His very abilities and influence drew him within the dangerous zone of political affairs, and the fact that he stood so well with the powers that were the representatives of the British Government, might well have corrupted a man of less principle and sincerity. It may be said of him that he sat at the tables of rich men and talked on equal terms with the ambitious spirits of his time, but he kept his piety and simplicity through it all. They trusted his sagacity and leaned on his judgment in difficult situations, but they knew he was not to be bribed, and that he kept a clean hand. He was a scholar, and had a good knowledge of the classics, of German literature; he was also master of Hebrew, Tamil, Persian, Hindustani, Mahratta, and the Indo-Portuguese languages. There is no doubt that his linguistic powers were very helpful to him, as we have seen, they so often enabled him to get past the crafty Brahmins, and converse with the Rajah or the Pariah alike in their own tongue about the truths of Christianity. While he promoted the growth of a native ministry and took great pains to train his catechists to a point of efficiency, he was not disposed to believe that India could ever dispense with European missionaries, who carried with them a weight of influence and respect which a native, however worthy, could not successfully obtain. At the same time he foresaw the importance and necessity of a native ministry under the jurisdiction of English leaders. This was shown in the ordination, by the rites of the Lutheran Church, of Sattianaden, who lived to a ripe old age, and was eminently useful in the work, and whose office as minister was cordially sanctioned by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. It is a fact sometimes hardly appreciated that a great part of almost every day was spent by Schwartz in training his catechists for the work of the ministry. There existed then no colleges to undertake this important duty, and the remote possibility that one day in India native clergy would hold their degrees from Oxford and Cambridge never entered into his wildest dreams. He was content and happy to do his part, and in doing this so faithfully he was preparing the way for the wonderful developments in the service of natives which should come in the future. As a matter of fact, although there was a growing appreciation of the value of utilising native converts as catechists and helpers in the days following Schwartz, there appears to have been a corresponding reluctance to ordain them, save in exceptional cases, to the work of the ministry. The day of a native clergy dawned slowly. We have it on record that, so far nearer our present time as 1851, “although there were over 493 catechists and preachers there were under all the societies at work in India only twenty-one ordained native pastors.”