Henry Martyn, “A Man of God”
“Now let me burn out for God,” wrote Henry Martyn in his diary two days after his arrival in Calcutta just one hundred years ago. “He was a burning and a shining light,” are the words inscribed upon the memorial tablet in the church in Calcutta where the youthful preacher often proclaimed the unsearchable riches of Christ; indicating how truly he fulfilled the ideal chosen for his missionary life at its beginning. In his early youth ambition had been entirely self-centered. He sought and gained the highest honors his university could bestow, and aimed to make a name for himself at the bar; but through the school of sorrow he early came to see the emptiness of worldly gain. “I obtained my highest wishes,” he said, “but was surprised to find that I had grasped a shadow.” In the hour of greatest triumph in his university career the words of Scripture came to him with irresistible power: “Seekest thou great things for thyself? seek them not.” He responded to the voice, and henceforth his life and all his powers were absolutely at the disposal of the Master. It was Charles Simeon, the godly university preacher at Cambridge, the man who had been instrumental in his conversion, who turned the attention of young Martyn to the heathen world. His account of the work being accomplished by Dr. Carey and his associates made a deep impression upon him, while the burning zeal of David Brainerd, the story of whose life came into his hands about the same time, appealed to his own intense nature, and he became set upon mission service. The years granted him in India can be counted on the fingers of one hand, but the influence of the life of ceaseless toil and of absolute devotion to a high calling endures to this day. As a chaplain of the East India Company his work was peculiarly difficult, for his deep piety and practical exhortations to holy living were too great a rebuke to those to whom he was called primarily to minister. So far as regular duties permitted, he gave himself to work among the native peoples. He established schools for the children, supporting them from his own purse; he spent much time in conversation with learned Hindus and Mohammedans, and large numbers of poor, wretched heathen used to gather at his bungalow every Sabbath morning for service. In addition to this he accomplished the translation of the New Testament into Hindustani, and then proceeded to the same task in the Persian language. It was to perfect this latter version that he finally went to Persia, where, after successfully accomplishing this great work, he died. The estimate of his character given by a Persian who knew him was this: “He was a good man, a man of God.”—Baptist Missionary.