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 THE ASPECTS OF MISSION WORK 
 
 IN JAFFNA 
 
 BY 
 
 JOHN KILNER, 
 
 ‘ * * 
 
 v f ■* 
 
 • -V/ *■■ % 
 
 It .V < 
 
 JAFFNA: 
 
 8taoii«i & Aisqbt, Prijctsm, 
 
 1870. 
 
ASPECTS 
 
 OF 
 
 MISSION WORK IN JAFFNA.* 
 
 These Monthly gatherings are seasons of rich blessing. 
 They have become to us a sort of moral necessity. We 
 should feel lost without them. To be deprived of them 
 would be, to be bereft of a powerful stimulus to effort, a 
 strong incentive to fidelity, a channel, deep and broad, of 
 brotherly fellowship and a banquet of hallowed enjoy- 
 ment. 
 
 How often has the weary heart gone away from this 
 meeting rc-inforced with power ; and the desponding 
 Brother, who has tried the last fling of his net and caught 
 nothing, has gone, at the command of the Saviour, and 
 cast it on the right side of the ship with cheering results. 
 
 Here our Fathers have told us of the work of God in 
 their days: the younger men have gathered heart, and 
 prayed for the falling mantle of our Elijahs ! Here we 
 learn to feel as one, blended by the genial influence of 
 mutual prayer. Ours is a company of Brethren who 
 seek to edify the one the other. Here are no niggard 
 hoardings of experience, no selfish appropriations, no 
 self gratulations, no narrow petulant demonstrations. 
 Great and good are the associations of this “ Evangelical 
 Alliance ” : but the best of all is, “ God is with us.” 
 
 As in former days, I would to-day, gladly sit and listen 
 to my seniors and brethren : but on me rests a duty, 
 
 * An Address delivered at the “ Monthly Meeting' 1 0 / Missionaries 
 held at Tellipallv, Jaffna, April 4th, 1870. 
 
the onerous duty of presenting some topic for considera- 
 tion which shall not lower the tone of our holy inter- 
 course, nor cast a shadow on the enlightened union which 
 has so graciously marked the history of this meeting. 
 To say that I feel some reluctance is hut to say a truth : 
 and to ask your patient and brotherly attention, is but to 
 give utterance to the uppermost feeling of my heart. 
 
 My theme for to-day will be comprehended under the 
 somewhat broad title, 
 
 SOME ASPECTS OF THE FIEED WHICH 
 WE CULTIVATE. 
 
 Our work is arduous. It is a work that taxes every 
 power both of aggression and endurance. It is a work 
 most complicated and therefore difficult to delineate. It 
 has many phases, all more or less real, but varied accord- 
 ing to the point of view from which we behold them. 
 
 To a few of these aspects of our work I would now re- 
 fer : and I request your attention. 
 
 1. To the aspects of oar work, as these appear to oar 
 Friends at Home. 
 
 We can not, we dare not, we do Dot undervalue the 
 sympathy and help of our friends at Home. Our whole 
 machinery, its plant and working expenses, depends on 
 the munificence of Home-friends. We come forth from 
 them, yet feel a profound interest in maintaining our in- 
 tercourse with them. 
 
 They take an interest in us, a great interest. We thank 
 God for this interest, unabated by half a century of years; 
 brighter to-day than ever, being purified, from some tinges 
 of romance, by the lapse of years and the growth of a 
 knowledge of our real position. 
 
 To keep up a living sympathy with Home is of the 
 
3 
 
 highest importance, important alike to us and to them. 
 We disclaim all sympathy with the man that exclaims, 
 
 “ What care I what the friends at Home think of meV' We 
 must care, and ought to care and do care. Their views 
 of our position affect their action respecting us, and their 
 action very materially affects our work, either to extin- 
 guish or to revive and extend it. 
 
 Moreover, their views &c. of our work are more or less 
 such as we have largely helped to form. If they be right, 
 we must confirm, and strengthen them ; if they be wi’ong, 
 we are bound to use every legitimate means to correct 
 them. 
 
 It is expedient, it is necessary to keep before our Home- 
 friends the varied aspects of our work. 
 
 1, Look for a moment at the aspect of our work as the 
 Churches at Home perceive them. 
 
 Men judge from evidence. Our Churches at Home are 
 supplied with information from abroad. The Missionary 
 is the teacher, the Home Churches the scholar. It must 
 in the nature of things be so. 
 
 If this be the case, then it becomes a question, whether 
 the aspects of our work find an adequate representation 
 to the loving friends at Home ? The stimulus of a roman- 
 tic impulse, or even of a broad general principle, does not 
 act with unabated force for ever. The romance fades away 
 with familiarity ; the general principle loses point and 
 power as special facts are misapprehended ; the fires die 
 out as the fuel is with-held. What are the usual means 
 of representing our field to the Home Churches, and do 
 these cover the whole area of the necessity ? 
 
 (1.) There are the authorized Periodicals of the various 
 Miss ionary Socie ties. 
 
4 
 
 “ The Messengers” “ The Heralds” “ The Notices” &c. 
 
 These are, however, seldom if ever, other than fragmen- 
 tary. Read these periodicals and what do you generally 
 get ? There is a letter from Africa, or rather a part of a 
 letter ; on the same page, an extract from New Zealand, 
 or some Island of the sea ; hard by is a week’s journal of 
 some touring evangelist in India, followed close by a 
 warm communication from the West Indies &c. &c. and 
 a village scene in Ceylon brings up the rear. These “Ex- 
 tracts’’ are not always such as the writer would have 
 made, had he been the publisher. I do not now lodge a 
 complaint against the conductors of these monthly peri- 
 odicals ; I simply refer to them as a fact ; as the source of 
 information on which tens of thousands of our Home- 
 friends depend ! We all know how imperfect and partial 
 such pictures are in themselves ; and how necessarily im- 
 perfect the impressions which they naturally produce must 
 be, is a matter of too easy inference. Would not these 
 valuable periodicals do a vastly greater amount of good if 
 they were devoted to a full representation of some section 
 of the work : e. g. if those Missionary Societies which 
 work, Africa, Asia, China and the Islands of the Sea. Ac. 
 were to give, in regular order, a full description of these 
 several fields, confining the month’s issue to some one 
 section ; and let the Missionaries know that some such 
 report was expected, then, thrice a year, each great quar- 
 ter of the globe would be fully brought before the people ! 
 These sectional Reports might be periodically gathered 
 into a volume and every young Missionary would thus be 
 supplied with the very best possible ‘ Vade Mecum’ to 
 his section of the work. Until some such measures are 
 adopted these monthly periodicals will be more or less 
 
5 
 
 imperfect as media for representing our work to Home- 
 friends. 
 
 (2.) Another method of representation is the Official 
 Annual Reports of the various societies. 
 
 These are valuable documents ; being the authorized 
 repertories of Mission statistics. They are of essential use 
 in arriving at broad generalization and common princi- 
 ples. But even these fail to keep alive the flame of zeal 
 enkindled by the simple narratives of events, sent home 
 by the first Missionaries. How condensed, picked and 
 packed, and even oppressively general, are these accounts 
 of Mission work ! The every-day-diligent ! Missionary sends 
 Home, it may be 20 pages of interesting detail, and finds 
 these done into as many lines of the usual official common 
 place ! The most bare generalization takes the place of 
 an army of living individuals ! You need not that I tell 
 you what the effect of such representations may be. The 
 Missionary Societies are growing larger annually. The 
 Annual Report has to be prepared with a view to its 
 being submitted, read and discussed at one public session 
 of representatives. Consequently it is becoming annual- 
 ly more and more condensed. But what is to be done ? 
 It is plain that we lie under these disabilities. As viewed 
 in comparison with the times and the Reports, <fec. of 40 
 years ago we do not get, we cannot hope to get the same 
 attention to detail. Perhaps there is here an insurmount- 
 able difficulty ; an evil which we can’t cure, at least I 
 leave this part of the subject with some regret, as I can 
 not propound a plan which will relieve an ever growing 
 Mission of the disadvantage of having to condense and 
 squeeze its Report to the niche, annually contracting to a 
 narrower space. Perhaps the method of “ Local Reports'' 
 
6 
 
 might be so used as to remedy this evil to some extent. 
 These might enter into detail and be largely distributed 
 pmong Home-friends, to be used in the Sabbath School ; 
 at public meetings, &c. &c. One thing is certain, few of 
 us would be content to have his Station photographed 
 from the sketch given of it in one of these “ Annual Re- 
 ports'' There can be no doubt that these condensed state- 
 ments operate to the damage of special cases, such as we 
 consider our Mission to the Hindu to be. 
 
 (3.) Another medium of representation is the direct 
 communication of the Missionaries either on the plat- 
 form at Home, or by private correspondence. 
 
 There cannot be too much importance attached to these 
 methods of representation. 
 
 To “ The Returned Missionary,” the platform gives the 
 best opportunity possible for full, and minute detail, both 
 as to facts and principles. A Missionary has a solemn 
 Vocation to fulfil in his father-land. Providence seems, 
 at times, to send men Home to do Mission work. How 
 eagerly the people listen to the story from life ! It is only 
 when dry, unliving detail of abstractions, and speculations 
 are served up that the people cry “enough’' ere the feast 
 is half over. They rarely weary with facts, living 
 facts, told to the life. This is what they need, and they 
 ydll hear any amount of it. I have seen a crowded audi- 
 pnee weep over the trials and disappointments of the 
 Missionary. I have heard the hearty “ Amen” burst from 
 thousands, at prayer, as the Missionary was being brought 
 before the mercy seat in earnest supplication. It is often 
 said, that, “the friends at Home will not listen to the 
 dark side of our story that, “they prefer the other side 
 when it has one.” And who would not ? who would pre- 
 
fer the hovel of misery and want, to the home of plenty? 
 the winds and currents ahead, to the steady fair breeze ? 
 But I do not think that the friends at Home object to the 
 dark side" so called ; they need to know it, and will listen 
 to the delineation of the difficulties of our work. Tell the 
 dark side and also the bright : let these two aspects of 
 our work lead one to the other as nature’s night to na- 
 ture’s day ! 
 
 It is desirable that the Missionary do return Home pe- 
 riodically, to agitate and instruct the minds of Home- 
 friends. This arduous work should not be left to the 
 broken down man, who goes Home as a last resort, to 
 patch up if possible for a speedy return. It would pay 
 well to let the strongest and the most experienced go 
 Home, once in seven years, for this purpose. The advant- 
 ages to the Mission cause, here and there would more 
 than double the cost of travel &C. 
 
 There can be no doubt that much is really done by our 
 “returned" men. Ceylon has a large share of English 
 Christian sympathy ; and doubtless of American also. Let 
 us remind our brethren there of their duty to those who 
 remain in the field. Public opinion of Missions owes 
 much to cur returned Missionaries. 
 
 (2.) Then there is epistolary correspondence. 
 
 Very great influences are locked up in the direct com- 
 munications of the Missionary to his friends at Home. Dr. 
 Scudder could tell us, were he among us to-day, of what 
 was done in his day by this means. How that, young and 
 old, male and female, in a vast variety of domestic circles^ 
 were induced by his private letters, some to consecrate a 
 tenth, others to devote themselves and their all to Christ 
 and his cause in foreign lands ! 
 
To keep up a-iiy thing like a regular correspondence 
 with all whom we could influence, would be a tax of 
 strength and time from which the strongest of us would 
 shrink : yet it is open for consideration, whether one day 
 a week would not be economically spent if devoted to 
 this special work. 
 
 The first Missionaries wrote more iii detail. I query 
 whether they had more to write about. Perhaps if each 
 Mission had a monthly or quarterly periodical^ or letter 
 printed, and if these were circulated, broad-cast, among 
 friends here and at Home, much good might ensue. These 
 are, as far as I can see, the methods by which Home- 
 friends are to get full information as to our work in its 
 varied and varying aspects. 
 
 It is therefore plain that the Missionaries themselves 
 are largely responsible for the state of Missionary know- 
 ledge at Home. 
 
 If we are to command the sympathies of Home-friends 
 we must pay the cost of procuring and sustaining such 
 sympathies. 
 
 It is unreasonable to suppose that they can, or ought 
 to obtain adequate knowledge from other sources. There 
 are no other sources, which set us free from the labour 
 and responsibility of writing to them. “ Faith comes by 
 hearing." And, as inordinary cases, we, in these respects, 
 must conform to the common laws of human thought, 
 sympathy and help, if we would succeed in securing 
 them. If we want the prayers of God’s people at 
 Home, for any special emergency, or for any continued 
 pressure of trial, or work ; if, for instance, the young 
 Missionary need the fervent prayers of God’s servants ; if 
 the veteran soldier need to have new strength infused, 
 new courage imparted ; if the Native Church and its Pas- 
 
9 
 
 tors need the increasing and special supplication of God’s 
 intercessory servants ; if the poor heathen manifest some 
 aspect of hope, or sink more deeply into sin and call for 
 louder entreaties for mercy ; if the proclamation of the 
 glorious Gospel is to be made the means of salvation to 
 thousands and prayer be specially required for some par- 
 ticular locality, or time : how are our friends at home to 
 know of these things? Can they guess at them ? Can they 
 wrap them all up in one common and general supplica- 
 tion ? No, No, if I, or any other brother needs the throne- 
 reaching prayer, we must put our ease before our friends. 
 The aspects of our work which our friends realize will be 
 the moving force in their expression of sympathy for us. 
 It is therefore a matter of the first consequence to keep 
 them well informed of our state &c. 
 
 II. There are aspects of our ivork which appear to the 
 Responsible Directors of our Missions ; to the Committees, 
 Boards, fyc. 
 
 The Committees and the Secretaries of the Committees 
 at Home have great power. They are the chosen of the 
 Churches: men, who, for capacity of administration, know- 
 ledge of the world’s wants, sympathy for fallen human 
 nature and zeal for the glory of God, have been elected to 
 fill these most responsible offices. It may be that the 
 Missionary thinks he could put his finger on defects in 
 legislation, and on errors in administration ; it may be, 
 as regards his own special field, the Missionary may have 
 cause to regret occasional decisions at which Committees 
 at Home may arrive : it is probable that the Missionary 
 mig ; a. le to apply or at least suggest a remedy for 
 the r which he may sometimes mourn : it may 
 
 3 Missionary would render valuable aid in the* 
 2 
 
10 
 
 deliberations of these Committees. What then? Plainly 
 this, that the Committees and Secretaries at Home are very 
 much in the hands of their Missionaries abroad. They 
 need facts to guide them : they need reiterated facts, aye, 
 the same facts, again and again brought before them, so 
 that the same depth of impression may be produced, on 
 their minds by reiterated expression, as is produced in 
 the mind of the Missionary by daily recurring observa- 
 tion. They must make our experience theirs, as much as 
 is possible : and we must devoutly help to bring this about, 
 The old story must be told once more, because the old 
 event has occurred yet once again. 
 
 Do not some of us regard our powers to influence a Com- 
 mittee as very small indeed ? Much too small ? Modesty 
 has perhaps left “ the first statement,” once repeated, to 
 tell its own story and perpetuate its impression through 
 a long succession of years ! Look at the facts of the case. 
 
 The Committees at Home are frequently changing ; the 
 new member does not bring with him the knowledge of 
 the work which the old member carries away ; moreover 
 men’s minds undergo changes ; opinion veers ; and even 
 Committees vary their plans and policy. These ever re- 
 curring changes tell upon our work here ; and upon our 
 responsibilities, as to repeated and renewed representa- 
 tion also. 
 
 We all can, in some measure, understand the difficul- 
 ties under which a Committee rests in dealing with the 
 special wants of any particular Mission. We can readily 
 see how, that, in the absence of facts ; great, first, historic 
 facts ; and especially in the absence of clear proof 
 that the men at work, now think, and feel, and 
 want, and pray, as they did ten, twenty, or fifty 
 years ago; changes may occur in the judgment of a Com- 
 
11 
 
 mittee which will tell most disastrously on our work 
 here ! We can thus at a glance, see how that good men 
 yes, the very wisest and best of men, may go astray. Is 
 it not therefore very desirable that regular, systematic 
 and full, yes, all sided and all shaded views of our work 
 be sent to the men who have the most difficult task of 
 steering our course and directing our affairs ? 
 
 Doubtless they would regard such communications as 
 of the very highest value. 
 
 Now, if we allow our work to be but partially present- 
 ed to them, if they see the twilight and not the mid-day ; 
 the eventide and not the mid-night; the quiet sun-set and 
 not the storm and tempest ; the small patch of a few yards 
 of culture and garden of beauty, and not the measureless 
 wastes of wilderness beyond ; if they see our success, and 
 not the long catalogue of our failures, and the wearisome 
 years of watching and culture ; if we sing a pean of triumph 
 and repress the antecedent strife, and sweat, and tears 
 and blood : e. g. if they see, only, the fact of our having 
 a large staff of Native Agents , and go not with us to the 
 weaker aspects of their character ; if they read of “ Church- 
 es,” and remember not, that, strictly speaking, there is 
 not a Church as yet self-sustaining and aggressive, as 
 these words are understood in England and America, in 
 the whole area of our Ceylon Mission : if indeed they see 
 us, as through a glass, darkly, how can we fairly, or rea- 
 sonably expect them to sympathize, chord for chord with 
 us, and run along with us as cheerily as we should wish 
 them ? They cannot do so : they never ean do so. On 
 whom then, ultimately rests the responsibility of this state 
 of things ? Are not the men in the field really chargeable) 
 where defect exists ? Our Committees are made up large- 
 ly of men of business, who are accustomed to balance 
 
12 
 
 every question at a stroke : and if these good men have not 
 all our ci'edit statement before them, how can they, in the 
 nature of things, strike a balance which we shall deem 
 equitable? 
 
 It is all the more needful that every Missionary in the 
 field should see to these things, inasmuch as our Commit- 
 tees are not only dealing with facts and principles, but 
 are generalizing those facts and classifying those princi- 
 ples, and are settling down into a fixed policy. There 
 seems to be a tendency to bring the entire mission field, 
 in all its spheres, under some general rules and modes of 
 culture. Africa and China, America and India, are to be 
 made to grow to the same stature and at the same ratio of 
 development ! A greater mistake could not be made : a 
 more fatal calamity could not occur. Save them, save the 
 Churches, save yourselves and the world, from such a night- 
 mare ! Let your field have a full, fair and regular repre- 
 sentation to the men who have to guide our affairs. Let 
 us love them, let us sacrifice a portion of time, strength 
 and comfort on this altar. Let us give them, as really as 
 we may be able, the same data, precisely, which we our- 
 selves possess : then their judgment and ours will coincide, 
 their sympathies and ours will concur, and harmony in 
 all the smaller as well as the larger parts of the machine 
 will be preserved. 
 
 III. There are aspects of our work which the new comer 
 alone perceives : or to put the thing more accurately, th 
 new comer sees asp>ects which do not strike the more ex- 
 perienced. 
 
 These aspects are to him real ; they are to him as first 
 lessons ; the rudimentary elements of his judgments and 
 the incipient springs of emotion and action. It is alto- 
 
13 - 
 
 get her absurd to expect a young Missionary to enter heart, 
 sympathy and soul, to the full, into plans of action, 
 which the advanced in experience only have found expe- 
 dient, but concerning which the new Missionary does not 
 yet see the necessity or even the wisdom. 
 
 He may hang back from fear, natural and proper. He 
 demands breathing time to consider the path of his feet. 
 A year does not pass away, ere the young Missionary has 
 had severe doubts as to what is going on around him , 
 and perhaps, equally severe doubts as to whether his own 
 plans would work any better if tried. The Western mo- 
 dels are ever before him. Western feelings ever predom- 
 inate : Western experience lingers : Western hopes are not 
 yet all blighted ! He is undergoing the drill ; a most pain- 
 ful but essentially necessary process. Very likely the in. 
 tensity of his present disappointment will be but themeas - 
 ure of his subsequent confidence and success. What a 
 radical reformer ” the young M issionary is! We all 
 know this, having, more or less, felt his feelings. Few things 
 are right ! Fewer still progress with the ease, certainly, 
 and measure that they ought to do ! “ Old men are rather 
 quiet, and somewhat slow !” “ The middle aged men are 
 evidently feeling the effects of the climate and are, more 
 or less, succumbing to inexorable events!” “Functions 
 which in England or America ai’e kept distinct, are here 
 blended in the same person !” “ The Missionary, as if om- 
 nivorous of work, is Builder, Architect , Pay-master, School- 
 Teacher, Secretary, Treasurer, Pastor, Translator, Evan- 
 gelist, Ac., &c.! ” This is a state of ecclesiastic organization 
 for which the young Missionary is hardly prepared. 
 
 Is it to be wondered at that such persons form an un- 
 favorable view of things as first beheld ? A valued friend, 
 and one wearing the laurels cf half a century of Mission 
 
14 
 
 service, once said, “It is a mercy, for which we can’t he 
 too thankful, if the young Missionary is kept , during the 
 first few years of his life, from doing harm.” 
 
 One thing is very worthy of remark, viz., that after the 
 young Missionary has had the active working, and re- 
 sponsible charge of a Station, say for ten years, more or 
 less, he invariably meets his seniors in the same port 
 and haven ! How few men, who have been a quarter of 
 a century in active Mission work in this land, differ from 
 one another, one fiftieth as much as the yonng man differs 
 from all ! 
 
 The excessive Secular work comes hard upon the young 
 Missionary. It bears hard upon the old ones also. The 
 patience, with which some may bear the burden, is no 
 evidence that they would not wish it to be removed. The 
 weight is simply tolerated as an inevitable burden which 
 the exigencies of God’s cause in this land impose. Effort 
 should be made to reduce the secular occupations to a 
 minimum. Such is being done. 
 
 The unusual attention given to Schools, to Educational 
 work generally, appears to him to be a mistake. The drud- 
 gery and fag, the wearying, worrying work of a school’ 
 seem to ventilate altogether, the ideas of Evangelical work, 
 which fired the young Heart at Home, and which led to the 
 terrible severance from friends and associations, dearer 
 than life ! How complete, how sad the reverse ! Instead 
 of proclaiming the glad tidings of salvation to listening- 
 thousands under tire shade of some wide spreading Banyan 
 tree ; the Missionary is seen plodding at the school ; Tamil 
 or English, as he thinks best ! “ Why ? I can’t do that!' 1 ’ 
 “ I did not come out for that /” “I must p reach.” “ I came 
 out to preach, and preach I will ! ” So would the veteran 
 
1 a 
 
 of half a century. So he does. “ But why not spend all 
 his strength in preaching to listening crowds ? ” Ask him 
 He replies, I don’t find the listening crowds ; shew them 
 to me ; one at sun-rise, another at mid-day, and yet an- 
 other at eventide, and three times a day, the live long 
 year round, I will proclaim Christ Jesus to the listening 
 crowds.” — How pleasant, how glorious sach work would 
 be ! 
 
 The Missionary comes down, if you like so to regard it, 
 to the level of his field, so as to accomplish some practi- 
 cable good ! How soon our early feelings harden, or mod- 
 ify themselves to this state of things ! It is well it is so. 
 
 The want of power, in the “ Native Agency , ’’ so called, 
 strikes a New Comer. Pastors andChurches seem in a doze, 
 if not altogether asleep. They take things so easy, that 
 the young man, full of energy, must try some special re- 
 medy, to rouse them to becoming energy. Good, very. 
 But this state of comparative lethargy, over which no one 
 grieves more deeply than the man of half a century of 
 of years of toil among them, is not the result of choice, or 
 any policy of action ; No, we venture to affirm that, Ti is 
 the characteristic of the nation : the Tamil man, as na- 
 tural as life ! 
 
 Thank God for young energy ! It does good. But the 
 inocculation of Western character and habits will require, 
 something like Western home-life, and experience and 
 training for its accomplishment. 
 
 These, and other aspects of c ur work are painfully real- 
 ized by the young Missionary. What is to be done ? Cer- 
 tainly not censure, not contempt, not hard words are re- 
 quired. Take him into your heart, your experiences. Let 
 him hold the plough with one hand, and you the 
 other. Our dear young friends need special grace and 
 
16 
 
 should be the object of special prayer, both here and at 
 Home, 
 
 IV. There are finally, aspects of our work which those, 
 who have laboured, through a generation or more, clear- 
 ly apprehend. 
 
 Some there are, among us, who have been aware of the 
 changes which have occurred from the beginning. They 
 could tell us what they met with at the very outsefyH^w 
 ignorance, foul and gross, overspread the land ; how super- 
 stition, and heathen vice, held the people in worse than 
 iron fetters; how the people sat in the very region of the 
 shadow of death. 
 
 These were at the digging for the first stone of the foun- 
 dation ' They began the building ; they themselves, add- 
 ed stone to stone, and have watched its progress from that 
 day until now. It would be worth a great deal of treas- 
 ure to get these aspects fixed for the benefit of the young- 
 er members of the Missions. 
 
 The then, and The now, would fill a picture with some 
 of the most thrilling scenes that Jaffna ever witnessed, or 
 we could possibly desire to see. When the first Mission- 
 ary landed at Jaffna, what greeted him ? What surround- 
 ed him ? What opened up before him ? Could he have an- 
 ticipated the events of fifty years, he would ha 
 out \‘ This is Paradise ! ' lt *This is glory begun bel 
 When the first sehool -house was raised what a 
 ful piece of architecture it appeared ! Their own hands 
 reared it ! I have been shown a structure, on the way from 
 J affna to Batticotta, consisting of four pillars and a wall 
 three feet high, and some 20 feet square, as “the model 
 chool-room,” which our fathers then adopted ! We smile 
 
17 
 
 as we pass it, now a ruin ! But in that very smile there 
 is progress. Our fathers were serious enough when they 
 laid out the ground and first entered it to teach and preach 
 Jesus, when the first (ana) or 45 (avena) echoed through 
 the Palmyra grove ; what music was there in those sounds 
 to the Missionary ! He heard in them the voice of Gospel 
 liberty to an enthralled nation ! 
 
 When the first Tract was printed: how the typography, 
 aspect and the whole circumstances would gladden the 
 heart of the Gospel seed-sower ! What a contrast this to 
 the first Tracts, 'which were scratched on the Palmyra 
 leaf! 
 
 When the first Scripture portion was ready for the 
 School, for the Christian family and for the heathen gener- 
 ally ! How the men who produced it would rejoice, and sit 
 down and measure progress thereby made ! How rich the 
 hopes of success then indulged ! How eager they were to 
 get this life-giving word into the hands of all ! They felt 
 that the battle was being fought bravely, jand victory 
 pushed to the gate of the enemy’s strongest fortress ! 
 
 When the first lesson book appeared, the (®rreoruuir&),) 
 Spiritual Milk and the (uasoQurr^d) Milk for Babes ; wha^ 
 dreams of early and large results had they who wielded 
 these aggressive weapons, these small arms, “ Needle-guns’* 
 of the day ! We still imagine we hear the ring of the voice 
 of the veteran Poor, “ These are to wi n the victory /” “ These 
 are to revolutionize the land!” and have they not penetrated 
 into the very deepest depths of the nation ? Have not gen- 
 erations already ; felt their pow r er? And will not, future 
 generations feel their power ? 
 
 When the first Dictionary, rolled in its heavy wave upon 
 
 the shore, how^eagcrly the astonished disciple grasped the 
 
 3 
 
18 
 
 treasure and promised himself easy victory, over the mas- 
 sive difficulties of the language, by means of such a wea- 
 pon ! 
 
 When the “ Morning Star ” was seen to rise upon the 
 horizon of literature, how many hailed it as the harbing- 
 er of day, of a day both bright and long ! How the best 
 energies of the best men of those days were freely given 
 to this project \ 
 
 When the Tract and Bible Societies were organized ; 
 how our fathers again gave glory to God for progress ! 
 
 When Church after Church and Mission-house after 
 Mission-house, were reared ; what a series of holy convo- 
 cations of aggressive and progressive brethren, marked 
 each inauguration ! 
 
 When the Missionary preached his first Tamil Sermon ; 
 how both Foreigner and Native rejoiced at this unsealing 
 of the fountain ! 
 
 When the Press was fairly commenced and the Tamil 
 man began to frame words and print them ; how antici- 
 pation flamed and expectation glowed ? 
 
 When the first Girl’s School was begun, and the trem- 
 bling girls lucre won to confidence ; how tender hearts 
 palpitated with anxious fears, and burning hopes ! How 
 the mothers of our Missions felt the thrill of a grand phi- 
 lanthrophy which aimed at national regeneration through 
 the conversion of the women of the land ! 
 
 When the first Tamil man bowed down to the Cross of 
 Christ, and cried, in trembling accents' “Lord, I believe !’• 
 “I believe !” O ! what bursts of hallelujahs filled the 
 homes of the Missionaries and echoed in the yet unfinish- 
 ed temples of God ! 
 
 " When the first native Preacher was authorized to pro - 
 
19 
 
 claim the glad tidings of mercy to his own fellow coun- 
 trymen ; how profoundly did the foreign Missionary re- 
 joice, how largely did he pray and hope for success! 
 
 When the first Church gathered round the Communion 
 Table, and brethren and sisters from the West and the Fast 
 brake the bread and drank the wine together in holy com- 
 memoration and solemn covenant; how teais of grate- 
 ful joy flowed and bursts of reverent praise ascended! 
 
 When the first Tamil Christian was solemnly dedicat- 
 ed to the office and work of a Christian Pastor and Evan- 
 gelist ; how the Churches, here and at Home, looked on 
 with prayerful solicitude followed by jubilant songs of 
 holy triumph ! 
 
 When the first Church resolved to take upon itself the 
 solemn responsibility of sustaining its own Native Pas- 
 tor and carrying out all the functions of a Church or- 
 ganization ; how even the unsanguine gave praise for 
 success ! 
 
 There are aniongst its those who have passed through all 
 these scenes one by one ! They have witnessed them all, 
 have taken a large share in their accomplishment ! May 
 the Master long preserve them to his cause and to us ! 
 These events each and severally, were objects ouce un- 
 realized ; once far off ; once eagerly lo Vked forward to ; once 
 most perseveringly striven alter ; incredible difficulties 
 were overborne, as each summit was gained, they tarried 
 to sing of triumph, they did sing praise to God for suc- 
 cess ; yes, for each step gained, they sang- ! Shall we then . 
 who have the whole of their conquered territory placed 
 at our feet without facing a foe or shedding a tear, croak 
 of a want of success ? God forbid ! We have m eat cause 
 for renewed consecratiori/ 'The cause of Christ here has 
 not been a failure. I 'see progress here and there, aye 
 
2D 
 
 greets 
 
 us on 
 
 
 ^tAA. 
 
 
 ~jU, 
 
 'everywhere! Most astonishing progress 
 every hand. 
 
 Let the four Girls' Boarding Schools, testify to success! 
 Mrs. Spaulding can remember the first few gathered indb 
 Oodooville can afford a swarm or two" 1 ? God is blessing 
 this work in Has own way ; and he will bless it. 
 
 Our Bible women" shall tell us of a marvellous change in 
 them ! What a contrast is a pious Bible-woman to the tim- 
 id, unthinking victim of lustful tyranny which our Fathers 
 found in every woman of the land ! 
 
 In Literature, let the Lexicons, Hand-books, Treatises on 
 Technical science, embracing the yet unfinished project of 
 the indefatigable Doctor at Manepy, testify to progress. 
 
 In Theology let the “ Union Version’/ for all the 
 Tamil world, stand alone as a monument of glorious suc- 
 cess ; if not, let this centre sun, gather round it the planets 
 of Theological works, Tracts, &c. & c. which have so large- 
 ly been produced ! 
 
 In Churches, let the 1,200 or 1,500, more or less, of 
 living professors of Christianity be counted, as something, 
 when success is estimated. 
 
 11 Let the H- Native Ministers and Pastors, who now do 
 the principal Pastoral work in the Churches, have a voice! 
 
 O my friends, if God had not been with our fathers and 
 with us, could these things have happened s ol f It is the 
 Lord’s doing; and it is marvellous in our eyes/* We 
 devoutly exclaim, What had God wrought !’f 
 ■ I am told that the first Tamil man converted still lives ^ 
 X nd labours in the cause of Christa And in his day some 
 y 2,000 at least have been baptized into the name of the 
 Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost ^Can we won- 
 der that the old Missionary does not lose heart at the pan- 
 ic which alarms the younger man? Do we feel surprized 
 
21 
 
 that the veteran does not grow faint and weary ? Marvel 
 we that they hold on, during the squall, who have out- 
 
 lived so many and so fierce tempests for l 3$ s years past ? ^ 
 These aspects, as they appear to the veteran cheer him- 
 
 They sustain hinr?* They make him thankful, if not al- 
 together content. And the oldest among us would glad- 
 ly live another half century to work on and work out 
 principles and plans which have hitherto worked so well. 
 
 more, of so placing these events before them that they 
 may enter fully into our labours. The past throws light 
 upon the future ! The present guarantees the one great 
 object of our rejoicing and we sing, as our loftiest song of 
 triumph, " The best of all is, God is with us /” 
 
 • Considerable concern was recently felt by one of the Missions har- 
 ing to reduce its Native Staff by one fourth of its numbers. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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