MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE. CEYLON. VERY encouraging Letters have been received, since our last Number was published, from Mr. Fox, Mr. HARVARD, and Mr. OSBORNE; and also the fourth Number of the Quarterly Correspondence of the Methodist Missionaries in Ceylon. From these documents, interesting extracts will be given as soon as possible. In the mean time we request the particular attention of the friends of this important Mission to the following letter from Dr. ADAM CLARKE, which contains, besides some excellent preliminary remarks on the subject of our Missions in general, his Monthly Report for January of the conduct and studies of the two BUDHIST PRIESTS, DHERMA RAMA and MUNHI RAT HANA, who came from Ceylon to England with Sir ALEXANDER JOHNSTON, and have been placed by the COMMITTEE of the WESLEYAN MISSIONARY SOCIETY under the paternal care and religious tuition of Dr. CLARKE.-The Committee earnestly hope, that this letter will, by the Divine Blessing, stimulate the numerous friends of the Wesleyan Missions to zeal and perseverance in the great Cause in which they have so often pledged themselves to be active and faithful; and that in Circuits where comparatively little has yet been done in its behalf, new Branch Societies, Juvenile Societies, and Ladies' Associations. will be formed in the course of the ensuing Spring, in connexion with the Auxiliary Societies of their respective Districts; by which the Fund of the General Society will be released from its present Debt, and the Committee enabled to meet new and important Calls for help, which they have lately received from several quarters of the pagan world. To the Preachers, and all other persons, in whose hearts there is a holy purpose to be humble instruments of God in Christianizing the human race, the Committee affectionately address the language of inspiration, "Whatever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might." To THE COMMITTEE. Millbrook, Jan. 1st, 1819. WITH the commencement of the new year, I feel a desire to enter particularly into a consideration of our great call as a religious people, as well as to lay before you some farther account of the Cingalese Priests under my care. This call, I think, has been for some years past materially changed. At first I believe the Methodists were especially appointed of God to spread Scriptural Christianity throughout these lands. They went forth in his name and strength, preaching Christ crucified, and full redemption from all the power, guilt, and pollution of sin, through the blood of the cross. They did not labour in vain :-The land was evangelized principally by their means; Antinomianism, Pharisaism, and proRigacy of every kind received a most powerful check, and the cause of Christ has had a most remarkable triumph all over the land. God gave the word, and great was the company of the preachers. The heavenly flame communicated its light and heat far and wide; and a goodly number of eminent men, both in the Established Church and the different bodies VOL. XLII. MARCH, 1819. of the Dissenters, have arisen to proclaim For many years we have heard a small to encourage us, strengthen our hands in the Lord, and afford us those secular means by which we might send the messengers of glad tidings to every part of the habitable globe. From these and concomitant circumstances, we now feel that we are necessarily become a MISSIONARY PEOPLE, and must spread ourselves through the whole length and breadth of Immanuel's land. The wide, the unbounded prospect lies before us; and in proportion as we have proceeded on this most especial and direct call, our exertions have been blessed: and what shews the thing to be of God, in the most direct manner, is, that those who have been most hearty in this glorious missionary work, have prospered most in their own souls and thorough practical piety has become more deep and extensive in all those districts and societies in our large Connexion, that have been most favourable to, and active in the grand missionary work. For my own part I must pity the man whose heart is not engaged in it, and must regard him as one born out of due time; or, as yet strangely living in the nonage of piety. But instances of this kind are so solitary, when compared with the vast mass of willing hearts and ready hands, that they are either lost in the immense crowd, or Apparent rari nantes in gurgito vasto. We have put our hand to the plough and must not look back. Our people are with us, they are ever ready to furnish us with the requisite means; we have many gifted and gracious men who are, as frequently as they are wanted, coming forward under the unction of the Divine Spirit, and saying, Here are we! Send us! and highly honoured is that man who is called to preach the gospel; but more especially so, to stretch out his line beyond the present bounds of the evangelized world; and as a missionary, preach Jesus and the resurrection, where Jesus has not yet been named. This is the true, the genuine apostolic call: this is that which is connected with so much spiritual glory and spiritual renown-to be an ambas sador for Christ at the call of millions who are perishing for lack of knowledge, to be sent forward in the work by the prayers of myriads, in whose hearts the Lord of the Harvest dwells, and whose incessant petition, " Thy kingdom come," is continually ascending to the heaven of heavens, and finding an easy access to the throne of God. In a word, to be engaged in a labour so conformable to the gracious design and practice of his Lord and Master, in which he can say, with the dying founder of that religious con nexion to which he has the privilege to belong, "The best of all is, GOD IS WITH US!" My brethren, I hope, will not consider me as too sanguine or too warm on this vast subject; I speak not without knowledge. I was one of the first Missionaries in the Connexion. I have variously suffered and bled in the cause. I bear about still in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus; I still feel the spirit of a missionary; and if I did not, I should not feel the spirit of a minister of Christ; and were there none other, even at this age of hoary decrepitude, I would volunteer my little services to the East, teach in the schools which your pious and laborious missionaries have established in Ceylon; or enter on the Peninsula of India, to bear the seed-basket after those extraordinary servants of the Most High, CAREY, MARSHMAN, WARD, and their fellows, and add my testimony concerning Him who, by the grace of God, tasted death for every man; and whose infinitely meritorious blood cancels and cleanses from all sin. Though my labours, thank God, are not needed, my testimony should not be withheld. I glory in what is done, and what is doing in this grand missionary field; I see Jesus going on from conquering to conquer; my heart says, "Good luck have thou with thine honour! Hal lelujah! the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth! Amen and Amen." It is now high time to say something of the two Cingalese Priests, MUNHI RAT HANA and DHERMA RAMA, you have placed under my care. These young men are cousins-german, the first 27, the latter 25 years of age. It will give you satisfaction to know that they still behave well, are meek, gentle, and submissive. They are very diligent in their studies, and have an insatiable thirst for knowledge, and particularly religious knowledge. They continue to improve in their writing, and will soon write a very elegant hand; their profiting in this is sur prising, as they had never done any thing in this way before; their own writing gave them no advantage here, as that is a mere species of engraving with a steel point on the talipot leaf, which is the substance used instead of paper. They improve also both in reading and speaking English; this is of vast importance, as I am satisfied the English language is, under God, the grand key to their salvation. Nothing but a thorough course of theological and philosophical English reading, can ultimately conquer and remove all the false notions and deep-rooted prejudices relative to God and nature, found in that Priesthood. I say deep-rooted, because with false theology and philosophy they have had their minds imbued from their earliest infancy. Munhi Rat Hana and Dherma Rama entered the temple when they were about five years of age, and before they could arrive at their high order in the Priesthood, were obliged to learn several languages, not only the Cingalese in its purity, but also the Pali, Patois-Portuguese, Tamul, and Sanserit; and to commit to memory many thousands of Slocas, or verses, containing their Theology, Physic, Metaphysics, Traditions, History, Mantras or Incantations, and their most curiously involved doctrine of the Metempsychosis, or Transmigration of Souls. From these they have derived all their principles of morality, theology, medicine, philosophy, and political economy. Till now they have had no opportunity of knowing better; these false principles had undis turbed empire in their minds. In a word, all their thoughts, ideas, and moral feelings were cast in this mould. They now see they were wrong in many things, and strongly suspect they were wrong in all. They wish for instruction; they devour it with the keenest appetite, and long, ardently long, to have their minds stored with nothing but what is true and useful. Against Christianity, they have not, as far as I am able to judge, one remaining prejudice but they find it difficult to perceive the suitableness of many things, while they admit of their general truth. In a word, they want to perceive and comprehend the reasons of those things; and they have not, as yet, English sufficient to understand those arguments which I know would at once set their minds at rest on such points. with gratitude, delight, and often with extasy. I think they are both pretty nearly masters of the Cingalese Catechism; I mean Mr. T. Wood's Catechism, which has been translated into Cingalese, and to no part of this do I find them making any serious objection: indeed I have made it a maxim in their education, that "Christianity is indubitably true, comes immediately from God, and cannot be successfully controverted." This assumption I found it absolutely necessary to adopt from the beginning: on this I founded another, not less necessary to my dif ficult work, viz. that "all ouer systems of religion are false or forged; and on them no man can rely, but at the utter risk of his salvation." I told them, however, that I was at any time willing to enter into the proofs and demonstrations of these points, as soon as they were capa ble of comprehending the argument. Thus I became necessarily pledged to prove much, and satisfy many a scruple: but in this I found no other difficulty than their imperfect knowledge of English to comprehend the requisite argumentation. They never carp or cavil, nor start a dif ficulty that is not serious and conscienti ous. They pray often, and are very devout in prayer: and I am sure they have now, no object of adoration in heaven or earth but the true God: and his favour they seek through the only Mediator. Here, much is gained. The Budhoo system has, properly speaking, no prayer: because in fact it has no God. The decent regula tion of the life, and the subjugation of the passions by strong ascetic discipline, is their law of righteousness: and the sum of their religion. Under this kind of discipline these men were brought up from their infancy; and have, I believe, never been guilty of any acts of immora lity. In consequence of this, I cannot expect them to mourn on account of sing which they have never committed. Swearing, lying, drunkenness, theft, uncleanness, &c. they have in the utmost abhorrence. They have the highest opinion of our Decalogue, and make it most conscientiously their rule of conduct: at the same time, they see that it cannot be properly observed but by the especial assistance of God; and for this they pray. In speaking to them about the divine nature, I have been truly astonished to find how much they have apprehended of even the most abstruse subjects. I often felt much difficulty to give them any such description of the mysteries of Christianity, as would lead them to form just These men cannot be treated as common heathens: they are both philosophers, men of profound erudition in their way; with as far as I can judge, a powerful commanding eloquence. They are deeply read in the most speculative, most refined and purest ethics of the Brahman and Budhoo systems. In these respects, their acquirements are immense. I have myself read the Oupnek hat, and some other works of this kind, and well know ing the subtle and species reasons which both these systems can bring forth in behalf of their ethics and philosophy, I do not a little wonder at the blessed sub. jection of these men's minds to the general truth of the gospel. I must say, I see them at the feet of Christ, and they are ready to lie at my feet, in order to be taught. Every new truth they receive notions of those mysteries: and indeed I often trembled, lest, in endeavouring to bring down these subjects to low apprehensions, my trumpet should give an uncertain sound. I could not bear the thought that these persons should be only Christian Theists: and with scarcely a hope that they would as yet, form any proper notion on the subject, I ventured to mention to them the Doctrine of the Trinity! I did not wish them to enter deeply into it as yet; but I wished them to know it was an essential article of the Christian religion. My laudable cantion, I thank God, was vain: His eternal Spirit has taken up the lesson, and opened their understanding that they might know the Scriptures: and to my great astonishment, on a recent examination, I found that they had clear and satisfactory views of the Trinity, of the personality of the Trinity, and of the infinite unity in this personality! I saw the truth of that word, All thy children shall be taught of the Lord: and I saw also the truth of that saying of one of the primitive fathers: "When God teaches, there is no delay in learn. ing." This has taught me a good lesson, never to be afraid to propose any doctrine which I believe to be of God, on account of its apparent difficulty, or fancied unsuitableness to present powers of apprehension: for if it be of God, He will give the understanding to know that which is true. Of the sincerity and purity of these men's motives, I have the most satisfactory evidence: they have sacrificed much in order to come and seek the Christian's God in a Christian land. They have lost, forever lost their temple and its revenues; and that high honour and reverence which they had, as high-priests, and highly learned among the highest orders, among their countrymen: and altho' they doubt less have suffered many buffettings on this account, yet there is not the most distant wish remaining to trace back their steps. Dherma Rama is a young man of very high integrity, of an ardent and strong mind, wishing to sift every thing to the bottom; and never to take a stand any where till he is fully satisfied the ground will bear him. What he gets he keeps. Munhi Rat'hana has a fine mind; truly spiritual, meek, and affectionate: seeks God, I believe with his whole heart; and enjoys many consolations from his Spirit. All that are acquainted with them, esteem Dherma, and love Munhi. Were I hasty to catch at many tokens of gracious influence which I see, and draw those conclusions from them which many others in my place would do, I might make up a good story, and perhaps as true as good. But I have always felt it my duty to be cautious; and not to draw any conclusions from evidences that appear to be at all equivocal, or that may be reasonably disputed. I believe God is at work on their understanding and hearts; and have never for a moment doubted the propriety of their adoption by the Wesleyan Missionary Society; but, on the contrary, believe we should have sinned against God if we had hesitated to receive them. The expense, it is true, must fall upon the Missionary Fund; for except their sacerdotal robes, their books, and seven rupees, (about 14s. English,) they have brought with them no earthly treasure. Their expense, however, will be only their food and raiment; as to their education, the cares, anxieties, &c. of myself and family, as no earthly good could induce me to undergo them, so no earthly good shall ever be received for them. My labour is with the Lord, and my recompence with my God. If they be spared to get back to Ceylon, I believe they will carry the pure light of the gospel to their benighted countrymen; and should they never see the land of their nativity, it will be still clear gain; for they will have their own souls for a prey. Their expenses, I am satisfied, will never encumber the other parts of the Missionary work; for all who hear their story will rejoice to have the opportunity, by a little extra exertion, to cover every thing of this kind. And they will, I trust, do what will be of greater cousequence, send up their heartiest prayers to God for these interesting strangers, and for him to whom their instruction has been confided. Through the mercy of God we have been enabled to bring them thus far, through our winter's cold; indeed it has been remarkably mild; and when they have heard us expressing our surprise that we have had so little cold, frost, snow, &c. they have said, " God has sent this good weather on our account, that we might not die." Indeed I often feared for their lives; and my wife was frequently without hope; our cares and anxieties were multiplied on their account; and we were obliged to deal with them as with children born before their due time. I endeavoured to maintain the natural temperature of their bodies, as the cold increased, by a proper and gradual application of calico, flannel, and the warmth of the room. This attention was found to be indispensible. In their articles of food we were obilged to be equally attentive, and to provide them with the most easily digestible and nutritive things. I trust we have suc ceeded. Munhi Rathana appears to have completely weathered the climate. He has acquired even a stout hardiness. Dherma Rama, who grew very thin, and had profuse night sweats, and a bad cough, appears also to have doubled the Cape. He is gaining flesh, has entirely lost his cough; and does not feel the impressions of cold as he formerly did. He requires great care: for his constitution is, and I am persuaded ever was, weak and delicate. Yesterday, for the first time in their lives, they saw what they had often beard of, but could hardly credit; water in a solid form. I wrapped them well up, and took them out to the pond, about sixty or seventy yards from the house, that they might see this (to them) strange phænomenon. It had frozen keenly in the night; and they were struck with astonishment, to see that the water had become solid, and to see my nephew skaiting upon it. They said, "it will be of no use to tell this either to the Cingalese or Candians, for they can never believe it." They seem to view this as a farther evidence of the being of a God. My large copper sun dial was covered over with hoar frost, that had shot in crystalizations, representing the most beautiful foliage. At this they were beyond measure astonished; and after admiring it for some time, Dherma Rama took out his pencil, and with the blunt end, wrote on the icy incrustation, the following words (in Cingalese): These leaves have been made by the Supreme God. All such effusions, which, to say the least of them, are the offspring of spontaneous impressions, I take care to improve, and thus the impressions become a solid maxim. Perhaps these things may appear to the Committee, too trifling to be noted but you will not think so when you reflect, that they spring from minds that have been deeply and philosophi cally schooled in the opinion, that there is no Supreme God: no Creator, no Governor of the universe; and you will at once perceive that it required much teaching both from God and man to bring them to believe the reason of these doc trines. It is comparatively easy to deal with our common sinners: you begin with them on their own concessions: on their own convictions. They acknowledge God and his word; and on this account three-fourths of your work is done. But widely different must the mode of procedure be with an atheistical and phi losophical heathen, deeply learned in all the subtilties of a refined, imposing, and apparently sublime system of Metaphysical Ethics: this consideration should cause us to feel much for our brethren among the heathen; and especially among the philosophical heathen, such as the Budhoo and Brahminical priests; and we should be very choice in the persons whom we appoint to go into such regions. Deep piety, and soundness in the faith, though essentially necessary, are not the only requisites; they should be men of learning, clear heads, and sound judgments. What could the Baptist missionaries have done in India with all their zeal and piety, had they not been men of first rate talents and abili ties? It is gross enthusiasm that expects God to work without means: He requires them; and he will ever use the choicest in preference to the meanest means are his creatures, and he will use them. What had we been as a people, had we not under God, had as our founder a man who for various learning, soundness of judg ment, unquenchable zeal, extensive benevolence, deep piety, and vastness of mind, had few equals, perhaps no superior in the universe? Our schools in Ceylon, will be, if properly encouraged, a very powerful means of correcting, and indeed destroying these cvil and destructive systems; and planting in their stead not only the pure and holy principles of the religion of Christ, but eventually, of a sound philosophy. By this means the natives will learn English; and from this language every thing pure in divinity, and sound in philosophy, is to be learned. And before these, idolatry, superstition, and illusions of every kind will vanish. It is impossible to over-rate the importance of these schools, in whatever light they may be viewed:-they should be strongly recommended to the attention and patronage of all our congregations; and encouraged and extended by every possible means. Let the public know that we have such: and when their importance is once known, we shall find many to assist: and those, who were backward to help us in our missions, not being entirely of our creed, such as the humane and benevolent Quakers, will find pleasure in lending their hand to the support of a system of education among heathen people, at once so holy and so necessary. The priests rejoice to hear of these establishments; and are very inquisitive to know the number of Cingalese children under the instruction of the missionaries. When I told them some time |