[Sidenote: An Evangelist.] The number of his converts amounted in a short time to three thousand. It was said that whole villages followed him when he conducted mission tours, which were likened to triumphal processions. In some villages temples were stripped of their idols and converted into houses of worship. When he approached a village the entire population frequently awaited him. It is related that the heathen never came to their temples as they came to this man of God. Worn out, he died in 1803 at the age of sixty-one. [Sidenote: Another Pious Mother.] As in the case of Bartholomew Ziegenbalg so in the case of _Christian Frederick Schwartz_, the impulse to the Christian ministry came from a godly mother. She died when the lad was but five years old, but she had made her husband promise that her boy should be prepared for the ministry. Like Ziegenbalg and Luther and many other religious heroes, Schwartz suffered in his youth from the weight of sin and the fear of God’s judgment. Like them also he came, after study of God’s Word and earnest prayer, to rest his soul upon the almighty promises. At Halle he met Benjamin Schultze who called upon him to aid in his revision of the Tamil Bible. Urged by his teachers to consider a call to the mission field, he felt himself at first to be unworthy. Finally, however, he agreed to go. When he informed his father of his intention he met with dismay and refusal. The elder Schwartz had three children, of these one son had just died, a daughter was about to be married and now the third proposed to go to distant India! Finally the father was won over and, giving his son his blessing, charged him to win many souls for Christ. How many times in missionary history has this drama of unwillingness, persuasion and final yielding been enacted! [Sidenote: A Father’s Sacrifice.] May all fathers and mothers who give their children to the great cause have reason for gratitude as did the elder Schwartz! In January, 1750, Schwartz and two companions sailed, only to return on account of fearful storms. In March they set out once more and reached Tranquebar at the end of July. [Sidenote: A Diligent Student.] The first work assigned to the young man was the teaching of the children in the schools. He longed to go into the wilderness of heathendom outside the city and there do pioneer work, and in preparation for the day when he should be allowed to go, he applied himself to a study of the people, their language and their religion. As a result of his thorough comprehension of their nature and their needs he was to have a deep and lasting influence upon them. For twelve years he worked in Tranquebar and the outlying villages. In 1755, by the persuasion of the wife of a German officer, Schwartz and his companions were allowed to pay a short visit to Tanjore, the city which was the seat of the native government and which had hitherto been closed to missionaries.