How happy could I be.”
And he doubtless found Him still nearer in his dying hour, when flesh and strength failed him; for the Saviour adapts his consolations to the circumstances of his people, and in proportion to their necessities, he imparts more of the gifts of his Holy Spirit, and they are enabled to say, “Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for Thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff comfort me.”
When Mr. Martyn left England for India, it was his expectation and desire to be employed principally in preaching to the natives. It is evident that this was not the design of Providence, but that he was sent to translate the scriptures into the languages of Asia, that the gospel might thus be put into the hands of millions of persons who were wholly ignorant of the existence of a divine revelation. Mr. Martyn in this way did more for the evangelizing of all those nations who speak the Hindoostanee, Arabic, and Persian, during the six years that he was in India, than he could have accomplished by preaching to them all his life. As he himself observed of the Arabic alone, “we will begin to preach to Arabia, Syria, Persia, Tartary part of India and China, half of Africa, all the sea coast of the Mediterranean, and Turkey, and one tongue shall suffice for them all.” The Hindoostanee and Persian are understood by a large portion of the rest of India, who do not speak Arabic.
He has given them the Bible, and we cannot calculate the amount of good which will attend its circulation. Without it all the labours of missionaries would be in vain; but with it, they are sure of the success which God has promised to attend his own word. Besides the importance of his services in this great means of preparing the way of the Lord, his ministry was blessed to the conversion, as there is every reason to believe, of several of the natives. One of these was the fruit of his labours in Cawnpore, and was baptized at Calcutta, in the fortieth year of his age, by the name of Abdool Messeeh—“servant of Christ.” He was employed eight years by the Church Missionary Society, to instruct the young in the principles of the Christian religion, and was ordained as a Lutheran minister in 1820, and as an Episcopal minister by Bishop Heber, in 1825. He died in 1827. Through his instrumentality more than forty adult Hindoos were brought to embrace Christianity.[16]
Another instance of the success of his ministry, is furnished by a writer in a foreign journal, who states that, on a visit to Shiraz several years since, he met a Persian named Rahem, who gave him the following account.
“There came to this city an Englishman, who taught the religion of Christ, with a boldness hitherto unparalleled in Persia, in the midst of much scorn and ill treatment from our moollahs, as well as the rabble. He was a beardless youth, and evidently enfeebled by disease. He dwelt among us for more than a year. I was then a decided enemy to infidels, as the Christians are termed by the followers of Mohammed, and I visited this teacher of the despised sect, with the declared object of treating him with scorn, and exposing his doctrines to contempt. Although I persevered for some time in this behaviour towards him, I found that every interview not only increased my respect for the individual, but diminished my confidence in the faith in which I was educated. His extreme forbearance towards the violence of his opponents, the calm and yet convincing manner in which he exposed the fallacies and sophistries by which he was assailed, (for he spoke Persian excellently,) gradually inclined me to listen to his arguments, to inquire dispassionately into the subject of them, and, finally, to read a tract which he had written, in reply to a defence of Islam by our chief moollahs. Need I detain you longer? The result of my examination was a conviction that the young disputant was right. Shame, or rather fear, withheld me from avowing this opinion; I even avoided the society of the Christian teacher, though he remained in the city so long. Just before he quitted Shiraz, I could not refrain from paying him a farewell visit. Our conversation,—the memory of it will never fade from the tablet of my mind,—sealed my conversion. He gave me a book—it has ever been my constant companion—the study of it has formed my most delightful occupation—its contents have often consoled me.”
“Upon this,” continues the writer, “he put into my hands a copy of the New Testament, in Persian; on one of the blank leaves it was written,—There is joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth.—Henry Martyn.”
In considering the life of Mr. Martyn as an example to ourselves, we should view his devotedness to the service of God. In this he stopped at no sacrifices, but gave up his home, his prospects, his health, that he might labour to promote the glory of God, by bringing the heathen to acknowledge him, and to receive the gospel of his blessed Son. This he did willingly and cheerfully, because he loved the service; and because, as he once said to a Persian, he “could not endure existence, if Jesus was not glorified.” Another motive was a desire to bring men to salvation—to persuade them to come to the Saviour, and learn the way of eternal life. In all this, he was but discharging his duty as a disciple of Christ; and especially as a minister of the gospel, obeying the divine command, “Go into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.” Now, every Christian will be anxious to be actively employed in the service of his Redeemer. He will not be satisfied with the belief that he is saved, and continue to live, without making any effort and any self-denials, to promote the cause of Christianity. Indeed, such a feeling is a strong evidence that he has never been the subject of grace, that he has never felt the love of God in Christ, and seen from the scriptures that he is required to be active in his Saviour’s cause. The Holy Spirit has declared, that as a tree is known by its fruits, whether it be a good one or not, so a true Christian is known by the service he renders to God: and that an unprofitable servant,—a professed disciple who does not improve the opportunities which he has of doing good,—will be rejected at the judgment day. The entire devotion of ourselves, and all we have, to our Divine Master, is required of every living being, as much as it was of Henry Martyn: and although every one is not called to be a missionary, yet every one may find some field for active, zealous service.
Reader,—whether converted or unconverted,—have you ever thought that you were bound to serve God thus? have you ever believed that God has been all your life claiming your service, as your creator, your preserver, your eternal Father? If you are not inclined to love and serve him, “with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind,” ask yourself this moment why it is so, and what excuse you will have to offer for your neglect, when it shall be charged upon you at the day of judgment. The commands of Christ, as has already been remarked, are as binding on you, as any of the commandments of the moral law; and if you are not now an active, sincere disciple, living by faith upon Him, and living to his glory, the guilt of your natural sinfulness is awfully aggravated.
The zeal and devotion of Mr. Martyn were not beyond his duty. There is no such thing as a man being more holy, or doing more good than God requires of him. Had he done tenfold more, he could not have, on that account, procured the pardon of a single sin. So let not the Christian think that he deserves credit and praise for any thing he may do, or that he thus gains a right to heaven. God does, indeed, condescend to accept our services, and to use us as instruments of doing good, but it is he who gives us both the inclination and the ability to serve him; therefore he deserves all the praise. Not that this excuses us for being idle, and waiting for him to compel us to be zealous for him. Our duty is to pray, “Lord, what wilt thou have us to do?” and at the same time to be seeking out ways of doing good. No person need be idle or useless a moment, who has faculties, property, or strength, which he can consecrate. Let every one, then, fix upon something that will absorb his attention, and resolve, with reliance upon the grace of God, to expend every effort in accomplishing it; not to be put back by small discouragements, but to exercise strong faith in Christ. That is the principle which will enable us to do every thing. Every Christian may say, and ought to feel, “I can do all things through Christ, who strengtheneth me.”