CONTENTS.
| CHAP. | PAGE | |
| Preface | [iii] | |
| I. | How Christianity Came to India | [1] |
| II. | The Friar and the Lutheran | [11] |
| III. | From College to Mission Field | [28] |
| IV. | In Touch with the Brahmins | [48] |
| V. | Amid War’s Alarms | [58] |
| VI. | A Glimpse of the Man Himself | [68] |
| VII. | Wayside Work | [79] |
| VIII. | In First Touch with Tanjore | [90] |
| IX. | As Peacemaker with Hyder Ali | [103] |
| X. | The Strain Begins to Tell | [117] |
| XI. | Tuljajee and Serfogee | [127] |
| XII. | Responsibilities and Patience | [140] |
| XIII. | A Noble Defence of Missions | [149] |
| XIV. | The Shadows Lengthen | [164] |
| XV. | The Home Going | [172] |
| XVI. | The Memory of the Just | [183] |
| Index | [201] |
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
| Christian Frederick Schwartz. (From a painting in the possession of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge) | [Frontispiece] | ||
| Bartholomew Ziegenbalg. (From an old engraving) | Facing | page | [16] |
| New Jerusalem Church, Tranquebar | ” | ” | [24] |
| Map of India to illustrate the Life of Schwartz | ” | ” | [32] |
| Schwartz’ House at Trichinopoly | ” | ” | [80] |
| St. Mary’s Church, Fort St. George | ” | ” | [96] |
| Schwartz’ Pulpit, Christ Church, Tanjore | ” | ” | [128] |
| Serfogee Rajah’s Monument to Schwartz | ” | ” | [184] |
CHAPTER I.
HOW CHRISTIANITY CAME TO INDIA.
Everything is old in the Orient. We of the West, who talk of a thousand years past as a long time ago, realise a little as we travel thither, amid relics of a prehistoric age, how young is our own world when for the first time we stand on pathways which reach back to the very daybreak on the horizon of human life. With a child’s wonder turning the faded parchments of some ancient book or stepping reverently and softly among the resting-places of the dead, we feel the past calling to us from behind the veil of the present, and we cannot escape the impression; we would not if we could. The spell of its mystery, its spaces of silence, the hush of living millions now stilled for ever fill us with awe, as with finger on lip we peer wistfully down the vista of uncounted years. It is the demand, the insistence of past history which we cannot afford to ignore, for without its interpretation we shall never understand to-day. This is specially true of India. Her ancient temples, carved by the thin dark fingers of a time when Europe was in the cradle of its civilization, these shadowy figures of to-day with glistening white teeth and lustrous jet eyes, flitting in light raiment under the fronded palms, keeping up ancestral customs and living as their fathers did a thousand years ago, make an indelible impression. And at the back of all this there is a haunting sense of a far off time when this same glare of sunshine shone upon the same rushing rivers and wide dry plains, and voices, so like those now in our ears, spoke with smiles and tears of human gladness and heart-break so long, so very long ago.
The history of India is filled with the alarms of war, state arrayed against state, plunder, devastation, and remorseless shedding of blood. Her soil has indeed been made sacred by the slaughter of her sons. But beyond this story of strife we are looking for something else and asking another question. Where and how amid these hoary creeds and worship did a knowledge of the true God as we know Him, and the Name of the Saviour of the World first come to the people of this land? The quest of this is not easy where so much is legend and pious, but perhaps not quite honest, story telling.
In the age of the Old Testament history when Solomon was building the temple at Jerusalem it is very probable that the ships of Hiram, laden with gold and ivory, apes and peacocks, were bringing their treasures from that land beyond the Red Sea, which is the India of our to-day. And it is also likely that upon those shores the trading instinct of the Hebrews had established stations for the ingathering of these costly freights, and in this strange land the praises of Jehovah were heard in some simple synagogue with its window open towards the sacred city of the Hebrews across the wide sea.
The centuries pass, and in the fulness of time wise men from the East, following the guidance of the Star, came to Bethlehem to worship the Christ child. The Light of the world had dawned. And it is not inconceivable that the tidings of One so mighty in word and work would be spread abroad through the talk of travellers and traders to the regions eastward of the Holy Land. For what it is worth, a reference may be made to the letters still preserved in the British Museum, supposed to have been written during the life of our Lord by Agbgbar from Edessa. These record that he, like the Queen of Sheba, was anxious to know more of what was taking place at Jerusalem and sent messages to Jesus Christ asking Him to visit him and offering his protection. When the reply is given that Jesus Christ is too much occupied, but that after He had been received up He would send one of His Apostles, we feel we are in the midst of a legend, especially when Thomas is named as the writer of the answer, who afterwards sent Thaddeus, from whom the succession of the bishops of Edessa was traced. Before considering the claims of the St. Thomas theory, which has given his name to the Christians of the Malabar coast, we must realise the fact that after Pentecost the inspiration of the early Christian Church began to show itself in sending forth its witnesses for the conquest of the world under the Divine mandate received on the mount at His Ascension. Persecution also drove them hence; the hate of the Pharisees, the stern discipline of Roman repression, the prison walls and the sword of martyrdom—these only spread the embers which elsewhere broke out in fresh flames of testimony.