A GLIMPSE OF THE MAN HIMSELF.

The time occupied by a missionary in mastering the language of the people to whom he ministers is always well spent. To some this task presents difficulties which make the process arduous and prolonged, to others, happy in a natural facility for learning another tongue, success is more easily and quickly achieved. There is no doubt that Schwartz had very remarkable linguistic capacities. To him one language more or less did not seem to matter; we have seen how he was fully at home with Tamil, and he discovered that as Persian was the language of the Mohammedans’ Court he ought to know it, and that Hindustani would also be of service in speaking in the presence of the Nabobs and high Indian officials, so he must learn that too. So on his way he had a word for everybody, the door of opportunity was the tongue of the people, and each in his own language heard the word of God. Whatever the station or caste, it was just the same, their questions were respectfully answered, and they felt that in this missionary a friend was speaking to them and also one who knew more than they.

Schwartz and his friend walking by the sea-shore sit down to talk with a group of fishermen. One of them answers with the bitterness of conscious poverty, “You are not in want and are therefore not prevented from serving God,” but Schwartz points to the mighty deep with its inexhaustible treasures and tells of the mercy of God. A passing Brahmin asks why they have come hither. “From Tranquebar,” answers Schwartz, “for the purpose of addressing to you the tidings of salvation.” For a few moments the message was given, how the Lord of Heaven called upon them to enjoy peace and happiness in another world. “What would you have us to do?” The answer came simple and clear: “We earnestly exhort you to repentance towards God and faith in Jesus Christ.” “We do worship God,” they replied, “and He being omnipresent we may as well worship Him under the form of a stone.” Schwartz then pointed out that there was no likeness of the living God, either in heaven above or in this earth beneath, and that therefore it was dishonouring Him to worship Him in the form of anything corruptible.

He overtakes a young Brahmin carrying the idol Ramen on a bench of wood and as he walks with him for some distance the opportunity is given of opening up the Scriptures and pointing out that idolatry can never help and only Christ can redeem us from our sin. Sometimes inquirers come to him, drawn by curiosity as to what this Christian religion really means.

One day as he sat under a shady tree reading an English tract on the parable of the Prodigal Son an old Hindu, who had often refused to listen to his Christian sermons, now came with others and begged to know what he was reading. Schwartz told him that it was a narrative of the truly paternal conduct of God towards us and of our refusal to render due obedience to His kind and gentle government, thus abusing His mercies and bringing upon ourselves distress and misery. Notwithstanding this, there was, he went on to say, a way opened by which we might return to our justly offended Maker and become partakers of His grace and benediction. The old man being pleased with this parable, he proceeded to relate to him that of the Sower, telling him why the seed did not everywhere bring forth good fruit. He comprehended this also perfectly and asked whether God is not omnipresent. “Yes,” replied the missionary, “He sees everything that passes on earth whether it is good or evil but His omnipresence is formidable to the wicked.” The Hindu then said, “In my heart inwardly I worship God.” “If that is the case,” answered Schwartz, “your outward conduct must prove the reverence you profess to entertain in your heart towards the Almighty. What would you think of a man who reproached and even struck you, while he contended that he had cordial love for you in his heart?” The Hindu confessed that he could not value such love. “Neither,” Schwartz concluded, “can God accept the homage which you profess to feel inwardly for Him, while in your words and conduct you deny and dishonour Him.”

It is very curious to observe how these Hindus and Brahmins constantly took up the ground that they were already worshipping God and did not need to change their faith to please Him. When Schwartz was visiting Caroor, twelve miles from Trichinopoly, he made a special effort to reach these high caste men with the Gospel. He says of them:—

“They listened with great attention to all that I told them of the supreme excellence of the true God and of the redemption of mankind from their fallen state by His Son Jesus Christ. The next day I assembled a number of natives under a tree and explained to them the Christian doctrine. They felt how vain and irrational it was to worship their numerous deities and fully approved of the doctrine of one God, Creator of Heaven and Earth. I also visited a Brahmin, who was considered the richest inhabitant of the place; he allowed me without interruption to expose the folly of idolatry and then said, ‘I also worship God.’ We were interrupted by the arrival of a Hindu who fell on his face before him. The Brahmin took some ashes, which he spread over the poor man. I told him how wrong he acted in accepting honours which were due to God alone. Enraged at this reproach he exclaimed, ‘Prove that there is only one God.’ This I did by directing his attention to the great works of Creation. He dismissed me by saying, ‘In the same way that we bow before the body of a man and yet mean to pay respect to his soul, we bow before images and intend to worship God,’ a plausible excuse which has been argued in favour of idolatry in all ages, but which is at once derogatory to the majesty of the Supreme Being and destructive of all true and acceptable worship.”

In a letter written about this time Schwartz opens his heart to his friend at Halle on his own spiritual experience, and from this we can gather how simple was his faith in God.

“With respect to my present circumstances I feel constrained to bless God for the manifold mercies showered down in the past year upon me, the least of His servants, through Christ’s atonement and intercessions. He has supported me day by day in the most gracious manner, He has instructed and reproved me by His Spirit, He has never left me without consolation—there my soul does magnify the Lord and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour. Indeed, I have the greatest cause for gratitude, for the Lord has regarded the low estate of His servant, my joy is not extravagant but calm and abiding, and my great aim is to know that I am the Lord’s through Christ, that I have found grace in His sight, that His peace rests upon me, that I can confidently approach Him in prayer and have a certain hope of Eternal life; so that even days of sickness cannot deprive me of these consolations.

“Many of the Roman Catholics in this place acknowledge the superior advantages which the pure Gospel has over the confused doctrines and traditions of men; which instead of relieving, only oppress the conscience. When I visit them in their houses they listen to me gladly, and I affectionately invite them to convince themselves of the full, perfect and sufficient sacrifice, oblation and satisfaction made by Christ for the sins of the whole world as the foundation of their faith; and that, believing this, they may enjoy peace of conscience and become partakers of the precious blessings obtained for them by His sufferings and death upon the Cross. I point out to them what Jesus Christ Himself has taught respecting the way which leadeth unto life and how much the Romish Church has deviated from the pure doctrine of the Gospel. Father let Thy kingdom come! O send forth faithful labourers into Thy harvest!”

Sooner or later, in a country so disturbed by war and strife, Schwartz was sure to get his baptism of fire, and we find him praised as of great service in the siege of Madura. Within the walls of this city Mahomed Issoof, who at one time held a high appointment as commander of the English Sepoys and had been active in reducing the refractory tribes to order, was now defending the place against his old employers. During one of the unsuccessful assaults on the place Major Preston, a friend of Schwartz, was killed and his dead body with all honours was restored to the British camp.

Eventually Mahomed Issoof was betrayed by one of his own people and afterwards treated with great severity. It is not clear in what manner Schwartz distinguished himself in this conflict—doubtless he would succour the sick and care for the dying soldiers—but it is possible that his great personal influence was for the first time used with the natives on behalf of the British cause. When it was all over a large sum was presented to him and he generously devoted the whole of it to the use of the mission and for the support of the orphans of English soldiers who had fallen in the fight. This was the first time in which we find Schwartz using his influence as a peaceful helper in time of conflict; later we shall see with what success he played the part of diplomatist at a crisis in the affairs of India.

He had made many friends already among the English people; one of these was Mr. William Chambers, an important official to the East India Company and a man of great character and ability. He was a master of Oriental languages and took a deep interest in missionary work as a corresponding member of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. So close was his intimacy with Schwartz that he had intended to write an account of his life and labours, but this was cut short by his death and so only a fragment of rough notes is left. From this, however, we gain some interesting particulars of the mission, and, particularly, the only glimpse of the striking personality, as Mr. Chambers knew him, of Schwartz at this time. He explains in this fragment of biography that he first made his acquaintance with Schwartz when on a visit to Trichinopoly from Madras in order that he might perfect his knowledge of Tamil and Persian, and during a prolonged stay, in a season of ill health, he came in very intimate touch with the missionary who was so well qualified to help him with those languages. Besides this reason, however, he had a desire by personal inquiry to estimate the value of the work in which Schwartz was engaged.

“I had often heard mentioned,” he writes, “of Mr. Schwartz before I went thither, as a man of great zeal and piety, and of considerable attainments in the language of the country, but as these accounts were in general given me by those who viewed the excellence of a religious character through the medium of popular prejudice, my ideas of him were very imperfect, and as I myself had then scarcely any better rule of judgment, a preconceived notion of great strictness and austerity had mixed itself with everything I had heard in his praise. The first sight of him, however, made a complete revolution in my mind as to this point. His garb, indeed, which was pretty well worn, seemed foreign and old-fashioned, but in every other respect his appearance was the reverse of all that could be called forbidding or morose. Picture to yourself a stout well made man, somewhat about the middle age, erect in his carriage and address, with a complexion rather dark, though healthy, black curled hair and a manly engaging countenance, expressive of unaffected candour, ingenuousness and benevolence, and you will have an idea of what Mr. Schwartz appeared to be at first sight. During the intimacy which I had afterwards the happiness to contract with him I learnt his past history.”

Mr. Chambers, after giving an account of the early days of the missionary, and his work as tutor in the University at Halle, reveals to us from the testimony of an observer how thoroughly Schwartz worked in order to qualify himself to the utmost for his important labours. There was nothing superficial about this man, either as regards his personal character as a Christian or in his work amongst the natives; he never spared himself in taking pains to do his best for them and he was equally honest in testing their profession of Christianity and grounding them in the faith. Mr. Chambers tells us that the people among whom he had come to labour were a superior people with an ancient stock and through generations back had pursued learning and the arts and crafts with considerable success. They were worthy of the best efforts for their conversion to Christianity and these were put forth without stint.

“Mr. Schwartz, deeming it necessary, in order to converse with advantage with these people, to be well acquainted with their system of theology, whatever it was, spent five years, after he had attained some proficiency in their language, in reading their many mythological books only. Hard and irksome as this task must have been to a devout mind, he has reaped this benefit from it, that he can at any time command the attention of the Malabars by allusions to their favourite books and histories, which he never fails to make subservient to the truth. He also learnt at Tranquebar the Portuguese tongue, particularly that dialect of it which is used by the Portuguese who are natives of India.

“The missionaries have found great numbers of these, in every place at which they have settled, ready to embrace the Protestant faith, or who, having already embraced it, or been brought up in it as servants of Protestant masters, were in need of instruction and of pastors. Willing, therefore, to seek souls whenever they were to be found, they have all voluntarily added the study of Portuguese to that of Malabar and preach and instruct in that language also.

“Mr. Schwartz, however, while engaged in these pursuits at Tranquebar, found his province there somewhat confined and therefore sought and obtained permission to go and establish an English mission at Trichinopoly where the Gospel had not hitherto been preached, at least not for a continuance. He was there happy in a correspondence and frequent intercourse with another young missionary named Dame, who was settled at Tanjore and was as fervent and zealous as himself. The same spirit and the same pursuit soon threw them into the strictest bond of Christian friendship—the sublimest of all earthly affections. Their prayers, their labours and their souls, were united in the same glorious and never dying cause, for which they had both resigned all temporal prospects. But Mr. Schwartz did not long enjoy this source of comfort, for being called over suddenly to see his friend, he hastened to Tanjore and found him dead.

“At Trichinopoly he had much to do with very narrow means. His whole income was ten pagodas a month or about £48 per annum, and he had no other fund for making a new establishment. I must here, however, observe that though, computing at the usual rule of exchange, one hundred and twenty pagodas must be allowed to be equivalent to £48, yet if we estimate it according to the effective value of money in India and in England it will not be equal to half that sum. I mean that a European may live much better on £24 per annum than he could in India for one hundred and twenty pagodas. Let us see then how he managed with this income. He obtained of the commanding officer, who perhaps was ordered to furnish him with quarters, a room in an old Gentoo [i.e. Hindu] building, which was just large enough to hold his bed and himself and in which few men could stand upright. With this apartment he was contented. A dish of rice and vegetables dressed after the manner of the natives was what he could always sit cheerfully down to, and a piece of Chintz dyed black and other materials of the same homely sort sufficed him for an annual supply of clothing. Thus easily provided as to temporalities his only care was to ‘do the work of the evangelist.’ He preached to the natives incessantly, both in the town and in the villages around, and was not long without a congregation of converted Hindus, and among them three or four who were capable of instructing others, whom he therefore entertained as catechists and continued to maintain out of his little income.

“But these were not his only labours at Trichinopoly. He found there a large English garrison without a chaplain, and to these also he sought to be of service by every means in his power. The kindness of his heart and the unaffected simplicity of his manners soon procured him a civil reception among them and he improved this into an opportunity of gaining a knowledge of the English language, with which he was unacquainted at his first arriving. After he had made, however, but a small proficiency in English, he undertook to read the lessons to the garrison on Sundays and at the same time read them sermons from those of our English divines in whose writings he discovered an evangelical spirit. But since he has attained a more perfect acquaintance with our language he has proceeded to preach extempore, which I am told he still continues and is enabled to command the utmost attention in his auditory. It is indeed astonishing, if we consider the manners of our troops to India, how he has been able to persuade whole garrisons.

“At first he prevailed upon them to meet in a large apartment in the old Gentoo building, but in time the garrison resolved to subscribe to erect themselves a church, and the money which would have been thought by contractors a very inadequate sum has been so well husbanded, and the materials and work, in consequence of Mr. Schwartz’s knowledge of the country and its language, were procured so exceedingly cheap that a very handsome, lofty and roomy structure was raised out of it.”

At this point this fragment from the pen of Mr. Chambers comes to an abrupt close, but enough has been written to throw an interesting side light on the character and work of Mr. Schwartz at this period. The building referred to was duly completed as Christ’s Church, capable of holding from fifteen hundred to two thousand persons, with mission house and school adjoining, to complete which he gladly devoted the whole of his salary of £100, given to him by the government at Madras as chaplain to the garrison. Its dedication was on 18th May, 1766, a very impressive scene, when Schwartz, overflowing with thankfulness, in company with his good friends Col. and Mrs. Wood, acknowledged in prayer the goodness of God in bringing all this to pass. Some of the expressions of his earnest petition are still preserved. After the description from the memory of Mr. Chambers it is not difficult to imagine Schwartz standing reverently in this house of God for the first time, a crowd of Europeans and natives, especially the soldiers of the garrison, filling every seat. His prayer was:—

“Most gracious God, we humbly rejoice in the assurance of Thy holy word, that though Thou dwelledst not in temples made with hands, yet Thou delightest in the children of men, who as brethren meet together to confess their sins, to beg Thy Divine forgiveness, to implore Thy goodness and to praise Thy Holy Name.

“Be merciful therefore unto us and hear our prayer that we make before Thee in this place. As often as we from henceforth shall assemble here let Thy Spirit awaken our hearts to seek Thy face sincerely, without hypocrisy. As often as we shall hear Thy word, let us do it with an unfeigned intention to obey and keep it without exception. As often as Thy Holy Sacraments, which are means of entering into a covenant of love and obedience, are administered to this house, O be pleased to make them effectual to the salvation of our souls. And, finally, when strangers who do not know Thy name hear of all the glorious doctrines and methods of worshipping Thee preached in this house, incline, O mercifully incline, their hearts to renounce their abominable idolatry and to worship Thee, O God, in the name of Christ! In this manner make this a place where Thy name is glorified, Thy kingdom sought for, and Thy will duly performed....

“Frustrate all the machinations of the devil against this house, preserve it from all dangerous accidents, and let it long be what we from henceforth humbly call it, Christ’s Church.”

After this, with the consent of the Danish Mission and the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, he decided to make Trichinopoly his centre of work instead of Tranquebar.