Mr. Thomason preached on Heb. xii. to my edification.
Dr. Milner and Lord C. called. I was introduced as having been
Senior Wrangler; but how contemptible did these paltry honours
appear to me! Ah, thought I, you know not how little I am
flattered by these intended compliments.
In the hall was much affected by the sight of Lord B., whose
look of meekness and humility riveted my attention, and almost
melted me to tears. If there is one disposition in the world I
wish for more than another, it is this; but the bias of my
corrupted nature hurries me violently against it.
Mr. Grant's summons to him 'to sail for St. Helena in eight or ten
days,' reached him a month before his twenty-fourth birthday, before
which he could not legally receive full ordination, in the Chapel
Royal at St. James's.
Felt more persuaded of my call than ever; indeed, there was
scarcely a shadow of a doubt left. Rejoice, O my soul, thou
shalt be the servant of thy God in this life, and then in the
next for all the boundless ages of eternity.
Not till August 31 was it possible for the fleet which convoyed the
East Indiamen, in that year of war with France and Napoleon's
Continental allies, to see the last of Ireland. The seven months were
spent by Henry Martyn in elaborate preparations for what proved to be
nearly a year's voyage, and in repeated farewells the anguish of which
is reflected in his _Journal_ and correspondence. Having previously
taken his M.A. degree, he received that of Bachelor of Divinity by
mandate, which required the assent of all the heads of colleges, and
then a grace to pass the senate, and the presenting of a petition to the
King. Dr. Gilchrist, the Orientalist who had just returned from his long
career in Calcutta, where he had been a colleague of Carey in the
College of Fort William, gave him lessons in Hindustani pronunciation.
On my mentioning my desire of translating some of the Scriptures
with him, he advised me by all means to desist till I knew much
more of the language, by having resided some years in the
country. He said it was the rock on which missions had split,
that they had attempted to write and preach before they knew the
language. The Lord's Prayer, he said, was now a common subject
of ridicule with the people, on account of the manner in which
it had been translated. All these are useful hints to me.
The mode of appointing to Indian chaplaincies has varied so much since
the time of Charles Grant and Simeon, that it is interesting to see
what was done in Henry Martyn's case.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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