most intense disgust and abhorrence, and he will assuredly find
it the same with most of these idolatrous Hindus.'
We return to Martyn's _Journal_ and _Correspondence_:
_July 8._ (Sunday.)--Corrie preached to the 53rd a funeral
sermon on the death of one of their captains. In the afternoon I
spoke to the natives on the first commandment, with greater
fluency than I have yet found. My thoughts to-day very much
towards Lydia; I began even to be reconciled to the idea of
going to England for her. 'Many are the thoughts of a man's
heart, but the counsel of the Lord, that shall stand.'
TO LYDIA GRENFELL
Cawnpore: August 14, 1810.
With what delight do I sit down to begin a letter to my beloved
Lydia! Yours of February 5, which I received a few days ago, was
written, I conceive, in considerable embarrassment. You thought
it possible it might find me married, or about to be so. Let me
begin, therefore, with assuring you, with more truth than Gehazi
did his master, 'Thy servant went no whither:' my heart has not
strayed from Marazion, or Gurlyn, or wherever you are. Five long
years have passed, and I am still faithful. Happy would it be if
I could say that I had been equally true to my profession of
love for Him who is fairer than ten thousand, and altogether
lovely. Yet to the praise of His grace let me recollect that
twice five years have passed away since I began to know Him, and
I am still not gone from Him. On the contrary, time and
experience have endeared the Lord to me more and more, so that I
feel less inclination, and see less reason for leaving Him. What
is there, alas! in the world, were it even everlasting?
I rejoice at the accounts you give me of your continued good
health and labours of love. Though you are not so usefully
employed as you might be in India, yet as that must not be, I
contemplate with delight your exertions at the other end of the
world. May you be instrumental in bringing many sons and
daughters to glory. What is become of St. Hilary and its fairy
scenes? When I think of Malachy, and the old man, and your
sister, and Josepha, etc., how some are dead, and the rest
dispersed, and their place occupied by strangers, it seems all
like a dream.
_August 15._--It is only little intervals of time that I can
find for writing; my visitors, about whom I shall write
presently, taking up much of my leisure from necessary duty.
Here follow some extracts from my _Journal_....
Here my _Journal_ must close. I do not know whether you
understand from it how we go on. I must endeavour to give you a
clearer idea of it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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