Chapter VII: Cawnpore, 1809-1810 (3)

We all dined early together, and then returned with our little
ones to enjoy some rest and quiet; but when the sun began to
descend to the horizon we again went over to Mr. Martyn's
bungalow, to hear his _last_ address to the _fakeers_. It was
one of those sickly, hazy, burning evenings, which I have before
described, and the scene was precisely such a one as I have
recounted above. Mr. Martyn nearly fainted again after this
effort, and when he got to his house, with his friends about
him, he told us that he was afraid he had not been the means of
doing the smallest good to any one of the strange people whom he
had thus so often addressed. He did not even then know of the
impression he had been enabled to make, on one of these
occasions, on Sheikh Saleh. On the Monday our beloved friend
went to his boats, which lay at the Ghaut, nearest the bungalow;
but in the cool of the evening, however, whilst Miss Corrie and
myself were taking the air in our tonjons, he came after us on
horseback. There was a gentle sadness in his aspect as he
accompanied me home; and Miss Corrie came also. Once again we
all supped together, and united in one last hymn. We were all
low, very, very low; we could never expect to behold again that
face which we then saw--to hear again that voice, or to be again
elevated and instructed by that conversation. It was impossible
to hope that he would survive the fatigue of such a journey as
he meditated. Often and often, when thinking of him, have these
verses, so frequently sung by him, come to my mind:

E'er since by faith I saw the stream
Thy flowing wounds supply,
Redeeming love has been my theme,
And shall be till I die.

Then, in a nobler, sweeter song,
I'll sing Thy power to save,
When this poor lisping, stammering tongue
Is silent in the grave.

Henry Martyn's continued to be the military church of Cawnpore till 1857, when it was destroyed in the Mutiny. Its place has been taken by a Memorial Church which visibly proclaims forgiveness and peace on the never-to-be forgotten site of Wheeler's entrenchment--consecrated ground indeed!

On October 1 he left Cawnpore, 'after a parting prayer with my dearest brother Corrie,'[38] to whom he wrote from Allahabad:

Thus far we are come in safety; but my spirits tell me that I
have parted with friends. Your pale face as it appeared on
Monday morning is still before my eyes, and will not let me be
easy till you tell me you are strong and prudent. The first
night there blew a wind so bleak and cold, through and through
my boat and bed, that I rose, as I expected, with a pain in the
breast, which has not quite left me, but will, I hope, to-night,
when I shall take measures for expelling it. There is a gate not
paid for yet belonging to the churchyard, may you always go
through it in faith and return through it with praise. You are
now in prayer with our men. The Lord be with you, and be always
with you, dearest brother.

Ministering to all who needed his services, in preaching, baptizing, and marrying, on his way down the great Ganges, at Benares, at Ghazipore, where he met with 'the remains' of his old 67th regiment, at Bhagulpore, and at Bandel, where he called on the Roman Catholics, on November 12 he at last came to Aldeen.

Children jumping, shouting, and convoying me in troops to the
house. They are a lovely family indeed, and I do not know when I
have felt so delighted as at family worship last night. To-day
Mr. Brown and myself have been consulting at the Pagoda.

After four years' absence he seemed a dying man to his Serampore and Calcutta friends, Brown, Thomason, Udny, and Colonel Young of Dinapore memory. But he was ever cheerful, and he preached every Sunday for five weeks, though in his _Journal_ we find this on November 21:

Caught a cold, and kept awake much of the night by a cough. From
this day perhaps I may date my decay. Nature shrinks from
dissolution, and conscience trembles at the thought of a
judgment to come. But I try to rejoice in God through our Lord
Jesus Christ.

_November 25._ (Sunday.)--Preached at the old church, on 'While
Paul reasoned of righteousness,' etc. The Governor-General, Lord
Minto, was present, desiring, as was supposed, to abolish the
distinction which had been made between the two churches. One
passage in my sermon appeared to some personal, and on
reconsideration I thought it so myself, and was excessively
distressed at having given causeless offence, and perhaps
preventing much good. Lord! pardon a blind creature. How much
mischief may I do through mere thoughtlessness!

_December 2._--Preached at eight, on 'Grace reigns,' and was
favoured with strength of body and joy of heart in proclaiming
the glorious truth.

_December 25._--Preached, with much comfort to myself, on 'God
so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son,' etc. Mr.
Brown on 'Let your light so shine before men,' etc. The whole
sum collected about seven thousand rupees. At night Mr. Thomason
on 'Through the tender mercy of our God, whereby the dayspring
from on high hath visited us.' This day how many of those who
love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity are rejoicing in His
birth. My dear Lydia remembers me.

_December 31._--Had a long dispute with Marshman, which brought
on pain in the chest.

He opened the year 1811 by preaching for the new Calcutta Auxiliary of the British and Foreign Bible Society his published sermon on Christian India and the Bible, to be read in the light of his own translation work hereafter. He thus on the same day committed himself to the future in the spirit of St. Paul:

_1811._--The weakness which has come upon me in the course of
the last year, if it should not give an entire new turn to my
life, is likely to be productive of events in the course of the
present year which I little expected, or at least did not expect
so soon. I now pass from India to Arabia, not knowing what
things shall befall me there; but assured that an ever-faithful
God and Saviour will be with me in all places whithersoever I
go. May He guide and protect me, and after prospering me in the
thing whereunto I go, bring me back again to my delightful work
in India. It would be a painful thought indeed, to suppose
myself about to return no more. Having succeeded, apparently,
through His blessing, in the Hindustani New Testament, I feel
much encouraged, and could wish to be spared in order to finish
the Bible.

FOOTNOTES:

[32] _The Life of Mrs. Sherwood_ (chiefly autobiographical), edited by her Daughter. London, 1854.

[33] 'He was at that time married to his seventh wife; that is, according to his own account. Ameena was a pretty young woman, though particularly dark for a purdah-walla, or one, according to the Eastern custom, who is supposed always to sit behind a purdah, or curtain. She occupied the smaller bungalow, which adjoined the larger by a long, covered passage. Our children often went to see her whilst they were at Mr. Martyn's, and I paid her one formal visit. I found her seated on the ground, encircled by cushions within gauze mosquito-curtains, stretched by ropes from the four corners of the hall. In the daytime these curtains were twisted and knotted over her head, and towards the night they were let down around her, and thus she slept where she had sat all day. She had one or two women in constant attendance upon her, though her husband was a mere subordinate. These Eastern women have little idea of using the needle, and very few are taught any other feminine accomplishment. Music and literature, dancing and singing, are known only to the Nautch or dancing-girls by profession. Hence, nothing on earth can be imagined to be more monotonous than the lives of women in the East; such, I mean, as are not compelled to servile labour. They sit on their cushions behind their curtains from day to day, from month to month, with no other occupation than that of having their hair dressed, and their nails and eyelids stained, and no other amusement than hearing the _gup_, or gossip of the place where they may happen to be; nor is any gossip too low or too frivolous to be unacceptable. The visits of our children and nurses were very acceptable to Ameena, and she took much and tender notice of the baby. She lived on miserable terms with her husband, and hated him most cordially. She was a Mussulman, and he was very anxious to make her a Christian, to which she constantly showed strong opposition. At length, however, she terminated the controversy in the following extraordinary manner: "Pray, will you have the goodness to inform me where Christians go after death?" "To heaven and to their Saviour," replied Sabat. "And where do Mahometans go?" she asked. "To hell and the devil," answered the fierce Arab. "You," said the meek wife, "will go to heaven, of course, as being a Christian." "Certainly," replied Sabat. "Well, then," she said, "I will continue to be a Mussulman, because I should prefer hell and the devil without you, to heaven itself in your presence." This anecdote was told to Mr. Martyn by Sabat himself, as a proof of the hardened spirit of his wife.

'Ameena was, by the Arab's own account, his seventh wife. He had some wonderful story to tell of each of his former marriages; but that which he related of his sixth wife exceeded all the rest in the marvellous and the romantic. He told this tale at Mr. Martyn's table one evening, whilst we were at supper, during the week we lived in the house. He spoke in Persian, and Mr. Martyn interpreted what he said, and it was this he narrated: It was on some occasion, he said, in which Fortune had played him one of her worst tricks, and reduced him to a state of the most abject poverty, that he happened to arrive one night at a certain city, which was the capital of some rajah, or petty king--Sabat called this person a king. It seemed he arrived at a crisis in which the king's only daughter had given her father some terrible offence, and in order to be revenged upon her, the father issued his commands that she should be compelled to take for her husband the first stranger who arrived in the town after sunset. This man happened to be our Arab; he was accordingly seized and subjected to the processes of bathing and anointing with precious oil. He was then magnificently dressed, introduced into the royal hall, and duly married to the princess, who proved not only to be fair as the houris, but to be quite prepared to love the husband whom Fortune had sent her. He lived with her, he pretended, I know not how many years, and they were perfectly happy until the princess died, and he lost the favour of his majesty. I think that Sabat laid the scene of this adventure in or near Agra. But this could hardly be. That such things have been in the East--that is, that royal parents have taken such means of avenging themselves on offending daughters--is quite certain; but I cannot venture to assert that Sabat was telling the truth when he made himself the hero of the tale.'

[34] Corrie and Brown.

[35] By letters written March 30 and April 19, 1810, from Cawnpore.

[36] By letter written August 14, 1810.

[37] On leaving the station Henry Martyn presented his French New Testament to Dr. Govan, a little morocco-bound volume which his son prizes as an heirloom.

[38] We have these reminiscences of Henry Martyn's Cawnpore from Bishop Corrie, when, as Archdeacon of Calcutta, he again visited it. In 1824 he writes: 'I arrived at this station on the day fourteen years after sainted Martyn had dedicated the church. The house he occupied stands close by. The view of the place and the remembrance of what had passed greatly affected me.... I had to assist in administering the sacrament, and well it was, on the whole, that none present could enter into my feelings, or I should have been overcome.' Again: 'How would it have rejoiced the heart of Martyn could he have had the chief authorities associated, by order of Government, to assist him in the work of education; and how gladly would he have made himself their servant in the work for Jesus' sake! One poor blind man who lives in an outhouse of Martyn's, and received a small monthly sum from him, often comes to our house, and affords a mournful pleasure in reminding me of some little occurrence of those times. A wealthy native too, who lived next door to us, sent his nephew to express to me the pleasure he derived from his acquaintance with Martyn. These are all the traces I have found of that "excellent one of the earth" at the station.'

In 1833 Corrie was again at Cawnpore, which had two chaplains then, and thus wrote: '_October 6._--I attended Divine service at the church bungalow, and stood up once more in Martyn's pulpit. The place is a little enlarged. The remembrance of Martyn and the Sherwoods, and Mary (his sister), with the occupations of that period, came powerfully to my recollection, and I could not prevent the tears from flowing. A sense of the forgiving love of God, with the prospect of all joining in thankful adoration in the realms of bliss, greatly preponderates.'