The irreproachable German missionary

German missionary Christian Friedrich Schwartz

“The knowledge and integrity of this irreproachable missionary have retrieved the character of Europeans from imputations of general depravity,” a British officer said of German Lutheran missionary Christian Friedrich Schwartz, who served in South India for forty-eight years without a break in the 18th century.

It is a little difficult to account for the extraordinary power exercised by Schwartz over the minds of the men of his day and for long afterwards. Something must be attributed to his wide knowledge – in addition to Portuguese, English, and Tamil, he had mastered Persian, which was then the language of the court, and Hindustani; to the charm which enabled him to move easily in all classes of society; to the extreme simplicity of his life – Schwartz spent nothing on himself and died a rich man, leaving considerable sums as endowment for the work that he had started; and to his reputation for utter self-forgetfulness and integrity. But central to everything was a simple and stalwart faith, and a total dependence on the merits of the Redeemer. Men who met Schwartz knew that they had seen a man of God." - from "A history of Christian missions", by Stephen Neill

Anglican priest Stephen Neill