At last they came to him in such numbers that Martyn was obliged to
say to many of them that he could not see them. He hated sending them
away. What was it forced him to do so?
_The Race against Time_
It was because he was running a race against time. He knew that he
could not live very long, because the disease that had smitten his
lungs was gaining ground every day. And the thing that he had come
to Persia for--the object that had made him face the long voyage,
the frightful heat and the freezing cold of the journey, the life
thousands of miles from his home in Cornwall--was that he might finish
such a translation of the New Testament into Persian that men should
love to read years and years after he had died.
So each day Martyn finished another page or two of the book, written
in lovely Persian letters. He began the work within a week of reaching
Shiraz, and in seven months (February, 1812) it was finished. Three
more months were spent in writing out very beautiful copies of the
whole of the New Testament in this new translation, to be presented to
the Shah of Persia and to the heir to the throne, Prince Abbas Mirza.
Then he started away on a journey right across Persia to find the Shah
and Prince so that he might give his precious books to them.
Pages:
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238