Schwartz of Tanjore

by Jesse Page

CHAPTER V.

AMID WAR’S ALARMS.

During these early days of the mission of Schwartz, in the middle of the eighteenth century, while he was peacefully preaching the Gospel and instructing the native children, the fate of India in the struggle of conquest was being sealed. Doubtless there came to his ears the distant alarms of war. Rival Rajahs fought against each other for supremacy, and it taxed the utmost tact, diplomacy, and resources of the Company to hold their own, when a new element of disorder appeared in the person of the French General Dupleix, which threatened the very existence of the English in that land. Securing powerful allies among the native chieftains he carried all before him, with his military genius and valour. But another star was arriving, and Clive, still more brilliant and not less brave, fought the French and beat them, saving India by the splendid defence of Arcot and the victory of Plassey.

Honours were freely bestowed upon him, for he was statesman as well as warrior, and in the history of India his name will never die. But the fate of Dupleix was far different. Battling against failure and seeking to retrieve the fortunes of his flag he was ignominiously recalled by his ungrateful country and died in direst poverty of a broken heart.

These were then some of the darkest days of Indian history, the time of the tragedy of the Black Hole of Calcutta, of wanton treachery, of pitiless hate and massacre, and all the miseries of a bloody war. In the midst of these stormy conflicts, Schwartz was much concerned with the indifference which existed in the minds of the natives towards the claims of the Christian religion. Thankful as he felt for the marks of success on many hands, he realized increasingly, as all thoughtful workers must do, the darkness of the heathen mind and how little after all was accomplished. Schwartz was no pessimist; indeed, a careful study of his character gives the refreshing idea of a man of vivacity and hopefulness, strong of faith in God and ultimate victory, comforting himself with the promise of Holy Scripture whenever the difficulties were more than usually severe. With it all, there is the revelation of the sense of self-abasement, the condemnation of the slightest risings of pride and satisfaction which we find in the lowliness of spirit of Thomas à Kempis and other mystics. The mind of the man, too, is manifested so clearly in his letters, which are like little windows enabling us to look into this brave heart. He is writing under date 17th October, 1755, to his old friend and guide, Professor Francke at Halle, and breaks forth into a strain of praise and thanksgiving: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the God of all true consolation, salvation, and life, who mercifully and gloriously helpeth us in all trouble! He is a God that delighteth in our life, a God that humbleth that he may exalt us, that maketh us to feel our wretchedness that he may thoroughly save us from it. My soul doth magnify the Lord!

“The distress of the Christian congregation and the insensibility of the heathen to the word of God often greviously afflict my soul, which is not yet experienced in the ways of truth. However, I strive, as well as I am enabled by the Spirit of Jesus Christ, to cast this burden upon Him that is mighty to help and delights to bow down to us in mercy that we may not remain and sink in trouble. The words of Christ from Isaiah xlix. 4 often occur to my mind: ‘Then I said, I have laboured in vain, I have spent my strength for naught and in vain, yet surely my judgment is with the Lord and my work with my God!’ But, indeed, the following verse ought to allay all my grief and to bind the sorrowful heart to the word of the divine promise. The unwearied patience and mercy of God is working upon my own soul also greatly comforting me, when He saith unto me, ‘Tell it once more—go announce it to both Christians and heathens, for thou also wert sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, and yet in that most corrupt condition, deserving wrath and death, a merciful God hath wrought in thee for Christ’s sake and waited for thy conversion, not a few but many years. Now learn thou also to wait patiently in hope.’ Now my heart, mind, thoughts, desires, designs, and all my will be offered up to the will of my heavenly Father. Not my will but Thine be done. Yea, let Thy Kingdom come in India also to myself and others!

“As to outward circumstances, a gracious God hath paternally preserved me and amidst bodily weakness mightily supported me. Let my God only give me that which Paul was enabled cheerfully to say, 2 Cor. v. 1: ‘We know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved we have a building not made with hands, eternal in the heavens!’”

In the following year the missionaries gathered together and commemorated with gratitude the jubilee of the work, for it was on the 9th July, 1706, that Ziegenbalg and Plütschau landed, as the first Protestant missionaries at Tranquebar. They recalled the lowliness of those two faithful pioneers, how they were rebuffed and insulted by the European and civil authorities, chilled by the attitude of the clergy and made to feel unwelcome by their own countrymen in the presence of the heathen. But in those intervening years what had God wrought! They sang their song of praise and gladness, though at that very moment the native Christians were passing through much persecution. For it was the misfortune of the mission that, wherever French interest and power were in the ascendancy, the Romish priests and Jesuits brought trouble upon the converts of the Protestant mission, and this often showed itself by the malignity of the native rulers, who became too easily the allies of the enemies of English rule. In this respect the fortunes of the mission appeared to be the shuttlecock of the contending parties in the game of war. Besides all this the representatives of the great religions of India, especially the jealous Brahmins and the vindictive Mohammedans, were always standing ready to strike a blow at the new religion of Jesus Christ, which they foresaw would threaten the existence of their own.

In some cases, especially where no outside influences had perverted their judgment, Schwartz found these Rajahs and native chiefs were quite open to receive the truth. A leading Hindu, the minister of state of the Rajah of Tanjore, was ready and willing to acknowledge that there is but one true God and that the images and idols they ignorantly worship were only worthy of being thrown into the sea. But while this was a step in advance the opinion of this man does not seem to have carried him very much farther, and his master, the Rajah, was also so superstitious that he was prepared to make a sacrifice of five hundred human beings in order to obtain some imaginary hidden treasure which the evil spirits would not relinquish except on that awful condition.

As Schwartz had acquired a fluent knowledge of Portuguese he found many opportunities of speaking to that large class of people who spoke the language, and where there were signs of a real concern he could lead them on by careful instruction in spiritual progress. As he looked wistfully into the faces of these young people, the children of the Portuguese who many years before founded the colony and inter-married with native women, his soul yearned to bring them to a fuller knowledge of Jesus Christ, for it must be to them the heathen would look for evidence that Christianity was the gracious power it professed to be. It was a work of patience and he did not undertake it lightly or with any self-confidence. Here is an expression of his mind at this time in a letter written home to Europe: