The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1933, Page 43

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THE LUTHERAN PIONEER

corps. Among these unpromising people Schwartz
won his last laurels as a warrior of the Cross.

“One day, while far away from Tanjore, his mis-
sionary center, Schwartz himself had been attacked
and robbed by these robber folk, to the dismay of
Kohlhoff, his assistant. While the latter was furi-
ously indignant at the outrage inflicted upon the
Apostle of India, Schwartz’s compassion was aroused
by the outrage he had suffered. ‘I can do all things
through Him that strengtheneth me,’ he declared to
his astonished companion as he announced his de-
termination to go to the robbers with his Gospel.
And Kohlhoff went with him to witness and share
his last triumph on earth.

“For a year the two were swallowed up by the
forest darkness and mountain shadow and silence.
Only rumors of gigantic success penetrated to the
outside world, and these seemed hardly credible. To
verify them, the governor of Madras himself, on a
journey of inspection through his dominions, turned
aside from his route and visited the mountain
region to see whether the report was true that the
robbers had become farmers and that the hands erst-
while read with blood had been taught to fold in
prayer. Knowing Schwartz’s history, he indeed ex-
pected to see results. What he did not expect to see
was the revolution in evidence upon every hand.
Amid the mountain ridges, like a white lighthouse
among the breaking surges, stood a church with
steeple and cross. Around it lay meadows for the
grazing flocks and fields in a fair state of cultiva-
tion. Circle upon circle neat, clean houses sur-
rounded the sanctuary. And from this place as a
center, robber bands had set out but a year ago in
quest of blood and treasure! What an army corps
had been incapable of achieving, that Schwartz had
done, the man with no weapon than his heaven-born
love, which embraced all and despaired of none; he
had tamed imbruted savages and turned slaves of
Satan into children of God.

“The governor’s driver being acquainted with
the dialect of the natives, the facts were soon in his
possession. At first every heart upon which Schwartz
attempted to sow Gospel seed was a stone. However,
Schwartz’s love melted the stones; then his message
was heard. Thereupon the Holy Spirit, who is ever
with the Word of God as vital force, wrought an-
other Pentecost. In less than a year a goodly con-
gregation was marshaled around him. Cessation
from the robber trade and willingness to earn one’s
bread by personal effort was the fruit of repentance
upon which Schwartz insisted as a test of sincerity.
One day the tribesmen at a distance came with

weapons of war in order to kill or expel their con-
verted kinsmen, whose frugal and orderly habits had
become a menace to their traditions and manner of
life. At once the urge of their wild blood mani-
fested itself, and the converted robbers appeared
with sword and spear for the defense of their lives
and possessions. But Schwartz, borne up by an un-
faltering trust in the God of peace, counseled prayer
instead; and when the enemy saw a kneeling con-
gregation instead of an army in battle array, they
withdrew in confusion like Attila, the Hun king of
old, when he was besought to depart by the defense-
less shepherd of Rome, who had no other weapon

Christian Frederic Schwartz.

than the cross upon his brow. Such was Schwartz’s
achievement under God when he was a graybeard of
seventy. Indeed, through the indwelling Christ,
Schwartz had learned to accomplish the humanly
impossible.”

Schwartz labored for almost fifty years as mis-
sionary among the Tamils of India, the same race
among which most of our missionaries in India
are working to-day. Schwartz was a member of
what was called the Danish-Halle Lutheran Mis-
sion. The first missionaries of this mission were the
two Lutherans Ziegenbalg and Pluetschau. The

first station was at Tranquebar. F.J.L.
oe

I sEx no business in life but the work of Christ.
Henry Martyn. ~