"But Mr. Martyn had that anxiety to begin the work which his heavenly
Father had given him to do, that notwithstanding the violent heat, he
traveled from Chunar to Cawnpore, the space of about four hundred
miles. At that time as I well remember, the air was as hot and dry as
that which I have sometimes felt near the mouth of a large oven, no
friendly cloud or verdant carpet of grass to relieve the eye from the
strong glare of the rays of the sun pouring on the sandy plains of the
Ganges. Thus Mr. Martyn traveled, journeying night and day, and
arrived at Cawnpore in such a state that he fainted away as soon as he
entered the house. When we charged him with the rashness of hazarding
his life in this manner, he always pleaded his anxiety to get to the
great work. He remained with us ten days, suffering considerably at
times from fever and pain in the chest.
"Mr. Martyn's removal from Dinapore to Cawnpore was to him in many
respects a very unpleasant arrangement. He was several hundred miles
farther distant from Calcutta and more widely separated than before
from his friend Mr. Corrie. He had new acquaintances to form at his
new abode, and after having with much difficulty procured the erection
of a church at Dinapore he was transported to a spot where none of the
conveniences, much less the decencies and solemnities of public
worship, were visible.
"We find him soon after he arrived there preaching to a thousand
soldiers drawn up in a hollow square, when the heat was so great,
although the sun had not risen, that many actually dropped down,
unable to support it."
Yet Mr. Martyn's labors were not abated. Every Sabbath at dawn were
prayers and sermon with the regiment, and again at eleven at the house
of the general of the station. In the afternoon he preached to a crowd
of poor natives, five, to eight hundred, rude, noisy, wretched
beggars, for whose souls he felt a tender care. Again in the evening,
the best of the day, he had a meeting with the more devout of his
flock. These ministrations so earnestly performed were most
exhausting, yet he knew not how to forego them; at this time, too,
from England came the sad and sudden news of the death of his sister,
the one who had led him to Christ.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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