On the 17th of July, 1805, the Union East Indiaman conveying Mr.
Martyn sailed from Portsmouth. Mr. Martyn says: "Though it was what I
had been anxiously looking forward to so long, yet the consideration
of being parted forever from my friends, almost overcame me. My
feelings were those of a man who should suddenly be told that every
friend he had in the world was dead."
Though suffering much in mind and body throughout the long and tedious
voyage of nine months, Mr. Martyn seeks no selfish ease. He preaches,
reads and labors assiduously with officers, passengers and crew, and
shuns not to declare the whole counsel of God, even the unpalatable
doctrine of the future punishment of the wicked. He says: "The threats
and opposition of these men made me willing to set before them the
truths they hated, yet I had no species of hesitation about doing it.
They said they would not come if so much hell was preached, but I took
for my text, 'The wicked shall be turned into hell and all the nations
that forget God.' The officers were all behind my back in order to
have an opportunity of retiring in case of dislike. H., as soon as he
heard the text, went back and said he would hear no more about hell;
so he employed himself in feeding the geese. However, God I trust
blessed the sermon to the good of many; some of the cadets and many of
the soldiers were in tears. I felt an ardor and vehemence in some
parts which are unusual with me. After service walked the deck with
Mrs. ----; she spoke with so much simplicity and amiable humility that
I was full of joy and admiration to God for a sheep brought home to
His fold. In the afternoon went below intending to read to them at the
hatchway, but there was not one of them, so I could get nothing to do
among the poor soldiers."
What a picture revealing Henry Martyn's character!--the contrasting
attributes of sternness and gentleness, his martyrlike determination
to do his whole duty at any cost to himself from suffering and insult,
the keen shrinking of a nature so refined and sensitive from
coarseness and abuse, undeviating yet uncompromising, bringing to our
thoughts the Divine Exemplar. I pass by the incidents of the voyage,
including mutiny, sickness and death, romantic stay at St. Salvador,
battles at the Cape of Good Hope, etc., eloquently and vividly
recorded.
The Friday preceding his arrival in India he spends "in praying that
God would no longer delay exerting his power in the conversion of the
eastern nations. I felt emboldened" he says, "to employ the most
familiar petitions by Is. xii. 6, 7, 'Keep not silence; give him no
rest,' etc. Blessed be God for those words! They are like a cordial to
my spirits, because if the Lord is not pleased by me or during my
lifetime to call the Gentiles, yet He is not offended at my being
urgent with Him that the kingdom of God may come."
April 21, 1806, the nine months' journey is complete, and they land at
Madras. Mr. Martyn gives first impressions and description of the
natives, ending in these words: "In general, one thought naturally
occurred: the conversion of their poor souls. I am willing, I trust,
through grace, to pass my life among them if by any means these poor
people may be brought to God. The sight of men, women and children,
all idolaters, makes me shudder as if in the dominions of the prince
of darkness. Hearing the hymn, 'Before Jehovah's awful throne,' it
excited a train of affecting thoughts in my mind."
"Wide as the world is thy command. Therefore it is easy for Thee to
spread abroad Thy holy name. But oh, how gross the darkness here! The
veil of the covering cast over all nations seems thicker here; the
friends of darkness seem to sit in sullen repose in this land. 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." Ah, how vividly this describes missionary experiences! After
great peril from storm and illness, passing up the Hoogly from Madras,
Mr. Martyn arrived at Calcutta, May 14. In this city for years had
been a band of English Christians faithfully praying for the coming of
the kingdom in that dark land, and into the home of one of these, Rev.
David Brown, was Mr. Martyn received with much affection. A pagoda in
one end of the yard on the river bank was fitted up for him, and the
place where once devils were worshiped now became a Christian oratory.
The first experience here was of severe illness from acclimating
fever, from which he was kindly nursed into convalescence. He then
applied himself earnestly to the study of the Hindoostanee, having
engaged a Brahmin as a teacher. Here he witnessed with horror the
cruel and debasing rites of heathenism. The blaze of a funeral pile
caused him one day to hasten to the rescue of a burning widow who was
consumed before his eyes. And in a dark wood he heard the sound of
cymbals and drums calling the poor natives to the worship of devils,
and saw them prostrate with their foreheads to the ground before a
black image in a pagoda surrounded with burning lights--a sight which
he contemplated with overwhelming compassion, "shivering as if
standing in the neighborhood of hell."
Mr. Martyn's plain and pungent preaching was a great offense to some
of the easy-going formalists of the English church at Calcutta, and
some of the ministry attacked him bitterly from their pulpits,
declaring, for instance, that to affirm repentance to be the gift of
God and to teach that nature is wholly corrupt, is to drive men to
despair, and that to suppose the righteousness of Christ sufficient to
justify is to make it unnecessary to have any of our own. Though
compelled to listen to such downright heresies, to hear himself
described as knowing neither what he said nor whereof he affirmed, and
as aiming only to gratify self sufficiency, pride and
uncharitableness,--"I rejoiced," said this meek and holy man, "to
receive the Lord's supper afterwards;--as the solemnities of that
blessed ordinance sweetly tended to soothe any asperity of mind, and I
think that I administered the cup to ---- and ---- with sincere good
will."
September 13, 1806, Mr. Martyn received his appointment to Singapore.
A farewell meeting of great interest was held in his pagoda, followed
by a tender parting from the family who had been so kind to him, and
two fellow laborers who, following his bright example, had just come
out from England. The voyage to Singapore was performed in a budgero,
a small boat with a cabin, in which he studied and translated and
prayed while making the seventeen or eighteen miles a day of the
six-weeks' journey. At night the boat was fastened to the shore. His
journal record of these days is very interesting and very
characteristic. He says:
"October 27. Arrived at Berhampore. In the evening walked out to the
hospital in which there were 150 European soldiers sick. I was talking
to a man said to be dying, when a surgeon entered. I went up and made
some apology for entering the hospital. It was my old school-fellow
and townsman, ----. The remainder of the evening he spent with me in
my budgero.
"October 28. Rose very early and was at the hospital at daylight.
Waited there a long time wandering up and down the wards in hopes of
inducing the men to get up and assemble, but it was in vain. I left
three books with them and went away amidst the sneers and titters of
the common soldiers. Certainly it is one of the greatest crosses I am
called to bear to take pains to make people hear me. It is such a
struggle between a sense of propriety and modesty on the one hand, and
a sense of duty on the other, that I find nothing equal to it. I could
force my way anywhere, in order to introduce a brother minister; but
for myself, I act with hesitation and pain.
"Walking out into a village where the boat stopped for the night I
found the worshipers of Kali by the sound of their drums and cymbals.
Invited by the Brahmins to walk in I entered and asked a few questions
about the idol. The Brahmin who spoke bad Hindoostanee disputed with
great heat, and his tongue ran faster than I could follow, and the
people, about one hundred, shouted applause. I continued my questions
and among other things asked if what I had heard of Vishnu and Brahma
was true, which he confessed. I forbore to press him with the
consequences, which he seemed to feel; and then I told him what was my
belief. The man grew quite mild and said it was _chula bat_ (good
words), and asked me seriously at last what I thought, 'Was idol
worship true or false?' I felt it a matter of thankfulness that I
could make known the truth of God though a stammerer and that I had
declared it in the presence of the devil. And this also I learnt, that
the power of gentleness is irresistible. I never was more astonished
than at the change in deportment of this hot-headed Brahmin.... Came
to on the eastern bank below a village called Ahgadup. Wherever I
walked the women fled at the sight of me. Some men were sitting under
the shed dedicated to their goddess; a lamp was burning in her place.
A conversation soon began, but there was no one who could speak
Hindoostanee. I could only speak by the medium of my Mussulman,
Musalchee. They said that they only did as others did, and that if
they were wrong then all Bengal was wrong. I felt love for their
souls, and longed for utterance to declare unto these poor simple
people the holy gospel. I think that when my mouth is opened I shall
preach to them day and night.
"October 31. My Moonshee said, 'How can you prove this book (the
gospel), to be the word of God?' I took him to walk with me on the
shore that we might discuss the matter, and the result of our
conversation was that I discovered that the Mussulmen allow the gospel
to be in general the command of God, though the words of it are not
His as the words of the Koran are, and contend that the actual words
of God given to Jesus were burnt by the Jews; that they also admit the
New Testament to have been in force till the coming of Mohammed. When
I quoted some passages which proved the Christian dispensation to be
the final one, he allowed it to be inconsistent with the divinity of
the Koran, but said, 'Then those words of the gospel must be false.'
The man argued and asked his questions seemingly in earnest, and
another new impression was left upon my mind, namely, that these men
are not fools and that all ingenuity and clearness of reasoning are
not confined to England and Europe. I seem to feel that these
descendants of Ham are as dear to God as the haughty sons of Japheth;
I feel, too, more at home with the Scriptures than ever; everything I
see gives light to, and receives it from, the Scriptures. I seem
transported back to the ancient times of the Israelites and the
Apostles. My spirit felt composed after the dispute by simply looking
to God as one who had engaged to support His own cause; and I saw it
to be my part to pursue my way through the wilderness of this world,
looking only to that redemption which daily draweth nigh. How should
this consideration quell the tumult of anger and impatience when I
cannot convince men 'the government is on His shoulders?' Jesus is
able to bear the weight of it; therefore we need not be oppressed with
care or fear, but a missionary is apt to fancy himself an Atlas.
"November 2. Walking on shore met a large party. I asked if any of
them could read. One young man who seemed superior in rank to the
rest, said he could, and accordingly read some of the only Nagree
tract that I had. I then addressed myself boldly to them and told them
of the gospel. When speaking of the inefficacy of the religious
practices of the Hindoos I mentioned as an example the repetition of
the name of Ram. The young man assented to this and said, 'of what use
is it?' As he seemed to be of a pensive turn and said this with marks
of disgust, I gave him a Nagree Testament, the first I have given. May
God's blessing go along with it and cause the eyes of the multitudes
to be opened. The men said they should be glad to receive tracts, so I
sent them back a considerable number. The idea of printing the
parables in proper order with a short explanation to each, for the
purpose of distribution and as school books, suggested itself to me
to-night and delighted me prodigiously.... A Mussulman, when he
received one of the tracts and found what it was, was greatly alarmed,
and after many awkward apologies, returned it, saying that 'a man who
had his legs in two different boats, was in danger of sinking between
them.'"
Established at Singapore, Mr. Martyn began upon three different lines
of work, establishing schools, attaining readiness in Hindoostanee so
as to preach the gospel in that language, and translating the
Scriptures and religious books. To his great discouragement he was
informed by the Pundit that every four miles the language changed, so
that a book in the dialect of one district would be unintelligible to
the people of another. Being advised to learn Sanscrit, he took up
this language with great zeal. The commencement of Mr. Martyn's
ministry amongst the Europeans of Singapore was not of such a kind as
to either gratify or encourage him. At first he read prayers to the
soldiers at the barracks from the drumhead, and as there were no seats
provided, was desired to omit the sermon. Afterwards more decent
arrangements being made, the families came in; but taking offense at
his evangelical plainness, they asked that he should desist from
extempore preaching. These European members of his flock were jealous
and angry at his constant efforts for the salvation of the heathen
natives. They thought it much beneath the dignity of an English
chaplain to care for these degraded souls. Some of Mr. Martyn's duties
as chaplain were exceedingly onerous. On several occasions he was
summoned to distant places involving long and dangerous journeys to
perform a marriage ceremony. On these journeys he suffered severely,
and they were a great draft upon his very delicate health; always weak
and languid, and often alarmingly disordered. Yet through all he
continued to labor incessantly. Every Sabbath he held at least four
services: at 7 for Europeans; at 2 for Hindoos, about two hundred in
attendance; in the afternoon at the hospital; in the evening in his
own room for the soldiers. In his household were two natives who
assisted in his studies and translations, the Moonshee and the Pundit,
with whom he held long disputes and with whom he labored daily, though
unsuccessfully, to bring them to faith in Christ. He says,
"translating the epistle of St. John with the Moonshee, I asked him
what he thought of those passages which so strongly express the
doctrines of the Trinity and of the divinity of Christ. He said he
never would believe it, because the Koran declared it sinful to say
that God had any Son. I told him that he ought to pray that God would
teach him what the truth really is. He said he had no occasion on this
subject, as the word of God was express. I asked him whether some
doubt ought not to arise in his mind whether the Koran is the word of
God. He grew angry, and I felt hurt and vexed. I should have done
better to have left the words of the chapter with him without saying
anything. I went also too far with the Pundit in arguing against his
superstition, for he also grew angry." If any qualification seems
necessary to a missionary in India it is wisdom--operating in the
regulation of the temper and the due improvement of opportunities. Mr.
Martyn needed the heavenly gift of wisdom also in the management of
his native schools, five or six of which were supported by himself in
Singapore. Little by little he succeeded in introducing as a text-book
a part of the Bible--his own translation of the sermon on the Mount
and the Parables. He was called to do more and more of this work of
translating the Scriptures, and was persuaded by the Rev. David Brown
not only to continue the Hindoostanee, but to superintend the
translation of the Scriptures into Persian. He engaged in it at once
with zeal. He writes: "The time fled imperceptibly while so
delightfully engaged in the translations; the days seemed to have
passed like a moment. 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 the blessed Book as since I have been obliged
to study every expression. 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 wonder 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. What a source of perpetual
delight have I in the precious Word of God!"
This ecstasy of enthusiasm in most successful and congenial labor was
suddenly dashed by a great wave of sorrow which came to Mr. Martyn in
the news of the death of his eldest sister. To missionaries in foreign
lands such news is especially bitter, and to recover from such a shock
and sense of irreparable loss seems almost impossible. The mind,
unsatisfied with details of the sad event, is left in shadow which
deepens into heavy gloom. Mr. Martyn was all alone and felt it keenly
and inexpressibly. Some of his most intimate and sympathetic friends
at this time, realizing how it was not good for him to be alone,
encouraged him to renew his matrimonial offer to his ever beloved L.
After her refusal he says, "The Lord sanctify this, and since this
last desire of my heart is also withheld may I turn away forever from
the world and henceforth live forgetful of all but God. With Thee, O
my God, is no disappointment. I shall never have to regret that I have
loved Thee too well. Thou hast said, 'delight thyself in the Lord, and
he shall give thee the desires of thy heart.'"
Could sweeter words than these be expressed in any language! Could
greater depths of submission or heights of consecration be attained!
They deserve to be recorded on imperishable marble or blazoned on the
sky in sight of all, and received as the confession of every Christian
heart, to the honor and praise of Him who gave such glorious victory
to this tried soldier of the cross.
Providentially for Mr. Martyn's comfort his thoughts were much
occupied after this by the arrival of his coadjutors in the work of
translation, one of these, Mirza of Benares, well known in India as an
eminent Hindoostanee scholar; the other Sabat the Arabian, since but
too well known both in India and England by his rejection of that
faith which he then appeared to profess in sincerity and faith. In the
latter of these Mr. Martyn confidently trusted that he had found a
Christian brother with respect to the reality of his belief in
Christianity, although Mr. Martyn immediately discovered in him an
unsubdued Arab spirit, and witnessed with pain many deflections from
that temper and conduct which he himself so eminently exemplified;
yet, he could not but "believe all things and hope all things," even
while he continued to suffer much from him, and for a length of time,
with unparalleled forbearance and kindness. Sabat's temper was a
continual trial and mortification. The very first Sabbath in
Singapore, imagining he was not treated with sufficient dignity, he
left the church before service in great anger. Often in the midst of
the translation he would come to a sudden stop and refuse to go on for
the most trivial reasons, sometimes for fear that Mirza who would
review the work might have part of the honor. About this time Mr.
Martyn was much bereaved by the removal of a family with whom he had
lived in intimate terms of Christian intercourse. "This separation
affected him the more sensibly because it was not in every family at
that station that he met with a kind and cordial reception." He says,
"I called on one of the Singapore families, and felt my pride rise at
the uncivil manner in which I was received. I was disposed at first to
determine never to visit the house again, but I remembered the words,
'overcome evil with good.'"
In the month of March, 1808, the New Testament in Hindoostanee was
completed. He says, "I have read and corrected the manuscript till my
eyes ache; such a week of labor I believe I have never passed. The
heat is terrible, often at 98 degrees, the nights insupportable." We
next hear of Mr. Martyn suffering from severe illness with fever and
vertigo, and pained with the thought of leaving the Persian gospels
unfinished! So unselfish, so full of zeal! Again at work, mercury at
102 degrees. "Arabic now employs my few moments of leisure. In
consequence of reading the Koran with Sabat audibly, and drinking no
wine, the slander has gone forth that the Singapore Padre has turned
Mussulman.
"June 6th. To-day we have completed the Persian of St. Matthew. Sabat
desired me to kneel down to bless God for the happy event, and we
joined in praise of the Father of lights. It is a superb performance
in every respect, with elegance enough to attract the careless and
please the fastidious; it contains enough of Eternal Life to save the
reader's soul.... My services on the Lord's day always leave me with a
pain in the chest, and such a great degree of general relaxation, that
I seldom recover it till Tuesday. The society still meet every night
at my quarters, and though we have lost many by death, others are
raised up in their room. One officer, a lieutenant, is also given to
me, and he is not only a brother beloved, but a constant companion and
nurse; so you must feel no apprehension that I should be left alone in
sickness."
In April, 1809, Mr. Martyn removes from Dinapore to Cawnpore. Here he
met friendship and hospitality. We quote from the graceful pen of Mrs.
Sherwood: "The month of April in the upper provinces of Hindoostan is
one of the most dreadful months for traveling throughout the year;
indeed, no European at that time can remove from place to place, but
at the risk of his life.
"But Mr. Martyn had that anxiety to begin the work which his heavenly
Father had given him to do, that notwithstanding the violent heat, he
traveled from Chunar to Cawnpore, the space of about four hundred
miles. At that time as I well remember, the air was as hot and dry as
that which I have sometimes felt near the mouth of a large oven, no
friendly cloud or verdant carpet of grass to relieve the eye from the
strong glare of the rays of the sun pouring on the sandy plains of the
Ganges. Thus Mr. Martyn traveled, journeying night and day, and
arrived at Cawnpore in such a state that he fainted away as soon as he
entered the house. When we charged him with the rashness of hazarding
his life in this manner, he always pleaded his anxiety to get to the
great work. He remained with us ten days, suffering considerably at
times from fever and pain in the chest.
"Mr. Martyn's removal from Dinapore to Cawnpore was to him in many
respects a very unpleasant arrangement. He was several hundred miles
farther distant from Calcutta and more widely separated than before
from his friend Mr. Corrie. He had new acquaintances to form at his
new abode, and after having with much difficulty procured the erection
of a church at Dinapore he was transported to a spot where none of the
conveniences, much less the decencies and solemnities of public
worship, were visible.
"We find him soon after he arrived there preaching to a thousand
soldiers drawn up in a hollow square, when the heat was so great,
although the sun had not risen, that many actually dropped down,
unable to support it."
Yet Mr. Martyn's labors were not abated. Every Sabbath at dawn were
prayers and sermon with the regiment, and again at eleven at the house
of the general of the station. In the afternoon he preached to a crowd
of poor natives, five, to eight hundred, rude, noisy, wretched
beggars, for whose souls he felt a tender care. Again in the evening,
the best of the day, he had a meeting with the more devout of his
flock. These ministrations so earnestly performed were most
exhausting, yet he knew not how to forego them; at this time, too,
from England came the sad and sudden news of the death of his sister,
the one who had led him to Christ.
The alarming state of his health made some change necessary, and Mr.
Martyn was urged to leave India and make trial of a sea voyage. His
Persian New Testament had been criticised as unfit for general
circulation, being written in a style too learned and exalted for the
comprehension of the common people. He was advised to visit Persia and
there revise his work and also complete his version in Arabic, almost
finished. Mr. Brown, his devoted friend, and the Calcutta agent of the
British and Foreign Bible Society, thus writes: "Can I then bring
myself to cut the string and let you go? I confess I could not if your
bodily frame were strong, and promised to last for half a century. But
as you burn with the intenseness and rapid blaze of heated phosphorus,
why should we not make the most of you? Your flame may last as long
and perhaps longer in Arabia, than in India. Where should the Phoenix
build her odoriferous nest, but in the land prophetically called 'the
blessed?' and where shall we ever expect, but from that country, the
true Comforter to come to the nations of the East? I contemplate your
New Testament springing up, as it were, from dust and ashes, but
beautiful as the wings of a dove covered with silver, and his feathers
like yellow gold." His farewell services at Cawnpore were very tender
and affecting, both with his great audience of natives and Englishmen.
Of the latter, Mrs. Sherwood says: "He began in a weak and faint
voice, being at that time in a very bad state of health; but,
gathering strength as he proceeded, he seemed as one inspired from on
high. Never was an audience more affected. The next day this holy and
heavenly man left Cawnpore and the society of many who sincerely loved
and admired him." Stopping to visit the friends in Calcutta, the Rev.
Mr. Thomason says: "This bright and lovely jewel first gratified our
eyes on Saturday last. He is on his way to Arabia, where he is going
in pursuit of health and knowledge. You know his genius, and what
gigantic strides he takes in everything. He has some great plan in his
mind, of which I am no competent judge; but as far as I do understand
it, the object is far too grand for one short life, and much beyond
his feeble and exhausted frame. Feeble it is, indeed; how fallen and
changed! His complaint lies in his lungs and appears to be an
incipient consumption. But let us hope the sea air may revive him, and
that change may do him essential service and continue his life many
years. In all other respects he is exactly the same as he was; he
shines in all the dignity of love, and seems to carry about him such a
heavenly majesty as impresses the mind beyond description. But if he
talks much, though in a low voice, he sinks, and you are reminded of
his being dust and ashes." Though so infirm, Mr. Martyn preached every
Sabbath of his visit, and his last sermon on the anniversary of the
Calcutta Bible Society was afterwards printed and entitled "Christian
India, or an appeal on behalf of nine hundred thousand Christians in
India who want the Bible."