India -- Description and travel; Missionaries -- India -- Biography; Missions -- India; Swartz, Christian Frederick, 1726-1798
The sunset of a winter afternoon shines on the windows of the chamber
where the watchers stand, their hands clasped behind them, and their
eyes full of tears. But there is light in the face on the pillow, the
breaking of a day beyond the horizon of time.
Tenderly raised a little in the arms of a friend, he murmurs a
parting blessing, “I wish you many comforts,” and is gone. On the day
following, the 14th February, 1798, they carried him to his grave in
the garden. Serfogee, crying like a child, hurried to have one last
look at the face of the one who had been more than father to him, and
covers the body with a cloth of gold. It was intended to sing a hymn as
the funeral made its way, but the lamentations and wailing of the great
crowd of poor natives made this impossible. The solemn burial service
was performed by Mr. Jaenické, and when this was over and the Europeans
had retired, the natives who filled the sacred building remained
praying and singing hymns. They begged of the minister to speak of
their departed friend, but his own heart was too full to give any
address. To use his own words, “I could hardly utter even a few words,
and was obliged to summon up all my resolution to read the service. The
servant of the deceased stood near me, and said, almost as if fainting,
‘Now, he who was the desire of us all is gone!’ This exclamation went
to my heart, but this is not the language of one but of many, old and
young, great and small, near and afar, Christians and heathen.”
CHAPTER XVI.
THE MEMORY OF THE JUST.
By his last will and testament Schwartz left all he had to the mission.
He had never married, and had, therefore, no family obligations to
consider, but a hundred star pagodas, equal to about £43 in English
currency at that time, he directed should be divided amongst his
sister’s children. His two gold watches were to be sold and the
proceeds given to the poor, thirty star pagodas were to go to his
personal servant, and a few silver articles to his friend, Mr.
Kohlhoff, as a token of his hearty love. But, apart from these trifling
specific bequests, all his savings, together with such property as
he had built with his own money, were devoted to the maintenance and
support of the work he loved so well. His own personal needs had always
been few, his life almost ascetic in its simplicity, so that he was
able to put by the allowance from the Government as chaplain to the
soldiers, and yet he was generous to the poor, and always ready to help
young catechists in their studies. As we have seen, he consistently
refused to accept any presents from either European or native rulers to
whom he had been of service, and this in a time and place when fortunes
were easily made and bribes excused redounds greatly to his credit. A
more disinterested and faithful man never served his God and country
better than he.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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