{
  "bookName": "History of Christianity in India: Source Materials",
  "authorName": "M. K. Kuriakose",
  "publisherName": "Indian Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge",
  "publicationYear": 2011,
  "chapterNumber": 56,
  "chapterName": "1751. Schwartz on the Hindu Reaction to Europeans and Christianity",
  "pageFrom": 65,
  "pageTo": 66,
  "pages": [
    {
      "pageNumber": 65,
      "ocrText": "SOURCE MATERIALS\n65\n56. SCHWARTZ ON THE HINDU REACTION TO\nEUROPEANS AND CHRISTIANITY (1751 A.D.)\nThis is an account of the conversations between Christian Frederick\nSchwartz and local Hindus, in which the latter react negatively towards\nChristianity as practiced by the Europeans. It also indicates that\nat least some of these Hindus believed that one would gain material\nadvantage by conversion to Christianity, though Schwartz himself\ndiscouraged this idea. From Hugh Pearson, Memoirs of the Life\nand Correspondence of the Rev. Christian Swartz, Vol. I, pp. 89-94.\nA Hindu merchant said to him, God has created us to the end\nthat we should know and serve him. This Swartz confirmed, and\nthen added with regret, that although God had given him and\nmany of his countrymen a knowledge of the end of their creation,\nyet they remained in idolatry, and thus unhappily never attained it.\nHe then declared the doctrine of Christ, and nd pointed Him out as\nthe only way to the true and saving knowledge of God.\nAnother wealthy old merchant, who understood Danish,\nEnglish, and French, said to him, Sir, be not displeased: I wish\nto ask you a question. Do all Europeans speak like you?' Swartz\nreplied, that all Europeans were not true Christians; but that there\nwere many who were really so, and who sincerely prayed for the\nHindoos that they might become acquainted with Jesus Christ.\n'You astonish me,' said he 'for, from what we daily observe\nand experience, we cannot but think Europeans, with but few\nexceptions, to be self-interested, incontinent, proud, full of illiberal\ncontempt and prejudice against us Hindoos, and even against their\nown religion, especially the higher classes. So at least I have\nfound it with majority of those with whom I have had any inter-\ncourse.'\nThis is a reproach which has been but too justly thrown upon\nEuropeans by the unenlightened natives of India, and has ever\nformed one of the most powerful obstacles to their conversion\nto Christianity. It is, however, a reproach which, though still too\nfrequently deserved, has of late years been considerably removed\nby the improved character and conduct of our own countrymen;\nmore particularly in stations of influence and authority. May it\ndaily become less merited!\nSwartz one day met a Hindoo dancing-master, with his female\npupil, and told them, that no unholy persons shall enter into the\nkingdom of heaven. Alas, sir!' said the poor girl, in that case\nhardly any European will ever enter it; and passed on.\nHaving asked a Pandaram, or Hindoo devotee, who carried\nabout an idol, why he did so; For my support,' said he. Swartz\nH.C.I.-5",
      "status": "completed"
    },
    {
      "pageNumber": 66,
      "ocrText": "66\nHISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA\nreproved him for his baseness, and inquired the name of his idol.\nHe replied by a Tamil word signifying, 'He that removes evil.'\nUpon this, the missionary spoke to him of Jesus, as the only Saviour\nwho took away the sins of the world.\nA Hindoo pretended that he and his countrymen worshipped the\nsame God as the Christians did, only under other names. Swartz\nreplied, 'The true God must possess divine perfections; such as\nsupreme wisdom, omniscience, omnipotence, holiness, justice.\nNow, nothing of this is found in your divinities; but, by your own\nrecords, ignorance, impurity, cruelty. How can it be said of such\nthat they are gods? You have a proverb, that where sin is, there is\nno excellence. Now you acknowledge the practices ascribed to\nyour gods to be sinful; consequently, by your own confession,\nthey are unworthy of the name.' 'That is very true,' said the\nHindoo; but if we receive even what is false, and think it to be\ntrue in our heart, it is done to us according to our faith.' 'How\ncan you adopt,' answered Swartz, a sophism, which you your-\nselves, on other occasions, reject? You are accustomed to say,\n\"If one write the word sugar, and then lick his finger, it will not on\nthat account become sweet, though he believe it ever so firmly \".\"\nA native objected, 'Show us any one who has embraced your.\nreligion, and has been actually saved, and we will believe you.'\nSwartz answered, in the spirit of Abraham's reply in the parable of\nthe rich man and Lazarus, 'God has given you his word-prove\nand examine it. Such an evidence as you require is not the appoin-\nted way of becoming convinced of the truth; for the devil can\ntransform himself into an angel of light.'\nAnother observed, 'I am surprised to hear you say, that if we\nforsake Paganism, our souls will be happy, and that if we do not,\nGod will punish us. What is the soul? A breath, which, when it\nhas left the body, is blown away with other winds. You may\nperceive this by our holding the hand to a dying person's mouth,\nto feel whether there is breath. If there be, life is still in him.\nThus breath and the soul are one and the same thing. Who can\nsay that wind shall be punished? What is God? Can he be seen?\nHe is the universe. I died: - that means nothing more than that\nmy body is resolved into its original elements-water, fire, earth,\nair. But the existence of such a spirit within me as you speak of,\nI believe not. Where is it when I sleep, I sleep, when I I see no one or though\none touch me, I do not feel it?' Swartz replied to each point. He\nreminded the objector of the operations of the soul, such as thinking,\njudging, determining; and asked, whether wind was capable of\nthese? Whether he could not by this perceive that he had a soul,\nwhich is a real being, endowed with understanding and will, and\nwhich is therefore susceptible of sorrow, anxiety, and pain. He",
      "status": "completed"
    }
  ]
}