Rhemalogy

Henry Martyn was born in Cornwall, England in 1781. His father was a well-to-do businessman, and Henry grew up amid comforts. He proved intelligent, excelled in school, and went on to Cambridge, graduating with honors in mathematics. The writings of missionary David Brainard helped bring Martyn to Christian surrender, and he soon contemplated foreign missions.

“Let me forget the world,” he said, “and be swallowed up in a desire to glorify God.”

But he couldn’t forget Lydia Grenfell. Henry was deeply in love with Lydia, though she had no desire for Asian missionary service. A vicious war tore the young man apart. Should he go to India with God, or remain in England with Lydia? He awakened throughout the night, his mind full of Lydia. He called her his “beloved idol.” But, determined to do God’s will, he said a final goodbye and set sail.

At daybreak on May 16, 1805, Martyn went ashore at Calcutta and was met by William Carey who soon nudged him into translation work. Martyn lost himself in ministry, preaching, establishing schools, and translating the Bible into three Asian languages. All the while he brooded over Lydia. On July 30, 1806, after much deliberation, he wrote, proposing marriage. Letters traveled slowly, and a year passed before he received a reply. Lydia’s rejection hit the young man like a thunderbolt, and his health, always frail, began to falter. He wrote asking her to reconsider. She would not, though she agreed to correspond friend-to-friend.

In 1810 his Hindustani New Testament ready for the printer, Martyn traveled to Persia hoping to recover his health. By 1812 he had grown so weak that an overland trip to England seemed the only solution. It would also, he knew, bring him to Lydia. He set out but didn’t make it, dying en route at age 31. When his journal was opened, the name Lydia, like the droning of sad music, was found on almost every page. But Henry Martyn had fulfilled his objective in coming to India. He had been swallowed up in a desire to glorify God, and the New Testament was read in three new languages.

Please listen, God, and answer my prayer! I feel hopeless, And I cry out to you from a faraway land. Lead me to the rock high above me. Let me live with you forever And find protection under your wings, my God. (Psalm 61:1,2,4)

Robert J. Morgan, On This Day: 265 Amazing and Inspiring Stories About Saints, Martyrs & Heroes, electronic ed. (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2000, c1997). May 16.

ALSO ON THIS DAY

1569 – Dirk Willem is burned at the stake in his native Netherlands for his Anabaptist faith, captured because he turned to save a pursuer who had fallen through the ice. The very man he rescued had taken him captive.

1819 – Henry Nott baptizes King Pomare II of Tahiti. In a short time, the Tahitians passed laws that forbade cruel murders and the islands began to experience peace. 

1920 – George Washington Truett spoke from the Capitol steps in Washington, DC. The Dallas pastor, whose church boasted seven thousand members, took as his theme “Baptists and Religious Liberty.” He expressed pride that Baptists have never oppressed anyone in the name of religion, saying “God wants free worshipers and no other kind.” He reminded senators, congressmen, and his many other listeners that liberties cannot stand if they become licensed to do evil. “Selfish ease must be utterly renounced for Christ and his cause and our every gift and grace and power utterly dominated by the dynamic of his Cross.”

1962 – Daniel Lot, a zealous evangelist and prayer warrior of the Church of Christ in Nigeria died. At his burial, women will defy tribal tradition and come to the gravesite.