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Finally, dear Brethren, let us in treat you, in reference to the subject now under consideration, to be careful that your conversation be as becometh the Gospel of Christ. And be in nothing terrified by your enemies, who may threaten you for your loyalty to your Religion, to your Government, and the Institutions of our beloved Country; for even on the supposition that such threats should ever be executed against any of you, it would only follow, that unto you it would then be given on the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on his name, but also to suffer for his sake. If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, fulfil ye our joy, that ye be like minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind, blameless and harmless, the sons of God without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom shine ye as lights in the world. Signed on behalf and by order of the Committee,

CHARLES ATMORE, Chairman.
THOMAS BLANSHARD, Secretary.

P. S. The Committee respectfully recommend that the Preachers should read this Address to the Societies, or take such other methods for making them acquainted with it, as local circumstances may seem to them to render expedient.

MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE.

CEYLON.

Extracts from Mr. NEWSTEAD's Journal.—Continued from page 870. OUR brother Lalman (who is an assistant Missionary, raised up from the Mission at Galle,) is a most zealous and active young man, who appears to be purely actuated by the love of God in his ardent endeavours to save souls; and is both humble and modest in his deportment. He preaches very fluently in Portuguese and Cingalese,and also in English. On his way to this place on a visit, he collected the natives in some places, and preached to them at the rest-houses; and such was the effect of the word, that the idolatrous people tore off the charms, &c. which were suspended from their necks, and bound round their arms, and threw them away! On a former occasion, brother Erskine exhibited some of these charms and a small idol, while preaching in the Bazar, through brother Lalman, and asked the deluded people "What such trash would do for them when God came to judgment!" At Matura it is pleasing to know there is a class of Cingalese women, who regularly enter into the regulation of class money, &c.

distant. He has a charming residence at the foot of an immensely high rock, covered to the very top with verdure, so that only here and there a craggy point of rock is seen. This lovely place is, however, the haunt of tigers, several of which have been killed in the garden; indeed they so abound in the place, that no less than three were seen together within a stone's throw of the house in which we were. I conversed a long time with the family at this sweet place, in Dutch and Portuguese, through the son, who is an intelligent young man, and speaks good English; he was lately the magistrate of the place where he resides, and has a sense of Divine things on his mind. The whole family joined very gladly in prayer. The old gentleman, who is sick, wept much, and earnestly pressed a second visit, which I promised. (He is since dead.) He invoked many blessings on my unworthy head, in Dutch.

21. I preached, or rather read my own sermon in Portuguese, this evening, with tolerable success. An old gentleman, well acquainted with the language, told me, that he suspected I had been acquainted with Portuguese before I left Europe; this was rather encouraging to me, as it argued some improvement.

June 20. Accompanied brother Lalman part of the way to Matura, and on my return called at the house of a gentleman who is a hearer of the gospel at the Mission-house, though living several miles

26. Attended the formation of a Bible Society at Galle, as a Branch of the Colombo Auxiliary Bible Society. It is cheering indeed to see the Word of God in every clime, even in this remote region, "win its widening way."

"A glory gilds the sacred page,
Illustrious as the sun;

New light it gives to every age,

It gives, but borrows none!"

27. I journeyed to Matura to supply for brother Callaway, while he goes to reconnoitre at a new station. I have an almost unconquerable aversion to travelling in the usual mode here, (in a palanquin) but being disappointed of a horse which was promised me, I was obliged to submit. The beauty of the road was indescribable, lined all the way with an almost endless variety of flowering shrubs, sheltered by cocoa-nut plantations, and cooled by the sea-breeze; amazing rocks and stupendous mountains, covered with trees and jungle, with fine rivers and fields, presented themselves. But there are no lovely villages of indus trious peasantry, no refreshing views of spires and steeples, to tell us that this bounteous God of universal nature is known and adored! No "sound of the church-going bell." No cheering salutations from the guiltless lips of Christian friendship! The entire absence of all these, an English, but especially a Christian heart, painfully feels.

28. Walked out to see the place, and call on the collector, &c. Matura is a very pleasant little place, beautiful walks and scenery, and a very fine river. The Mission-house is close to the sea. Here are four Budhist priests, who are come to our brethren, professing their conviction of the truth of Christianity; they submit to learn the English alphabet, and are no more expense than their rice, and a plain cloth and jacket. This is certainly some proof of their sincerity, for they have no emolument whatever with us till they are well tried, and initiated into the principles of the Christian religion. There is also a Cigalese and Portuguese class. 29. Preached, and had a very blessed opportunity in Maturachurch in English, and in the evening at the Mission-house, in Portuguese.

30 Brothers C. and L. went off to the new station; they went up the river in a covered boat. Received a letter from England, which was like a cordial to my heart, though it had no relation to me whatever.

July 1. Met the Cingalese class. O what a mercy it is that a few poor heathens begin to know, and love, and call

upon God. I was overjoyed to hear them talk of their convictions for sin, and of seeking the mercy of God in Christ. This evening saw a dreadful sight; a poor wretched Cingalese woman had killed her little child, which lay on the road before our house, with two deep wounds in its neck. The woman afterwards affected to be out of her mind, and said, she thought the child had been a serpent, and so she killed it! But this, the jailor informs me, is a frequent custom with them, when they dread punishment. O how full of darkness, and of the habitations of cruelty, is this place.

2. The maha modelier and the inter preter modelier called on me, to invite me to their houses; they are really very fine men, and uncommonly polite and well bred. The maha modelier is a kind of prince or governor over the others, as his title signifies, maha being the Cingalese word to express great or greatness,

6. Preached here again in the morning in English, and in the evening in Portyguese. The modelier was at church, and afterwards came to invite us to tea at the maha modelier's house; we accepted the invitation, in hope to do them good, and to draw them to the evening preaching, which we did. The maba modelier sent his boat across the river for us, and it shortly took us down the noble stream to his house. We were received by him with great politeness. We had much interesting conversation with them on the Christian religion. The maha modelier introduced his wife; she scarcely lifted her head, and seemed evidently unwilling to be long with us. I learn that these poor degraded females are very seldom seen out of their own rooms, even in the arrangement of their own household, but are perfectly ignorant of every thing except Budhism and betel, (a leaf which they chew as men do tobacco,) and which turns their teeth black, and their mouths red as scarlet; to this practice they are absolutely enslaved by habit, till it seems as if necessary to their existence. They really have no enjoy ment beyond this, and no society but that of their ayahs, (maid-servants) of which they have plenty, to carry their betel box, &c. and as this is their chief enjoyment, they often honour their betel with an elegant box, made of finely marked wood, in the shape of a book, and richly ornamented with silver. The silver key of this, their precious treasure, is always tied to the corner of their handkerchiefs. It will give joy to our friends in England, after reading this account of the state of the females in Ceylon, to

learn, that we have now hundreds of female children under instruction in our Mission schools! Before we came away from the maha modelier, I asked leave to pray with them, which was readily granted; and prayer to God was offered, I think for the first time in the house, for though they are called Christians, it is thought that they secretly countenance Budhism! However, I bless God for this opportunity of opening a way among them, and of praying with and for them. They all came back with us to the preaching. I think we had not fewer than 18 in the boat.

7. Returned to Galle; was on the road the whole day. A branch falling from a cocoa-nut tree,almost broke off the corner of the palanquin; but "He who keepeth Israel, kept us from all harm!"

10. Preached at the Badhist temple at Dadallah, from Acts xvii. 23. They had provided me a place to stand inside of the building; about twelve of the yellow. robed fraternity were present, who stood very quietly, and heard their system exposed, to which of course the text led me; they seemed to listen with deep attention, and I found it really a time of good to my own soul, feeling as I did, real pity for the poor deluded slaves of such a system of glaring falsehood. Some of them appear to be men of shrewd sense, and will argue with great subtilty to support their opinions. The provincial judge accompanied us, and took great interest in the service, as he does in all our endeavours to promote the spread of the Christian religion.

13. Brother M Kenny preached a very excellent sermon from Mark xvi. 15, for the Missionary collection. The congregation was very respectable; the collector and provincial judge, the colonial chaplain and his lady, were present, with most of the more respectable Dutch and Portuguese inhabitants in the Fort; and the grand modelier with his large family, who all come to contribute to our Christian cause.

14. A new member attended the class, lately awakened to flee from the wrath to come. O that the work of the Lord may indeed prosper here and every where! and that" God,even our own God, would give us his blessing."

Mahomedan. I earnestly urged him to pray to God for light and grace, with the most powerful arguments I could draw from the Bible. He seemed often struck as if surprised, and could not answer directly, but shifted and evaded. He read parts out of an Arabic Bible which I bid him, and seemed pleased with it.

22. We set out for Colombo, to be present at the little Conference. Brother Callaway and myself walked part of the way by moon-light, which was very delightful; the road all the way is beautiful, and much diversified, the scenery on the banks of the river is very grand. After a variety of interesting incidents, we all arrived in safety at Colombo, on the evening of July 25, and found brothers Harvard, Clough, Fox, and Osborne, with the sisters, all well. We met brother Clough going into the Fort to lead the soldier's class.

26. The chapel here is a beautiful place, but a little time finished, and well lighted with glass. Every morning the whole of the Mission family, with workmen, servants, &c. assemble in the chapel for singing, reading the Scriptures, and prayer; so there is quite a congregation for family worship. This is an excellent regulation, as it ensures more regular attendance on worship, when the bell is rung at eight o'clock.

August 3. In the morning heard the anniversary sermon for the Colombo Auxliary Bible Society, by Mr. Bisset, at the Fort church, and in the afternoon received with much joy my first letter from England. Our friends at home would often write, if they could but conceive the joy it affords to the favoured receiver.

4. We visited the Mission school at Colpetty at the monthly examination; Sir Alexander Johnston and his lady were present and distributed the rewards. It was a pleasing sight. This is certainly one of the very best regulated schools I have seen; I had no idea of the children being in such a state of mental andmoral improvement; doubtless the school is much indebted to the care and attention of its excellent master Cornelius, who, I do not doubt, is truly converted to God, and is himself one of the blessed fruits of Mis. sionary exertions in this island. (To be continued.)

15. Had a long conversation with a We have great pleasure in laying before our readers the following Extracts from the last Report of the Colombo Bible Society. They show with what zeal the objects of this important Institution are conducted, and that the means of acquaintance with the truths of religion are greatly multiplying, for the benefit of the inhabitants of this interesting island.

The several heads of all the business be classed in the following manner: properly belonging to the Society, may Trauslation of the Scriptures and Reli

gious Treatise into Cingalese; Printing; distribution of the Scriptures and religious works into Cingalese, Tamul, English, Portuguese; and Dutch, and the state of the Society's Funds.

On the day of the last anniversary, it may be remembered, that the completion of the new Cingalese Version of the New Testament was announced, and a copy of the work presented to the General Meet. ing: it was likewise declared, that the book of Genesis was begun, and that no time would be lost in carrying on the translation of the Old Testament till the whole volume of the Scriptures should be given to the Cingalese in theirown native language. This, it is true, is an arduous and extensive undertaking: but the difficulty is much diminished by the practice of the translators for such a length of time in rendering the New Testament into Cingalese, and the extent of the work, with all its incidental expenses, could never operate as a discouragement, when it was considered how much we had always been in the habit of relying upon a most liberal aid from resources far more ample than our own.

The duty of carrying this design into execution was felt also to be of such paramount obligation, that no religious association could be thought worthy to bear the name of a Bible Society, that did not exert itself to the utmost, to repair the faults of past negligence in this essential point, and to give to the Cinga lese that access to the book of their religion, which, during three centuries of their submission to a Christian government, they had never possessed.

Thus prompted by a sense of duty, and encouraged by the prospect of external assistance, the Committee, it might have been expected, would have made a rapid progress in a Cingalese version of the Old Testament: but the immediate prosecution of this important purpose was interrupted by unforeseen circumstances, which it is incumbent upon your Committee to explain to the Society and the Public.

When the Cingalese version of the New Testament was finished, it was found that the desire of elevating the style above the vulgar language of the old translation, had introduced many words not familiar to the bulk of ordinary readers. Great pains had been taken, as your Committee have detailed in former reports, to ascertain the public opinion upon the merits of the new translation, during its progress, when any errors that were observed, might have been corrected. The Modeliars, interpreters, and other persons best acquainted with their own language,

were not only repeatedly consulted, but 200 copies of the gospels of St Matthew and St. Mark were separately printed and distributed for the very purpose of obtaining from different quarters, an opinion of the correctness and perspicuity of the language. Yet all that had been done to ascertain the truth, it was not until the whole was printed, that it became generally admitted, that if the language of the old version was so mean and low as to disgust any Cingalese of moderate literary knowledge, the new translation contained many words not generally intellibible, or according to the usual phrase, too high, for common readers. To remedy such a material defect, it became necessary to add to this edition a glossary, or explanation of all words which being taken from the Sancrit of other languages, or not being in familiar use, might not be generally understood. This was immediately begun,but it proved a work of more difficulty, and requiring more time than was at first expected. A frequent and careful perusal was neces sary, and a scrupulous delicacy was ob served, both to avoid marking as intelligi ble, without strong reason, words which had received the approbation of Mr. Tol frey, and to prevent the glossary from adding too much to the bulk of the volume. It is to be remarked, that the glossary is strictly confined to the explanation of difficult and uncommon words, by synonymous expressionsinfamiliar use; nothing like a note or comment is added.

It was not till near the close of the year 1817, that this work was finished; the printing was completed in the month of March, and it was then bound up at the end of the new translation with the materials for binding, received from the Parent Society.

When the translators had compiled and corrected the Glossary, they begun upon the book of Genesis, and pursued the same course which had been adopted with the New Testament, dividing the chapters among themselves, and revising the work together, so that no passage was admitted which had not received the approbation of all. The first sheet of an edition of 1000 copies has been printed with the old types, and is now submitted to the meeting.

Your Committee taking into considera. tion the circumstances hereafter to be mentioned, which prevent their using the small types, for the present, in printing the Old Testament, resolved, that instead of going regularly on with the Pentateuch, the translators should proceed with some other part of the Old Testamen', which might be of more immediate use

to the Cingalese, than the early history and laws of the Jewish nation. They have, therefore, now begun upon the Psalms, of which the first 21 are already translated and nearly corrected.

Green's Principles of Religion were translated by Gregory de Zoyza, interpreter to the Ecclesiastical Department, and the excellent prefatory dialogue, written by Hardinge Giffard, Esq. H.M. Advocate Fiscal, was translated by his own interpreter.

The folly of idolatry exposed from the Scripture, consists of a selection of passages from the Old Testament. The 18th chapter of the 1st book of Kings; the 44th chapter of Isaiah; the 3d chapter of the book of Daniel; with the 115th and the 135th Psalms. The selection and translation are both the work of Mr. A. Armour, whose perfect knowledge of both the manners and language of the Cingalese, enables him to judge what is the kind of address best suited to their taste, and to clothe it in a style familiar to their comprehension.

To Mr. Armonr, the Society is already indebted for more than his common labours, in translating and correcting with the other translators; and the prayers which the preceding year had been printed in Cingalese and English, were taken from his translation of the Liturgy, which he constantly uses in performing Divine service in Cingalese.

The second head under which your Committee has arranged their summary of the last year's transactions, is that of Printing.

The press continues still under the skilful and active management of the Wesleyan Missionaries, and besides the glossary to the Cingalese translation of the New Testament, there have been in the course of the last year printed 2000 copies of Green's Principles of Religion, with a preface in Cingalese and English; 2000 copies of a publication entitled "The Folly of Idolatry exposed from the Scriptures," in Cingalese and English; 2000 Discourses and 2000 Sermons of our Saviour upon the Mount, in Tamul and English.

Of these works the first had been nearly printed in the preceding year, and accordingly noticed in the last Report, but it was not finished with the introductory dialogue till some time after the General Meeting.

In the month of November, the new font of Cingalese types arrived from Calcutta. They are of a very good small size, clear and neatly cut, but unfortunately some letters are wanting, and a few others are not properly formed,owing

probably, to there not being at Serampore any person well versed in the Cingalese language.

In consequence of these defects, which rendered the types for the present useless, a letter was written to Serampore, enclosing a list and specimen of the letters wanting.

The next ships from Calcutta will probably bring all that is necessary to complete the font. In the mean time, Mr. Harvard, with that zealous and intelligent activity which has always marked his conduct towards the Society in the management of their press, set about establishing a small foundery, in which he might have the deficient letters cast. This he has so well accomplished, that the new font of types is now ready for use. The first service in which it is to be employed will be in printing a new octavo edition of the Cingalese New Testament, consisting of 3500 copies.

The miscellaneous subjects which your Committee have been accustomed to notice in their Annual Report, still continue to deserve a full share of the public attention: but they are become so well known, that it is no longer necessary to dwell upon them with minuteness. Some of them are indeed so much enlarged, as to preclude the possibility of their being treated with sufficient perspicuity in a Report to which they no otherwise belong, than inasmuch as they are connected with it by their common tendency to strengthen the cause of religion and virtue. Such are the many excellent schools established in various parts of this island, and so much increased in number of scholars, as well as improved in means and progress of tuition, particularly with respect to the English language, that it would greatly exceed the province of your Committee to describe, or even to enumerate them. Such also are the labours of the numerous Missionaries dispersed throughout their different stations, whether employed in the pious task of enlightening the uninformed Christian, preaching the Gospel to the idolatrous Heathen, or preparing the way to a more general and effectual conversion by superintending the schools which they have themselves established. The last arrival of Missionaries deserves, however, to be particularly noticed, for they are the first ever settled in Ceylon, who were ministers of the English church. The Rev. Samuel Lambrick, the Rev. Benjamin Ward, the Rev. Joseph Knight, and the Rev. Robert Mayor, landed at Colombo on the 17th of last June. They are sent out by the Church Missionary Society, and they are all

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