“May we see one another in a world where sin and sorrow are not to be met with!”
While writing these farewell lines to his friend, Schwartz enclosed another letter to his wife, whom he had possibly never seen, but he feels that after spending years of intimate friendship with her husband in India he need make no apology for writing this letter to her. Here also he gives judicious counsel and says some things about the education of children which can never grow old or out of date. He also laments the decline of loyalty to Scriptural teaching which characterizes the theological literature of his day. In both these respects this letter would be quite as appropriate if written in our own times. We have progressed and travelled far, and in many respects India and England are so different that Schwartz would rub his eyes were he to re-visit these lands to-day, but the problems and the perils of the Church are, though under a different guise, still the same to face and to solve if we can in our own times. He is sending his blessing to the circle of his friend’s family at home and writes:
“I must confess that the education which many parents give their children is highly detrimental. Their understandings are not furnished with divine knowledge, their wills are not bent to love and obey God, their passions are not properly restrained or directed. At last they grow up without fearing, obeying, and honouring God, they are ashamed of showing anything relative to true Christianity. They are taught to do their duty, without knowing the source from which they ought to draw strength.
“I find that in many of the latest publications the atonement of the Redeemer and the divine operations of the blessed Spirit of God, are altogether forgotten, nay exploded. If the foundation of true Christianity is destroyed, what superstructure can be raised? I therefore cannot but entreat you to learn the way to heaven from the Sermons of your Redeemer and the Epistles of St. Paul and the other apostles. My favourite chapter is the third of St. Paul’s Epistle to the Philippians. There you will find the genuine character of a true Christian.
“All worldly things though not sinful in themselves, appear to that exalted Christian as dross. He wishes to find Christ as his treasure and greatest gain, by Whom he has obtained mercy, pardon, peace, and the hope of everlasting life.”
Schwartz began perceptibly to lose strength but not heart. We gather this from a letter written by one of the missionaries at Tranquebar who found it necessary to seek his advice upon some matter and met him by appointment at Tripatore.
“I reached that place,” he writes, “at seven and at eight Mr. Schwartz arrived, whom I had so earnestly desired to see. He was not able to quit his palanquin without difficulty; and I soon perceived that, since I saw him at Tanjore a year and a half ago, his energy and strength had become much impaired. It went to my very heart, as I reflected with sorrow that we were not likely to retain this dear brother long amongst us. He himself observed, ‘I am getting nearer the grave, travelling no longer does for me, my heavenly Father will not I trust permit me to lie long sick and incapable of work, but take me soon to Himself, if it be His will.’ He complained of a severe cold that affected his teeth, the loss of which would much grieve him, as it would hinder his speaking.”
Weary as he was, he had to brace up his energies to face new and serious difficulties, one being the unsettled and unsatisfactory arrangement as regards Serfogee. In reply to many pathetic appeals beseeching his old friend’s protection, Schwartz prevailed upon the Board of Directors at Madras to send some soldiers to bring away this unhappy young prince and also the two Royal widows, and the whole matter was laid before Lord Cornwallis, who at that time was finishing up an arduous but successful campaign against Tippoo Sultan. But unfortunately in the confusion and disagreement of the ruling powers of that day, the pressing needs of his case got shelved and indefinitely postponed. Ameer Sing, with all his wrong-doing and shameless incompetency, was allowed to continue on the throne of Tanjore for four years more. By this time a state of anarchy existed.
A new complication arose: the poor subjects, jealous of the peaceful character of the Christians and their steadfast refusal to join in plundering expeditions, encamped themselves with the avowed purpose of extirpating Christianity, root and branch. Many of the Christians, therefore, armed themselves in self-defence. Once more, as peacemaker, Schwartz hurried to the scene of action and by the spell of his personality persuaded the malcontents to disarm and go back to their ploughing and sowing on the fields. His grateful comment is “My heart rejoiced at the kind over-ruling providence—surely He is a God that heareth prayer.”
Although the rights of Serfogee were delayed, his friend Schwartz, seeing that the comfort and even safety of the young prince were in peril, obtained permission to take him and the two widows away to Madras, and on the 10th January, 1793, we find Schwartz leading a troop of the Company’s soldiers into Tanjore, and, despite the opposition of Ameer Sing, bringing the captives safely away to a place of security.