_March 30._--Sick in body, but rather serious and humble in
spirit, and so happy; corrected the Parables for a fair copy.
Reading the Koran and Hindustani Ramayuna, and translating
Revelation; a German sergeant came with his native woman to have
her baptized; I talked with her a good while, in order to
instruct her, and found her extraordinarily quick in
comprehension.
_April 1._--The native woman came again, and I passed a great
deal of time in instructing her in the nature of the Gospel;
but, alas! till the Lord touch her heart, what can a man do? At
night the soldiers came, and we had again a very happy time; how
graciously the Lord fulfils His promise of being where two or
three are gathered together! The pious soldier grows in faith
and love, and spoke of another who wants to join us. They said
that the native women accounted it a great honour to be
permitted to come to a church and hear the Word of God, and
wondered why I should take such trouble for them.
'How shall it ever be possible to convince a Hindu or Brahmin of
anything?' wrote Henry Martyn to Corrie after two years' experience in
Bengal.
_1808, January 4._--Truly, if ever I see a Hindu a real believer
in Jesus, I shall see something more nearly approaching the
resurrection of a dead body than anything I have yet seen.
However, I well remember Mr. Ward's words, 'The common people
are angels compared with the Brahmins.' Perhaps the strong man
armed, that keeps the goods in peace, shall be dispossessed from
these, when the mighty Word of God comes to be ministered by us.
'We shall live to see better days.' For these he prepared his
translations of the Word of God. He wished to itinerate among the
people, but his military duties kept him to the station. When Mr.
Brown made another attempt to get him fixed in the Mission-Church he
replied, 'The evangelisation of India is a more important object than
preaching to the European inhabitants of Calcutta.' To Corrie he
wrote: 'Those sequestered valleys seen from Chunar present an inviting
field for missionary labours. A Sikh, making a pilgrimage to Benares,
came to me; he was very ignorant, and I do not know whether he
understood what I endeavoured to show him about the folly of
pilgrimages, the nature of true holiness, and the plan of the Gospel.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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