_1808, February 12._--Sabat describes so well the character of a
missionary that I am ashamed of my great house, and mean to sell
it the first opportunity, and take the smallest quarters I can
find. Would that the day were come when I might throw off the
coat and substitute the jamer; I long for it more and more; and
am often very uneasy at being in the neighbourhood of so great a
Nineveh without being able to do anything immediately for the
salvation of so many perishing souls. What do you think of my
standing under a shed somewhere in Patna as the missionaries did
in the Lal Bazar? Will the Government interfere? What are your
sensations on the late news? I fear the judgments of God on our
proud nation, and that, as we have done nothing for the Gospel
in India, this vineyard will be let out to others who shall
bring the fruits of it in their season. I think the French would
not treat Juggernaut with quite so much ceremony as we do.
Above all men in India, at that time and during the next half-century,
however, Henry Martyn was a missionary to the Mohammedans. For them he
learned and he translated Hindustani, Persian, and Arabic. With their
moulvies he conducted controversies; and for years he associated with
himself that extraordinary Arab, Sabat, who made life a burden to him.
Sabat and Abdallah, two Arabs of notable pedigree, becoming friends,
resolved to travel together. After a visit to Mecca they went to
Cabul, where Abdallah entered the service of Zeman Shah, the famous
Ameer. There an Armenian lent him the Arabic Bible, he became a
Christian, and he fled for his life to Bokhara. Sabat had preceded him
there, and at once recognised him on the street. 'I had no pity,' said
Sabat afterwards. 'I delivered him up to Morad Shah, the king.' He was
offered his life if he would abjure Christ. He refused. Then one of
his hands was cut off, and again he was pressed to recant. 'He made no
answer, but looked up steadfastly towards heaven, like Stephen, the
first martyr, his eyes streaming with tears. He looked at me, but it
was with the countenance of forgiveness. His other hand was then cut
off. But he never changed, and when he bowed his head to receive the
blow of death all Bokhara seemed to say, "What new thing is this?"'
Remorse drove Sabat to long wanderings, in which he came to Madras,
where the Government gave him the office of mufti, or expounder of the
law of Islam in the civil courts. At Vizagapatam he fell in with a
copy of the Arabic New Testament as revised by Solomon Negri, and sent
out to India by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge in the
middle of last century. He compared it with the Koran, the truth fell
on him 'like a flood of light,' and he sought baptism in Madras at the
hands of the Rev. Dr. Kerr. He was named Nathaniel. He was then
twenty-seven years of age.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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