CHAPTER II.Pioneers and Methods

Pioneers.

Bartholomew ZiegenbalgHenry PlütschauJohn Ernst GründlerBenjamin SchultzeJohn Philip FabriciusChristian William GerickeChristian Frederick SchwartzKarl Ewald RheniusThomas von WestenPer FjellströmHans EgedeJohn Jaenicke

Bartholomew Ziegenbalg

Henry Plütschau

John Ernst Gründler

Benjamin Schultze

John Philip Fabricius

Christian William Gericke

Christian Frederick Schwartz

Karl Ewald Rhenius

Thomas von Westen

Per Fjellström

Hans Egede

John Jaenicke

Methods.

German Societies

The Basel SocietyThe Berlin SocietyThe Rhenish SocietyThe North German or Bremen SocietyThe Leipsic SocietyThe Hermannsburg SocietyThe Gossner SocietyThe Breklum or Schleswig-Holstein SocietyThe Neukirchen SocietyThe Neuendettelsau SocietyThe Hanover SocietyThe Bielefeld Society

The Basel Society

The Berlin Society

The Rhenish Society

The North German or Bremen Society

The Leipsic Society

The Hermannsburg Society

The Gossner Society

The Breklum or Schleswig-Holstein Society

The Neukirchen Society

The Neuendettelsau Society

The Hanover Society

The Bielefeld Society

Scandinavian Societies

The Danish Missionary SocietyThe Norwegian Missionary SocietyThe Norwegian Church Mission (Schreuder)The Norwegian Lutheran China MissionThe Swedish National SocietyThe Swedish Church MissionThe Swedish Mission in ChinaThe Swedish Mongol MissionThe Jerusalem AssociationThe Home Mission to the Santals

The Danish Missionary Society

The Norwegian Missionary Society

The Norwegian Church Mission (Schreuder)

The Norwegian Lutheran China Mission

The Swedish National Society

The Swedish Church Mission

The Swedish Mission in China

The Swedish Mongol Mission

The Jerusalem Association

The Home Mission to the Santals

Finnish, Polish and other societies.

American Societies

Nine Norwegian SocietiesGeneral SynodGeneral CouncilUnited Synod SouthSynodical ConferenceJoint Ohio SynodDanish SocietyIowa Synod

Nine Norwegian Societies

General Synod

General Council

United Synod South

Synodical Conference

Joint Ohio Synod

Danish Society

Iowa Synod

Chapter II.PIONEERS AND METHODSPioneers.

Chapter II.

PIONEERS AND METHODS

Pioneers.

|A Danish Colony.|In 1526, nine years after Luther had nailed his theses to the church door at Wittenberg, the King of Denmark accepted the Evangelical faith. Subsequently the Lutheran Church was made the State Church. About a hundred years later Denmark acquired by purchase an Indian fishing village, Tranquebar, on the east coast of southern India. There a Danish colony was established, there a Lutheran church called Zion Church was built, and thither two preachers were sent to minister to the Danes. Eighty years later the heart of a pious King, Frederick IV, became concerned for the spiritual welfare of the heathen in this colony. His court chaplain, Doctor Lütken, who was also deeply interested, set about securing men who would be willing to undertake the work. Failing to meet with a response in Denmark, he applied to friends in Berlin. They recommended a young GermanBartholomew Ziegenbalg.

|The Son of a Pious Mother.|Young Ziegenbalg had been influenced, as most candidates for the ministry are influenced, by a pious mother. Both his mother and father had died so early that he could remember very little about them. One recollection, however, was clear in his mind. Dying, his mother had called her children to her bedside and had commended to them her Bible, with the words: “Dear children, I am leaving to you a treasure, a very great treasure.” Earnest and pious, anxious for communion with God, the young man, who was brought up by a sister, prepared himself for the ministry. He studied at Berlin and afterwards at Halle. There his poor health was a cause of deep discouragement, but Francke reminded him that though he might not be able to work in Germany he might seek a field in some foreign country with a more equable climate.

|Called to the Mission Field.|When his health failed, Ziegenbalg left Halle and took up the work of a private tutor. He continued his devotional studies, however, and held such meetings as Spener had begun. He formed a friendship at this time with Henry Plütschau, another Halle student. Together the two covenanted “never to seek anything but the glory of God, the spread of His kingdom and the salvation of mankind, and constantly to strive after personal holiness, no matter where they might be or what crosses they might have to bear.” In 1705, Ziegenbalg accepted a call to a congregation near Berlin. It was here that he was found by the inquiry of the Danish court chaplain Lütken. He accepted at once, declaring that if his going brought about the conversion of but one heathen he would consider it worth while. His friend Plütschau was anxious to go also, and, ordained by the Danish Church, the two sailed from Copenhagen on the ship “Sophia Hedwig” November 29, 1705, for Tranquebar.

|A Long Journey.|The journey round the Cape of Good Hope consumed seven months, during which time each of the young missionaries wrote a book. On July 9, 1706, they arrived at their destination. There, owing to a difficulty with the captain who had resented their admonitions, they could not land for two days. It was well that they did not know that he had been instructed by the trading company under which he sailed to hinder their work in all possible ways. Unwillingly received by the Danish governor, they settled in a little house near the city wall.

Beside the Danish of the traders, two languages were spoken in Tranquebar: the Portugese of the first foreign settlers and the native Tamil language. Leaving the easier task to his companion who was the older, Ziegenbalg set to work to learn the native tongue. His progress was rapid; in a year he had completed a translation of the Catechism and in a few months over a year had preached his first sermon. By this time he had baptized fourteen souls.

|Busy Days.|The record of his busy days seems almost incredible when we remember that he was a man of delicate health.

“After morning prayers I begin my work. From six to seven I explain Luther’s Catechism to the people in Tamil. From seven to eight I review the Tamil words and phrases which I have learned. From eight to twelve I read nothing but Tamil books, new to me, under the guidance of a teacher who must explain things to me with a writer present, who writes down all words and phrases which I have not had before. From twelve to one I eat, and have the Bible read to me while doing so. From one till two I rest for the heat is very oppressive then. From two to three I have a catechisation in my house. From three to five I again read Tamil books. From five to six we have our prayer-meeting. From six to seven we have a conference together about the day’s happenings. From seven to eight I have a Tamil writer read to me, as I dare not read much by lamplight. From eight to nine I eat, and while doing so have the Bible read to me. After that I examine the children and converse with them.”

When the two missionaries felt that it was necessary to build a church, each gave for that purpose half of the two hundred dollars which was his salary. The church was dedicated on August 4, 1707, and by the end of the year it had thirty-five members. Now Ziegenbalg began to work in the villages of the Danish possessions outside Tranquebar and established a school for the education of Christian children in the city.

STALL HIGH SCHOOL FOR GIRLS, GUNTUR, INDIA.

FACULTY OF WATTS MEMORIAL COLLEGE FOR MEN, GUNTUR.

|Early Trials.|The work was not without its hard trials. When the first financial help arrived, two years after the missionaries had landed, the drunken captain upset in the harbor the chest of treasure and it was lost. The work of the missionaries was opposed by the Danish chaplains and by the Roman Catholics. On account of his defense of a poor widow who had been cheated, Ziegenbalg was cast into prison for four months.

That the faith of these pioneers was unfailing may be shown by a prayer, written by one of them on the fly leaf of a mission church-book in 1707.

“O Thou exalted and majestic Savior, Lord Jesus Christ! Thou Redeemer of the whole human race! Thou who through Thy holy apostles hast everywhere, throughout the whole world, gathered a holy congregation out of all peoples for Thy possession, and hast defended and maintained the same even until now against all the might of hell, and moreover assurest Thy servants that Thou wilt uphold them even to the end of the world, and in the very last times wilt multiply them by calling many of the heathen to the faith! For such goodness may Thy name be eternally praised, especially also because Thou, through Thy unworthy servants in this place, dost communicate to Thy Holy Word among the heathen Thy blessing, and hast begun to deliver some souls out of destructive blindness, and to incorporate them with the communion of Thy holy Church. Behold, it is Thy Word, do Thou support it with divine power, so that by Thy power many thousand souls may be born to Thee in these mission stations, which bear the names of Jerusalem and Bethlehem, souls which afterwards may be admitted out of this earthly Jerusalem into Thy heavenly Jerusalem with everlasting and exultant joy. Do this, O Jesus, for the sake of Thy gracious promise and Thy holy merit. Amen.”

|Literary Work.|Ziegenbalg prepared an order of service and a hymnal and translated the New Testament into Tamil--the first translation of the New Testament into an East Indian tongue. An English missionary society, hearing of his labors, sent him a printing press. By 1712 he had composed or had translated thirty-eight books or pamphlets. Among his original works was an account of the native religions. The value of this treatise has become more appreciated as men have realized the importance of a thorough knowledge of those religious principles which unchristianized peoples already possess. To such knowledge was due much of Saint Paul’s success among the Greeks.

|Travels.|Ziegenbalg travelled as far as Madras. On this journey he talked with native rulers and British governors and preached to all who would hear about the only true God.

|Reinforcements.|In 1709 three missionaries were sent to his aid. Of the threeJohn Ernst Gründlerproved most able. When in 1711 it seemed best for one of the missionaries to return to Europe to present the needs of the mission, Plütschau was selected to go. There he accepted a pastorate. The testimony of Ziegenbalg to his faithful work accompanied him.

In 1714 Ziegenbalg visited Denmark, leaving the mission in charge of Gründler. Upon his return in 1716 he brought with him a plan for the regular government of the mission, the assurance of ample financial support and a helpmate, Maria Dorothea Saltzmann, who was the first woman ever sent to a foreign field.

|The New Jerusalem Church.|In February 1717, Ziegenbalg had the satisfaction of dedicating a large native church, the New Jerusalem Church, which is used to this day. He preached the sermon and the newly appointed governor laid the corner stone. He continued to establish village schools, he opened a seminary for the training of native preachers and he provided work by which the poorest of his converts could earn a living. Except for medical work his mission settlement included all the activities of the most complete missionary enterprises at the present time.

For two more years Ziegenbalg labored, growing meanwhile aware that his life was drawing to a close. The record of his service leads us to expect that when his death took place in February 1719 we should find him an old man. It is with a shock that we realize that he was only thirty-six. He was buried in the New Jerusalem Church.

|A Crowded Life.|The extraordinary accomplishment of Ziegenbalg has been far less well known than it deserves to be. Even if we do not take into account his frail health, the extent of his labors is little short of marvelous. His literary work alone would seem to have been enough to fill to the full the thirteen years of his missionary activity. In addition, he preached constantly; he made long journeys; he gave constant thought and effort to his schools; he looked after the poor; he established a theological seminary. From home came many criticisms. It was said that he made concessions to the caste system on the one hand; on the other he was criticised for not gathering in converts as rapidly as did the Roman Catholic missionaries who allowed their converts to keep all their old customs. He was reproached because he paid so much attention to the schools. The criticisms, however, which caused him anxiety and grief serve to-day but to call attention to his splendid common sense and excellent judgment, which later missionary experience has tested. The community of two hundred Christians which he left was not only converted--it was instructed and established in the faith.

|A Second Grave.|The death of Ziegenbalg left his friend,John Ernst Gründler, in charge of the mission. He had been a teacher at Halle and partook of the devotion of all connected with that great institution. For a short time he labored in Tranquebar alone. Soon after the arrival of three new missionaries he died and was buried in 1720 beside his beloved friend in the new church.

Of the three new missionaries,Benjamin Schultzeassumed the management of the mission. He resembled Ziegenbalg in the variety of his talents. Like Ziegenbalg he felt the necessity for a careful instruction of the natives. He continued the work of translation, completing the Tamil Old Testament and translating a part of the Bible into Telugu and the whole into Hindustani. After doing faithful work, Schultze, being unwilling to accept the rulings of the mission which had sent him to India, entered the service of an English mission. After sixteen years in India he returned to Halle.

|The Mission Grows.|During the service of Schultze a mission station was established at Cuddalore in Madras. In 1733 the first native preacher who had been baptized by Ziegenbalg was ordained to the ministry. Schools were enlarged and another church was erected. Presently work was begun in Madura to the southeast of Tranquebar. By 1740, thirty-four years after Ziegenbalg had begun his work, the mission counted five thousand six hundred Christians.

In 1741John Philip Fabriciusarrived in India. He came from a godly family in Hesse and like Luther had given up the study of the law for the study of theology. For theology he had gone to Halle and there had heard the call of missions. On Good Friday in 1742 he preached his first Tamil sermon and on Christmas in that year he was assigned to the station established by Schultze in Madras where he remained till his death in 1791. Like his predecessors he became a thorough student in the native tongues.

|A Scholar.|He revised the translations of Ziegenbalg and Schultze in a form which remains unchanged to this day. To his translations the adjective “golden” has been applied. He translated also many hymns for the use of his congregation.

Together with a childlike simplicity and amiability Fabricius possessed great courage. He shared the hardships and dangers of his people during the “Thirty Years’ War in South India”, defending his congregation upon one occasion at the risk of his life.

AnotherFabriciuswhose name should be recorded was that ofSebastian, the brother of John Philip, who was for many years the missionary secretary in Halle and the devoted friend of all missionaries.

Christian William Gericke, “a great and gifted man”, arrived in India in 1767, coming like his predecessors from Halle. His first field of labor was Cuddalore where he preached until war made necessary the abandonment of the mission. Gericke remained throughout the conflict, still preaching and exhorting and supporting his children in the faith. He saw his converts suffering cruelly and was compelled to watch the soldiers changing his church into a powder magazine.

In Madras whither he was invited he took over the work of Fabricius, who was now old and infirm. From there he was able to visit occasionally the scattered members of his Cuddalore flock.

|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.

|Another Pious Mother.|As in the case of Bartholomew Ziegenbalg so in the case ofChristian 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!

|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.

|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.

HOSPITAL FOR WOMEN AND CHILDREN, GUNTUR.

|Opening Doors.|In 1762 they went on a similar visit to a little company of native Christians who had settled in Trichinopoli, for which England and France had contended for many years. The city was a center for idolatrous worship and contained great temples to the elephant god Genesa, to Siva and to Vishnu. Here also there was a popular Mohammedan shrine. Well might the visitors feel that all the evil of heathendom was gathered to greet them.

At that time the English had control of the city and to the joy of the visitors they besought them to stay, promising that they would build them a church. It was decided that Schwartz should remain.

|A True Lutheran.|In making this change an important question had to be solved by Schwartz. In order to take up the work which seemed offered by Providence, he would have to sever connection with the Danish Lutheran society whose missionary he had hitherto been and become a missionary of the Church of England. In the end he decided that he would accept English support but he stipulated that he would remain a true Lutheran, preaching the doctrines of his own faith. He was the first of many efficient German Lutherans who laid the foundations for the work of other churches, and who thus furnished an example of true brotherliness which has often been forgotten or overlooked.

|At Trichinopoli.|Schwartz had always been diligent, but now it seemed that his labors became superhuman. He had prayed for opportunity--here was unlimited opportunity! He had studied diligently--here were men of many tongues to whom he might preach. With true wisdom he began his work. With the methods of the Apostles as his model he trained the best of his converts to become missionaries to their own people. Each morning he sent them out, two by two, and each evening he listened to an account of their work. He added Hindustani and Persian to the languages which he already knew so that he might reach the Mohammedans and the court, and studied to improve his broken English so that he might preach to the English soldiers at the garrison. His ministrations to them after a serious explosion and a battle brought him gifts from the government and the soldiers. Presently he built at the foot of the mighty rock upon which stood a heathen temple a Christian church.

|At Tanjore.|Schwartz was now fifty-two years old. He had accomplished large tasks, yet the chief labors of his life were still before him. He learned to his amazement that the spirit at Tanjore had changed and he was urged to return, not for a short visit as before but to remain. The new Rajah of Tanjore sought his advice about the settlement of certain political differences, and finding a divine call in this summons, Schwartz left his work at Trichinopoli in the hands of others and took up his abode in Tanjore in a house presented by the rajah. Here, supported by the rajah, who, however, could not bring himself quite to the point of becoming a Christian, Schwartz lived for twelve years.

Here the English garrison was transformed as the garrison at Trichinopoli had been. Two churches were founded, one for the European residents, the other for native Christians. School houses were built in which English and Tamil were taught and where the Christian religion was openly proclaimed. These schools became the models for the great school system of the English government. A tribe of professional robbers forsook their evil lives as the result of Schwartz’s preaching, sent their children to the schools and settled down to the cultivation of the soil and to silk culture. With the city as a center Schwartz travelled in all directions encouraging, advising, aiding. He established a congregation at Tinnevelli, to the south, of which we shall hear later.

|The Missionary Statesman.|In the history of India Schwartz is described as the missionary statesman. Such without any will of his own, but on account of circumstances and his remarkable character, he became. Foreseeing war with a neighboring ruler in which Tanjore was likely to be besieged, he stored away quantities of rice upon which the people fed and which saved multitudes from death. When the rajah grew old the governor of the Madras presidency made Schwartz the head of a commission which was to rule in his stead, and when the rajah died he himself made Schwartz regent during the minority of his son. Schwartz tried to avoid this heavy responsibility, until the rajah’s brother proved cruel and incapable of governing. Then the mission house became the capitol of the province and for two years the “king-priest” reigned. After the heir had come to the throne, he consulted Schwartz on all important questions.

The character of this missionary hero is beautifully described by his biographer, Dr. Charles E. Hay.[1]

1.In Missionary Heroes of the Lutheran Church.Philadelphia: Lutheran Publication Society.

“In undertaking all the secular duties thus imposed upon him, the missionary was never lost in the statesman. He still gathered his children and catechumens about him daily, preached whenever a little company of people could be assembled and superintended the labors of the increasing number of missionaries sent by various European societies to India. These all recognized him as their real leader, and it was universally felt that the first preparatory step for successful missionary labor in southern India was to catch the inspiration and receive the counsel of the untitled missionary bishop at Tanjore. Around his residence building after building was erected--chapels, schoolhouses, seminaries, missionary homes, etc.--all set in a beautiful garden, filled with rare tropical plants. What a refuge for the wearied and perhaps discouraged catechist! What a scene of beauty and peace to allure the steps of the hopeless devotee of a heartless idolatry! But the center of attraction for all alike was the radiant countenance of the grand old man upon whom his seventy years rested never so lightly--never too tired to entertain the humblest visitor, always ready to help by word or deed in any perplexity.”

|Illness and Death.|In October, 1797, the old man fell ill. Thinking that his end was at hand he sent for the young rajah whose guardian he had been and urged him once more to hear the heavenly invitation. Would that we could record that this young man answered, like so many of his humble subjects, “I believe”! Improving somewhat, Schwartz summoned his pupils once more and went on with his work. The end came at last in February, 1798. With his grieving mission family gathered about him, he fell asleep, his last words being, “Into Thy hands I commend my spirit. Thou has redeemed me, Thou faithful God.”

|A Noble Tribute.|Claiming him for their own, those for whom he had labored provided for his burial. The rajah who followed the bier as chief mourner built a handsome monument on which he is represented as kissing the hand of his dying friend. The East India Company placed a memorial in the church at Madras with the inscription, “Sacred to the Memory of Christian Frederick Schwartz whose life was one continued effort to imitate the example of his blessed Master. He, during a period of fifty years, ‘went about doing good.’ In him religion appeared not with a gloomy aspect or forbidding mien, but with a graceful form and placid dignity. Beloved and honored by Europeans, he was, if possible, held in still deeper reverence by the natives of this country of every degree and sect. The poor and injured looked up to him as an unfailing friend and advocate. The great and powerful concurred in yielding him the highest homage ever paid in this quarter of the globe to European virtue.”

Thus died this godly man. To those whose aim is heavenly peace we commend such a life as his. To those whose ambition includes a desire for earthly honor we commend him also. The young rajah added to his handsome memorial another tribute composed by him and engraved on the stone which covers his body.

“Firm wast thou, humble and wise,Honest, pure, free from disguise;Father of orphans, the widow’s support,Comfort in sorrows of every sort:To the benighted, dispenser of light,Doing and pointing to that which is right.Blessing to princes, to people, to me,May I, my father, be worthy of thee.”

“Firm wast thou, humble and wise,

Honest, pure, free from disguise;

Father of orphans, the widow’s support,

Comfort in sorrows of every sort:

To the benighted, dispenser of light,

Doing and pointing to that which is right.

Blessing to princes, to people, to me,

May I, my father, be worthy of thee.”

|Work for Another Church.|Aiding and succeeding Christian Frederick Schwartz in the English mission was his adopted son, theRev. J. B. Kohlhoff, who arrived at Tranquebar in 1737 and worked among the Tamils for fifty-three years. His son, John Caspar, was ordained by Schwartz. Together Schwartz and the two Kohlhoffs worked in India for an aggregate period of one hundred and fifty-six years. Still another Lutheran in the English service wasW. T. Ringeltaube, who was trained at Halle. Upon the foundation which he laid the London Missionary Society has built nobly and has now after a hundred years a Christian community of seventy thousand.

|A Period of Neglect.|It is estimated that at the end of the Eighteenth Century the Danish-Halle mission in India numbered fifteen thousand Christians. Then a period of rationalism in Europe brought about indifference and neglect of the mission fields. From England came the first wave of mounting missionary zeal and into English hands passed a large part of the work of the Danish-Halle missionaries. While we acknowledge that they have continued the work with zeal and with marked success, yet we cannot but regret that so much that was ours, so much that was won by the devotion of Ziegenbalg and Schwartz, no longer bears the Lutheran name.

|Another Steadfast Lutheran.|In the service of the English mission wasKarl Ewald Rhenius, a German Lutheran who was sent soon after the opening of the new century to that field which had passed partly from Danish-Halle to English hands. He went first to Tranquebar and thence to Madras, where for five years he preached and studied. At the end of this time he was transferred to Palmacotta, the chief city of the Tinnevelli district. Here he began an original work, the founding of Christian villages. As soon as sufficient natives were converted, land was bought and they were settled upon it so that they might be removed from former associations and temptations. Presently a native organization was formed the object of which was the aid of new Christian settlements.

In 1832 Mr. Rhenius withdrew from service as a missionary of the English society, the chief ground of difficulty being the demand of the society that he be ordained by the English Church, and for four years he conducted an independent mission. In character and capacity for work Rhenius was not unlike Christian Frederick Schwartz. Beside a great amount of translating he had time to prepare a valuable essay on the “Principles of Translating the Holy Scriptures”. He is notable also as one of the earliest missionaries to take a decided stand against the observance of caste.

The appeal of Rhenius for his independent Lutheran mission in India was one of the influences in the first missionary activity of the American Lutheran Church. Upon his death his followers returned to the English Mission. In Tinnevelli where Christian Frederick Schwartz laid the foundation and Rhenius helped to build upon it, there are now over one hundred thousand Christians belonging to the Church of England.

|In the Far North.|It was in 1704 that the Danish King Frederick IV. turned his thoughts to the Christianizing of his East India possessions. Soon after this time his attention was drawn to a need nearer at hand. Among the Lapps who lived in the arctic lands to the north there was great destitution, both spiritual and material. Here idolatry and sacrifices to the evil spirits were common and the official transferral of the country from the Roman to the Evangelical Church had had no effect, since both before and after the natives were at heart heathen. Those who were most devout in spirit had worshipped both the heathen and the Christian gods, feeling that thus were they safe.

A commission was appointed by the King of Denmark-Norway in 1714 to inquire into the state of these northern people. To Finland was sent in 1716Thomas von Westen, who had himself presented vividly the misery of these poor Esquimaux. Among them he foundIsak Olsen, a devoted school master who had been engaged for fourteen years in missionary work, and who now offered his services for von Westen’s undertaking.

Concerning this Isak Olsen, it is related in Stockfleth’sDiary(Dagbog) that he had labored “with apostolic fervor and faithfulness; in poverty and self-denial; in perils at sea, and in perils on land. The Finns hated him because he discovered their idolatry and their places of sacrifice; almost as a pauper, and frequently half clothed, he travelled about among them. When, as it frequently happened, he was compelled to journey across the mountains, they gave him the most refractory reindeer, in order that he might perish on the journey. By all kinds of maltreatment, they sought to shorten his life, and to weary him out. In this purpose, however, they were not successful; for God was with Isak, and labored with him, so that his toil prospered.” He not only instructed the Finns in Christianity, but he taught a number of Finnish youths to write, an art which very few Norsemen had acquired at that time. In 1716, von Westen took him to Throndhjem, Norway, where he translated the Catechism and the Athanasian Creed into the language of the Lapps.

Travelling from place to place, von Westen won the affection of the benighted people whom he loved. He exposed before them the foolishness of the sorcerers, built churches, educated the children and sent young men to Throndhjem to prepare themselves to be ministers to their people. The hardships of three missionary journeys undertaken and carried out in a few years so wore upon him that he was added at the age of forty-five to those who have gone to their reward.

To Swedish Lapland wentPer Fjellström(died 1764) who did not only valuable missionary work himself, but who laid the foundation for all future work by his translations of the New Testament, the Catechism and many of the Psalms. Through him and his associates the whole of Swedish Lapland heard the pure Gospel.

In 1739, a royal directorate was appointed to guide and supervise the Church and school system of Swedish Lapland. It designated Per Holmbom and Per Högström, as missionaries to that district. Högström, who died in 1784, is the best known of Per Fjellström’s associates. He gained great renown among the Lapps. He has described his mission labors among them, and hisQuestion Bookin the Lapp language, is a catechetical work of merit.

To the west of the Scandinavian countries lies Iceland, which needed no missionaries. Visiting Europe in the Sixteenth Century, Icelanders carried back to their country the story of the Reformation. They introduced at once the Danish Lutheran liturgy and translated and printed the Bible. After some opposition, the work of the Reformation became complete.

|A Zealous Soul.|Beyond Iceland lies Greenland with its snowy fields, its great glaciers, its long dark night and its bitter cold. In the Ninth Century a colony of Norwegians settled there, but in the course of time perished from cold or starvation or by the hand of enemies. Their fate was unknown and they were forgotten whenHans Egede, a Lutheran pastor at Vaagen in Norway, read of their settlement and became possessed of a desire to preach to them that Gospel which had proved so great a blessing to his own land. In 1710 he wrote to the King and to several bishops urging that he be allowed to go as a missionary to these distant folk.

The King was in sympathy with his desire, but not so his people. The plan was thought to be impractical, if not insane. Egede’s own family bitterly opposed him.

But Egede was at once gentle and persistent. Supported by the devotion of his wife he continued to urge his cause. He visited the King, but the interview had a contrary result from that which he hoped. The King asked those who opposed the project to send in the reasons for their objection to the court, and so promptly and fully did they respond that Egede became an object of even greater derision.

|The Ship “Hope”.|Finally Egede persuaded a few men to subscribe two hundred dollars apiece; he gave from his scanty store six hundred, and all together ten thousand dollars was gathered. In a vessel which he called “The Hope” he set out May, 1721, accompanied by his wife and little children and some colonists, in all about forty souls. After a perilous voyage partly among masses of ice floating in a stormy sea they landed in Greenland in July. The situation which they met was uncomfortable and depressing. “As many as twenty natives occupied one tent, their bodies unwashed, their hair uncombed and both their persons and their clothing dripping with rancid oil. The tents were filled and surrounded with seal flesh in all stages of decomposition and the only scavengers were the dogs. Few had any thought beyond the routine of their daily life. No article that could be carried off was safe within their reach, and lying was open and shameless. Skillful in derision and mimicry, and despising men, who, so they said, spent their time in looking at a paper or scratching it with a feather, they did not study gentle modes of giving expression to their feelings. They wanted nothing but plenty of seals, and as for the fire of hell, that would be a pleasant contrast to their terrible cold. When the missionary asked them to deal truly with God, they asked when he had seen Him last.

“The cold as winter drew near was terrific. The eiderdown pillows stiffened with frost, the hoarfrost extended to the mouth of the stove and alcohol froze upon the table. The sun was invisible for two months. There was no change in the dreary night.”[2]

2.Hans Egede: the Rev. Thomas Laurie,Missionary Review of the World, December, 1889.

|The Reward of Faith.|The devotion of Egede to these degraded people was not shared by the colonists and traders who had come with him. When the expected ship failed to appear in the spring they announced that they would return. They had already begun to tear down the buildings preparatory to their departure when the faith of Egede was rewarded. A ship arrived and with it the welcome news that the mission would be supported.

During the summer, Egede, in his exploration of the various bays which indent the coast, discovered the ruins of one of the settlements which he had read about and which had seemed to beckon him to Greenland. There were only ruins remaining, but it seemed to this devoted soul that he could hear the echoes of Norwegian hymns and Norwegian prayers. The next year in a journey along the coast he found many other ruins, among them those of a church fifty by twenty feet with walls six feet thick. Nearby in the churchyard rested the bones of pastor and people.

|A Devoted Wife.|Preaching, translating, trying to establish better methods of agriculture, now receiving aid from home, now apparently forgotten, Egede labored for fifteen years. Beside the heavenly assurance of ultimate victory his chief solace was the devotion of his wife. “She was confined to the monotony of their humble home, while he was called here and there by the duties of his office; but though its comforts were very scanty, she saw the ships from Norway come and go, and heard tidings from her native land without any desire to desert her work. Amid all his troubles her husband ever found her face serene and her spirit rejoicing in God. His greatest trial was the want of success in his work. Though many pretended to believe, he could find little change in heart or life, for those who affected to hear the Word with joy, among their own people still spoke of his instructions and prayers with derision.”[3]

3.Ibid.

Presently a fort was established to protect the colony and the island from other nations, but the presence of armed men drove the islanders farther away. After the death of Frederick IV., the colonists were commanded to return to Denmark. Egede declined to go. In 1733 hope was once more kindled by the announcement that trade would be renewed and the mission be supported.

|A Sad Heart.|But greater misfortunes were at hand. A fearful epidemic of smallpox ravaged the country. “In their despair some stabbed themselves, others plunged into the sea. In one hut an only son died and the father enticed his wife’s sister in and murdered her, as having bewitched his son and so caused his death. In this great trial Egede and his son went everywhere, nursing the sick, comforting the bereaved and burying the dead. Often they found only empty houses and unburied corpses. On one island they found only one girl with her three little brothers. After burying the rest of the people, the father lay down in the grave he had prepared for himself and his infant child, both sick with the plague and bade the girl cover them with skins and stones to protect their bodies from wild beasts. Egede sent the survivors to the colony, lodged as many as his house would hold and nursed them with care. Many were touched by such kindness, and one who had often mocked the good man, said to him now, ‘You have done for us more than we do for our own people; you have buried our dead and have told us of a better life.’” Finally the missionary’s wife fell also a victim to the plague. Dying she blessed him and his work.

In 1736, broken in health, Egede returned to Denmark, invited by the King. There by pen and tongue he continued to work for Greenland until his death.

|The Church of Greenland.|Upon the foundation laid by Egede missionaries of a closely-related Church built a noble superstructure. Appealing to the heart rather than to the intellect, the heroic Moravians won the country for Christ. Soon spring dawned in that wintry land. When a Moravian missionary dwelt upon the love of God and the agony of Christ, an Esquimaux stepped forward asking eagerly, “How was that? Tell me that again, for I also would be saved.”

The mission to Greenland offers not only records of noble devotion and sacrifice but a touching and remarkable conclusion. In 1899 the Moravians handed back to the Danish Lutheran Church the work which the Lutherans had begun. The missionary task was complete; with no selfish desire to hold for themselves in ease what they had won in great difficulty, the Moravians turned their labors into other fields among the many which they have so diligently harvested. The Lutheran Church which has sent so many laborers into other mission fields has here had a brotherly return.

|A Malady.|The latter part of the Eighteenth Century offers a less happy missionary spectacle than the earlier part. Upon religious life, not only in Lutheran countries but in other Protestant countries fell the blight of indifference and of rationalism. When men do not believe the doctrines of the Scriptures, when a future life becomes a matter of doubt and personal salvation the subject of amusement, they cease to feel an obligation to those who are less favorably situated, and the carrying of the Gospel message becomes a useless or worse than useless undertaking.

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