“Now, if this son of my deceased friend has natural gifts and grace—if he have a desire to preach Christ among the heathen, I beg you to send him out at my expense. And if I should be called away by the Lord before his arrival, my brethren will make it good out of the property I leave. The mission is my heir. Our hope standeth in the Lord, Who made heaven and earth. May He be merciful to us and provide His work to His own glory.... I feel my weakness more and more—how long the Lord will yet preserve and use me rests with Him. My times are in His hands. May He be merciful to me and grant me at last a blessed end. Amen.”
On the 2nd February, 1798, Mr. Jaenické felt it his duty to write to the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge informing them that his friend and venerable colleague was now very seriously ill and would never preach again. The time of his departure was evidently drawing near. Looking round upon the faces of the old friends who one by one were gathering at his bedside, he smiled saying, “God is good. If we were left destitute of His help what should we do? We poor worms of the dust! Our times are in His hands; He alone can preserve or destroy life. Hitherto He hath endured our manners with truly paternal tenderness, hath spared us in the midst of all our sins and provocations, and crowned us with loving kindness and tender mercies.” At another time the conversation turned upon the mercy of God in having called him to be a missionary, which he said was the most blessed service in the world. “True,” he added, “a missionary must bear the cross; but this, my brother, is salutary, the heart is thereby drawn nearer to God, we are kept humble; without such trials the self-willed and proud heart of man would soon exalt itself. The good we receive at the hand of the Lord far exceeds the evil. When I consider all the way which God hath hitherto led me, the distresses from which He hath delivered my soul, and the riches of His goodness and forbearance and long suffering, I feel compelled gratefully to exclaim, ‘The Lord be magnified!’ Believe me, it is a privilege and happiness far beyond all description to enjoy in Christ the remission of sin. Ah, how much hath my Saviour done for such a poor sinner as I am! Look at this poor Christian (he pointed to one sitting at the gate), how poor he is in the things of this world, whilst I have every needful supply, and even many a comfort! What is my superiority over him? Suppose he should have committed one thousand sins, I am conscious of having committed ten thousand, and yet my God still bears with me. And should I ever think myself entitled to despise a poor man like this?”
Schwartz was the beloved of his people. When during a temporary improvement in his condition he was able slowly to enter his Church once more, which he had built in his garden, the native Christians received him with raptures of joy, running up to him, eager to hold his hand and look into his face again. When Mr. Caemmerer had to say good-bye in order to resume his work, Schwartz embraced him with much tenderness. “I will detain you no longer, my brother,” said he; “set out on your journey in the name of God, and may He be with you! As to myself I commit all my concerns to our gracious God. Whether I live, I live unto the Lord; or whether I die, I die unto the Lord. Salute the brethren most cordially. The God of peace be with them. Not knowing how long it may please God to preserve our lives, let us be up and doing. Though we should not always be privileged immediately to see the success of our labours let us still persevere, so long as God may allow us to work in His vineyard.”
The disease in his foot, which had been for years a trouble to him, was causing him great pain, but a native doctor, in the absence of his English physician, used some poultice remedies which gave the patient relief. For this he was very grateful, and gaining a little strength he was able to say a few parting words to his friend, Mr. Holtzberg. “Remember me affectionately to all the brethren and tell them from me never to lose sight of the main object, and strictly to maintain the fundamental doctrines of Christianity. I shall now soon depart to the Lord Jesus. If He will receive me, and forgive my sins and not enter into judgment with me, but deal with me according to His tender mercy, all will be well with me, and I shall praise Him. He might reject us for our very works’ sake because sin cleaves to them all.” It was a source of thankfulness to him that in this last hour of his life he was surrounded by his beloved brethren, who he said so much comforted his spirits. Again and again at his request they sang verses of his favourite hymns, one of them being,
“Allein zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ,”
of which the two closing verses are, in English:
And of Thy grace on me bestow
True Christian faith, O Lord,
That all the sweetness I may know,
That in Thy cross is stored,