tertained. Of his abilities a most favorable report had been made by Dr. Ker of Madras, who represented him, as a man of good family in Arabia, as having been employed as an expounder of Mahometan law at Masulipatam, and as being well skilled in the literature of his country. With respect to the reality of his belief in Christianity, although Mr. Martyn immediately discovered in him an unsubdued Arab spirit, and witnessed, with pain, many deflections from that temper and conduct which he himself so eminently exemplified; yet he could not but believe all things, and hope all things, even while he continued to suffer much from him, and for a length of time with unparalleled forbearance and kindness. How could he allow himself to cherish any doubt, when he beheld the tears he shed in prayer, and listened to the confessions he made of his sinfulness, and to the professions he uttered of his willingness to correct whatever was reprehensible in his behavior. No sooner had he arrived at Dinapore, than he opened to Mr. Martyn the state of his mind; declaring, with seeming contrition, that the constant sin he found in his heart filled him with fear. "If the Spirit of Christ is given to believers, why, said he, am I thus, after three years believing? I determine every day to keep Christ crucified in sight; but I forget to think of him! I can rejoice when I think of God's love in Christ; but then I am like a sheep that feeds happily, whilst he looks only at the pasturage before him, but when he looks

behind and sees the lion, he cannot eat." "His life (he avowed) was of no value to him; the experience he had had of the instability of the world had weaned him from it; his heart was like a lookingglass, fit for nothing except to be given the glassmaker, to be moulded anew." Can we wonder, concerning one who uttered, with apparent sincerity and much earnestness, such sentiments as these, that Mr. Martyn should observe to Mr. Brown, who had sent him from Calcutta to Dinapore, "not to esteem him a monument of grace, and love him, is impossible." And truly, notwithstanding all that time has since developed, who will not hesitate in attributing to Sabat, the guilt of a systematic and well-concerted tissue of hypocrisy; and not rather conclude that his judgment was at that time enlightened, and his heart in some measure impressed, with a sense of what he believed? Very soon, indeed, was Mr. Martyn called to rejoice over this Mahometan convert with great fear and trembling, for scarcely had he reached Dinapore, when the violence of his temper began to manifest itself. The first Sunday after he came to church, conceiving that all due respect was not shewn him, he would not wait till service began, but abruptly left the church and returned home; yet, on Mr. Martyn's expostulations at his turning his back upon the house of God, on account of an insult which was unintended, he instantly confessed, with seeming humiliation,

that he had two dispositions, one his old one, which was a soldier's, and the other a Christian's.

Many other signs of an unhumbled spirit in Sabat gave rise to many differences, which were singularly distressing to a man of such meekness as Mr. Martyn. Even before the conclusion of that year, which when Sabat entered under Mr. Martyn's roof, was drawing to its close, he was so grieved at his spirit, that he could find relief only in prayers for him.-Yet however disquieted he might and could not but be, at what he was called hourly to witness in one brought into such near contact with him, and bearing the name of a Christian brother, his own mind nevertheless enjoyed a large measure of "that perfect peace" in which those are kept whose minds are stayed on God. He was continually "rejoicing in the solid ground of Jesus' imputed righteousness;" the greatness, the magnificence, the wisdom of which, filled his mind, and he was continually thinking, "O how is every hour lost that is not spent in the love and contemplation of God, my God. O send out thy light and thy truth, that I may live always sincerely, always affectionately, towards God!" "To live without sin I cannot expect in this world, but to desire to live without it may be the experience of every moment;" and he closed the year like him who, at the end of a psalın of holy and joyful aspirations, exclaims, "I have gone astray like a lost sheep," in the following strain of brokenness of spirit and abasement of soul: "I

seem to myself permitted to exist only through the inconceivable compassion of God. When I think of my shameful incapacity for the ministry, arising from my neglect, I see reason to tremble, though I cannot weep. I feel willing to be a neglected outcast, unfit to be made useful to others, provided my dear brethren are prosperous in their ministry."

In the midst of various weighty employments, and in the midst of much tribulation, Mr. Martyn passed into the year 1808, on the first day of which be thus reverted to his past life!—"Few or no chan ges have occurred in the course of the last year. I have been more settled than for many years past. The events which have taken place, most nearly interesting to myself, are, my sister's death, and my disappointment about ***; on both these afflictions I have seen love inscribed, and that is enough. What I think I want, it is still better to want: but I am often wearied with this world of woe. I set my affections on the creature, and am then torn from it; and from various other causes, particularly the prevalence of sin in my heart, I am often so full of melancholy, that I hardly know what to do for relief. Sometimes I say, 'O that I had wings like a dove, then would I flee away and be at rest;' at other times, in my sorrow about the creature, I have no wish left for my heavenly rest. It is the grace and favor of God that have saved me hitherto: my igno rance, waywardness, and wickedness would long since have plunged me into misery; but there seems

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to be a mighty exertion of mercy and grace upon my sinful nature every day, to keep me from perishing at last. My attainments in the Divine Life, in this last year, seem to be none at all; I appear, on the contrary, to be more self-willed and perverse, and more like many of my countrymen, in arrogance and a domineering spirit over the natives. The Lord save me from my wickedness! Henceforth let my soul, humbly depending on the grace of Christ, perfect holiness in the fear of God, and shew towards all Europeans and Natives, the mind that was in Christ Jesus!"

In the beginning of this year, Mr. Martyn's situ ation at Dinapore was rendered far less agreeable, much as he loved retirement, by the removal of the only family with whom he lived upon terms of Christian intimacy; a family for whom he had no common affection; to whom he had been the means of first imparting serious impressions; whom he had exhorted, watched over, and prayed for, and whom he un ceasingly followed with his intercessions, when he could no longer reach them with his exhortations, "The departure of *** (he writes,) seemed to leave me without human comfort; my regard for them has increased very much of late; I have seen marks of grace more evidently. It is painful to be deprived. of them just at this time; yet the Lord knoweth them that are his, and will keep them, through faith, unto eternal salvation."