“I am now on the brink of eternity; but to this moment I declare that I do not repent of having spent forty-three years here in the service of my Divine Master. Who knows but God may remove some of the great obstacles to the propagation of the Gospel. Should a reformation take place among the Europeans, it would no doubt be the greatest blessing to the country.” It is only just and right to record that, after perusing this complete and touching disclaimer by Schwartz, the critic of missions tendered an immediate apology to him. But the mischief would not by this be undone. The “Madras Courier” of the 24th May, 1793, made sympathetic comments on the attack. Schwartz in his reply had completely disposed of the charge, yet this journal continued to repeat that all native Christians were of the lowest class, and the European officials and the Brahmins began, with an easily satisfied conviction, to make it hard for the Christian convert to live. In 1802 the Hindu Maravars of Tinnevelly, judging that, after what Mr. Montgomery Campbell had said, the Christians might be molested with impunity, so bitterly persecuted them that the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge had to appeal to the Directors of the East India Company to put a stop to this oppression, which was successful. The incident has the old moral that an unjust charge may be fully disproved but a vindication can never follow or kill the slander. Throughout the year 1794 many letters full of fatherly advice were written by Schwartz from Tanjore to his young ward Serfogee at Madras. He counsels him to look to nothing less than the Almighty power of God as a sufficient help in the perilous paths of his youth. “Your welfare, believe me,” he writes, “depends entirely upon God who governs all things. If He is your God and Father all will be well. But that He may be your protector and benefactor, you must honour, adore and fear Him. If you refuse to acknowledge Him, it is but just if He forsakes you. You have read the declaration of God concerning Israel, ‘O that they would fear me and keep my commandments, it should be well with them.’ But Israel disobeyed often and they were severely punished. It is therefore left to your choice, whether you will honour the true God or the idols. May God direct us to choose Him for our God and supreme good!” Again we find him urging this young Oriental, who may have had some natural inclination to take things easy, to study more persistently. Some of his considerations are by no means strange or unnecessary even to readers who have long since passed the primrose age of youth.