Henry Martyn (1781-1812) was a pioneer missionary linguist who served in India and later in Persia, which is now Iran. Martyn translated the New Testament into Urdu (the language of modern-day Pakistan), and by early 1812 he had completed a Persian translation of the New Testament and Psalms. He aimed to go to Arabia to put the Bible into Arabic, but during the treacherous overland journey to Constantinople, he died of plague in northern Turkey at the age of 31. Here is his journal 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.
Martyn’s new year’s resolution was his lifelong resolution—that Christ be magnified! His courage and confidence were rooted in the hope of the Gospel and echoed a line from an old Puritan prayer:
I have cast my anchor in the port of peace, knowing that present and future are in nail-pierced hands.
May this truth anchor us, too, as we follow Jesus in the days ahead.
Masthead: Watercolor painting by Lilias Trotter, 1899