|A Crowded Life.| The extraordinary accomplishment of Ziegenbalg has been far less well known than it deserves to be. Even if we do not take into account his frail health, the extent of his labors is little short of marvelous. His literary work alone would seem to have been enough to fill to the full the thirteen years of his missionary activity. In addition, he preached constantly; he made long journeys; he gave constant thought and effort to his schools; he looked after the poor; he established a theological seminary. From home came many criticisms. It was said that he made concessions to the caste system on the one hand; on the other he was criticised for not gathering in converts as rapidly as did the Roman Catholic missionaries who allowed their converts to keep all their old customs. He was reproached because he paid so much attention to the schools. The criticisms, however, which caused him anxiety and grief serve to-day but to call attention to his splendid common sense and excellent judgment, which later missionary experience has tested. The community of two hundred Christians which he left was not only converted--it was instructed and established in the faith.
|A Second Grave.| The death of Ziegenbalg left his friend, John Ernst Gründler, in charge of the mission. He had been a teacher at Halle and partook of the devotion of all connected with that great institution. For a short time he labored in Tranquebar alone. Soon after the arrival of three new missionaries he died and was buried in 1720 beside his beloved friend in the new church.
Of the three new missionaries, Benjamin Schultze assumed the management of the mission. He resembled Ziegenbalg in the variety of his talents. Like Ziegenbalg he felt the necessity for a careful instruction of the natives. He continued the work of translation, completing the Tamil Old Testament and translating a part of the Bible into Telugu and the whole into Hindustani. After doing faithful work, Schultze, being unwilling to accept the rulings of the mission which had sent him to India, entered the service of an English mission. After sixteen years in India he returned to Halle.
|The Mission Grows.| During the service of Schultze a mission station was established at Cuddalore in Madras. In 1733 the first native preacher who had been baptized by Ziegenbalg was ordained to the ministry. Schools were enlarged and another church was erected. Presently work was begun in Madura to the southeast of Tranquebar. By 1740, thirty-four years after Ziegenbalg had begun his work, the mission counted five thousand six hundred Christians.
In 1741 John Philip Fabricius arrived in India. He came from a godly family in Hesse and like Luther had given up the study of the law for the study of theology. For theology he had gone to Halle and there had heard the call of missions. On Good Friday in 1742 he preached his first Tamil sermon and on Christmas in that year he was assigned to the station established by Schultze in Madras where he remained till his death in 1791. Like his predecessors he became a thorough student in the native tongues.
|A Scholar.| He revised the translations of Ziegenbalg and Schultze in a form which remains unchanged to this day. To his translations the adjective “golden” has been applied. He translated also many hymns for the use of his congregation.
Together with a childlike simplicity and amiability Fabricius possessed great courage. He shared the hardships and dangers of his people during the “Thirty Years’ War in South India”, defending his congregation upon one occasion at the risk of his life.
Another Fabricius whose name should be recorded was that of Sebastian, the brother of John Philip, who was for many years the missionary secretary in Halle and the devoted friend of all missionaries.
Christian William Gericke, “a great and gifted man”, arrived in India in 1767, coming like his predecessors from Halle. His first field of labor was Cuddalore where he preached until war made necessary the abandonment of the mission. Gericke remained throughout the conflict, still preaching and exhorting and supporting his children in the faith. He saw his converts suffering cruelly and was compelled to watch the soldiers changing his church into a powder magazine.
In Madras whither he was invited he took over the work of Fabricius, who was now old and infirm. From there he was able to visit occasionally the scattered members of his Cuddalore flock.