Schwartz of Tanjore

by Jesse Page

With reference to his services as a peace mediator between the Government and Hyder Ali, and in other similar instances when he was able to assist in the better government and development of the people, Dr. Kerr says:

“Amidst such great public undertakings and the high degree of consideration attached by all ranks of people in this country to Mr. Schwartz’s character, every road to the gratification of ambition and avarice was completely open to him. Courted by the prince of the country in which he resided, reverenced almost to adoration by the people at large, confidentially employed by the English Government in objects of the first political importance—to his honour it must be recorded, that he continued to value those things only as they appeared likely to prove subservient to his missionary work, as they made funds to assist him with building of his churches or the establishment of his schools over the country. With the single eye of the Gospel, he looked only to the effusion of divine truth, and the glad tidings of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. The same principle which raised him in the public estimation, he continued to cherish in every stage of his devotion; untarnished by the venality and corruption which from various quarters it is well known assailed his virtue, he continued his missionary life carrying his cross and following the steps of his Divine Master to the end of his earthly being.”

Only three days before his own sudden death, Bishop Heber wrote an estimation of Schwartz, which is all the more valuable because it contains a frank admission of a mistaken impression he had previously formed concerning one side of his character.

“Of Schwartz and his fifty years’ labour among the heathen, the extraordinary influence and popularity which he acquired, both with Mussulmans, Hindus, and contesting European Governments, I need give you no account, except that my idea of him has been raised since I came in the South of India. I used to suspect that, with many admirable qualities, there was too great a mixture of intrigue in his character; that he was too much of a political prophet, and that the veneration which the heathen paid, and still pay, him, and which indeed almost regards him as a superior being, putting crowns and burning lights before his statue, was purchased by some unwarrantable compromise with their prejudices. I find I was quite mistaken. He was really one of the most active and fearless, as he was one of the most successful missionaries who have appeared since the apostles. To say that he was disinterested in regard to money is nothing; he was perfectly regardless of power, and renown never seemed to affect him, even so far as to induce an outward show of humility. His temper was perfectly simple, open, and cheerful; and in his political negotiations (employments which he never sought for, but which fell in his way) he never pretended to impartiality, but acted as the avowed, though certainly the successful and judicious agent of the orphan prince entrusted to his care, and from attempting whose conversion to Christianity he seems to have abstained from a feeling of honour.”

With respect to this closing remark about Serfogee, it is open to question whether the venerable missionary would have quite appreciated the compliment the Bishop pays him. It is always a cause for regret that this Indian prince, the object of so much solicitude on the part of Schwartz, should, after all, have died a pagan. But the fact of his not having died a Christian was scarcely due to any lack of pains taken by Schwartz towards his conversion, and it is still less likely that he would have avoided pressing upon him the claims of religion from a delicate sense of honour as his guardian. The evidence is all the other way, not only as regards Serfogee, but also the old Rajah Tuljajee, who was unhappily very far from being a Christian. In the case of the former the many letters, such as a Christian father would write to a son, from which some quotations have already been given, show that, though the gospel was continually impressed upon the attention of this young prince, he clung to his idolatries in spite of these earnest appeals, backed up, as they were, by a sincere personal affection on both sides. As regards the old Rajah, it was stated by Mr. Huddleston, who knew him well, that at one time he was fully convinced of the truths of the Christian religion, and was on the point of making a public avowal of it, but the harsh and unjust treatment he received from the Madras Government, which, of course, being European, had the reputation of being Christian, entirely turned him against the faith. One might imagine a mind half made up being thus affected, but, whether this held him back or not, we know how much he was under the domination of the Brahmins, and how pathetically he used to address Schwartz as “his padre.” The real reason for this sad condition spiritually was not only his attachment to the gods of his fathers, but his love of those sins which in time broke up his health and ruined his power.

Bishop Wilson of Calcutta in 1839, in giving his charge to his clergy, speaks in strong terms of recommendation of Schwartz, and in doing so gives some very interesting personal touches of his daily life.

“Permit me again to recommend the example of this eminent missionary. The biography of such a man is a study, as the artists speak. I have stood on Schwartz’s grave, I have visited his house, I have been in the room in which he died; I have seen his garden, his burial ground, and his mission schools. I have preached twice in his church. Never can I bless God enough for the honour of being permitted to speak of the unsearchable riches of Christ in this seat of the missionary’s labours. The venerable Kohlhoff was under him thirty-five years. He never knew him angry or indignant, except when any servants of the Lord were acting inconsistently or timidly—then he was all on fire. Once Sattianaden threw difficulties in undertaking a journey. Schwartz was much displeased and dispatched him instantly, with a sharp rebuke for dishonouring the high calling of Christ. His strength for labour was wonderful: five duties he performed every Sunday, one of them being the whole English morning service. He preached twenty or thirty minutes, and was very affectionate in his manner. He read constantly his Hebrew Bible and his Greek Testament. Every day he assembled his catechists and native priests to early prayers, and then sent them out, ‘You go there,’ ‘You visit such a circle,’ ‘You see how such and such families are going on.’ They returned about four, and reported their proceedings. He went himself to the schools, families, residents’ abodes, came in about one and remained at home studying or writing till four, when the catechists returned. He then took them with him, and seated himself in the mission churchyard or in his house, according to the season, and invited the heathen to converse and hear him read the scriptures. He was mild, but very authoritative; very acute also in answering their objections, and never allowed himself to be embarrassed. In the evening he called for his moonshee, and heard him read the Persian poets or historians, hoping particularly to relieve his spirits.

“He always inspired respect, no one dared to trifle with him. He had a good deal of policy and great sagacity on emergencies. His influence was supreme; his word law; his example and conduct consistent, frank and benignant, but with a firmness and almost sternness of purpose which kept all around him in implicit subjection. Mr. Kohlhoff’s strongest impression is of the authority he had acquired—no one dared or dreamt of opposing his various missions. He was master of everything and everybody. He, the father, and all the other missionaries, catechists, children, his family. Schwartz was, in short, father, priest, and judge. He was accustomed to say, ‘Will you prefer my punishment or the Rajah’s?’ ‘Oh, Padre, yours!’ The word was no sooner said than the sentence was awarded. In the science of governing mankind and in habits of business he must have resembled Wesley.

“As Mr. Kohlhoff sat by me at dinner, I asked him as to Schwartz’s general habits. He told me that he rose at five, breakfasted at six or seven, on a basin of tea made in an open jug, with hot water poured on it, and some bread cut into it. One half was for himself, the other for Kohlhoff. The meal lasted not five minutes. He dined on broth and curry very much as the natives. He never touched wine, except one glass on a Sunday. What was sometimes sent to him was reserved for the sick. His temperance was extraordinary, habitual, and enjoined on his catechists and brethren. He supped at eight, and after reading a chapter in the Hebrew Bible in private, and his own devotions, retired to rest about ten.”

In making a final estimate of Schwartz, gathering from the elements of evidence before us some means of judging his character, one cannot help feeling that he stood midway between the missionaries who preceded him and those who were to succeed him. The old order was soon to change. For many years the Danish Mission, brave pioneers struggling against many difficulties, had represented, not unworthily, the cause of Christianity in India. They were under disadvantages, limited in the area of their work by the political turmoil of the time, and also a little straitened in themselves. It is not to be expected that these early confessors of the faith could exercise the same judgment and fertility of resource which are the characteristics of the modern missionary. Their training at Halle was thorough enough, they held a sound theology, exercised a simple faith, with great diligence they acquired the Tamil and other languages necessary for their work, and they had a burning zeal for the salvation of the heathen. But they had no missionary literature to lead and instruct them, and, until Schultze came back to Halle, they had no experienced missionary to explain the nature of their work, and how to meet its difficulties. They also lacked that invaluable element of supervision and control which a Committee at the back of the workers affords at home, and which, though not without some disadvantages for which the frailty of human judgment is responsible, is acknowledged to be a strength to missionary enterprise. To a certain extent every man, and they were few, was a law unto himself. We are not forgetful of the fact that in the days of Ziegenbalg, his end was hastened by the arrogance of a missionary board at Copenhagen, under the domination of a self-opinionated tyrant, and that his able coadjutor Gründler also died of a broken heart from the same cause. But until the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge took over the workers, not only providing the sinews of war, but the still more effective counsel and prayer, they went on their way, fighting their battles, bearing their burdens, sometimes making their blunders, doing the best they could on the spot according to their realization of the immediate need. Even when Schwartz came upon the scene the simplicity and independence of the work as a Lutheran Evangelical mission was still maintained. One of the leading missionaries of to-day describes the position of the work in those old days in the following words: