affection. This overture, for reasons which afterward commended themselves to Mr. Martyn's own judg ment, was now declined; on which occasion, suffering sharply as a man, but most meekly as a christian, he said, "the Lord sanctify this; and since this last desire of my heart is also withheld, may I turn away for ever 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.""

"At first I was more grieved," he wrote some time afterward," at the loss of my gourd, than of the perishing Ninevehs all around me: but now my earthly woes, and earthly attachments seem to be absorbing in the vast concern of communicating the Gospel to these nations. After this last lesson from God, on the vanity of the creature, I feel desirous to be nothingto have nothing-to ask for nothing but what he gives.

Providentially for Mr. Martyn's comfort, his thoughts were much occupied, just after the receipt of this letter, by the arrival of his coadjutors in the work of translation, one of them, Mirza of Benares, well known in India as an eminent scholar in the Hindoostanee; the other, Sabat the Arabian, but too well known both in India and England for his rejection of that faith, which he then appeared to profess in sincerity and truth. In the latter of these Mr. Martyn confidently trusted that he had found a Christian brother. Nor were these hopes, respecting Sabat's religious character, more sanguine than, both in reason and charity, he might fairly have entertained. Of his abilities a most favourable report had been made by Dr. Ker, of Madras, who represented him as a man of good family in Arabia, as having been employed as an expounder of Mahometan law at Masulipatam, and as being well skilled in the literature of his country. 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. How could he allow himself to cherish any doubt, when he beheld the tears he shed in prayer, and listened to the confessions he made of his sinfulness, and to the professions he uttered of his willingness to correct whatever was reprehensible in his behaviour. No sooner had he arrived at Dinapore, than he opened to Mr. Martyn the state of his mind; declaring with seeming contrition that the constant sin he found in his heart, filled him with fear. "If the spirit of Christ is given to believers, why, said he, am I thus, after three years believing? I determine every day to keep Christ crucified in sight; but I forget to think of him! I can rejoice when I think of God's love in Christ but then I am like a sheep that feeds happily, whilst he looks only at the pasturage before him, but when he looks behind and sees the lion, he cannot eat." "His life (he avowed) was of no value to him; the experience he had had of the instability of the world had weaned him from it; his heart was like a looking-glass, fit for nothing except to be given the glass-maker, to be moulded anew." Can we wonder concerning one who uttered, with apparent sincerity and much earnestness,sentiments such as these, that Mr. Martyn should observe to Mr. Brown, who had sent him from Calcutta to Dinapore, "not to esteem him a monument of grace, and love, is impossible." And truly, notwithstanding all that time has since developed, who will not hesitate in attributing to Sabat the guilt of a systematic and well-concerted tissue of hypocrisy ; and not rather conclude that his judgment was at that time enlightened, and his heart in some measure impressed with a sense of what he believed? Very soon, indeed, was Mr. Martyn called to rejoice over this

Mahometan convert with great fear and trembling; for scarcely had he reached Dinapore, when the violence of his temper began to manifest itself. The first Sunday after he came to church, conceiving that all due respect was not shown him, he would not wait till service began, but abruptly left the church and returned home; yet, on Mr. Martyn's expostulations at his turning his back upon the house of God, on account of an insult which was unintended, he instantly confessed, with seeming humiliation, that he had two dispositions, one his old one, which was a soldier's, and the other a Christian's.

Many other signs of an unhumbled spirit in Sabat gave rise to many differences which were singularly distressing to a man of such meekness as Mr. Martyn. Even before the conclusion of that year, which when Sabat entered under Mr. Martyn's roof was drawing to its close, he was so grieved at his spirit, that he could find relief only in prayers for him. Yet however disquieted he might and could not but be, at what he was called hourly to witness in one brought into such near contact with him, and bearing the name of a Christian brother, his own mind nevertheless enjoyed a large measure of "that perfect peace" in which those are kept whose minds are stayed on God. He was continually" rejoicing in the solid ground of Jesus' imputed righteousness;" the greatness, the magnificence, the wisdom of which, filled his mind, and he was continually thinking, "O how is every hour lost that is not spent in the love and contemplation of God, my God. O send out thy light and thy truth, that I may live always sincerely, always affectionately, towards God!" "To live without sin I cannot expect in this world, but to desire to live without it may be the experience of every moment ;" and he closed the year like him who, at the end of a psalm of holy and joyful aspirations, exclaims, "I have gone astray like a lost sheep," in the following strain of brokenness of spirit and abasement of soul: "I seem to myself permitted to exist only through the inconceivable compassion of God. When

I think of my shameful incapacity for the Ministry, arising from my neglect, I see reason to tremble, though I cannot weep. I feel willing to be a neglected outcast, unfit to be made useful to others, provided my dear brethren are prosperous in their Ministry."

In the midst of various weighty employments, and in the midst of much tribulation, Mr. Martyn passed into the year 1808, on the first day of which he thus reverted to his past life!" Few or no changes have occurred in the course of the last year. I have been more settled than for many years past. The events which have taken place, most nearly interesting to myself, are, my sister's death, and my disappointment about *** ; on both these afflictions I have seen love inscribed, and that is enough. What I think I want, it is still better to want: but I am often wearied with this world of wo. I set my affections on the creature, and am then torn from it; and from various other causes, particularly the prevalence of sin in my heart, I am often so full of melancholy, that I hardly know what to do for relief. Sometimes I say, 'O that I had wings like a dove, then would I flee away and be at rest;' at other times, in my sorrow about the creature, I have no wish left for my heavenly rest. It is the grace and favour of God that have saved me hitherto : my ignorance, waywardness, and wickedness would long since have plunged me into misery; but there seems to be a mighty exertion of mercy and grace upon my sinful nature every day, to keep me from perishing at last. My attainments in the Divine Life, in this last year, seem to be none at all; I appear, on the contrary, to be more self-willed and perverse, and more like many of my countrymen, in arrogance and a domineering spirit over the natives. The Lord save me from my wickedness! Henceforth let my soul, humbly depending on the grace of Christ, perfect holiness in the fear of God, and show towards all Europeans and Natives the mind that was in Christ Jesus!"

In the beginning of this year, Mr. Martyn's situation at Dinapore was rendered far less agreeable; much as

he loved retirement, by the removal of the only family with whom he lived upon terms of Christian intimacy; a family for whom he had no common affection; to whom he had been the means of first imparting serious impressions; whom he had exhorted, watched over, and prayed for, and whom he unceasingly followed with his intercessions, when he could no longer reach them with his exhortations. "The departure of * * * (he writes) seemed to leave me without human comfort; my regard for them has increased very much of late; I have seen marks of grace more evidently. It is painful to be deprived of them just at this time; yet the Lord knoweth them that are his, and will keep them, through faith, unto eternal salvation."

This separation affected him the more sensibly, because it was not with every family at that station that he met with a kind, much less a cordial, reception. "I called," says he, "on the 15th of January, on one of the Dinapore 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.'"

6

So much as Mr. Martyn was concerned for the salvation of the Heathen, it will readily be surmised that the state of the Native Christians, sunk as they were into a condition of equal ignorance and wickedness with the Heathen, would excite his peculiar sympathy and anxiety. Their lamentable case was never forgotten by him. At the commencement of the present year, especially, it lay so near his heart, that he resolved to ascertain what might be affected in behalf of those wretched people at Patna, who had a name to live, but were dead. Without loss of time, therefore, he made an offer to the Roman Catholics there, of preaching to them on Sundays-but the proposal was rejected: had it been accepted, he purposed to have made it the ground-work of a more extensive publication of the Gospel to the inhabitants at large. "Millions perishing (he said, much affected at the reflection)