Page:On the Coromandel Coast.djvu/201

Rh 'Now rise and go; and see that you take better care for the future,' said the missionary.

Some people came to him and asked him how they should pray to God. He answered promptly:

'Pray as if you were starving beggars.'

It was but natural that there should be among the English officers one or two who were not in sympathy with any religious movement. It interfered with their mode of life and set their consciences working uncomfortably. Schwartz was not a man to withhold reproof where it was needed; he called it exhortation.

William Taylor, the historian of the Mission, says that there was a certain captain who set himself in opposition to all the church work that was going on. Knowing that the missionary was the instigator of everything of the kind, he directed his animosity openly towards Schwartz, and never lost an opportunity of abusing him.

One day when the padre was upon the roof of the church superintending a gang of native masons, the captain came under the walls and poured forth a torrent of abuse. Schwartz was roused into making a reply, though it was not his custom to take any notice of such discourtesies. As a rule he was wont to treat them with contemptuous silence. He stood up and rebuked the officer before all the workmen, denouncing the wrath of God upon him unless he repented of his evil ways. The captain was startled by the vehement reproof. The words of warning seemed burned into his brain and he could not forget them. He tried to drown his thoughts in drink, and while under the influence of it he fell over the balustrade of his own terraced roof. He was mortally injured and died a few days later. The incident made a great impression on the natives who had heard the rebuke.