speak. The king
has also signified that it is his wish that as little Arabic as
possible may be employed in the papers presented to him. So that
simple Persian is likely to become more and more fashionable.
This is a change favourable certainly to our glorious cause. To
the poor the Gospel will be preached. We began our work with
the Gospel of St. John, and five chapters are put out of hand.
It is likely to be the simplest thing imaginable; and I dare say
the pedantic Arab will turn up his nose at it; but what the men
of Shiraz approve who can gainsay? Let Sabat confine himself to
the Arabic, and he will accomplish a great work. The
forementioned Sayyid Hosein of Bushire is an Arab. I showed him
Erpenius's Arabic Testament, the Christian Knowledge Society,
Sabat's, and the Polyglot. After rejecting all but Sabat's, he
said this is good, very good, and then read off the 5th of
Matthew in a fine style, giving it unqualified commendation as
he went along. On my proposing to him to give a specimen of what
he thought the best Persian style, he consented; but, said he,
give me this to translate from, laying his hand on Sabat's
Arabic. At Muscat an Arab officer who had attended us as guard
and guide one day when we walked into the country, came on board
with his slave to take leave of us. The slave, who had argued
with me very strenuously in favour of his religion, reminded me
of a promise I had made him of giving him the Gospel. On my
producing an Arabic New Testament, he seized it and began to
read away upon deck, but presently stopped, and said it was not
fine Arabic. However, he carried off the book.
In eight months the Persian translation of the New Testament was done.
The _Journal_, during that period, from July 1811 to February 1812, as
the sacred task went on, reveals the Holy Spirit moving the hearts of
the translator's Mohammedan assistant and Soofi disputants by 'the
things of Christ,' while it shows His servant bearing witness, by the
account of his own conversion, to His power to save and to make holy.
_December 12._--Letters at last from India. Mirza Sayyid Ali
was curious to know in what way we corresponded, and made me
read Mr. Brown's letter to me, and mine to Corrie. He took care
to let his friends know that we wrote nothing about our own
affairs: it was all about translations and the cause of Christ.
With this he was delighted.
_December 16._--In translating 2 Cor. i. 22, 'Who hath given the
earnest of the Spirit in our hearts,' he was much struck when it
was explained to him. 'Oh, that I had it,' said he; 'have you
received it?' I told him that, as I had no doubt of my
acceptance through Christ, I concluded that I had. Once before,
on the words, 'Who are saved?' he expressed his surprise at the
confidence with which Christians spoke of salvation. On 1 Cor.
xv. he observed, that the doctrine of the resurrection of the
body was unreasonable; but that as the Mohammedans understood
it, it was impossible; on which account the Soofis rejected it.
_Christmas Day._--I made a great feast for the Russians and
Armenians; and, at Jaffir Ali Khan's request, invited the Soofi
master, with his disciples. I hoped there would be some
conversation on the occasion of our meeting, and, indeed, Mirza
Sayyid Ali did make some attempts, and explained to the old man
the meaning of the Lord's Supper; but the sage maintaining his
usual silence, the subject was dropped. I expressed my
satisfaction at seeing them assembled on such an occasion, and
my hope that they would remember the day in succeeding years,
and that though they would never see me again in the succeeding
years, they would not forget that I had brought them the Gospel.
The old man coldly replied that 'God would guide those whom He
chose.' Most of the time they continued was before dinner; the
moment that was despatched, they rose and went away. The custom
is, to sit five or six hours before dinner, and at great men's
houses singers attend.
_December 31._--The accounts of the desolations of war during
the last year, which I have been reading in some Indian
newspapers, make the world appear more gloomy than ever. How
many souls hurried into eternity unprepared! How many thousands
of widows and orphans left to mourn! But admire, my soul, the
matchless power of God, that out of this ruin He has prepared
for Himself an inheritance. At last the scene shall change, and
I shall find myself in a world where all is love.
_1812._--The last has been in some respects a memorable year. I
have been led, by what I have reason to consider as the
particular providence of God, to this place; and have undertaken
an important work, which has gone on without material
interruption, and is now nearly finished. I like to find myself
employed usefully, in a way I did not expect or foresee,
especially if my own will is in any degree crossed by the work
unexpectedly assigned me, as there is then reason to believe
that God is acting. The present year will probably be a perilous
one, but my life is of little consequence, whether I live to
finish the Persian New Testament or do not. I look back with
pity and shame upon my former self, and on the importance I then
attached to my life and labours. The more I see of my own works
the more I am ashamed of them. Coarseness and clumsiness mar all
the works of man. I am sick when I look at man and his wisdom
and his doings, and am relieved only by reflecting that we have
a city whose builder and maker is God. The least of _His_ works
it is refreshing to look at. A dried leaf or a straw makes me
feel myself in good company: complacency and admiration take
place of disgust.
I compared with pain our Persian translation with the original;
to say nothing of the precision and elegance of the sacred text,
its perspicuity is that which sets at defiance all attempts to
equal it.
_January 16._--Mirza Sayyid Ali told me accidentally to-day of a
distich made by his friend Mirza Koochut, at Teheran, in honour
of a victory gained by Prince Abbas Mirza over the Russians. The
sentiment was, that he had killed so many of the Christians,
that Christ, from the fourth heaven, took hold of Mahomet's
skirt to entreat him to desist. I was cut to the soul at this
blasphemy. In prayer I could think of nothing else but that
great day when the Son of God shall come in the clouds of
heaven, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and
convincing men of all their hard speeches which they have spoken
against Him.
Mirza Sayyid Ali perceived that I was considerably disordered,
and was sorry for having repeated the verse, but asked what it
was that was so offensive. I told him that 'I could not endure
existence if Jesus was not glorified; it would be hell to me if
He were to be always thus dishonoured.' He was astonished, and
again asked why. 'If anyone pluck out your eyes,' I replied,
'there is no saying _why_ you feel pain; it is feeling. It is
because I am one with Christ that I am thus dreadfully wounded.'
On his again apologising, I told him that 'I rejoiced at what
had happened, inasmuch as it made me feel nearer the Lord than
ever. It is when the head or heart is struck, that every member
feels its membership.' This conversation took place while we
were translating. In the evening he mentioned the circumstance
of a young man's being murdered--a fine athletic youth, whom I
had often seen in the garden. Some acquaintance of his in a
slight quarrel had plunged a dagger in his breast. Observing me
look sorrowful, he asked why. 'Because,' said I, 'he was cut off
in his sins, and had no time to repent.' 'It was just in that
way,' said he, 'that I should like to die; not dragging out a
miserable existence on a sick-bed, but transported at once into
another state.' I observed that 'it was not desirable to be
hurried into the immediate presence of God.' 'Do you think,'
said he, 'that there is any difference in the presence of God
here or there?' 'Indeed I do,' said I. 'Here we see through a
glass darkly; but there, face to face.' He then entered into
some metaphysical Soofi disputation about the identity of sin
and holiness, heaven and hell: to all which I made no reply.
_January 18._--Aga Ali of Media came: and with him and Mirza Ali
I had a long and warm discussion about the essentials of
Christianity. The Mede, seeing us at work upon the Epistles,
said, 'he should be glad to read them; as for the Gospels they
were nothing but tales, which were of no use to him; for
instance,' said he, 'if Christ raised four hundred dead to life,
what is that to me?' I said, 'it certainly was of importance,
for His work furnished a reason for our depending upon His
words.' 'What did He say,' asked he, 'that was not known before?
the love of God, humility--who does not know these things?'
'Were these things,' said I, 'known before Christ, either among
Greeks or Romans, with all their philosophy?' They avowed that
the Hindu book _Juh_ contained precepts of this kind. I
questioned its antiquity; 'but however that may be,' I added,
'Christ came not to _teach_ so much as to _die_; the truths I
spoke of as confirmed by His miracles were those relating to His
person, such as, "Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy
laden, and I will give you rest." Here Mirza Sayyid Ali told him
that I had professed to have no doubt of my salvation. He asked
what I meant. I told him, 'that though sin still remained, I was
assured that it should not regain dominion; and that I should
never come into condemnation, but was accepted in the Beloved.'
Not a little surprised, he asked Mirza Sayyid Ali whether he
comprehended this. 'No,' said he, 'nor Mirza Ibrahim, to whom I
mentioned it.' The Mede again turning to me asked, 'How do you
know this? how do you know you have experienced the second
birth?' 'Because,' said I, 'we have the Spirit of the Father;
what He wishes we wish; what He hates we hate.' Here he began to
be a little more calm and less contentious, and mildly asked
how I had obtained this peace of mind: 'Was it merely these
books?' said he, taking up some of our sheets. I told him,
'These books, with prayer.' 'What was the beginning of it,' said
he, 'the society of some friends?' I related to him my religious
history, the substance of which was, that I took my Bible before
God in prayer, and prayed for forgiveness through Christ,
assurance of it through His Spirit, and grace to obey His
commandments. They then both asked whether the same benefit
would be conferred on them. 'Yes,' said I, 'for so the Apostles
preached, that all who were baptized in His name should receive
the gift of the Holy Ghost.' 'Can you assure me,' said Mirza
Sayyid Ali, 'that the Spirit will be given to me? if so, I will
be baptized immediately.' 'Who am I that I should be surety?' I
replied; 'I bring you this message from God, that he who,
despairing of himself, rests for righteousness on the Son of
God, shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost; and to this I can
add my testimony, if that be worth anything, that I have found
the promise fulfilled in myself. But if after baptism you should
not find it so in you, accuse not the Gospel of falsehood. It is
possible that your faith might not be sincere; indeed, so fully
am I persuaded that you do not believe on the Son of God, that
if you were to entreat ever so earnestly for baptism I should
not dare to administer it at this time, when you have shown so
many signs of an unhumbled heart.' 'What! would you have me
believe,' said he, 'as a child?' 'Yes,' said I. 'True,' said he,
'I think that is the only way.' Aga Ali said no more, except,
'Certainly he is a good man!'
_January 23._--Put on my English dress, and went to the
Vizier's, to see part of the tragedy of Husain's death,[78]
which they contrive to spin out so as to make it last the first
ten days of the Mohurrum. All the apparatus consisted of a few
boards for a stage, two tables and a pulpit, under an immense
awning, in the court where the company were assembled. The
_dramatis personæ_ were two; the daughter of Husain, whose part
was performed by a boy, and a messenger; they both read their
parts. Every now and then loud sobs were heard all over the
court. After this several feats of activity were exhibited; the
Vizier sat with the moollas. I was appointed to a seat where
indeed I saw as much as I wanted, but which, I afterwards
perceived, was not the place of honour. As I trust I am far
enough from desiring the chief seats in the synagogues, there
was nothing in this that could offend me; but I do not think it
right to let him have another opportunity of showing a slight to
my country in my person.
_January 24._--Found Sayyid Ali rather serious this evening. He
said he did not know what to do to have his mind made up about
religion. Of all the religions Christ's was the best; but
whether to prefer this to Soofi-ism he could not tell. In these
doubts he is tossed to and fro, and is often kept awake the
whole night in tears. He and his brother talk together on these
things till they are almost crazed. Before he was engaged in
this work of translation, he says he used to read about two or
three hours a day, now he can do nothing else; has no
inclination for anything else, and feels unhappy if he does not
correct his daily portion. His late employment has given a new
turn to his thoughts as well as to those of his friends; they
had not the most distant conception of the contents of the New
Testament. He says his Soofi friends are exceedingly anxious to
see the Epistles, from the accounts he gives of them, and also
he is sure that almost the whole of Shiraz are so sensible of
the load of unmeaning ceremonies in which their religion
consists, that they will rejoice to see or hear of anything like
freedom, and that they would be more willing to embrace Christ
than the Soofis, who, after taking so much pains to be
independent of all law, would think it degrading to submit
themselves to any law again, however light.
_February 2._--From what I suffer in this city, I can understand
the feelings of Lot. The face of the poor Russian appears to me
like the face of an angel, because he does not tell lies. Heaven
will be heaven because there will not be one liar there. The
Word of God is more precious to me at this time than I ever
remember it to have been; and of all the promises in it, none is
more sweet to me than this--'He shall reign till He hath put all
enemies under His feet.'
_February 3._--A packet arrived from India without a single
letter for me. It was some disappointment to me: but let me be
satisfied with my God, and if I cannot have the comfort of
hearing from my friends, let me return with thankfulness to His
Word, which is a treasure of which none envy me the possession,
and where I can find what will more than compensate for the loss
of earthly enjoyments. Resignation to the will of God is a
lesson which I must learn, and which I trust He is teaching me.
_February 9._--Aga Boozong came. After much conversation, he
said, 'Prove to me, from the beginning, that Christianity is the
way: how will you proceed? what do you say must be done?' 'If
you would not believe a person who wrought a miracle before
you,' said I, 'I have nothing to say; I cannot proceed a step.'
'I will grant you,' said Sayyid Ali, 'that Christ was the Son of
God, and more than that.' 'That you despair of yourself, and are
willing to trust in Him alone for salvation?' 'Yes.' 'And are
ready to confess Christ before men, and act conformably to His
Word?' 'Yes: what else must I do?' 'Be baptized in the name of
Christ.' 'And what shall I gain?' 'The gift of the Holy Ghost.
The end of faith is salvation in the world to come; but even
here you shall have the Spirit to purify your heart, and to give
you the assurance of everlasting happiness.' Thus Aga Boozong
had an opportunity of hearing those strange things from my own
mouth, of which he had been told by his disciple the Mede. 'You
can say too,' said he, 'that you have received the Spirit?' I
told them I believed I had; 'for, notwithstanding all my sins,
the bent of my heart was to God in a way it never was before;
and that, according to my present feeling, I could not be happy
if God was not glorified, and if I had not the enjoyment of His
presence, for which I felt that I was now educating.' Aga
Boozong shed tears.
After this came Aga Ali, the Mede, to hear, as he said, some of
the sentences of Paul. Mirza Sayyid Ali had told them, 'that if
they had read nothing but the Gospels, they knew nothing of the
religion of Christ.' The sheet I happened to have by me was the
one containing the fourth, fifth, and sixth chapters of the
Second Epistle to the Corinthians, which Aga Ali read out.
At this time the company had increased considerably. I desired
Aga Ali to notice particularly the latter part of the fifth
chapter, 'God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto
Himself.' He then read it a second time, but they saw not its
glory; however, they spoke in high terms of the pith and
solidity of Paul's sentences. They were evidently on the watch
for anything that tallied with their own sentiments. Upon the
passage, 'Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord
Jesus,' the Mede observed, 'Do you not see that Jesus was in
Paul, and that Paul was only another name for Jesus?' And the
text, 'Whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God; and whether
we be sober, it is for your sakes,' they interpreted thus: 'We
are absorbed in the contemplation of God, and when we recover,
it is to instruct you.'
Walking afterwards with Mirza Sayyid Ali, he told me how much
one of my remarks had affected him, namely, that he had no
humility. He had been talking about simplicity and humility as
characteristic of the Soofis. 'Humility!' I said to him, 'if you
were humble, you would not dispute in this manner; you would be
like a child.' He did not open his mouth afterwards, but to say,
'True; I have no humility.' In evident distress, he observed,
'The truth is, we are in a state of compound
ignorance--ignorant, yet ignorant of our ignorance.'
_February 18._--While walking in the garden, in some disorder
from vexation, two Mussulman Jews came up and asked me what
would become of them in another world. The Mahometans were right
in their way, they supposed, and we in ours, but what must they
expect? After rectifying their mistake as to the Mahometans, I
mentioned two or three reasons for believing that we are right:
such as their dispersion, and the cessation of sacrifices
immediately on the appearance of Jesus. 'True, true,' they said,
with great feeling and seriousness; indeed, they seemed disposed
to yield assent to anything I said. They confessed they had
become Mahometans only on compulsion, and that Abdoolghuni
wished to go to Baghdad, thinking he might throw off the mask
there with safety, but they asked what I thought. I said that
the Governor was a Mahometan. 'Did I think Syria safer?' 'The
safest place in the East,' I said, 'was India.' Feelings of pity
for God's ancient people, and having the awful importance of
eternal things impressed on my mind by the seriousness of their
inquiries as to what would become of them, relieved me from the
pressure of my comparatively insignificant distresses. I, a poor
Gentile, blest, honoured, and loved; secured for ever by the
everlasting covenant, whilst the children of the kingdom are
still lying in outer darkness! Well does it become me to be
thankful!
This is my birthday, on which I complete my thirty-first year.
The Persian New Testament has been begun, and I may say finished
in it, as only the last eight chapters of the Revelation remain.
Such a painful year I never passed, owing to the privations I
have been called to on the one hand, and the spectacle before me
of human depravity on the other. But I hope that I have not
come to this seat of Satan in vain. The Word of God has found
its way into Persia, and it is not in Satan's power to oppose
its progress if the Lord hath sent it.
A week after, on February 24, 1812, Henry Martyn corrected the last
page of the New Testament in Persian. As we read his words of
thanksgiving to the Lord and his invocation of the Holy Spirit, in the
already darkening light of his approaching end, before the beatific
vision promised by the Master to the pure in heart, and the blessed
companionship with Himself guaranteed to every true servant, we recall
the Scottish Columba, whose last act was to transcribe the eleventh
verse of the thirty-fourth Psalm, and the English Bede, who died when
translating the ninth verse of the sixth chapter of St. John's Gospel.
I have many mercies for which to thank the Lord, and this is not
the least. Now may that Spirit who gave the Word, and called me,
I trust, to be an interpreter of it, graciously and powerfully
apply it to the hearts of sinners, even to the gathering an
elect people from amongst the long-estranged Persians!
FOOTNOTES:
[66] 'That list, in which Martyn holds a conspicuous place, has grown
long of late years, till we are half tempted to forget that the share
our age has taken and is taking in the work of translating and
distributing the Scriptures, links on to that of those who could
remember men who had seen the Lord.' Canon Edmonds' _Sermon_, preached
in the Cathedral Church of Truro, October 16, 1890 (Exeter).
[67] _The Churchman_ for September 1889, p. 635.
[68] See p. 314.
[69] Evidently taken in detail from Adam's _Religious World Displayed_.
[70] Fourth edition, London, 1822.
[71] _Fortieth Report of the British and Foreign Bible Society_, p.
97.
[72] _The Bible of Every Land_ (Bagster), 1848.
[73] See _Contributions Towards a History of Biblical Translations in
India_. Calcutta and London (Dalton), 1854.
[74] _Monograph on Hindustani Versions of the Old and New Testaments_,
by the Rev. R.C. Mather, LL.D. (without date).
[75] _The Life of Rev. T.T. Thomason, M.A._, by the late Rev. J.
Sargent, M.A., second edition, Seeley's, 1834.
[76] Dr. Milner, Dr. Rumsden, Dr. Jowett, Mr. Farish (Charles Simeon's
writing).
[77] _Christian Researches in Asia, with Notices of the Translation of
the Scriptures into the Oriental Languages_, by the Rev. Claudius
Buchanan, D.D., 10th edition, London, 1814.
[78] See _The Miracle Play of Hasan and Husain_, collected from Oral
Tradition, by Sir Lewis Pelly, two vols. 1879.