THE STRAIN BEGINS TO TELL.
The truce which followed the visit of Schwartz to Hyder Ali was short
lived. While the missionary, not without many misgivings, had returned
to complete his church and care for his flock, the storm clouds were
already on the horizon. His health he finds is not quite so good, the
arduous travelling and exposure, in addition to constant preaching
work, has begun to tell on him. He complains in some of his letters of
pains in his shoulder and side. He is thankful that he can still go out
as usual. “For though I was not confined,” he writes, “my right arm
gave me so much pain that I was unfit to write, nay to hold a book with
it. But now it is much better by the mercy of God. He is the author and
preserver of our lives.”
“If He be pleased to let us stand for some time O may He grant us
strength to live to His glory and praise! Our time is in His hand.”
He is shocked at the luxurious and sinful life which the Europeans
are living, careless and corrupt, on the edge of a volcano but blind
to consequences. This degeneration in the character of the white men
utterly discredited them in the dark watchful eyes of the natives. The
tearing up of treaties and breaking of solemn promises had exasperated
Hyder Ali and made him resolve to sweep the English with their rotten
government into the sea. His ambition was like a roaring furnace; while
the enemies were fiddling and dancing he was preparing the immense army
of nearly an hundred thousand well trained men, led by French officers
and equipped for immediate battle. He swept onward, wasting, burning,
killing, behind him a smoking desolation and before him a terror struck
and fleeing people. His objective was Madras and then a clean sweep
of the enemy all through the Carnatic. It seems inconceivable that
the Government could, from sheer apathy, wilful ignorance and vicious
living, become so incompetent as to make no provision for defence and
take no notice of impending doom until the black clouds of smoke and
lurid flames almost reached the City. Here is the comment of Schwartz
upon the position:
“Our leaders pursued other things; the welfare of the public was
entirely forgotten, private interests, pleasure, luxury were come to
a stupendous height. They were warned three months before Hyder’s
invasion but they despised the warning saying, ‘Hyder might as well fly
as come into the Carnatic!’ None could persuade them to the contrary
till they saw his horse at their garden houses. Then consternation
seized them, nothing but confusion was visible. Hyder pursued his plan,
took one fort after another, till he got possession of Arcot.... Now
what is to be done? I say with Jeremy! ‘Be thou not terrible unto me,
O God’. This calamity is from the Lord and doubtless He intends to
purge us from our sins and take away our dross ... our infidelity, our
contempt of divine things is beyond description and brings upon us the
wrath of God. Heathens and nominal Christians were asleep and minding
nothing but the things of this world. Who knows but they may arise on
hearing the thundering voice of the law.”
The grain stores having been destroyed by the enemy, no seed was sown,
no harvest could be reaped, and famine, gaunt and deadly, stalked
through the land. No strong men were left, only wandering skeletons
were met within the miserable and devastated villages. Hyder carried
off the healthy children and the flower of the people, the rest were
left to die, as Schwartz says: “When passing through the streets early
in the morning, the dead were lying in heaps on the dunghills.” And
here in this extremity we see the forethought and practical wisdom
of Schwartz. With the anticipation of such a famine he had purchased
twelve thousand bushels of rice, and when it seemed as if the soldiers
would die for want of food, he went to the natives, who had lost all
confidence in the word of a European, and got them to bring in their
animals and stores, making himself personally responsible that they
should be duly paid. “I afterwards settled with the natives and they
went home quite satisfied. The Lord also enabled me to consider the
poor, so that I had it in my power to feed a large number for the space
of seventeen months.”
“Our fort,” he writes, “contained the best part of the inhabitants of
the country, who flocked hither to escape the unrelenting cruelty of
the enemy. Daily we conversed with these people and tried to convince
them of the vanity of their idols and to induce them to return to the
living God. They readily own the superior excellence of the Christian
doctrine, but remain in their deplorable errors for various frivolous
reasons. It were to be wished that the country people having suffered
nearly four years all manners of calamity would consider the things
which belong to their eternal welfare, for which my assistants pray and
labour in conjunction with me. But though this fruit of our labour has
not hitherto answered our wishes, still I am happy in being made an
instrument of Providence to instruct some and to warn others. Who knows
but there may come a time when others may reap what we are sowing.”
This was the period when another crisis had arisen in the great
political drama of Indian history, and again, to save the situation,
another great Englishman entered the field. What Clive had won, it
was the duty of Warren Hastings to hold and make sure. He had not
only to stem the warlike onrush of a man like Hyder Ali but he had
to counterplot and play successfully the wily stratagems of native
intrigue. He saved the Company from bankruptcy and made the path of
English government safe and possible in India, yet he ended sadly,
harried to death by the bitterness of his enemies at home, and the
proud head, which overawed the East, bowed in heart-break in his native
land.
Of Warren Hastings it has been truly said as regards these closing
years of persecution and bitterness:
“His life, his heroism, his proud reserve and confident assurance that
all his failings and faults arose from a single-minded desire to carry
out the intentions of his time, are summed up in the words by which he
declared his own vindication and his accuser’s condemnation:
“‘I gave you all, and you have rewarded me with confiscation, disgrace
and a life of impeachment.’”
This terrible fighting gave evidence of the high regard in which
Schwartz was held by both combatants. It is perhaps not surprising that
the English whose cause he had served so well in a diplomatic mission
should be glad to give him every advantage, but it is remarkable that
a tyrant like Hyder Ali should give orders to his officers “to permit
the venerable padre to pass unmolested and to show him respect and
kindness, for he is a holy man and means no harm to my government.”
The death of Hyder Ali in 1782 did not end the war. His son Tippoo,
exceeding his father in cruelty and vindictive oppression, was inspired
to retrieve his reverses and carry the conflict against the English
to the bitter end. For a time, however, the tide of war was against
his arms and, the French troops having left him on the declaration of
peace in Europe, the English Commander Fullerton was advancing upon
Mysore itself, when he was stopped by the half hearted policy of the
Madras Government, who had received from Tippoo a request for peace.
Once more in their difficulty an appeal was made, this time by Lord
Macartney, to Schwartz, that he should accompany the commissioners
on their visit to Tippoo’s camp, to which, for the same just reasons
as before, he agreed. At the same time he pointed out in plainest
terms the folly of stopping Colonel Fullerton when he had an enemy
at a disadvantage, and forecasted further trouble, if indeed it did
not render his mission futile. In his conversation with this brave
officer he fully sympathised with him in the disappointment and greatly
regretted the step that had been taken.
In writing to the Madras Government Colonel Fullerton in a very
handsome manner acknowledged the value of the service of the missionary.
“On our second march we were visited by the Rev. Mr. Schwartz whom your
Lordship and the Board requested to proceed as a faithful interpreter
between Tippoo and the commissioners. The knowledge and the integrity
of this irreproachable missionary have retrieved the character of the
Europeans from imputations of general depravity.”
The attempt to reach Tippoo in accordance with Lord Macartney’s wishes
was frustrated by the turning back of Schwartz for some unknown reason,
whether it was because, unlike his father, Tippoo, in his desire to
insult an Englishman, did not hesitate to show disrespect to this aged
missionary, or because he did not mean to confer until the district
of Mangalore was in his possession. Schwartz said that he would have
been very glad to have helped to make peace but he was thankful he was
spared the strain for he was far from well, and when a further request
was made he felt justified in declining it. Though he could not go
himself he prayed earnestly that the commissioners might be guided
aright in their interview with this violent man. He also sees behind
all this what a tragedy of misery, sin and cruelty is going on.
“I entreat God to bless them,” he says, “with wisdom, resolution and
integrity, to settle the business to the welfare of this poor country.
But alas! We ourselves are so divided--one pulls one way, the other
quite a different one. When one considers all, high and low, rich and
poor, rulers and those that are ruled, one is struck with grief and
a variety of passions. What blindness, insensibility, and obstinacy,
greediness, and rapaciousness. A thousand times I think with myself:
‘Good God, must all these people _die_--must they all give a strict
account of their lives--must they all appear before the tribunal of
Jesus, the mediator and judge? How little do they mind their end, and
the consequences of their lives?’”
There is no doubt that at this time Schwartz was feeling the effect of
his long life of incessant work, and in his letters to his friends he
asks their prayers that more strength may be given him. He tells that
while at present in no position of pain, his weakness is great and that
speaking or walking so fatigue him that he can hardly stand. He has
spent so many years in the work, under a trying climate, without any
furlough, that it is no wonder that he begins to fail under the burden
of a labour he has borne so long. Not that he complained; Schwartz
was one of those men who consider themselves last and scorn to make
much of either their physical pains or their difficult circumstances.
He dismisses the question of his illness with almost an apology for
referring to it.
“Enough of this, age comes upon me, I have no reason therefore to
wonder at weakness. If the mind be sound all is well, the rest we
shall quit when we enter into the grave. That will cure all our bodily
indispositions.... Our time is short. Within some days I have sojourned
in this country thirty-four years. The end of my journey is, even
according to the course of nature, near. May I not flag! May my last
days be my best!”
Few missionaries either then or since have preached so many sermons,
every one worked out with so much carefulness and so rich in thought.
And yet he had no time to prepare in the ordinary sense; he never wrote
out his sermons and was content with putting on a piece of paper the
principal points of his discourse, which was otherwise quite extempore.
From one of these notes a brief extract will be interesting; he is
speaking on the condition of a believer and how love, his favourite
theme, must be paramount in his heart. “Let us now represent a person
truly believing in Jesus and united to Him, washed from his sins,
strengthened by His Spirit, and cheered with the hope of an unspeakably
glorious crown hereafter. Being endowed with such a gracious faith and
lively hope, what shall he do? What will be the effect of such a faith
or hope? Love towards God and all men. A person that is blessed with
such faith and hope cannot but love God and all mankind and that from
the bottom of his heart. He looks upon God as his Father who has loved
him in an unspeakable manner, who sent His only begotten Son into the
world for his eternal happiness, who has called him out of darkness
into marvellous light, who has blessed him with pardon, peace and hope,
and this heartily inclines him to love Him sincerely and ardently. The
conclusion which St. John draws from the love of God towards us is very
natural. ‘We love him because he first loved us.’ Such a Christian will
esteem and venerate, adore and praise God, keep His commandments, His
Sabbath Day, His word. Love will teach him all this. His soul and body
he will present as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God,
which will be his reasonable service. Such an one will not be conformed
to this world but transformed by the renewing of his mind, that he may
prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Whether
he eats or drinks, or whatever he does, he will endeavour to do it to
the glory of God.
“Let us seriously examine our hearts and lives whether we have loved
God in such a manner. Have we venerated Him and His Divine Name above
all? Have we delighted in Him so as to renounce sinful pleasures? Have
we endeavoured to glorify God or to promote the honour of His Name
among those with whom we live? Have we worshipped Him privately and
publicly, in such a manner as to inspire others with devotion? Have we
kept the Lord’s Day in a holy manner?
“And as he loves God he will likewise love his neighbour, and that not
only externally but from his heart. The sense of the love of God will
be to him instead of a thousand commandments. He will love the souls
of his fellow creatures, the ignorant he will instruct by word and
example, the wicked he will endeavour to convert and lead them into
the path of pity; the poor and afflicted he will assist, nourish and
comfort, according to the ability which God hath given him. He will
take care not to offend or injure his neighbour, either in his fortune
or his name. So that backbiting, envy, strife, malice will be far from
him, and all this will flow from a principle of faith and hope.
“What a happiness it would be if all Christians were actuated by such
love or desire of making others happy here and hereafter!
“Let us therefore ask you seriously before that God who knows your
hearts and ways, do you love your neighbours sincerely? Is it the
bent of your lives not only to honour your God but likewise to make
your fellow creatures happy? Have you showed a tender regard to their
eternal welfare? You see thousands before your eyes sitting in darkness
and the shadow of death. Have you endeavoured at least by your example
to convince them of the purity and excellence of your religion? Have
you discouraged vice and wickedness or have you promoted it and so laid
a stumbling block before your ignorant and careless fellow-creatures?
Have you assisted the poor and needy in their distressful circumstances
or have you been regardless of their misery?
“Let us examine our hearts seriously and whatever we find in our
behaviour to have been against the will of God let us immediately
repent of it and beg forgiveness in the name of Jesus Christ. Cultivate
these three principles, faith, hope, and love, and you will glorify
God, enjoy true happiness and edify your fellow-creatures--which God
grant!”
Travelling into Tinnevelley, we find Schwartz busy establishing a
Christian church at Palamcotta where a number of converts had gathered
together and with the help of some English gentlemen had built a little
church, and here he preached to a good congregation, with eighty
persons, to whom he administered the Sacrament. He is not, however,
unmindful of the need of discipline and some elements in the church
were rather unsatisfactory. “But this,” he adds, “is no more than what
are usually united together, wheat and chaff.”
The worldliness of the European residents was always a disturbing
aspect in the eyes of Schwartz, and writing to his friend Mr. Chambers
on 20th July, 1785, he speaks of these things, knowing that his
correspondent as an earnest Christian will appreciate what he says:
“How much is squandered away in what is called fashionable living, to
no purpose but rather to the worst! Health, strength, conscience, and
the sweetest sense of the favour of God are lost--for what! Though we
are not to serve God for the sake of temporal advantages, we shall
find that true unfeigned ‘godliness’ is profitable even to all things,
having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come!
The people of the world love both. Their tumultuous mirth does not
deserve the name of joy and is always closely attended and embittered
by unspeakable disquietude and anxiety, which they must feel so soon as
they begin to reflect....
“Be this our aim--and may our hearts (ah! our slippery hearts) never
swerve from the path to that heavenly Canaan! May we never murmur or
lust after the things which we have once renounced! May we be faithful
unto death and so realize the crown of life! Remember me likewise when
you come before the throne of mercy that my approaching age may not be
unfruitful but blessed.”