THE STRAIN BEGINS TO TELL.

The truce which followed the visit of Schwartz to Hyder Ali was short lived. While the missionary, not without many misgivings, had returned to complete his church and care for his flock, the storm clouds were already on the horizon. His health he finds is not quite so good, the arduous travelling and exposure, in addition to constant preaching work, has begun to tell on him. He complains in some of his letters of pains in his shoulder and side. He is thankful that he can still go out as usual. “For though I was not confined,” he writes, “my right arm gave me so much pain that I was unfit to write, nay to hold a book with it. But now it is much better by the mercy of God. He is the author and preserver of our lives.”

“If He be pleased to let us stand for some time O may He grant us strength to live to His glory and praise! Our time is in His hand.” He is shocked at the luxurious and sinful life which the Europeans are living, careless and corrupt, on the edge of a volcano but blind to consequences. This degeneration in the character of the white men utterly discredited them in the dark watchful eyes of the natives. The tearing up of treaties and breaking of solemn promises had exasperated Hyder Ali and made him resolve to sweep the English with their rotten government into the sea. His ambition was like a roaring furnace; while the enemies were fiddling and dancing he was preparing the immense army of nearly an hundred thousand well trained men, led by French officers and equipped for immediate battle. He swept onward, wasting, burning, killing, behind him a smoking desolation and before him a terror struck and fleeing people. His objective was Madras and then a clean sweep of the enemy all through the Carnatic. It seems inconceivable that the Government could, from sheer apathy, wilful ignorance and vicious living, become so incompetent as to make no provision for defence and take no notice of impending doom until the black clouds of smoke and lurid flames almost reached the City. Here is the comment of Schwartz upon the position:

“Our leaders pursued other things; the welfare of the public was entirely forgotten, private interests, pleasure, luxury were come to a stupendous height. They were warned three months before Hyder’s invasion but they despised the warning saying, ‘Hyder might as well fly as come into the Carnatic!’ None could persuade them to the contrary till they saw his horse at their garden houses. Then consternation seized them, nothing but confusion was visible. Hyder pursued his plan, took one fort after another, till he got possession of Arcot.... Now what is to be done? I say with Jeremy! ‘Be thou not terrible unto me, O God’. This calamity is from the Lord and doubtless He intends to purge us from our sins and take away our dross ... our infidelity, our contempt of divine things is beyond description and brings upon us the wrath of God. Heathens and nominal Christians were asleep and minding nothing but the things of this world. Who knows but they may arise on hearing the thundering voice of the law.”

The grain stores having been destroyed by the enemy, no seed was sown, no harvest could be reaped, and famine, gaunt and deadly, stalked through the land. No strong men were left, only wandering skeletons were met within the miserable and devastated villages. Hyder carried off the healthy children and the flower of the people, the rest were left to die, as Schwartz says: “When passing through the streets early in the morning, the dead were lying in heaps on the dunghills.” And here in this extremity we see the forethought and practical wisdom of Schwartz. With the anticipation of such a famine he had purchased twelve thousand bushels of rice, and when it seemed as if the soldiers would die for want of food, he went to the natives, who had lost all confidence in the word of a European, and got them to bring in their animals and stores, making himself personally responsible that they should be duly paid. “I afterwards settled with the natives and they went home quite satisfied. The Lord also enabled me to consider the poor, so that I had it in my power to feed a large number for the space of seventeen months.”

“Our fort,” he writes, “contained the best part of the inhabitants of the country, who flocked hither to escape the unrelenting cruelty of the enemy. Daily we conversed with these people and tried to convince them of the vanity of their idols and to induce them to return to the living God. They readily own the superior excellence of the Christian doctrine, but remain in their deplorable errors for various frivolous reasons. It were to be wished that the country people having suffered nearly four years all manners of calamity would consider the things which belong to their eternal welfare, for which my assistants pray and labour in conjunction with me. But though this fruit of our labour has not hitherto answered our wishes, still I am happy in being made an instrument of Providence to instruct some and to warn others. Who knows but there may come a time when others may reap what we are sowing.”

This was the period when another crisis had arisen in the great political drama of Indian history, and again, to save the situation, another great Englishman entered the field. What Clive had won, it was the duty of Warren Hastings to hold and make sure. He had not only to stem the warlike onrush of a man like Hyder Ali but he had to counterplot and play successfully the wily stratagems of native intrigue. He saved the Company from bankruptcy and made the path of English government safe and possible in India, yet he ended sadly, harried to death by the bitterness of his enemies at home, and the proud head, which overawed the East, bowed in heart-break in his native land.

Of Warren Hastings it has been truly said as regards these closing years of persecution and bitterness:

“His life, his heroism, his proud reserve and confident assurance that all his failings and faults arose from a single-minded desire to carry out the intentions of his time, are summed up in the words by which he declared his own vindication and his accuser’s condemnation:

“‘I gave you all, and you have rewarded me with confiscation, disgrace and a life of impeachment.’”

This terrible fighting gave evidence of the high regard in which Schwartz was held by both combatants. It is perhaps not surprising that the English whose cause he had served so well in a diplomatic mission should be glad to give him every advantage, but it is remarkable that a tyrant like Hyder Ali should give orders to his officers “to permit the venerable padre to pass unmolested and to show him respect and kindness, for he is a holy man and means no harm to my government.”

The death of Hyder Ali in 1782 did not end the war. His son Tippoo, exceeding his father in cruelty and vindictive oppression, was inspired to retrieve his reverses and carry the conflict against the English to the bitter end. For a time, however, the tide of war was against his arms and, the French troops having left him on the declaration of peace in Europe, the English Commander Fullerton was advancing upon Mysore itself, when he was stopped by the half hearted policy of the Madras Government, who had received from Tippoo a request for peace. Once more in their difficulty an appeal was made, this time by Lord Macartney, to Schwartz, that he should accompany the commissioners on their visit to Tippoo’s camp, to which, for the same just reasons as before, he agreed. At the same time he pointed out in plainest terms the folly of stopping Colonel Fullerton when he had an enemy at a disadvantage, and forecasted further trouble, if indeed it did not render his mission futile. In his conversation with this brave officer he fully sympathised with him in the disappointment and greatly regretted the step that had been taken.

In writing to the Madras Government Colonel Fullerton in a very handsome manner acknowledged the value of the service of the missionary.

“On our second march we were visited by the Rev. Mr. Schwartz whom your Lordship and the Board requested to proceed as a faithful interpreter between Tippoo and the commissioners. The knowledge and the integrity of this irreproachable missionary have retrieved the character of the Europeans from imputations of general depravity.”

The attempt to reach Tippoo in accordance with Lord Macartney’s wishes was frustrated by the turning back of Schwartz for some unknown reason, whether it was because, unlike his father, Tippoo, in his desire to insult an Englishman, did not hesitate to show disrespect to this aged missionary, or because he did not mean to confer until the district of Mangalore was in his possession. Schwartz said that he would have been very glad to have helped to make peace but he was thankful he was spared the strain for he was far from well, and when a further request was made he felt justified in declining it. Though he could not go himself he prayed earnestly that the commissioners might be guided aright in their interview with this violent man. He also sees behind all this what a tragedy of misery, sin and cruelty is going on.

“I entreat God to bless them,” he says, “with wisdom, resolution and integrity, to settle the business to the welfare of this poor country. But alas! We ourselves are so divided—one pulls one way, the other quite a different one. When one considers all, high and low, rich and poor, rulers and those that are ruled, one is struck with grief and a variety of passions. What blindness, insensibility, and obstinacy, greediness, and rapaciousness. A thousand times I think with myself: ‘Good God, must all these people die—must they all give a strict account of their lives—must they all appear before the tribunal of Jesus, the mediator and judge? How little do they mind their end, and the consequences of their lives?’”

There is no doubt that at this time Schwartz was feeling the effect of his long life of incessant work, and in his letters to his friends he asks their prayers that more strength may be given him. He tells that while at present in no position of pain, his weakness is great and that speaking or walking so fatigue him that he can hardly stand. He has spent so many years in the work, under a trying climate, without any furlough, that it is no wonder that he begins to fail under the burden of a labour he has borne so long. Not that he complained; Schwartz was one of those men who consider themselves last and scorn to make much of either their physical pains or their difficult circumstances. He dismisses the question of his illness with almost an apology for referring to it.

“Enough of this, age comes upon me, I have no reason therefore to wonder at weakness. If the mind be sound all is well, the rest we shall quit when we enter into the grave. That will cure all our bodily indispositions.... Our time is short. Within some days I have sojourned in this country thirty-four years. The end of my journey is, even according to the course of nature, near. May I not flag! May my last days be my best!”

Few missionaries either then or since have preached so many sermons, every one worked out with so much carefulness and so rich in thought. And yet he had no time to prepare in the ordinary sense; he never wrote out his sermons and was content with putting on a piece of paper the principal points of his discourse, which was otherwise quite extempore. From one of these notes a brief extract will be interesting; he is speaking on the condition of a believer and how love, his favourite theme, must be paramount in his heart. “Let us now represent a person truly believing in Jesus and united to Him, washed from his sins, strengthened by His Spirit, and cheered with the hope of an unspeakably glorious crown hereafter. Being endowed with such a gracious faith and lively hope, what shall he do? What will be the effect of such a faith or hope? Love towards God and all men. A person that is blessed with such faith and hope cannot but love God and all mankind and that from the bottom of his heart. He looks upon God as his Father who has loved him in an unspeakable manner, who sent His only begotten Son into the world for his eternal happiness, who has called him out of darkness into marvellous light, who has blessed him with pardon, peace and hope, and this heartily inclines him to love Him sincerely and ardently. The conclusion which St. John draws from the love of God towards us is very natural. ‘We love him because he first loved us.’ Such a Christian will esteem and venerate, adore and praise God, keep His commandments, His Sabbath Day, His word. Love will teach him all this. His soul and body he will present as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God, which will be his reasonable service. Such an one will not be conformed to this world but transformed by the renewing of his mind, that he may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Whether he eats or drinks, or whatever he does, he will endeavour to do it to the glory of God.

“Let us seriously examine our hearts and lives whether we have loved God in such a manner. Have we venerated Him and His Divine Name above all? Have we delighted in Him so as to renounce sinful pleasures? Have we endeavoured to glorify God or to promote the honour of His Name among those with whom we live? Have we worshipped Him privately and publicly, in such a manner as to inspire others with devotion? Have we kept the Lord’s Day in a holy manner?

“And as he loves God he will likewise love his neighbour, and that not only externally but from his heart. The sense of the love of God will be to him instead of a thousand commandments. He will love the souls of his fellow creatures, the ignorant he will instruct by word and example, the wicked he will endeavour to convert and lead them into the path of pity; the poor and afflicted he will assist, nourish and comfort, according to the ability which God hath given him. He will take care not to offend or injure his neighbour, either in his fortune or his name. So that backbiting, envy, strife, malice will be far from him, and all this will flow from a principle of faith and hope.

“What a happiness it would be if all Christians were actuated by such love or desire of making others happy here and hereafter!

“Let us therefore ask you seriously before that God who knows your hearts and ways, do you love your neighbours sincerely? Is it the bent of your lives not only to honour your God but likewise to make your fellow creatures happy? Have you showed a tender regard to their eternal welfare? You see thousands before your eyes sitting in darkness and the shadow of death. Have you endeavoured at least by your example to convince them of the purity and excellence of your religion? Have you discouraged vice and wickedness or have you promoted it and so laid a stumbling block before your ignorant and careless fellow-creatures? Have you assisted the poor and needy in their distressful circumstances or have you been regardless of their misery?

“Let us examine our hearts seriously and whatever we find in our behaviour to have been against the will of God let us immediately repent of it and beg forgiveness in the name of Jesus Christ. Cultivate these three principles, faith, hope, and love, and you will glorify God, enjoy true happiness and edify your fellow-creatures—which God grant!”

Travelling into Tinnevelley, we find Schwartz busy establishing a Christian church at Palamcotta where a number of converts had gathered together and with the help of some English gentlemen had built a little church, and here he preached to a good congregation, with eighty persons, to whom he administered the Sacrament. He is not, however, unmindful of the need of discipline and some elements in the church were rather unsatisfactory. “But this,” he adds, “is no more than what are usually united together, wheat and chaff.”

The worldliness of the European residents was always a disturbing aspect in the eyes of Schwartz, and writing to his friend Mr. Chambers on 20th July, 1785, he speaks of these things, knowing that his correspondent as an earnest Christian will appreciate what he says:

“How much is squandered away in what is called fashionable living, to no purpose but rather to the worst! Health, strength, conscience, and the sweetest sense of the favour of God are lost—for what! Though we are not to serve God for the sake of temporal advantages, we shall find that true unfeigned ‘godliness’ is profitable even to all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come! The people of the world love both. Their tumultuous mirth does not deserve the name of joy and is always closely attended and embittered by unspeakable disquietude and anxiety, which they must feel so soon as they begin to reflect....

“Be this our aim—and may our hearts (ah! our slippery hearts) never swerve from the path to that heavenly Canaan! May we never murmur or lust after the things which we have once renounced! May we be faithful unto death and so realize the crown of life! Remember me likewise when you come before the throne of mercy that my approaching age may not be unfruitful but blessed.”