Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Editorial Note
- Abbreviations
- 1 India and Political Change, 1706–86
- 2 The Tranquebar Mission
- 3 The Thomas Christians in Decline and Recovery
- 4 Roman Catholic Missions
- 5 Anglicans and Others
- 6 The Suppression of the Jesuits
- 7 The New Rulers and the Indian Peoples
- 8 Government, Indians and Missions
- 9 Bengal, 1794–1833
- 10 New Beginnings in the South
- 11 The Thomas Christians in Light and Shade
- 12 Anglican Development
- 13 The Recovery of the Roman Catholic Missions
- 14 Education and the Christian Mission
- 15 Protestant Expansion in India
- 16 Indian Society and the Christian Message
- 17 Towards an Indian Church
- 18 The Great Uprising
- APPENDICES
- Notes
- Select Bibliographies
- Index
10 - New Beginnings in the South
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 September 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Editorial Note
- Abbreviations
- 1 India and Political Change, 1706–86
- 2 The Tranquebar Mission
- 3 The Thomas Christians in Decline and Recovery
- 4 Roman Catholic Missions
- 5 Anglicans and Others
- 6 The Suppression of the Jesuits
- 7 The New Rulers and the Indian Peoples
- 8 Government, Indians and Missions
- 9 Bengal, 1794–1833
- 10 New Beginnings in the South
- 11 The Thomas Christians in Light and Shade
- 12 Anglican Development
- 13 The Recovery of the Roman Catholic Missions
- 14 Education and the Christian Mission
- 15 Protestant Expansion in India
- 16 Indian Society and the Christian Message
- 17 Towards an Indian Church
- 18 The Great Uprising
- APPENDICES
- Notes
- Select Bibliographies
- Index
Summary
THE END OF THE DANISH MISSION
In 1786 Christian Friedrich Schwartz entered on the sixtieth year of his life and the thirty-seventh of his missionary service. He lived for another eleven years. His life, therefore, covered the whole period of the greatest expansion and development of the Danish mission, and was prolonged into the period of its decline. Schwartz was aware of the beginning of this decline and of its causes. But, as long as he lived, Thañjāvur continued to be the centre of harmonious and fruitful activity, all of which revolved round the tirelessly active patriarch.
During these later years official preoccupations added greatly to the labours of the missionary. In a letter of 1793 he remarks that ‘for two years I have discharged the duties of a resident’. This meant that his verandah and the enclosure in front of his house were constantly crowded with those who came to him on official business or to seek his favour. They were left in no doubt that the first concern of the missionary was the proclamation of the Gospel:
Those who came to see me in the morning attended our morning prayers; others who called at night heard the instructions given to the candidates for baptism. Sometimes forty or fifty persons are present, both of high and low castes. Frequently from fifteen to twenty Brahmans are sitting by, while I am catechising. They sit quietly for an hour, and hear everything that I have to say.
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- Information
- A History of Christianity in India1707–1858, pp. 212 - 235Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1985