“He then asked some questions respecting the King of England and expressed a wish to visit our country. I took occasion in reply to say something concerning the religion which is there taught and how much it contributes to the welfare both of princes and people, adding, ‘This is our wish, that you and your subjects may embrace it, to your present and future happiness.’ The King looked at me and smiled. His chief Brahmin often interposed and told him what he had seen among the Papists at Pondicherry, to which he replied that we were very different from the Papists. He then desired me to speak to the Brahmin in Persian, which I did and addressed a short admonition to him, but he professed to have forgotten his Persian.”
From this time Schwartz with unflagging zeal lost no opportunity of preaching the Gospel to the people in the open air, until they were so affected that they cried, “O that the King would embrace it! All would then forsake heathenism!” He won their hearts. After speaking to some of the King’s chief officers in the fort one of them came forward and begged him to accept a present of some money, but this he declined, explaining that he did not wish to oppose any obstacle to their acceptance of Christianity by giving occasion to any to suspect him of interested motives. “He who tendered me the present replied that he should never think that of me. I answered, ‘That may be but you cannot prevent others from thinking thus; I seek the good of your souls and not gifts.’ I accepted a nosegay and so we parted.”
But this free access to the King was short lived. The Brahmins, like the Ephesians of old crying “Great is Diana,” were discovering only too plainly that the progress of Christianity would inevitably replace the old religion and their influence with all its material advantages would be gone for ever. So every attempt on the part of the King to show favour to Schwartz was defeated and concealed by those around him, and the chief Brahmin at last persuaded him that any change would disturb the whole of the country and that the people did not want the missionary. This proved how correct was his estimate before when he said the King was more of a slave than a King, being so much under the domination of the Brahmins. In his heart, there is no doubt Tuljajee was most anxious to have Schwartz near to him, but was overborne by his high officials. In his journal Schwartz says of this crisis:
“Many even of the Brahmins themselves said that the King would gladly have had me with him but he was afraid of the people around him. The great about this court saw with regret that he was desirous of detaining me, being fearful lest their corrupt practices might be exposed. At length I visited one of his principal officers and after declaring to him the Gospel of Christ I begged to make my humble salaam to the King and to ask what was his purpose with regard to me, that I was come at his gracious summons, ready to serve him from my heart in the cause of God, but that as I had an engagement at Trichinopoly it would be necessary that some one should take charge of my duty there if I were to remain at Tanjore. I requested therefore to know the King’s intentions. The answer which I received the next day was this, that I might return for the time to Trichinopoly but that I was to remember that the King looked upon me as his padre. Many of the common people were grieved that the King should allow himself to be hindered by his servants from detaining me near him. But God can and at His own time will, cause this nation to adore and bear His name. May He compassionate this poor people, now lying in darkness and the shadow of death, for His name’s sake!”
Subsequently a curious circumstance came to his ears. A Brahmin who had been earnestly pressed to become a Christian stated that the King of Tanjore had at one time felt a strong desire to adopt the Christian faith and gathered together all his chief officers and ministers to a conference, when he stated what was his conviction in this matter. This caused a general uproar; they remonstrated with him, pointing out how faithful his fathers had been to the worship of their gods and how they had prospered thereby. They insisted upon his putting from his mind this idea. But the Brahmin said it was a remarkable fact that all these advisers who had withstood the King’s resolve were now in prison or wandering about the country as vagabonds and beggars.
Back to Trichinopoly he soon began his work again and once more came the people as inquirers, not scoffers, to his side.
It is all so natural and their experiences and difficulties were in their nature by no means confined to their day and generation, and their sincerity was manifest even when they did not carry it to the extent of believing in Christ.
Two gardeners stopped their work to ask Schwartz this question: “We have not yet obeyed our own Shasters, how should we now keep the true law? When we leave you, we forget what we have heard.” He told them to pray. “But how shall we pray?” This was his advice, a bit of wisdom for all time. “Act like starving beggars. Do not they know how to set forth their hunger and distress? Set before God your ignorance, obduracy and misery, and beseech Him to open your eyes and discern Him and His true word. This you may do, even in the midst of your labours. But come also and allow yourselves to be instructed. Try this for ten days, it will assuredly be better with you if you follow this advice. Consider that in a few days, perhaps, you may be happy or miserable for ever, give therefore all diligence and seek your everlasting salvation.”
The Nabob’s son, accompanied by the Brahmin, asked Schwartz to question him on the subject of religion. “The great question is,” said Schwartz, “how shall we be freed from sin, from its dominion as well as its punishment.” The Brahmin excused himself on the ground that he was not familiar with the Persian language but his companion replied for him, “Hate and forsake anger, sensuality, envy and so you will be clean.” “You require life from the dead. Say to a dead man, walk! and see if he would obey.” The young Nabob had his answer ready: “What is not done deliberately will not be imputed to us.” Then the missionary replied: “You separate the holiness from the goodness of God. He will doubtless forgive but in such a way as that His holiness be not thereby obscured—namely, through Jesus Christ.” The young man walked away saying, “Certainly we must confide in God so as to fear Him.”
In the midst of all these labours, these incessant conferences and preaching, his own soul was being nourished and kept by divine grace. Few men have left behind them such undoubted evidence of their work, instances abundantly testifying to the zeal and capacity of the worker, his singular winsome attraction by which men were drawn to him and the success which so often followed his ministrations. He never spared himself; like his Master he often had not so much as leisure even to eat. But what were his own personal experiences during all this activity? We know that with any real and serious worker for God, the height of his success is the measure of the depth of his own sense of unworthiness. The man who like the Apostles stood without fear before the face of a King, was in his own soul humble and adoring at the feet of his Lord and Master.