to them in the Schools during the month. This being the first month during which the Masters have exercised the boys in this way, of course we could not expect much from them: they did quite as well, however, as I had anticipated. That you may judge for yourself, I send you the questions which they proposed on the Second Chapter of St. Matthew, and the answers. "Who came to Jerusalem ?"-"The Wise Men"-" In whose reign did the Wise Men come to Jerusalem ?" "The reign of Herod"—"From whence did they come?" "The East" "What did they ask?" "Where is He, that is born King of the Because he thought that he should thus Though some of these questions are similar to those which I had asked them the month preceding upon the same chapter; yet, as they shew the working of the native mind, and that the Masters have some knowledge of what they are about, they will, I doubt not, be accept able to you. In the beginning of March Mr. Selkirk adds Our Monthly Examinations appear to increase in interest. The Children, in general, repeat their lessons out of the Gospels very well, and are able to answer correctly most of the questions proposed to them. We have some very Dec. 1827. 609 quick boys in some of our Schools: the accuracy with which they repeat five or six pages of the New Testament every month, and the sharp manner in which they give their answers, lead me to augur some good. Circular Address to the Natives near Cotta. The Missionaries have adopted a method well calculated to call the attention of the people around them to the great objects of the Mission: they have printed, in Cingalese, an Address to the people of the Villages where the Schools are situated, and have distributed among them some hundred copies. We subjoin this Address, which was drawn up by Mr. Selkirk, in a manner, as the Reader will see, very likely to answer its design. To the people of Cotta, Wallicada, Pan- Secondly-To invite you to attend the Preaching of the Word of God, which you have the opportunity of hearing every Sabbath Day. : 1. The motives, which have induced us to come and live at Cotta, and to establish Schools here and in the neighbouring villages, are these:-We desire very much that your children should not grow up in utter ignorance of the duties which they owe to God, their neighbour, and themselves. By coming to our Schools, they will learn many things that are very good, and nothing that is bad and even the bad things which they may have learned before they come, we will endeavour to root out of their minds, and to implant good things in their stead. We shall teach them not only to read the books which have been written by the wise men of this country, but those books which were written by good men of ancient times, who wrote and spoke as they were inspired by the Holy Spirit of God: these books will not only make your children wise and good, obedient to you their parents, and respected and beloved by all men; but they will make them wise unto salvation: by reading these books, and understanding them, and believing them, 4 I and living according as these books direct them, they will not only live happily, but die happily, and be happy for ever in heaven. These books are now translated into your language, and are used in the schools: and we could wish you also to read them; or, if you are not able to do this, to let your children come to the schools that they may learn to read them; and then they will read them before you, that you may judge for yourselves whether these books are not as good as we say they are. Indeed we are quite sure, that the more you know of these books, the more you will admire them, and wish to understand them: they are the Books of God, and contain the directions which He has given to mankind for the foundation of their faith and the regulation of their lives. If your children then come to our schools, they will have the opportunity of learning to read these books: and we can assure you, that, if they recollect and practise what we shall teach them, they will, while they remain children, be good to you, and kind and affectionate to one another; and, when they grow up into men and women, they will be true and just in all their dealings, never tell lies, never use bad words, never steal, never willingly do any thing which would be displeasing either to yourselves or other men: and when they become married and have children of their own, they will endeavour to teach those children every thing that is good; and, above all, they will teach them, what they them selves will have learned in our Schoolsthat God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ, that whoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 2. Another motive which we have in printing this paper and putting it into your hands, is, to invite you to attend the Preaching of God's Word, which you have an opportunity of hearing, both at Cotta and at two or more of the Schools, in the mornings and evenings of every Sabbath Day. Most of you, we believe, are already Christians in name; because you have received Christian Baptism when you were infants: by attending the preaching of God's Word, and believing it, and directing your lives by its precepts, you will be Christians in deed and in truth: it is of little consequence what name you bear, whether that of Christians or Heathens: a name will do you neither harm nor good; but it is of very great conse quence to you, whether you are walking in the way that will lead you to everlasting happiness, or in that which will lead you to everlasting misery: and this is a thing, which the sooner you begin to inquire about, the better it will be for you. To those of you who are so ignorant as not to know, or so proud as not to own, that you are sinners, and that you have done and continually are doing wrong, the Christian Religion, which we preach to you, can do no good; but to those of you, who do know and who do own that you are sinners, and more inclined to do wrong than to do right, our Religion offers every thing which you can wish : it points them to a Saviour, Jesus Christ, who came into the world to save sinners: here you can obtain pardon for all the sins, which you have ever committed: here you can, by asking God to give it you, obtain a new heart and a right spirit: here you can obtain knowledge to instruct the ignorant, and light to enlighten those who are in darkness: those who are in distress may here obtain comfort: those, who, through fear of death, live all their life-time subject to bondage, may here have all their fears removed; and will be instructed how to live happily and to die happily. The doctrines, the precepts, and the duties of our Holy and Divine Religion we are continually explaining to the people, who come to hear us on the Sabbath Day: they can judge of them for themselves: we freely confess to you, that they make us happy here among the many troubles which we meet with in this world; and we firmly believe that they, and nothing else, can give us peace and hope when we die. The happiness of yourselves and your children, is all that we aim at; and we are quite sure, that our Religion is as suitable to instruct and enlighten and make you happy, as ourselves. As for myself, who write this Paper, I have only been yet about six months among you; but I have seen so much of the darkness and ignorance in which your minds are enveloped, and I know so well the danger in which you are placed in consequence of that darkness and ignorance, that I have been thinking, for some time, what would be the most likely way to prevail upon you to come and hear the glad tidings which Jesus Christ has commanded His disciples to go into all the world and preach to every creature. After think Some Account of the Mission Premises at Kandy. (With an Engraving.) A grant of land was made, a few years since, by Government, to the Society; I ; on which a Mission House and a School House, with convenient offices, have been erected. An Officer of the Engineers presented Mr. Browning with a Drawing of the premises, from which the accompanying Engraving has ing of many things, it at last came into my mind, that it would perhaps be the best plan to have a small Paper of this kind printed, and to go about from one house to another and leave it with you, and wish you to consider seriously the few words which are contained in it. have done this; and I now leave this with you; wishing you, if you have any regard for the present and eternal happiness of your children, if you have any desire to know the will of God and to be taught the religion of Jesus Christ, if you have any wish to enjoy the favour and blessing of God here, and to be with Him hereafter and partake of such pleasures as eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, to think whether it will not be better and wiser for you to consider, soon and seriously and frequently, those things which concern the everlasting peace both of yourselves and your children, than to pass through life in ignorance of every thing that is good when the means of learning it are now in your power, and at last to die as the beasts of the field. I now leave these things with you; and I pray that God may, by His Holy Spirit, impress them deeply on your minds, and make each of you determine thus "I know that these things are good. I will send my children to the School, that they may learn them; and I will go myself, and endeavour to learn what I must do to be saved." With copies of this Address in his hand, Mr. Selkirk, accompanied by an interpreter, not having himself sufficiently acquired the native language, went from house to house, throughout the various Villages connected with the Mission; reasoning with the people, and inviting and exhorting them to avail themselves of the means of good afforded to them and their children: in many places, he collected them in small groupes from neighbouring houses, and declared to them the counsel of God. This system of aggressive benevolence will assuredly be made the means, if patiently pursued, of conveying light and grace into the abodes of ignorance and sin. been taken. The building on the left is the School House, 50 feet by 20: it serves also for a Place of Worship, and was opened as such in January of last year: the Mission House, in the centre, had been occupied some time previously by Mr. and Mrs. Browning. The ground is situated on the side of a hill, and is of considerable extent: it has been planted with cocoa-nut, coffee, and other valuable trees. The spot on which the House stands is the most suitable for the purpose on the premises; but required much labour and expense, in cutting away the hill behind, and raising the surface in front, in order to break the steepness of the hill. The following is a description of the Mission House, and will shew the kind of buildings used by Europeans in that part of the world : The left-hand window belongs to a bed-room: at the right-hand corner is at similar room, which is used as a library: these two rooms stand forward, the space between them forming a verandah, sheltered by the roof: each of these rooms has a door opening into the verandah, that belonging to the library being shewn in the Engraving. Under the verandah are seen a door, and a window on each side of it: these open into a family-room 24 feet by 16, and a bedroom 16 feet square. A similar verandah, with corner rooms, occupies the back of the building; and between each front and back corner-room, on the sides of the house, are convenient light closets. The front and back verandahs are each 30 feet by 14, and form, in |