Wisheth and prayeth thy Sarabojee.
It ought to be placed on record that this grateful prince did not only honour his benefactor by an affectionate epitaph; he showed how much he revered his memory by building an orphanage and school and maintaining by his own generosity many poor children, he also gave every opportunity for his Christian servants to attend the services of their own Church. He never forgot his friend. When Dr. Buchanan visited the Rajah some time afterwards he was led up to where the portrait of Schwartz hung upon the wall of the palace. “He then discoursed,” says the visitor, “for a considerable time concerning ‘that good man,’ whom he ever revered as his father and guardian.”
Ten years later Bishop Middleton was also on a visit to Tanjore, and he also records the fact that “his highness dwelt with evident delight on the blessings which the heavenly lessons and virtues of Schwartz had shed upon him and his people,” and a similar expression of grateful regard occurred on the attendance of Bishop Heber at a durbar when the Rajah talked warmly about Schwartz, “his dear father.”
It is a source of regret that this Indian prince, with all his sincere affection for Schwartz and gratitude for his kindness to himself personally, should not have become a Christian. His attachment to the memory of the venerable missionary, his support and appreciation of the Christian work among his people after the death of Schwartz, is certainly much to his credit so long as it lasted, when we remember that he lived and died a Hindu surrounded by his Brahmins who would scarcely regard his sympathies in the direction of Christianity with any approval. Still, it is disappointing to record that up to the time of his sudden death in 1834 he never renounced his idolatries, and had not apparently received into the darkness of his heathen head the Light of the world.
As a matter of fact there seems good grounds for believing that the Rajah had in his later days so far forgotten the counsels of his venerable friend as to relax his kindly interest in the work he left behind. There is a note in Dr. Brown’s “History of Missions,” vol. i. p. 162, to this effect:
“We regret to find the following statement by Mr. Winstow, one of the American missionaries, who visited Tanjore in 1828: ‘The Rajah has become very unfriendly with the missionaries. He has yielded himself up to dissipation and given immense sums to the Brahmins, and to the temples to make himself a Brahmin. His only son is growing up in ignorance, making no steady application to any study of science.’ (American Missionary Herald, vol. xxv. p. 140.)”
In his case, at any rate, he could not excuse his neglect of salvation on the plea of lack of knowledge.
The directors of the East India Company were equally anxious to perpetuate the memory of one whom they held in conspicuous honour. What Serfogee had done at Tanjore they would do in the Church of St. Mary in Fort St. George, Madras. On 29th October, 1807, by the direction of the court a letter was written to say that a marble monument by Bacon was on its way to be erected there in memory of Mr. Schwartz. “As the most appropriate testimony of the deep sense we entertain of his transcendent merit, of his unwearied and disinterested labours to the cause of religion and piety, and the exercise of the finest and most exalted benevolence, also of his public services at Tanjore, where the influence of his name and character, through the unbounded confidence and veneration which they inspired, was for a long course of years productive of important benefits to the Company.” This beautiful monument, worthy of a sculptor of such eminence, represented also the death scene, with the exception that here Serfogee is absent, but one of the native children is embracing the hand of the dying missionary, his friend Kohlhoff supporting him by his arm, the figure of an angel bearing a cross is depicted above. There is also included below the group, emblems of the pastoral office—the Episcopal Crozier, the Gospel trumpet with the banners of the Cross, and an open Bible, upon which is inscribed the divine mandate of all missionary enterprise, “Go ye unto all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.”
Above is shown the ark of the covenant, and the whole is a most appropriate and artistic piece of work. The inscription was written by Mr. Huddleston, then one of the directors of the Company, and a very intimate and valued friend of Schwartz, and is in these words:
Sacred to the memory of
The Rev. Christian Frederic Schwartz,
whose life was one continued effort to imitate the example of
his Blessed Master.