There is one reason, amongst others, why the memory of Christian Frederick Schwartz deserves to be kept green in the history of missions. It is not generally known that the consuming passion for the conversion of the heathen which burned in the soul of Henry Martyn was kindled at the torch of this veteran witness for the faith. While still a student at Cambridge, Martyn was profoundly impressed by reading his journal and letters, and when he himself arrived in India, ten years after the death of Schwartz, he took counsel with many who, like Dr. Kerr, could stir his heart with first-hand stories of the venerable missionary they had known and loved so well. Happily for us, these records which moved Martyn so deeply are still preserved, fresh and vivid, a veritable classic in missionary literature.

The age of Schwartz, from a missionary point of view, has scarcely received adequate attention at the hand of the historian. In that hour of daybreak, missions were hardly in the making, and, as far as India is concerned, it may be said that the men who were destined to win the conquests of the Cross were still boys at their school-books; indeed, the most distinguished of them were yet unborn.

In those days the English were winning and stubbornly maintaining a precarious foothold in India by the ambition of the merchant, the soldier, and the diplomat; East and West had met in relentless struggle, and at the gates of the Orient the white man clamoured for power and conquest. Amid the glare of this conflagration of war, Schwartz and these early missionaries quietly pursued their sacred duties, and with weapons not carnal but spiritual fought their good fight of faith. The pages of history praise the great achievements of Clive, Warren Hastings, and Cornwallis as the fathers of our rule there, but surely Schwartz is also entitled to a niche of honour as one who laid the foundation of that reign of the Kingdom of God which thousands of faithful missionaries are promoting throughout the Indian Empire to-day. It is the sacred office of the Church to preserve the blessed memory of her standard-bearers and confessors: the world will look after its own.

The personality of Schwartz was unique. He seems to have combined, like Gordon, a singular tenderness with heroic strength of purpose—a man of action with a strain of mysticism, a very Bayard in purity and honour in an age when reputations in India suffered loss. As will be seen in these pages, he served the civil power well because the enemy could implicitly trust him. In the audience chamber of a pagan tyrant he was still a Christian missionary; he kept his hands clean of bribes, and his conscience of compromise; his character was a testimony that “there is no fear in love.”

He had to do his sowing on a very wild and stormy day, but, though we have now established the Pax Britannica, some of his difficulties still confront the modern missionary, and with all our progress and accomplished methods we find ourselves even now wistfully experimenting on problems which he too could not solve. If the compass of the present work permitted, one might be tempted to discuss a few of these points in modern missions, which Schwartz, standing on the threshold of the new era, foresaw and did his best to meet. But we have travelled far since then, and if this old-time missionary could re-visit India he would marvel at the change. He would find us still puzzled with the problems of caste, perfecting our widespread system of education, busy with elaborate schemes of vernacular literature. He would see European ladies carrying a sweet song and message of mercy behind the purdah, crowds of patients waiting at the door of the medical missionary, the suttee and the Juggernauth car stopped for ever, native judges presiding in the courts, and a native episcopate an accomplished fact.

But Schwartz would also see that our western culture has armed the educated Hindu with a scientific unbelief which is the destructive enemy of his religion and bitterly assails our own. With so much to thank God for he would also recognize that there is still need enough for fervent prayer and faith that India may be saved.

I may add that the quotations in these pages from the letters and journals of Schwartz are chiefly drawn from the original “Remains” published in 1826, and the two volumes of Dean Pearson’s “Memoirs” of 1839, supplemented by a few scattered gleanings from other fields. I should like also to express my indebtedness to the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, the Church Missionary Society, and many literary friends for placing at my disposal books of great service.