IN TOUCH WITH THE BRAHMINS.

The early experiences of a missionary on arriving in his field of work abroad will sometimes dissipate a little of the romance which fancy had gathered about his outlook, and will instead reveal quite unexpected difficulties to try his faith, forcing him to a fuller dependence on God. On the other hand, all that is best in him of inspiration and devotion is deepened by the fact of his seeing as never before the unutterable need of his message and recognising his clear call to give that in the name of his Master. And seeing that the highest summits of success can only be attained by simple and persevering steps, he will apply himself with prayerful fidelity to these necessary details of his new position. His call was instant, his fitness for it must be attained by hard work and patient application.

All this was true of Schwartz. He faced the difficulty of language, seeing that unless he could speak to the people in their own tongue it was of no use his coming so far to be a missionary in India. It will be seen that he found that from the native children there was much to be learnt in this direction, and his easy access to their hearts, for he was particularly fond of young people, was very useful as an open door to future usefulness. Not only did he exercise his gift as a linguist in gaining a knowledge of the native languages, but he learnt Portuguese, because amongst his hearers were many of that nationality. It was also his aim to know not only the language but the people themselves, to know how they lived, what were their difficulties, and as regards their present religion how they stood in respect to Christianity. He began his work with an unshaken confidence in his right and authority to be where he was and do the will of his God according to his abilities. On this point, from the very beginning, he never had a shadow of doubt. Very humbly and sincerely he wrote: “It is a sweet comfort to my heart that I am enabled to say, ‘It is thou, O my God, who hast conducted me to these parts, I have not run hither of my own accord but would rather have declined the call, if Thine unseen hand had not retained me. O therefore help and bestow upon me all necessary wisdom, grace, and strength for this office!’

“My gracious God has already manifested so many proofs of His paternal love towards me that I cannot but remember the word of the Lord Jesus which He spoke to upright Nathanael, ‘Thou shalt see greater things than these.’ May the Lord give me grace that like Nathanael I may use the proofs of divine goodness and mercy which I have hitherto experienced, and as a solid foundation and confirmation of my faith. If henceforth I do not behold the glory of God then verily unbelief will be the cause of it. At Nazareth my Saviour did not many mighty works because of their unbelief. Now Lord grant faith, and that lively faith!...

“I humbly praise God that during the year I have been here He, notwithstanding all my imperfections, hath borne with me with great patience and forbearance; hath been daily nigh unto my soul and hath kindly refreshed me. If I have not had the same enjoyments daily, the fault was on my own side. Now this goodness, long suffering and patience of our Lord, I shall account my Salvation, according to St. Peter’s exhortation.

“As to external things, God has given me life and health and has made the climate and the heat supportable, so that though my breathing was sometimes oppressive yet I have not been induced to complain. Praised be His name also for this special help! Whoever always reposes in the good and holy will of God saves himself much trouble, and makes that supportable which an impatient and unsubdued self-will renders intolerable. May the Lord subdue this self-will more and more by the power of the Cross of Christ!”

He looks back with thankfulness on his Tamil studies at the University of Halle. He discovers that after preaching in that language conversation becomes much easier. He starts a catechetical class in the Tamil or Malabar School and “with the youngest lambs, I thus learned to stammer.” From time to time he makes excursions into the district round Tranquebar and discusses points of doctrine and difficulty which are presented to him by inquirers. Here we see the tact of Schwartz, his readiness to reply to any question, and at the same time, while giving a clear statement of the claims of the Gospel, he would not offend or hurt the religious feelings of his listeners. It was also necessary to exercise great care in testing the reality and sincerity of those who presented themselves for baptism. Schwartz was not satisfied with a superficial adhesion to the Christian faith; he felt that the work would be hindered so much by the instability or inconsistency of those professing Christianity. While much of his work lay among the lowest caste natives, he frequently met and conversed with thoughtful and inquiring Hindus of the higher grade.

One day one of these, a Hindu merchant, said to him: “God has created us to the end that we should know and serve Him.” This simple and accurate proposition was of course agreed to by Schwartz, but he added that unfortunately, although God had given him and many of his countrymen a knowledge of the end of their creation, yet they remained in idolatry and thus unhappily never attained to it. After this he pointed out how Christ had come to reveal the will of God and Himself as the way, the truth, and the life to all sinners.

But then, to a far greater extent than now, the difficulty in the minds of unbelievers was the inconsistent lives and character of professing Christians. The European population was by no means a good example of what the Christian religion did for a man; of course, in many cases the difficulty arose from the common mistake of supposing that because a man had a white face and came from a Christian country he was necessarily himself a Christian. A wealthy native merchant who was growing old and could speak in Danish, English, and French, came with this respectful inquiry—“Sir, be not displeased, I wish to ask you a question. Do all Europeans speak like you?” To this Schwartz made answer that all Europeans were unfortunately not true Christians, but there were many amongst them who were sincere and real in their belief in Christ, and these prayed for the conversion of the Hindus. This was, however, a surprise to this honest and venerable inquirer, and he frankly expressed his opinion of the Christians with whom he had met, who at any rate were Europeans: “You astonish me, for from what we daily observe and experience we cannot but think them, with very few exceptions, to be self-interested, incontinent, proud, full of illiberal contempt and prejudice against us Hindus and even against their own religion, especially the higher classes. So at least I have found it with the majority of those with whom I have had any intercourse.” Still more plainly did the girl pupil of a Hindu dancing master retort when Schwartz told them that no wicked and unholy person could possibly enter the Kingdom of heaven. “Alas, sir,” she cried bitterly, “in that case hardly any European will ever enter it.”

In some cases the discussion of Christianity revealed the philosophic and alert mind of the Hindu. Schwartz had one day been preaching the Gospel when a Hindu raised the point with him that he and others in India really worshipped the same God as the Christians only they gave him another name. To this argument Schwartz replied:

“The true God must possess Divine perfections, such as supreme wisdom, omniscience, omnipotence, holiness, justice. Now nothing of this is found in your divinities, but by your own records, ignorance, impurity, cruelty. How can it be said of such that they are gods? You have a proverb that where sin is, there is no excellence. Now you acknowledge the practices ascribed to your gods to be sinful; consequently by your own confession they are unworthy of the name.”

“That is very true,” replied the Hindu, “but if we receive even what is false and think it to be true in our heart, it is done to us according to our faith.”

“How can you adopt,” said Schwartz, “a sophism which you yourselves on other occasions reject? You are accustomed to say, ‘if one writes the word sugar and then licks his finger, it will not on that account become sweet, though he believe it ever so firmly.’”

Here is a striking statement made by another to the missionary one day—it is the unbelief of a later day in its old setting. We can imagine Schwartz, with his keen intellect, watching this caviller as he tries to throw the net of a fine spun objection upon the teaching of the missionary.

“I am surprised to hear you say,” urged this clever Hindu, “that if we forsake Paganism our souls will be happy and that if we do not God will punish us. What is the soul? A breath which when it has left the body is blown away with other winds. You may perceive this by holding the hand to a dying person’s mouth to feel whether there is yet breath. If there be, life is still in him. Thus breath and the soul are one and the same thing. Who then can say that wind shall be punished? What is God? Can He be seen? He is the universe. I die—that means nothing more than that my body is resolved into its original elements—water, fire, earth, air. But the existence of such a spirit within me as you speak of, I believe not. Where is it when I sleep, when I see no one, or though one touch me I do not feel it?”

Schwartz quietly and with careful reasoning strove to put him right. He felt he was dealing with the problem of the soul in every age, in every country, his own as well as under an Indian sky, the questionings of a spirit wanting, perhaps, behind all its cavillings, to find the truth, at any rate feeling its need of direction, but ignoring the only key, the only guiding hand. He spoke to this Hindu of the operations of the soul, such as thinking, judging, determining, and asked whether mind was capable of these. Then lifting his thought to a higher plane he pointed out the arguments for the existence of a soul, how this constituted his immortal part and personality, which being endowed with understanding and will can act for itself and knows the fluctuations of sorrow, anxiety, and pain, as well as joy and satisfaction. Then he opened to him the Scriptures and showed him from St. Paul’s Epistle to the Corinthians the doctrine of the resurrection from the dead. It will be seen how Schwartz drew his strength from the Bible—the book he loved—which was the power and inspiration behind all his soul.

His readiness to answer questions and the pleasant welcome he gave to all inquirers attracted to his side many who had been set thinking by his words. It is remarkable how the fit word was given him.

“If I become a Christian,” asked one of the natives standing by, “how shall I be maintained?” A justifiable question in India where the profession of the faith meant so much loss. Schwartz replied, “Work and pray,” handing to the man the open Gospel of St. Matthew in Tamil, and the words upon which his eyes lighted were from the sixth chapter and verses thirty-one to thirty-three: “Take no thought, saying, what shall we eat and what shall we drink, or wherewithal shall we be clothed? For after all these things do the Gentiles seek, for your Heavenly Father knoweth that you have need of all these things. But seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you.”

About this time he received tidings of serious reverses which had befallen his home at Sonnenburg. A disastrous fire which had broken out in the little town had burnt down his father’s house and in his letter of the 8th October, 1753, he expresses his desire to help all he can. Although so far away he is anxious to sustain his father in these new difficulties.

“I have been thinking,” he writes, “of some means of performing my duty as a son, in sending home some little assistance. I have a watch given me in England and request that you will sell it to some watchmaker and send the proceeds to my father.”

The capacity which Schwartz displayed and his increasing influence amongst the converts as well as upon the natives who gathered to listen to his message so impressed the brethren of the mission that they gladly handed over to him the oversight of the branches and schools south of the river Cavery. This entailed upon him a good deal of travelling, and on one occasion he went with his colleague, Mr. Kohlhoff, to visit Cuddalore. The journey had to be made on foot, and when they rested their time was occupied in reading the Hebrew Psalms to each other and whenever opportunity offered they preached the Gospel to the crowds which gathered round. In some cases the message was not well received, as when their boatmen who were taking them across the Coleroon refused to hear what they had to say about Christianity. But pulling up by a wood the party got out of the boat and soon found a number of Hindus, Mohammedans and a Roman Catholic native to whom they preached, and the Romanist afterwards spoke to them in private, asking for advice and instruction. It was then the practice to punish a man guilty of stealing by cutting off a limb and one of these mutilated robbers came to Schwartz and begged for a plaster to heal the wound where his foot had been amputated. This help was given him, but while his bodily pain was being treated he was directed to the great Physician who was alone able to save his soul. One man said, as a tract was offered him, “We follow our rulers.” “Then,” replied the missionary, “follow God, He is the Supreme Ruler of us all.”

When they arrived at Cuddalore the brethren in the mission received them with thankfulness, and during their short stay they took part in the weekly conference which was founded by Ziegenbalg. He had established it upon lines of simple and practical wisdom with these words:

“The weekly conference which we hold every Friday with all the labourers is of the greatest utility in keeping the mission work in order. For on that day, in the forenoon, we pray to God for wisdom and counsel and each relates how he has been employed or what has occurred in the congregations and schools and in the printing and bookbinding offices and in the private houses. Here everything that might occasion disorder or detriment is adjusted and those means are adopted which may best promote the general good. The conference being over the Portuguese and Tamil assistants make a report of their labours and of whatever may be wanting, that as far as possible it may be supplied.”

It is interesting to note that this excellent arrangement continued for about a hundred years after the death of Ziegenbalg, a testimony to his wise administration. In addition to this meeting Schwartz held what they called a “colloquium biblicum,” reading together those striking verses in the tenth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles where St. Peter declares the great missionary mandate that “God is no respecter of persons but in every nation he that feareth Him and worketh righteousness is accepted with Him.” There was something very Apostolic about the visit of Schwartz and his companion to this mission station, the gatherings together for prayer and exposition of the Scriptures, the gracious influence which broke down all barriers and cheered every heart in mutual love, then finally the solemn covenant before God to bear one another’s burdens and preach the Gospel to the heathen around. Schwartz with his hands outstretched gave them his blessing: “Now the Lord has heard what we have spoken before Him. May He give us life, strength, and prosperity!”

The brethren accompany their visitors a little way on their road back and then bid them farewell.

They journey homewards with thankful spirits for all they have seen and been permitted to do and in due time come within sight of Tranquebar, where one of the brethren hastens forward to bid them welcome home. As they get near to the mission house the Tamil school children come slowly forward singing the metrical version of Ecclesiasticus l. 22-24: “Now let us praise the Lord,” their sweet childish voices bringing a smile to the faces of the returning missionaries. Then the other brethren come forward and the Danish soldiers stationed at the place join in the welcome. Schwartz lifts up his voice in prayer and praise.

“Praised be Thy name, O Lord, in profound humility, for all the grace, protection, and blessing during the whole of our journey Thou hast graciously bestowed upon us of Thine undeserved mercy for the sake of Christ, our Mediator! May the seed of Thy word, which we Thy poor servants have sowed on our journey, spring up and produce abundant fruits that we and those who have received the word in their hearts, may praise and adore Thy goodness to all eternity! May the mission with our brethren at Cuddalore, which has been renewed afresh in Thy sacred presence, be productive of abundant blessing! Our supplications, which we have jointly brought before Thy footstool, with regard to ourselves and the flock entrusted to us, vouchsafe graciously to hear and let us perceive it for the strengthening of our faith. And thus begin anew to bless us and to prosper the work of our hands. Yes, prosper thou our handiwork, O Lord, for the sake of Christ and of His bitter sufferings and death! Amen.”