In the summer of 1805, at the height of the struggle for naval supremacy between Britain and France that was to culminate in the Battle of Trafalgar, a young man, newly ordained to the ministry of the Church of England and already showing symptoms of the tuberculosis which had claimed the life of his mother, set sail on the long and hazardous voyage to India. Leaving behind friends, family and the woman he loved, he turned his back on the prospects of a brilliant academic career in England, in order to bring the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and the Word of God in their own language to the peoples of India and Persia. His name was Henry Martyn.
      Struggling against the rigours of a climate which was seriously undermining his health, and facing scorn and hostility from many quarters, within the space of a few short years he completed the translation of the New Testament into Hindustani, Persian and Arabic, opened several schools and brought the message of the gospel, by either the spoken or the written word, to people from all levels of society, from the beggars who came to his gate to the court of the Shah of Persia. 

‘In the list of missionaries, the name of Henry Martyn will always occupy a special place. He impressed his contemporaries with his intellectual stature, his godliness of life and the daring of his exploits. It is impossible to read the story without being deeply moved and, to this day, he provides an inspiration for other Christians to follow his example.
     I am very glad that Jim Cromarty has written his story, and given a new generation of readers an opportunity to acquaint themselves with this remarkable man.’            

From the foreword by
Peter F. Jensen, Anglican Archbishop of Sydney

‘A gifted biographer makes all the difference to the presentation of the life of a Christian leader or missionary. Jim Cromarty’s skill in depicting other missionaries has been well demonstrated in his earlier biographies. Those same skills are displayed in this present volume on one of the pioneer missionaries in the Middle East. The story of Martyn’s life has its highs and its lows, its joys and its sorrows, but Jim Cromarty is able to balance the varied aspects of his life in a gripping presentation. As a missionary account this is excellent, and I commend it wholeheartedly.’

Allan M. Harman, former principal of
the Presbyterian Theological College, Melbourne, Australia
and editor of Reformed Theological Review

Jim Cromarty is a retired minister of the Presbyterian Church of Eastern Australia. He also taught for twenty-seven years in a number of primary schools in Australia, before becoming principal of a large primary school. He is the author of several books published by Evangelical Press, including King of the Cannibals — The story of John G. Paton, A Mighty Fortress is our God — The story of Martin Luther and The Pigtail and Chopsticks Man — The story of J. Hudson Taylor and the China Inland Mission.

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