RAIDING, CMS, One Hundred Years in Ceylon OR The Centenary Volume OF THE Church Missionary Society IN CEYLON 1818-1918 BY THE REV. J. W. BALDING, C.M.S. MADRAS PRINTED AT THE DIOCESAN PRESS, VEPERY BY 32.15 EMMANUEL 60403 PREFACE. IN consequence of my having had the honour of com piling the general History of the Church Missionary Society, I am now asked by the Ceylon Committee that has arranged for the celebration of the Centenary of the Ceylon Mission, to introduce this present work, which tells the story of the Hundred Years of that Mission, and this I do with pleasure and thankfulness. The author, the Rev. J. W. Balding, is now the senior C.M.S. missionary in Ceylon, so far as length of service in the Island is concerned, having joined in 1881, and having therefore thirty-seven years experience. That honoured veteran, the Rev. W. E. Rowlands, indeed, went out in 1884 and fifty-seven years ago (1861), but he retired in the field rejoined in 1907, so that his actual service is less than Mr. Balding s. The book, therefore, is authoritative in an unusual degree. In 1868 a small Jubilee volume was prepared by the Ceylon missionaries. It was not an encouraging recital of the fifty years. Few Missions have had, in so long a period, more apparently scanty results to report. In my History, and published thirty years later, I noticed this, explained I added that if a record the causes (Vol. ii, p. 288), and were the tone of those thirty additional years written, iv PREFACE would be very different (Vol. iii, p. 547). In the supple mentary fourth volume, published in 1916, I was thank fully able to present a much more hopeful account. Although I had even then to acknowledge that progress had been, as compared with that of several other Missions, exceptionally slow, yet on the other hand, the Mission had been exceptionally interesting in respect of the individual cases of conversions reported (Vol. iv, p. 257). This general impression will be confirmed by the present work, and the careful reader will find much to strengthen his faith in the Gospel and his thankful ness to God. Colombo, with Galle Face Church, the Ladies etc. Cotta and as centres of College, ; Baddegama, village work; Kandy, with Trinity College; the Itinerancies; its the Tamil Coolie Mission ; Jaffna, and isolated but influence all these features of real important ; present interest, though they may have little of the romance of Uganda, or the Punjab, or parts of China, or the Arctic Circle. In one respect Ceylon is unique. The Anglican Church there furnishes the spectacle of a self-governing body comprising white and coloured races working together in harmony and fellowship, with the native Christians in a decided majority, while the foreign Christians are no negligible minority, differing therefore from Colonial Churches like those of Canada or New Zealand on one side, and from Churches almost purely native as in China and Japan on the other. The Church in Ceylon has its own constitution and its own Synodical administration, although PREFACE V ecclesiastically a single diocese in the Province of India and Ceyion. It presents, on a small scale, a picture of what we hope in time to see on the larger field of India itself. I heartily commend this book to readers both at home and in the mission field, and to the Divine blessing. EUGENE STOCK. January, 1918. CONTENTS PAGE PREFACE ... ... ... ... iii INTRODUCTION ... ... ... j CHAPTER I. CEYLQX it/5 II. THE SINHALESE ... ... 11 III. BUDDHISM ... ... ... 16 IV. THE TAMILS ... ... ... 24 V. HINDUISM ... ... ... ... 28 VI. CHRISTIANITY IN CEYLON ... 32 VII. ... EDUCATION ... ... .., 43 VIII. C.M.S. IN CEYLON ... ... 53 IX. KANDY ... ... 68 X. JAFFNA ... ... ... 88 XI. BADDEGAMA ... ... IQS XII. COTTA ... ... 128 XIII. THE KANDYAN ITINERANCIES ... ... 143 XIV. COLOMBO ... ... ... ... 155 XV. THE TAMIL COOLY MISSION ... ... 173 XVI. C.E.Z.M.S. IN CEYLON 188 XVII. THE GREAT WAR AND RECENT PROGRESS. 196 XVIII. RECENT EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENTS ... 201 CONCLUSION ... ... ... ... 205 A HYMN FOR CEYLON ... ... ... 206 PAGE APPENDIX A Ceylon C.M.S. Missionaries (Men) ... 207 Sinhalese Clergy ... ... ... 225 Tamil Clergy ... ... ... 228 Women C.M.S. Missionaries ... 231 APPENDIX B New Constitution for the Ceylon Mis sionary Conference ... ... 236 INTRODUCTION. EUGENE STOCK, in the History of the Church ERRATA Page 34, line 6 from * bottom for it read in Page 165, line 17, /or women read Page 190, line 5, for - having too great for her read having proved too great for her Page S 2 3 P f Itinerancies Between andan d Dunuvilan ^^read^ Teldeniy, Urugala . ^^^^^^^^ ^__ have presented in subsequent years more manifest signs of the working of the grace of God. Early in 1915, in view of the near approach of the centenary of the C.M.S. in Ceylon, the Standing Com mittee of the Conference suggested the formation of a Centenary Central Committee, so that the Centenary in 1918 might be widely and properly commemorated. A representative committee was accordingly formed, with the Secretary of the Mission (the Rev. A. E. Dibben) as chairman. Two secretaries, one clerical CONTENTS PAGE APPENDIX A ... 207 Ceylon C.M.S. Missionaries (Men) Sinhalese Clergy ... ... 225 Tamil Clergy Women C.M.S. Missionaries ... 231 INTRODUCTION. DR. EUGENE STOCK, in the History of the Church Missionary Society published in 1899, in connection with the Centenary of the Parent Society, refers to the Jubilee Sketches, or an Outline of the work of the C.M-S. in Ceylon during fifty years, 1818-1868 written by the late Rev. J. Ireland Jones, and published in Colombo, in the following terms : In 1868, the Ceylon Mission celebrated its Jubilee. The missionaries then " brought out a small volume of Jubilee Sketches," giving the history of each station during the fifty years. This little book is singularly modest in its estimate of the work done and the results achieved. If the interesting little book were now to have a new edition, the whole tone would be different. Few missions had been, at the end of fifty years, more scanty in results. Few missions have presented in subsequent years more manifest signs of the working of the grace of God. Early in 1915, in view of the near approach of the centenary of the C.M.S. in Ceylon, the Standing Com mittee of the Conference suggested the formation of a Centenary Central Committee, so that the Centenary in 1918 might be widely and properly commemorated. A representative committee was accordingly formed, with the Secretary of the Mission (the Rev. A. E. Dibben) as chairman. Two secretaries, one clerical 2 INTRODUCTION (Rev. A. M. Walmsley) and one lay (Mr. W. Wadsworth) and a treasurer (Rev. J. W. Ferrier) were also appointed. In addition, members of committee were nominated by the District Church Councils. It was proposed that the Centenary should be made the occasion of the raising of a sum of at least Rs. 50,000, as a thank offering, and that this should have four objectives : (1) a Capital Fund for advance Missionary Move ments, (2) a Pension Fund for Catechists, Biblewomen and School Teachers, (3) a Capital Fund to meet opposition in Educational Work, and (4) to provide funds for Itinerating Bands. Several Centenary Pamphlets have been published, and the writer of No. 3 says, We do not want to make this centenary effort merely a matter of raising funds- To do so, would be to fall very short of our real needs. What are they ? First of all, this must be a time of increased prayer and re-consecration. If we are all in the line of God s will, praying earnestly for the extension of His kingdom, the effort and the means will be forth coming, but money, without His Spirit to direct and control and bless it, can never fulfil its purpose. Let the Centenary be borne to us on a great wave of prayer, and we shall find it stored with a rich cargo of blessings. Let us remember three watchwords : (1) Thanksgiving, for the past, with all its mercies and blessings. (2) Humiliation, as we think of the present, with its many unanswered calls, unused opportunities, and unentered doors. (3) Advance, in the future, as we remember that INTRODUCTION in the future lies the coming of the Lord, so closely connected with the evangelization of the world. Further, it was agreed that a history of the work of the C.M.S. in Ceylon should be written, which it was hoped would find its way into many homes, and thus sustain and deepen interest in our work, and prove a source of information and renewed effort. This I was asked to undertake, and the following pages are the result, which I trust will draw forth praise and thankfulness for God s goodness and help in the past, and call forth more prayer and work in His cause in the future. I have chosen as the title for the book, One hundred of the C.M.S. there from years in Ceylon, or the Story 1818 to 1918. It is the natural title to take for a on seem to centenary volume, and other writers Ceylon books in terms of have been impelled to describe their years, for instance, Two Happy Years in Ceylon, by Miss Gordon- Cumming. Seven Years in Ceylon, by Miss M. Leitch. Samuel Baker. Eight Years in Ceylon, by Sir Forbes. Eleven Years in Ceylon, by Major Skinner. Fifty Years in Ceylon, by Major Helen Root. A Century in Ceylon, by Miss in for more Although I have been a missionary Ceylon hundred I cannot than a third part of the one years, lay the of this claim to much that is original in pages drawn and largely and history, as I have compiled, Sketches in 1868 ; liberally, from the Jubilee published Mission the small pamphlet, the Ceylon published INTRODUCTION by the C.M.S.