“How much is squandered away in what is called fashionable living, to no purpose but rather to the worst! Health, strength, conscience, and the sweetest sense of the favour of God are lost—for what! Though we are not to serve God for the sake of temporal advantages, we shall find that true unfeigned ‘godliness’ is profitable even to all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come! The people of the world love both. Their tumultuous mirth does not deserve the name of joy and is always closely attended and embittered by unspeakable disquietude and anxiety, which they must feel so soon as they begin to reflect....
“Be this our aim—and may our hearts (ah! our slippery hearts) never swerve from the path to that heavenly Canaan! May we never murmur or lust after the things which we have once renounced! May we be faithful unto death and so realize the crown of life! Remember me likewise when you come before the throne of mercy that my approaching age may not be unfruitful but blessed.”
CHAPTER XI.
TULJAJEE AND SERFOGEE.
Meanwhile, matters were not very settled in Tanjore, and Schwartz on his return found the people almost in rebellion and the Rajah in great straits because the Government at Madras were pressing him for tribute. All was turmoil and the political atmosphere was charged with storm, into the midst of which the old missionary came to bring a little peace and confidence. His first duty was to write to Sir John Macpherson, the Governor-General, and put in a plea for a more tender consideration for his old friend the Rajah, notwithstanding all his shortcomings.
“Now my dear sir,” he writes, “will you permit an old friend to intercede for this poor country and the dejected Rajah, requesting not to use violent or coercive measures to get the immediate payment of the arrears, which would throw the country into a deplorable and ruinous state, but rather to admonish him to rule his subjects with more justice and equity.”
We get from his letters at this period references to the political trouble which was making his efforts as a missionary very difficult, the people resenting oppression, the policy of the English represented by the Company changing continually with the fluctuation of their alliance with the native rulers, agriculture at a standstill, and the sepoys in a state of mutiny because they can get no pay. “It is truly melancholy,” he writes, “that nothing but fear will incline us to do justice to them. By these means all discipline is relaxed, the officers lose that respect which is due to their rank and station, and the Sepoys become insolent. This has been the case not only in time of war, but now in the time of peace. May God help us to consider the things which belong to our peace in all respects.” But amidst these difficulties he works hard to consolidate the little gatherings of Christians which look to him as a spiritual father and is busy with the schools, the interest of the children always lying so near his heart. Schwartz is full of faith, and his sunny presence brings confidence and hope wherever he goes; of such a man one might well say that he was a happy saint with an optimistic view under the most depressing circumstances. In so many respects he was ahead of his age, seeing possibilities which had not yet been revealed to the few Missionary Societies existing, at any rate in England, and drawing confidence and encouragement from the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, which had so well supported him in all his aims.
Still the old heart searchings kept him very humble; his letters, with scarcely an exception, indicate this increasing sense of need of watchfulness and a quiet walking with God. He reminds a friend that what we want is not so much urgent petition to God in difficulty and peril but a steadfast resting upon Him, in personal and unbroken converse. He quotes how a friend once asked Francke of the Orphan House at Halle how he kept his peace of mind. The reply was “By stirring up my mind a hundred times a day! Wherever I am, whatever I do, I say ‘Blessed Jesus, have I truly a share in Thy redemption? Are my sins forgiven? Am I guided by Thy Spirit? Thine I am. Wash me again and again. Strengthen me.’ By this constant converse with Jesus I have enjoyed serenity of mind and a settled peace in my heart.”
SCHWARTZ’ PULPIT, CHRIST CHURCH, TANJORE
THE PILLAR BEHIND IT IS ONE ON WHICH THE RAJAH DESIGNED TO ERECT HIS MEMORIAL. IT PROVED TOO NARROW FOR THE PURPOSE