Soodar of India was of as much value in the sight of God as the King of Great Britain."

So pleasantly and sweetly, after his recovery, did the current of Mr. Martyn's days pass on at Aldeen and Calcutta, that he began to fear, lest the agreeable society he met with there should induce a softness of mind, and an indisposition to solitude and bold exertion. Of this society he remarks, “I felt sometimes melancholy at the thought that I should soon be deprived of it. But alas! why do I regret it? Sweet is human friendship-sweet is the communion of saints—but sweeter far is fellowship with God on earth, and the enjoyment of the society of his saints in heaven."

The city of Calcutta was a place so evidently suited to that order of talent with which Mr. Martyn was endowed, that it is not to be wondered that the solicitations of his Christian friends there should

pour in upon him at this time, with the view of persuading him to continue amongst them in a sphere which they considered so well adapted for the exercise of his ministry. But it was truly said of him by one now before the throne with him in the world of light-that "he had a spirit to follow the steps of Brainerd and Swartz;" and "to be prevented going to the Heathen," he himself remarked on this occasion, "would almost have broken his heart."

* Dr. Buchanan-Christian Researches.

In the vicinity of Aldeen, indeed, he witnessed, with horror, the cruel rites and debasing idolatries of Heathenism. The blaze of a funeral pile caused him one day to hasten and endeavor, if possible, to rescue an unfortunate fenrale, who was consumed before he could reach the spot. In a dark wood, at no great distance from Serampore, he heard the sounds of the cymbals and drums, summoning the poor natives to the worship of devils-sounds which pierced his heart; and before a black image, placed in a pagoda, with lights burning around it, he beheld his fellow-creatures prostrating themselves, with their foreheads to the earth-a sight which he contemplated with an overwhelming compassion, whilst "he shivered," he says, "as standing as it were in the neighborhood of hell."

Scenes so affecting as these might have pleaded with him effectually in favor of the proposition of his friends, had he not remembered, that all these things happened at no great distance from Aldeen, Serampore, and Calcutta-from whence many a holy man of God had already come forth, and would again come forth, crying out to the wretched idolaters, "why do ye such things"-"behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world.”

Detained as Mr. Martyn unavoidably was at this time, from what he considered his especial employment, he applied himself more ardently than ever to the acquisition of Hindoostanee, availing himself of the assistance of a Cashmirian Brahmin, whom

he wearied with his unbending assiduity. He was also instant in preaching the Gospel to his countrymen, both in the Mission Church and New Church in Calcutta.

His first discourse at the New Church, on 1 Cor. i, 23, 24, occasioned a great sensation, of a kind very different indeed from that which he heartily desired, but which, from the treatment to which he had been accustomed on board the ship, he was prepared to expect. The plain exhibition of the doctrines of the Gospel was exceedingly offensive to many of his hearers. Nor did the ferment thus excited subside quickly, as it often does, into pity or contempt. He had the pain very shortly after, of being personally attacked from the pulpit by some of his brethren, whose zeal hurried them into the violation, not only of an express canon of the Church, but of the yet higher law of Christian charity, and led them to make an intemperate attack upon him and upon many of the truths of the Gospel. Even when he was himself present at Church, Mr. * * * spoke with sufficient plainness of him and of his doctrines, calling them inconsistent, extravagant and absurd; drawing a vast variety of false inferences from them, and thence arguing against them-declaring, for instance, that to affirm repentance to be the gift of God-and to teach that nature is wholly corrupt, was to drive men to despair-that to suppose the righteousness of Christ sufficient to justify, is to make it unnecessary to have any of our own.

Though compelled to listen to this downright heresy; to hear himself described as knowing neither what he said, nor whereof he affirmed-and as speaking only to gratify self-sufficiency, pride, and uncharitableness, "I rejoiced," said this meek and holy man thus unjustly aspersed, "to receive the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper afterwards-as the solemnities of that blessed ordinance sweetly tended to soothe any asperity of mind; and I think that I administered the *** and ***, with sincere goodto cup will." When exposed to a similar invective from another preacher, who commenced a public opposi tion to him, by denouncing his last sermon in particular as a rhapsoda-as unintelligible jargon—as an enigma; declaring that the epistles of St. Paul were addressed to Heathens alone, and that if St. Paul could look down from heaven, and see what use was made of his words to distress and agitate the minds of men, he would grieve at such perversions; and who, in addition to this, pointedly addressed Mr. Martyn, and charged him with the guilt of distressing and destroying those for whom Christ died, with taking away their only hope, and driving them to mopishness, melancholy, and despair and finally, with depriving them of the only consolation they could have on a death-bed,-he again observes, "we received the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, and I was glad of the blessed ordinance, as it tended much to compose my mind, and soften it to compas sion and love towards all mankind."

But, if Mr. Martyn had abundant reason to be grieved and pained at the conduct of some of his brethren at Calcutta, he had no small satisfaction in the wise and temperate line pursued by another Chaplain in this season of doubtful and distressing disputation; who, perceiving that the doctrines of the Church of England were becoming a matter of warm and general controversy, adopted the admirable plan of simply reading the Homilies to the congregation-thus leaving the Church authoritatively to speak for herself, and affording to all classes, an opportunity of deciding which of the parties was in accordance with her incomparable formularies-Mr. Martyn or his opposers. Mr. ***, he says, to the great satisfaction of all serious people, began to read a Homily by way of sermon; after stating the diversity of opinion which had lately prevailed in the pulpit, and again "at the New Church, I read, and Mr. *** preached the second and third parts of the 'Homily on Salvation.' The very clear exhibition of divine truth which was thus presented was very rejoicing to our hearts."

Attached as Mr. Martyn was to the Church of England, he was far from either the apathy or the jealousy in which too many are apt to indulge, respecting the interests of other Christian communities. Very decidedly did he differ in some important points from the Baptists. But it was with the sincerest grief that he heard, during his abode at Aldeen, of an order issued by the Government