e near. He liked to have the English
children brought in to read to him chapters of the Bible and sing Dr.
Watts's hymns to him; and the beautiful old German hymns sung by Mr.
Gericke and Mr. Kohloff were his great delight. Indeed, when at the very
last, as he lay almost lifeless, with closed eyes, Mr. Gericke began to
sing the hymn,

"Only to Thee, Lord JESUS CHRIST,"

he joined in with a clear melodious voice, and accompanied him to the
end. Two hours later, about four o'clock in the afternoon of the 13th of
February, 1798, Christian Friedrich Swartz breathed his last, in the
seventy-second year of his age, and the forty-eighth of his mission
service in India.

The cries and wailings of the poor resounded all night around the house,
and Serfojee Rajah came from a distance to be present at his burial. It
had been intended to sing a funeral hymn, but the cries and lamentations
of the poor so overcame the clergy, that they could scarcely raise their
voices. Serfojee wept bitterly, laid a gold cloth over the bier, and
remained present while Mr. Gericke read the Funeral Service,--a most
unusual departure from Hindoo custom, and a great testimony of affection
and respect.

A few months later arrived the decision of the East India Company, that
the weak and rapacious Ameer Singh should be deposed, and Serfojee placed
on the throne. He conducted himself excellently as a ruler, and greatly
favoured Christians in his territory, always assisting the various
schools, and giving liberal aid whenever the frequently-recurring famines
of India brought them into distress.

Three years later, in 1801, Serfojee wrote to the Society for Promoting
Christian Knowledge, to beg them to order a "monument of marble" at his
expense, to the memory of the late Rev. Father Swartz, to be affixed to
the pillar nearest the pulpit. Accordingly, a bas-relief in white marble
was executed by Flaxman, representing the death of Swartz, Gericke behind
him, two native Christians and three children standing by, and Serfojee
clasping his hand and receiving his blessing. It was not exactly fact,
but it was the monumental taste of the day; and it so much delighted the
Rajah, that he kept it in his palace, among the portraits of his
ancestors, for two years before he could resolve on parting with it to
the church. The Prince likewise composed the epitaph which was carved on
the stone which covers the grave of Swartz, the first instance of English