IN TOUCH WITH THE BRAHMINS.
The early experiences of a missionary on arriving in his field of work
abroad will sometimes dissipate a little of the romance which fancy had
gathered about his outlook, and will instead reveal quite unexpected
difficulties to try his faith, forcing him to a fuller dependence on
God. On the other hand, all that is best in him of inspiration and
devotion is deepened by the fact of his seeing as never before the
unutterable need of his message and recognising his clear call to give
that in the name of his Master. And seeing that the highest summits of
success can only be attained by simple and persevering steps, he will
apply himself with prayerful fidelity to these necessary details of his
new position. His call was instant, his fitness for it must be attained
by hard work and patient application.
All this was true of Schwartz. He faced the difficulty of language,
seeing that unless he could speak to the people in their own tongue
it was of no use his coming so far to be a missionary in India. It
will be seen that he found that from the native children there was
much to be learnt in this direction, and his easy access to their
hearts, for he was particularly fond of young people, was very useful
as an open door to future usefulness. Not only did he exercise his
gift as a linguist in gaining a knowledge of the native languages,
but he learnt Portuguese, because amongst his hearers were many of
that nationality. It was also his aim to know not only the language
but the people themselves, to know how they lived, what were their
difficulties, and as regards their present religion how they stood in
respect to Christianity. He began his work with an unshaken confidence
in his right and authority to be where he was and do the will of his
God according to his abilities. On this point, from the very beginning,
he never had a shadow of doubt. Very humbly and sincerely he wrote: “It
is a sweet comfort to my heart that I am enabled to say, ‘It is thou, O
my God, who hast conducted me to these parts, I have not run hither of
my own accord but would rather have declined the call, if Thine unseen
hand had not retained me. O therefore help and bestow upon me all
necessary wisdom, grace, and strength for this office!’
“My gracious God has already manifested so many proofs of His paternal
love towards me that I cannot but remember the word of the Lord Jesus
which He spoke to upright Nathanael, ‘Thou shalt see greater things
than these.’ May the Lord give me grace that like Nathanael I may
use the proofs of divine goodness and mercy which I have hitherto
experienced, and as a solid foundation and confirmation of my faith. If
henceforth I do not behold the glory of God then verily unbelief will
be the cause of it. At Nazareth my Saviour did not many mighty works
because of their unbelief. Now Lord grant faith, and that _lively_
faith!...
“I humbly praise God that during the year I have been here He,
notwithstanding all my imperfections, hath borne with me with great
patience and forbearance; hath been daily nigh unto my soul and hath
kindly refreshed me. If I have not had the same enjoyments daily,
the fault was on my own side. Now this goodness, long suffering and
patience of our Lord, I shall account my Salvation, according to St.
Peter’s exhortation.
“As to external things, God has given me life and health and has made
the climate and the heat supportable, so that though my breathing was
sometimes oppressive yet I have not been induced to complain. Praised
be His name also for this special help! Whoever always reposes in
the good and holy will of God saves himself much trouble, and makes
that supportable which an impatient and unsubdued self-will renders
intolerable. May the Lord subdue this self-will more and more by the
power of the Cross of Christ!”
He looks back with thankfulness on his Tamil studies at the University
of Halle. He discovers that after preaching in that language
conversation becomes much easier. He starts a catechetical class in the
Tamil or Malabar School and “with the youngest lambs, I thus learned to
stammer.” From time to time he makes excursions into the district round
Tranquebar and discusses points of doctrine and difficulty which are
presented to him by inquirers. Here we see the tact of Schwartz, his
readiness to reply to any question, and at the same time, while giving
a clear statement of the claims of the Gospel, he would not offend or
hurt the religious feelings of his listeners. It was also necessary
to exercise great care in testing the reality and sincerity of those
who presented themselves for baptism. Schwartz was not satisfied with
a superficial adhesion to the Christian faith; he felt that the work
would be hindered so much by the instability or inconsistency of those
professing Christianity. While much of his work lay among the lowest
caste natives, he frequently met and conversed with thoughtful and
inquiring Hindus of the higher grade.
One day one of these, a Hindu merchant, said to him: “God has created
us to the end that we should know and serve Him.” This simple and
accurate proposition was of course agreed to by Schwartz, but he
added that unfortunately, although God had given him and many of his
countrymen a knowledge of the end of their creation, yet they remained
in idolatry and thus unhappily never attained to it. After this he
pointed out how Christ had come to reveal the will of God and Himself
as the way, the truth, and the life to all sinners.
But then, to a far greater extent than now, the difficulty in the
minds of unbelievers was the inconsistent lives and character of
professing Christians. The European population was by no means a good
example of what the Christian religion did for a man; of course, in
many cases the difficulty arose from the common mistake of supposing
that because a man had a white face and came from a Christian country
he was necessarily himself a Christian. A wealthy native merchant who
was growing old and could speak in Danish, English, and French, came
with this respectful inquiry--“Sir, be not displeased, I wish to ask
you a question. Do all Europeans speak like you?” To this Schwartz
made answer that all Europeans were unfortunately not true Christians,
but there were many amongst them who were sincere and real in their
belief in Christ, and these prayed for the conversion of the Hindus.
This was, however, a surprise to this honest and venerable inquirer,
and he frankly expressed his opinion of the Christians with whom he
had met, who at any rate were Europeans: “You astonish me, for from
what we daily observe and experience we cannot but think them, with
very few exceptions, to be self-interested, incontinent, proud, full
of illiberal contempt and prejudice against us Hindus and even against
their own religion, especially the higher classes. So at least I
have found it with the majority of those with whom I have had any
intercourse.” Still more plainly did the girl pupil of a Hindu dancing
master retort when Schwartz told them that no wicked and unholy person
could possibly enter the Kingdom of heaven. “Alas, sir,” she cried
bitterly, “in that case hardly any European will ever enter it.”
In some cases the discussion of Christianity revealed the philosophic
and alert mind of the Hindu. Schwartz had one day been preaching the
Gospel when a Hindu raised the point with him that he and others in
India really worshipped the same God as the Christians only they gave
him another name. To this argument Schwartz replied:
“The true God must possess Divine perfections, such as supreme wisdom,
omniscience, omnipotence, holiness, justice. Now nothing of this is
found in your divinities, but by your own records, ignorance, impurity,
cruelty. How can it be said of such that they are gods? You have a
proverb that where sin is, there is no excellence. Now you acknowledge
the practices ascribed to your gods to be sinful; consequently by your
own confession they are unworthy of the name.”
“That is very true,” replied the Hindu, “but if we receive even what is
false and think it to be true in our heart, it is done to us according
to our faith.”
“How can you adopt,” said Schwartz, “a sophism which you yourselves
on other occasions reject? You are accustomed to say, ‘if one writes
the word sugar and then licks his finger, it will not on that account
become sweet, though he believe it ever so firmly.’”
Here is a striking statement made by another to the missionary one
day--it is the unbelief of a later day in its old setting. We can
imagine Schwartz, with his keen intellect, watching this caviller as he
tries to throw the net of a fine spun objection upon the teaching of
the missionary.
“I am surprised to hear you say,” urged this clever Hindu, “that if we
forsake Paganism our souls will be happy and that if we do not God will
punish us. What is the soul? A breath which when it has left the body
is blown away with other winds. You may perceive this by holding the
hand to a dying person’s mouth to feel whether there is yet breath.
If there be, life is still in him. Thus breath and the soul are one
and the same thing. Who then can say that wind shall be punished? What
is God? Can He be seen? He is the universe. I die--that means nothing
more than that my body is resolved into its original elements--water,
fire, earth, air. But the existence of such a spirit within me as you
speak of, I believe not. Where is it when I sleep, when I see no one,
or though one touch me I do not feel it?”
Schwartz quietly and with careful reasoning strove to put him right.
He felt he was dealing with the problem of the soul in every age, in
every country, his own as well as under an Indian sky, the questionings
of a spirit wanting, perhaps, behind all its cavillings, to find the
truth, at any rate feeling its need of direction, but ignoring the only
key, the only guiding hand. He spoke to this Hindu of the operations
of the soul, such as thinking, judging, determining, and asked whether
mind was capable of these. Then lifting his thought to a higher plane
he pointed out the arguments for the existence of a soul, how this
constituted his immortal part and personality, which being endowed with
understanding and will can act for itself and knows the fluctuations
of sorrow, anxiety, and pain, as well as joy and satisfaction. Then he
opened to him the Scriptures and showed him from St. Paul’s Epistle
to the Corinthians the doctrine of the resurrection from the dead. It
will be seen how Schwartz drew his strength from the Bible--the book he
loved--which was the power and inspiration behind all his soul.
His readiness to answer questions and the pleasant welcome he gave to
all inquirers attracted to his side many who had been set thinking by
his words. It is remarkable how the fit word was given him.
“If I become a Christian,” asked one of the natives standing by, “how
shall I be maintained?” A justifiable question in India where the
profession of the faith meant so much loss. Schwartz replied, “Work
and pray,” handing to the man the open Gospel of St. Matthew in Tamil,
and the words upon which his eyes lighted were from the sixth chapter
and verses thirty-one to thirty-three: “Take no thought, saying, what
shall we eat and what shall we drink, or wherewithal shall we be
clothed? For after all these things do the Gentiles seek, for your
Heavenly Father knoweth that you have need of all these things. But
seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these
things shall be added unto you.”
About this time he received tidings of serious reverses which had
befallen his home at Sonnenburg. A disastrous fire which had broken out
in the little town had burnt down his father’s house and in his letter
of the 8th October, 1753, he expresses his desire to help all he can.
Although so far away he is anxious to sustain his father in these new
difficulties.
“I have been thinking,” he writes, “of some means of performing my duty
as a son, in sending home some little assistance. I have a watch given
me in England and request that you will sell it to some watchmaker and
send the proceeds to my father.”
The capacity which Schwartz displayed and his increasing influence
amongst the converts as well as upon the natives who gathered to
listen to his message so impressed the brethren of the mission that
they gladly handed over to him the oversight of the branches and
schools south of the river Cavery. This entailed upon him a good deal
of travelling, and on one occasion he went with his colleague, Mr.
Kohlhoff, to visit Cuddalore. The journey had to be made on foot, and
when they rested their time was occupied in reading the Hebrew Psalms
to each other and whenever opportunity offered they preached the Gospel
to the crowds which gathered round. In some cases the message was not
well received, as when their boatmen who were taking them across the
Coleroon refused to hear what they had to say about Christianity. But
pulling up by a wood the party got out of the boat and soon found a
number of Hindus, Mohammedans and a Roman Catholic native to whom
they preached, and the Romanist afterwards spoke to them in private,
asking for advice and instruction. It was then the practice to punish
a man guilty of stealing by cutting off a limb and one of these
mutilated robbers came to Schwartz and begged for a plaster to heal
the wound where his foot had been amputated. This help was given him,
but while his bodily pain was being treated he was directed to the
great Physician who was alone able to save his soul. One man said, as
a tract was offered him, “We follow our rulers.” “Then,” replied the
missionary, “follow God, He is the Supreme Ruler of us all.”
When they arrived at Cuddalore the brethren in the mission received
them with thankfulness, and during their short stay they took part
in the weekly conference which was founded by Ziegenbalg. He had
established it upon lines of simple and practical wisdom with these
words:
“The weekly conference which we hold every Friday with all the
labourers is of the greatest utility in keeping the mission work in
order. For on that day, in the forenoon, we pray to God for wisdom and
counsel and each relates how he has been employed or what has occurred
in the congregations and schools and in the printing and bookbinding
offices and in the private houses. Here everything that might occasion
disorder or detriment is adjusted and those means are adopted which may
best promote the general good. The conference being over the Portuguese
and Tamil assistants make a report of their labours and of whatever may
be wanting, that as far as possible it may be supplied.”
It is interesting to note that this excellent arrangement continued for
about a hundred years after the death of Ziegenbalg, a testimony to his
wise administration. In addition to this meeting Schwartz held what
they called a “colloquium biblicum,” reading together those striking
verses in the tenth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles where St.
Peter declares the great missionary mandate that “God is no respecter
of persons but in every nation he that feareth Him and worketh
righteousness is accepted with Him.” There was something very Apostolic
about the visit of Schwartz and his companion to this mission station,
the gatherings together for prayer and exposition of the Scriptures,
the gracious influence which broke down all barriers and cheered every
heart in mutual love, then finally the solemn covenant before God to
bear one another’s burdens and preach the Gospel to the heathen around.
Schwartz with his hands outstretched gave them his blessing: “Now the
Lord has heard what we have spoken before Him. May He give us life,
strength, and prosperity!”
The brethren accompany their visitors a little way on their road back
and then bid them farewell.
They journey homewards with thankful spirits for all they have seen and
been permitted to do and in due time come within sight of Tranquebar,
where one of the brethren hastens forward to bid them welcome home.
As they get near to the mission house the Tamil school children come
slowly forward singing the metrical version of Ecclesiasticus l. 22-24:
“Now let us praise the Lord,” their sweet childish voices bringing
a smile to the faces of the returning missionaries. Then the other
brethren come forward and the Danish soldiers stationed at the place
join in the welcome. Schwartz lifts up his voice in prayer and praise.
“Praised be Thy name, O Lord, in profound humility, for all the grace,
protection, and blessing during the whole of our journey Thou hast
graciously bestowed upon us of Thine undeserved mercy for the sake
of Christ, our Mediator! May the seed of Thy word, which we Thy poor
servants have sowed on our journey, spring up and produce abundant
fruits that we and those who have received the word in their hearts,
may praise and adore Thy goodness to all eternity! May the mission with
our brethren at Cuddalore, which has been renewed afresh in Thy sacred
presence, be productive of abundant blessing! Our supplications, which
we have jointly brought before Thy footstool, with regard to ourselves
and the flock entrusted to us, vouchsafe graciously to hear and let us
perceive it for the strengthening of our faith. And thus begin anew to
bless us and to prosper the work of our hands. Yes, prosper thou our
handiwork, O Lord, for the sake of Christ and of His bitter sufferings
and death! Amen.”