Once more the air was filled with battle-cries, and Hyder Ali, the despot of Mysore, began to threaten the great provinces of Southern India whose rulers had made an alliance with the English for the common safety. A large army prepared to march against the invader and in one of the heathen temples at Trichinopoly, converted into a hospital, Schwartz preached to the troops, standing for a pulpit upon a heap of black polished stones. He then went on a missionary journey to see the brethren at Tranquebar. On the way he found plenty of opportunity for giving his Gospel message to processions and wayside pilgrims and especially at one place, Ammal-Savadi, where, attached to a palace, was a row of houses nearly a mile long built for the Brahmins. Here he gathered a large crowd unto whom he preached the Word of Life, expounding the parable of the Prodigal Son. One of the Brahmins, much impressed, applied to himself the character of the wandering son which caused Schwartz to exclaim: “O that they would arise and go to their Father!” After ten days with his old friends at Tranquebar, he returned, passing on his way a magnificent banyan tree, in the shade of which the merchants were busy in their booths. To them he spoke of the Supreme Being, the Fall, how Christ came to redeem us, and that now there is a way of salvation and a highway of holiness. They could not do otherwise than agree with his earnest reasoning. “It is so written,” they said, “but who can live thus? Who is able thus to eradicate his desires? We have it also on the palm leaves but it is impossible to keep it.” There appeared no active opposition to his declaration of the truth. He records as regards the way of salvation that he invariably and most justly represented it “by true repentance, faith in the Divine Saviour Jesus Christ and godliness springing from a true faith. Not a single heathen made the least disturbance, they listened in silence. Afterwards I addressed them separately and exhorted them to receive the saving doctrines of the Gospel.” Nothing seemed to stir the heart of Schwartz more than the abject idolatry of the people. He never missed an opportunity of pointing out that their superstition was no good to them, it could neither help nor comfort them in their need. “We talked ourselves quite weary,” he writes, “with various heathen. When the catechist read to them our Lord’s warning against false prophets and said something in explanation, a Brahmin declared before all present: ‘It is the lust of the eyes and of pleasures that prevents us from embracing the truth.’” As a result of the continued fight with Hyder Ali, Schwartz found on returning to Trichinopoly a number of sick and wounded soldiers glad to welcome him back again. He makes a note in his journal of several interesting facts with regard to his ministrations among these English soldiers in the hospital. [Illustration: SCHWARTZ’ HOUSE AT TRICHINOPOLY BISHOP HEBER PREACHED HIS LAST SERMON FROM THE STEPS]