64 CEYLON BRANCH ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY. 



sertion the meeting denied, having all along complained of reli- 

 gious apathy, so that they prosecuted their work sighing, and if 

 the love of religious knowledge existed, how was it that public 

 worship was so badly attended. Nor was the religious declen- 

 sion attributable to Government, but, said the pamphlet, to the neg- 

 ligence of ministers, and to their ignorance of the native language 

 owing to their indolence. The meeting repudiated this statement of a 

 thoughtless youth, who, while in Ceylon, had the very clergy he 

 blamed as his teachers, guides and examiners. This charge of igno- 

 rance inferred that the clergy were unemployed, while at this time 

 there was a Dutch congregation > in Colombo of iOOO persons, to be 

 attended to by one minister with the help of a proponent, the 

 other ministers being entirely employed in Singhalese preaching, 

 visiling the district and teaching at the seminary, with the ex- 

 ception of but one Dutch Service in the month. Another charge was 

 that most of the clergy who came out to the Service in India, 

 had other objects in view than the illumination of the East 

 with the light of the West — that it" was for the .sake of gain. 

 The clergy would challenge the writer to prove this malicious 

 and dishonoring assertion. Another assertion was that previous 

 to the arrival of Governor Baron Van XmhofF, the Ceylon Church 

 was tottering. The meeting remarked that their own' observa- 

 tion and experience, as also the faithful statements they an- 

 nually sent of the Church, were not in accordance with that 

 remark. It was also said that - the people were taught in a po- 

 pish manner, which the meeting supposed, meant, mere memory 

 word. Some ministers present, who had served in the colony 

 30 years, declared that it had ever been their utmost endea?- 

 vour to impart a clear understanding of the fundamental doc- 

 trines, though they found that notwithstanding many were too at- 

 tached to earthly and sensual things, to take to heart the spi- 

 ritual truths inculcated. 



A few years afterwards (1750) the writer of this pamphlet, 

 on his return to Ceylon, as ordained minister, was confronted by 



