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.'

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 pe. culiar 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 effected 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,) in the neighborhood of one who can preach the Gospel to them! how wonderful! I trust the Lord will open a great and effectual door. O for faith, zeal, courage, love!"

In consequence of the state of the weather at this season of the year, the public celebration of Divine Service on the Sabbath, was suspended for a considerable time at Dinapore; a circumstance as painful to Mr. Martyn, as it was pleasing to the careless and worldly part of his congregation. Upon the serious inconvenience, and yet more serious det riment, to the spiritual interest of his flock, in being destitute of a church, he had already presented a memorial to the Governor-General, and orders to provide a proper place for Public Worship had been issued; nothing effectual, however, was yet done, and Mr. Martyn's love of the souls entrusted to him, not allowing him to bear the thought of their being scattered for a length of time, as sheep without a shepherd, he came to the resolution of opening his own house, as a place in which the people might assemble in this emergency. About the middle of February, he writes, "As many of the European regiment as were effective, were accommodated un der my roof; and, praise be to God, we had the public ordinances once more. My text was from Isaiah iv, 5. "The Lord will create upon every dwelling-place of Mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night: for upon all the glory shall be a defence.' In the afternoon, I waited for the women, but not one came: perhaps notice had not been given them, by some mistake. At the hospital, and with the men at night, I was engaged, as

usual, in prayer: my soul panted after the living God, but it remained tied and bound with corrup tion. I felt as if I would have given the world to be brought to be alone with God, and the promise that this is the will of God, even our sanctification, was the right hand that upheld me while I followed after him. When low in spirits, through an unwillingness to take up the cross, I found myself more resigned, by endeavoring to realize the thought that had often composed me in my trials on board the ship-that I was born to suffer: suffering is my daily appointed portion: let this reconcile me to every thing! To have a will of my own, not agreeable to God's, is a most tremendous wickedness. I own it is so for a few moments: but, Lord, write it on my heart! In perfect meekness and resignation let me take what befals me in the path of duty, and never dare to think of being dissatisfied." As far as it respected Mr. Martyn's health, a temporary interruption of his ministerial duty would have proved a favorable occurrence: he was beginning again to suffer from some severe pains in the chest, which first attacked him in the autumn of the preceding year: "desiring to be as a flame of fire in the service of his God, and panting for the full employment of every day, the early morning, as well as the closing evening, found him engaged in his delightful labors. But he perceived that the body could not keep pace with his soul, in this career of unceasing ac tivity: "the earthly tabernacle weighed down the

spirit whilst musing upon many things," and compelled him, for a while at least, to moderate the vehemence of these exertions. By the month of March, however, that great work, for which myriads in the ages yet to come will gratefully remember and revere the name of Martyn-the version of the New Testament into Hindoostanee, was brought to a completion; nor, if we consider how much time he had spent upon it, ever since he arrived at Calcutta, and how laboriously he prosecuted it, after Mr. Brown had summoned him to direct all his efforts to that end, can it be affirmed that it was hurried to a conclusion with a heedless and blameable precipitancy.

Twas not the hasty product of a day;
But the well-ripened fruit of wise delay."

"It is a real refreshment to my spirit, (Mr. Martyn remarks to Mr. Corrie, just at the moment of sending off the first page of the Testament to Calcutta, in the beginning of April,) to take up my pen to write to you. Such a week for labor I believe I never passed, not excepting even the last week before going into the Senate-House. I have read and corrected the manuscript copies of my Hindoostance Testament so often, that my eyes ache. The heat is terrible, often at 98°; the nights insupportable." Such was his energy in a climate tending to beguile him into ease and indolence; so entirely "whatever he had to do, did he do it with all his might."

*

Throughout the remainder of the year 1808. Mr. Martyn's life flowed on in the same course of usefulness and uniformity. He continued to minister to the Europeans and the Natives at the hospital, and daily received the more religious part of his flock at his own house, whilst his health permitted: to this was added the revisal of the sheets of the Hindoostanee version of the Testament, which he had completed; the superintendance of the Persian translation, confided to Sabat; and the study of Arabic, that he might be fully competent to superintend another version of the Testament into that tongue. From the even tenor of a life like this, it cannot be expected that incidents of a very striking nature should arise: yet the description which he himself has given of it, in the following extracts from a free and frequent correspondence with his endeared friends and brethren, the Rev. David Brown and the Rev. Daniel Corrie, will not be wholly devoid of interest to those who have hitherto watched him, with love and admiration, in his way towards Heaven.

TO THE REV. D. BROWN.

"April 16, 1808.

"THIS day I have received yours of the 8th: like the rest of your letters, it set my thoughts on full gallop, from which I can hardly recover my breath. Sabat's letter I hesitate to give him, lest it should make him unhappy again. He is at this moment