Henry Martyn (1781-1812)

from Kiefer's Biographical Sketches of Memorable Christians of the Past, s.v. October 19: Henry Martyn:

"[Martyn's] diary has been called 'one of the most precious treasures of Anglican devotion.'"

Martyn, who died on this date in 1812 while on a missionary journey in Persia, was a gifted translator and one of the most energetic of Anglican missionaries. I know little about him beyond the short biography in Kiefer, which mirrors the one-page account in the Episcopal book "Lesser Feasts and Fasts." He appears to have been much influenced by another Anglican saint, Charles Simeon.

But hearing that line about his diary at Matins this morning made me curious: sure enough, it is available on Google Books.

It is a free PDF, or can be downloaded as an E-book. I have not looked at the e-book version, but I suspect it would be easier to read in the PDF version. It is unfortunately not available in Project Gutenberg, which is a superior source for free e-books.


If you are reading online, here is the excellent HTML version of both volumes at Project Canterbury.

I have so far done no more than spend fifteen minutes with the first pages of his diary. It is enough to show me that indeed it is a treasure, a very personal account of his spiritual life and struggles. I commend it to you, and to myself.

[added later] I read some more in Martyn's Journal over dinner. Do not be put off by the tenor of the first part, wherein he (to modern readers) seems overly grieved by his sinfulness and failures. I found it instructive to compare several months of the first year (1802) when he was still in England with passages from the end of his life (1811-12). On first acquaintance, he appears to have been a person for whom leisure was deadly - but when he could be fully engaged in the work of an evangelist, life was much better.

Another point of interest, once he reaches the mission field, is his accounts of learned conversations with the wise men that he met -- for Martyn was as skilled in mathematics and science as in religion and languages. These discussions roamed as freely among the natural sciences as among the fine points of Zoroastrianism and Islam as compared with Christianity.

From the entry for January 1, 1812:

To all appearance the present year will be more perilous than any I have seen, but if I live to complete the Persian New Testament, my life after that will be of less importance. But whether life or death be mine, may Christ be magnified in me. If he has work for me to do, I cannot die.

This sentiment appears to be utterly characteristic of Martyn, all the more so as he matured on the mission field. And it was a just assessment: he took a fever that autumn and died. Here are the final entries:

[from October 5]... I was pretty well lodged, and felt tolerably well till a little after sunset, when the ague came on with a violence I had never before experienced: I felt as if in a palsy; my teeth chattering, and my whole frame violently shaken. Aga Hosyn and another Persian, on their way here from Constantinople, going to Abbas Mirza, whom I had just before been visiting, came hastily to render me assistance if they could. These Persians appear quite brotherly after the Turks. While they pitied me, Hassan sat in perfect indifference, ruminating on the further delay this was likely to occasion. The cold fit, after continuing two or three hours, was followed by a fever, which lasted the whole night, and prevented sleep.

[October] 6. No horses being to be had, I had an unexpected repose. I sat in the orchard, and thought with sweet comfort and peace, of my God; in solitude my company, my friend, and comforter. Oh! when shall time give place to eternity? when shall appear that new heaven and new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness? There, there shall in no wise enter in any thing that defileth: none of that wickedness which has made men worse than wild beasts,--none of those corruptions which add still more to the miseries of mortality, shall be seen or heard of any more.