NO. 41.— 1890.] REBELION DE CEYLAN. 



601 



suffer, and that the heathen should triumph, so that after- 

 wards it would return triumphant ; the heathen suffering 

 eternal pains, and His Church triumphing in everlasting glory. 

 Carried away by ignorance and the want of the light of faith, 

 which lead us to believe this as truth (without ever having 

 known truth, as says Tacitus and many other moral philo- 

 sophers), that human events are governed by chance. And this 

 blindness was so great that they came to blaspheming their 

 gods, calling them unjust and revengeful, and saying that they 

 had no interest nor care for mortals, seeing that they allowed 

 the good to suffer and the bad to prosper in happiness, the 

 ignorant erred, and the philosopher and priest were silent ; 

 because, knowing the falseness of their deities, in that they 

 were either of stone, wood, or marble, of which they were 

 made, how could they contain sentiments of vengeance or 

 any other feeling, divine or moral ? But as our true God r 

 Supreme Maker, Creator, and Preserver of all things, on 

 whom all things depend as they depend upon His providence : 

 all is ordained, all true, all harmony, all symmetry. And 

 this being a true, infallible, and certain thing in this case, 

 as in other examples throughout time, we see that God 

 punished us in Ceylan perhaps for the sins our people have 

 committed in this Island, and allowed the death of these few 

 because He found them prepared for salvation ; inasmuch 

 that He always carries out His will by means of the passions 

 of men, and by means of their iniquity He manifests the 

 justice of His judgments. This is why we marvel at this 

 hidden vein of wisdom which we cannot solve ; and we know 

 that all punishments are for ultimate good, although onr 

 blind understanding cannot see it, and is so sluggish that it 

 cannot follow it, because to us the true goal is hidden and 

 unseen, to which we arrive without our knowing it ; like 

 some rivers which lost to sight flow underground to the sea,, 

 which is their final home. 



Returning to the thread of our history. The storm, which 

 lasted many hours, caused the greatest distress amongst 

 our men : there remained neither provisions, powder, nor 



