The life of Rev. Henry Martyn : $b Written for the American Sunday School Union, with some account of Abdool Messeeh, a Hindoo convertHall, John
History
The life of Rev. Henry Martyn : $b Written for the American Sunday School Union, with some account of Abdool Messeeh, a Hindoo convert
Hall, John
Abdool Messeeh, 1771 or 1772-1827; Martyn, Henry, 1781-1812
The Persian New Testament was completed in February, 1812, and the
Psalms in March; and on the 24th May, Mr. Martyn left Shiraz, in
company with an English clergyman, for the purpose of presenting a
written copy of the Testament to the king of Persia, who was encamped
between Shiraz and Tebriz. Before he left Shiraz, he maintained the
doctrine that Christ was God and the Creator, before a large company
of Moollahs, in the palace of one of the princes.
On arriving at the camp about the 9th of June, he waited on the prime
minister, to learn how he should be able to lay the book before the
king. The minister detained him two hours in a debate respecting the
Christian religion, mixed, as usual, with ridiculous opinions on all
subjects. At the house of the vizier, some days afterwards, he was
attacked on the same subject, before a large company. Towards the
close of the discussion the vizier told him, “You had better say,
God is God, and Mohammed is the prophet of God;” Mr. Martyn at once
replied, “God is God, and Jesus is the Son of God,” which excited
their anger, and they left him with great contempt. “Thus,” said he,
“I walked away alone to my tent, to pass the rest of the day, in
heat and dirt. What have I done, thought I, to merit all this scorn?
Nothing, I trust, but bearing testimony to Jesus. I thought over
these things in prayer, and my troubled heart found that peace which
Christ hath promised to his disciples.”
The vizier having sent him word that no Englishman could be permitted
to see the king, unless presented by the English ambassador, or
having a letter of introduction from him, Mr. Martyn proceeded
towards Tebriz, his residence, in company with the English clergyman,
and some natives for servants and guides. Tebriz or Tauris, is in
the northern part of Persia, seven hundred miles from Shiraz, and
at least twenty-five hundred from Calcutta. “As I sat down in the
dust, on a shady side of a walled village, by which we passed, and
surveyed the plains over which our road lay, I sighed at the thought
of my dear friends in India and England; of the vast regions I
must traverse before I can get to either, and of the various and
unexpected hindrances, which present themselves to my going forward;
I comfort myself with the hope that my God has something for me to
do, by thus delaying my departure.” They met with much insulting
treatment on the road, especially from the various officers and
servants of the king, who had possession of the best accommodations,
and seemed to delight in an opportunity of ill-treating Europeans.
On the 25th of June, they were both seized with fever, and unable to
proceed. They were afraid they would be unable to procure food and
lodging, as their money failed, and no one would lend to them, until
a poor mule-driver became security for them. His journal is little
else than a detail of sufferings. He appears to have joined a caravan
of travellers going the same route.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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