CHAPTER XII.

His principal design in visiting Persia being thus accomplished, and the journey not having contributed to his health, Mr. Martyn, as soon as he had recovered from the attack of fever, determined to return to England. Shortly before leaving Tebriz, he wrote thus in a letter:

“It has pleased God to restore me to life and health again: not that I have yet recovered my former strength, but I consider myself sufficiently restored to prosecute my journey. My daily prayer is, that my late chastisement may have its intended effect, and make me, all the rest of my days, more humble and less self-confident. Self-confidence has often let me down fearful lengths; and would, without God’s gracious interference, prove my endless perdition. I seem to be made to feel this evil of my heart, more than any other, at this time. In prayer, or when I write or converseon the subject, Christ appears to me my life and strength; but at other times, I am thoughtless and bold, as if I had all life and strength in myself. Such neglects on our part are a diminution of our joys.—I mentioned my conversing sometimes on divine subjects. In these I am sometimes led on by the Soofie Persians, and tell them all I know of the very recesses of the sanctuary. But to give an account of all my discussions with these mystic philosophers, must be reserved to the time of our meeting.—Do I dream! that I venture to think and write of such an event as that? Is it possible that we shall ever meet again below? Though it is possible, I dare not indulge such a pleasing hope.

“In three days I intend setting my horse’s head towards Constantinople, distant about one thousand three hundred miles. Nothing, I think, will occasion any further detention here, if I can procure servants who know both Persian and Turkish. Ignorant as I am of Turkish, should I be taken ill on the road, my case would be pitiable indeed. The ambassador and his suite are still here; his and Lady Ousely’s attentions to me during my illness have been unremitted. The prince Abbas Mirza, the wisest of the king’s sons, and heir to the throne, was here some time after my arrival. I much wished to present a copy of the PersianNew Testament to him, but I could not rise from my bed. The book, however, will be given him by the ambassador. Public curiosity about the gospel, now, for the first time in the memory of the modern Persians, introduced into the country, is a good deal excited here and at Shiraz, and in other places; so that, upon the whole, I am thankful for having been led hither, and detained; though my residence in this country has been attended with many unpleasant circumstances. The way of the kings of the east ispreparing: thus much may be said with safety, but little more. The Persians will also probably take the lead in the march to Sion.”

On the second of September he left Tebriz, on horseback, with two Armenian servants, one of whom spoke Turkish, and a little Persian. His diary will best exhibit the hardships of the journey, and the pious feelings with which he endured them.

“Sept. 4th.—At sun-rise mounted my horse, and proceeded north-west, through a pass in the mountains, towards Murun. By the way, I sat down by the brook, and there ate my bread and raisins, and drank of the crystal stream; but either the coldness of this unusual breakfast, or the riding after it, did not at all agree with me. The heat oppressed me much, and the road seemed intolerablytedious; at last we got out from among the mountains, and saw the village of Murun, in a fine valley on the right. It was about eleven o’clock when we reached it. As the Mihmander could not immediately find a place to put me in, we had a complete view of this village. They stared at my European dress, but no disrespect was shown. I was deposited, at last, with —— Khan, who was seated in a place with three walls. Not at all disposed to pass the day in company, as well as exposed, I asked for another room; on which I was shown to the stable, where there was a little place partitioned off, but so as to admit a view of the horses. The smell of the stable, though not in general disagreeable to me, was so strong, that I was quite unwell, and strangely dispirited and melancholy. Immediately after dinner I fell fast asleep, and slept four hours; after which I rose and ordered them to prepare for the next journey. The horses being changed here, it was some time before they were brought, but by exerting myself, we moved off by midnight. It was a most mild and delightful night, and the pure air, after the smell of the stable, was quite reviving. For once, also, I travelled all the way without being sleepy; and beguiled the hours of the night by thinking of the 14th Psalm, especially the connection of the last three verses with the preceding.

“Sept. 5th.—In five hours we were just on the hills which face the pass out of the valley of Murun, and in four hours and a half more, emerged from between the two ridges of mountains, into the valley of Gurjur. This long march was far from being a fatiguing one. The air, the road, and my spirits were good. Here I was well accommodated, but had to mourn over my impatient temper towards my servants; there is nothing that disturbs my peace so much. How much more noble and godlike to bear with calmness, and observe with pity, rather than anger, the failings and offences of others. O that I may, through grace, be enabled to recollect myself in the time of temptation! O that the Spirit of God may check my folly, and, at such times, bring the lowly Saviour to my view.

“Sept. 6th.—Soon after twelve we started with fresh horses, and came to the Arar, or Araxes, distant eight miles, and about as broad as the Isis, with a current as strong as that of the Ganges. The ferry-boat being on the other side, I lay down to sleep till it came, but observing my servants do the same, I was obliged to get up and exert myself. It dawned, however, before we got over. The boat was a huge fabric. The ferryman had only a stick to push with: an oar, I dare say, he had never seen or heard of, and many of my train hadprobably never floated before; so alien is a Persian from every thing that belongs to shipping. We landed safely on the other side in about two minutes. We were four hours in reaching Nackshan, and for half an hour more I was led from street to street, till at last I was lodged in a wash-house belonging to a great man, a corner of which was cleaned out for me. It was near noon, and my baggage had not arrived; so that I was obliged to go without my breakfast; which was hard after a ride for four hours in the sun. The baggage was delayed so long, that I began to fear; at last, however, it arrived. All the afternoon I slept, and at sun-set arose, and continued wakeful till midnight, when I roused my people, and with fresh horses set out again. We travelled till sun-rise. I scarcely perceived that we had been moving, a Hebrew word, in the 16th Psalm, having led me gradually into speculations on the eighth conjugation of the Arabic verb. I am glad my philological curiosity is revived, as my mind will be less liable to idleness.

“Sept. 7th.—Arrived at Khoock, a poor village distant twenty-two miles from Nackshan, nearly west. I should have mentioned, that on descending into the plain of Nackshan, my attention was arrested by the appearance of a hoary mountain, opposite to us at the other end, rising so high abovethe rest, that they sunk into insignificance. It was truly sublime, and the interest it excited was not lessened, when, on inquiring its name, I was told it was Agri, or Ararat. Thus I saw two remarkable objects in one day, the Araxes, and Ararat. At four in the afternoon we set out for Shurror. The evening was pleasant; the ground over which we passed was full of rich cultivation and verdure, watered by many a stream, and containing forty villages, most of them with the usual appendage of gardens. To add to the scene, the great Ararat was on our left. On the peak of that hill the whole church was once contained; it has now spread far and wide, even to the ends of the earth; but the ancient vicinity of it knows it no more. I fancied many a spot where Noah perhaps offered his sacrifices; and the promise of God, ‘that seed-time and harvest should not cease,’ appeared to me to be more exactly fulfilled in the agreeable plain in which it was spoken, than elsewhere; as I had not seen such fertility in any part of the Shah’s dominions. Here the blessed saint landed in a new world; so may I, safe in Christ, outride the storm of life, and land at last on one of the everlasting hills!

“Night coming on, we lost our way, and got intercepted by some deep ravines, into one of which the horse that carried my trunks sunk so deep, thatthe water got into one of them, wetted the linen, and spoiled some books. We went to another village, where after a long delay, two aged men with silver beards opened their house to us. Though it was near midnight, I had a fire lighted to dry my books, took some coffee, and sunk into deep sleep; from which awaking at the earliest dawn of

“Sept. 8th.—I roused the people, and had a delightful ride to Shurror. Here I was accommodated by the great man with a stable, or winter room; for they build it in such a strange vicinity, in order to have it warm in winter. At present, while the weather is still hot, the smell is at times overpowering. At eleven at night we moved off, with fresh horses, for Duwala; but though we had guides in abundance, we were not able to extricate ourselves from the ravines with which this village is surrounded. Procuring another man from a village we happened to wander into, we at last made our way, through grass and mire, to the pass, which led us to a country as dry as the one we had left was wet. Ararat was now quite near: at the foot of it is Duwala, twenty-four miles from Nackshan, where we arrived at seven in the morning of

“Sept. 9th.—As I had been thinking all night of a Hebrew letter, I perceived little of the tediousness of the way. I tried also some difficulties inthe 16th Psalm, without being able to master them. All day on the 15th and 16th Psalms, and gained some light into the difficulties. The villagers not bringing the horses in time, we were not able to go on at night; but I was not much concerned, as I thereby gained some rest.

“Sept. 10th.—All day at the village, writing down notes on the 15th and 16th Psalms. Moved at midnight and arrived early in the morning at Erivan.

“Sept. 11th.—I alighted at Hosyn Khan, the governor’s palace, as it may be called, for he seems to live in a style equal to that of a prince. After sleeping two hours, I was summoned to his presence. He at first took no notice of me, but continued reading his Koran. After a compliment or two he resumed his devotions. The next ceremony was to exchange a rich shawl dress for a still richer pelisse, on pretence of its being cold. The next display was to call for his physician, who, after respectfully feeling his pulse, stood on one side: this was to show that he had a domestic physician. His servants were most richly clad. My letter from the ambassador, which till now had lain neglected on the ground, was opened and read by a moonshee. He heard with great interest what Sir Gore had written about the translation of the gospels. After this he was very kind andattentive, and sent for Lieutenant M—— of the engineers, who was stationed, with two serjeants, at this fort. In the afternoon, the governor sent for me again in private. A fountain, in a basin of white marble, was playing before him, and in its water grapes and melons were cooling; two time-pieces were before him, to show the approach of the time of lawful repast: below the window, at a great depth, ran a broad and rapid stream, over rocks and stones, under a bridge of two arches, producing an agreeable murmur: on the other side of the river were gardens, and a rich plain; and directly in front, Ararat. He was now entirely free from ceremony, but too much fatigued to converse. I tried to begin a religious discussion, by observing that ‘he was in one paradise now, and was in quest of another hereafter,’ but this remark produced no effect.”

The next day he went to Ech-Miazin, where there are three churches of Greek Christians, and a monastery. The worship and creed of the Greek church resemble, in some respects, those of the Roman Catholic, but it does not acknowledge the Pope. Mr. Martyn was very kindly entertained here, until the 17th, when he again set out with servants and a guard, as the woods in Turkey, on which they would soon enter, were much beset with robbers. The route lay through adeserted mountainous region, with an occasional village, where the missionary was an object of great curiosity. He seems to have enjoyed the wild scenery, as much as a person travelling with a company of ignorant and noisy companions could. “The clear streams in the valley, the lofty trees crowning the summit of the hills, the smooth paths winding away and losing themselves in the dark woods, and, above all, the solitude that reigned throughout, composed a scene which tended to harmonize and solemnize the mind. What displays of taste and magnificence are found occasionally on this ruined earth! Nothing was wanting but the absence of the Turks.”

At a village, on the 29th, he was attacked with fever and ague. He suffered the next day from sickness and depression of spirits, but his soul rested, as he said, “on Him who is as an anchor of the soul, sure and steadfast, which, though not seen, keeps me fast.”

On the 1st of October, “Marched over a mountainous tract: we were out from seven in the morning till eight at night. After sitting a little by the fire, I was near fainting from sickness. My depression of spirits led me to the throne of grace, as a sinful, abject worm. When I thought of myself and my transgressions, I could find no text so cheering as, ‘My ways are not as your ways.’From the men who accompanied Sir William Ousely to Constantinople, I learned that the plague was raging at Constantinople, and thousands dying every day. One of the Persians had died of it. They added, that the inhabitants of Tocat were flying from their town from the same cause. Thus I am passing inevitably into imminent danger. O Lord, thy will be done! Living or dying, remember me!”

The principal guard and leader of the party was a Tartar, named Hassan Aga. His treatment of Mr. Martyn from this time, was inhuman, and the journal of the next five days gives a deeply affecting narrative of the sufferings to which the savage conduct of his guide exposed him.

“Oct. 2d.—Some hours before day, I sent to tell the Tartar I was ready, but Hassan Aga was for once riveted to his bed. However, at eight, having got strong horses, he set off at a great rate, and over the level ground he made us gallop as fast as the horses would go, to Chiflick, where we arrived at sun-set. I was lodged, at my request, in the stables of the post-house, not liking the scrutinizing impudence of the fellows who frequent the coffee room. As soon as it began to grow a little cold, the ague came on, and then the fever: after which I had a sleep, which let me know too plainly the disorder of my frame. In the night,Hassan sent to summon me away, but I was quite unable to move. Finding me still in bed at the dawn, he began to storm furiously at my detaining him so long; but I quietly let him spend his ire, ate my breakfast composedly, and set out at eight. He seemed determined to make up for the delay, for we flew over hill and dale to Sherean, where he changed horses. From thence we travelled all the rest of the day and all night; it rained most of the time. Soon after sun-set the ague came on again, which, in my wet state, was very trying; I hardly knew how to keep my life in me. About that time there was a village at hand; but Hassan had no mercy. At one in the morning we found two men under a wain, with a good fire; they could not keep the rain out, but their fire was acceptable. I dried my lower extremities, allayed the fever by drinking a good deal of water, and went on. We had little rain, but the night was pitchy dark, so that I could not see the road under my horse’s feet. However, God being mercifully pleased to alleviate my bodily suffering, I went on contentedly to the next stage, where we arrived at break of day. After sleeping three or four hours, I was visited by an Armenian merchant, for whom I had a letter. Hassan was in great fear of being arrested here; the governor of the city had vowed to make an example of himfor riding to death a horse belonging to a man of this place. He begged that I would shelter him in case of danger; his being claimed by an Englishman, he said, would be a sufficient security. I found, however, that I had no occasion to interfere. He hurried me away from this place without delay, and galloped furiously towards a village, which, he said, was four hours distant; which was all I could undertake in my present weak state; but village after village did he pass, till night coming on, and no signs of another, I suspected that he was carrying me on to the next stage; so I got off my horse, and sat upon the ground, and told him, ‘I neither could nor would go any further.’ He stormed, but I was immovable; till, a light appearing at a distance, I mounted my horse and made towards it, leaving him to follow or not, as he pleased. He brought in the party, but would not exert himself to get a place for me. They brought me to an open verandah, but Sergius[14]told them I wanted a place in which to be alone. This seemed very offensive to them: ‘And why must he be alone?’ they asked; ascribing this desire of mine to pride, I suppose. Tempted, at last, by money, they brought me to a stable-room, and Hassan and a number of others planted themselves there with me. My fever here increasedto a violent degree; the heat in my eyes and forehead was so great, that the fire almost made me frantic. I entreated that it might be put out, or that I might be carried out of doors. Neither was attended to: my servant, who, from my sitting in that strange way on the ground, believed me delirious, was deaf to all I said. At last I pushed my head in among the luggage, and lodged it on the damp ground, and slept.

“Oct. 5th.—Preserving mercy made me see the light of another morning. The sleep had refreshed me, but I was feeble and shaken; yet the merciless Hassan hurried me off. The stopping place, however, not being distant, I reached it without much difficulty. I expected to have found it another strong fort at the end of the pass; but it is a poor little village within the jaws of the mountains. I was pretty well lodged, and felt tolerably well till a little after sunset, when the ague came on with a violence I had never before experienced; I felt as if in a palsy: my teeth chattering, and my whole frame violently shaken. Aga Hosyn and another Persian, on their way here from Constantinople, going to Abbas Mirza, whom I had just before been visiting, came hastily to render me assistance if they could. These Persians appear quite brotherly after the Turks. While they pitied me, Hassan sat in perfect indifference, ruminating onthe further delay this was likely to occasion. The cold fit, after continuing two or three hours, was followed by a fever, which lasted the whole night, and prevented sleep.

“Oct. 6th.—No horses being to be had, I had an unexpected repose. I sat in the orchard, and thought, with sweet comfort and peace, of my God; in solitude, my company, my friend and comforter. Oh! when shall time give place to eternity! When shall appear that new heaven and new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness! There, there shall in no wise enter in any thing that defileth: none of that wickedness which has made men worse than wild beasts,—none of those corruptions which add still more to the miseries of mortality, shall be seen or heard of any more.”

These were the last words that Martyn wrote! Nothing more is known of his fate than that he reached the town of Tocat, in Turkey, nearly six hundred miles from Tebriz, and about three hundred from Constantinople, and that he died there on the 16th of October, being in the thirty-second year of his life. The plague was raging when he arrived, and his sickness and fatigue made him very liable to the disease; and his weakness was such, that he could not long sustain it. No particulars of his sickness and death have ever been learned.

Two American missionaries, who passed through Tocat in the year 1830, found his grave in an Armenian burying-place, covered with a tombstone, which had been erected by an English traveller, the year after his interment. The only information they could obtain was, that Mr. Martyn arrived there sick, that some Armenians gave him medicine, and that he died in four or five days. As hundreds were dying daily of the plague, it was thought probable that he was not admitted into any private house, and that he died at the post-house. On the tombstone is a Latin inscription, of which the following is a translation:

in memory of therev.HENRY[15]MARTYN, of england,a minister of the gospel, and a missionary;a pious, learned, and faithful servant ofthe lord,who called him to a state of felicity,whilst at tocat, on his return to hisnative country, a. d. 1812.c. j. r. inscribed this stone to his memory,a. d. 1813.

There he died, alone, in a land of strangers, with not a Christian to attend him. But there can be no doubt that, if his reason was preserved, he washappy in that illness, that his faith in Christ enabled him to bear his sufferings, and to expect with joy a speedy admittance to the presence of his God and Saviour.—To an unpardoned person it is incredible that a Christian can have so strong an assurance that his sins have been forgiven for Christ’s sake, and that God has thus become reconciled to him, as that he can be happy in the prospect of dying. But it is certain that this is often the case, and that Christians, even whilst suffering the most terrible pain in their bodies, have felt a peace and joy in the belief that they were near heaven, greater than all the comforts of life have ever bestowed on them or on others. Wherever the believer lives or dies, Christ is with him. God is his Father, and he has nothing to fear. It seems to us distressing, that Martyn should die so far away from his home, and his friends, in a nation of idolaters; but it is probable these things did not affect him, and that the dying missionary at Tocat was happier than he would have been in health and peace, among his friends in England. In his lonely journeys he had often been able to quote the lines,

“In desert tracts, with Thee, my God,How happy could I be.”

“In desert tracts, with Thee, my God,

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 circumstancesof 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 muchscorn 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. Ourconversation,—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 everycreature.” 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 wereboundto serve God thus? have you ever believed that God has been all your lifeclaimingyour service, as your creator, your preserver, your eternal Father? If you arenot 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 seekingout 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 exercisestrong 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.”

Thus let us act from the principles of love and duty, and then we shall find that God has connected our duty with our happiness, and that the more we sacrifice for him—the more danger and reproach, and hardships we may encounter, the greater will be the peace and joy of our souls. In infinite condescension, God speaks ofrewardsto those who serve him. Oh, he would be just, after all our labours, to cast us from his presence; but he graciously promises to give his blessing to those who strive to do his will, though they do it imperfectly. And those who have humbly and zealously applied themselves to the single purpose of living for God, have found that he has given them happiness beyond what they had conceived.This internal bliss is comprehended in the assertion of the apostle Paul, when he says, “eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for those who love him;but God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit.”

FOOTNOTES:[14]One of Mr. Martyn’s servants.[15]On the stone the name is erroneously putWilliam.[16]See a further account of this person in the Appendix.

[14]One of Mr. Martyn’s servants.

[15]On the stone the name is erroneously putWilliam.

[16]See a further account of this person in the Appendix.

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