SELECTIONS FROM PROCEEDINGS OF COMMITTEE.

General Committee, September 12th.-The Secretaries reported the decease of the Rev. H. George, late of St. Mary's, La Prairie, Rupert's Land, on the 7th of August, and of Miss Young, late teacher in the Annie Walsh School, Sierra Leone, on August 2nd. The Committee directed that the expression of their sympathy, and appreciation of the faithful services of these departed missionary labourers, be sent to the relatives of Mr. George and Miss Young. The death was also reported of Charles Woolloton, Esq., a member of the Committee. The Chairman, Alexander Beattie, Esq., V.-P., having spoken from his personal knowledge of Mr. Woolloton's warm interest in the Society and in Christian work generally, the Committee directed that the expression of their esteem for their departed friend, and of their sympathy with his bereaved relatives, be forwarded to his family.

Letters were read from the Bishop of Caledonia, and from the Rev. A. J. Hall, of Fort Rupert, requesting the Committee to arrange for the printing of a MS. translation by Mr. Hall of St. Matthew's Gospel in the Quoquolt language. It was agreed to request the British and Foreign Bible Society to undertake the printing.

The Committee took leave of Dr. A. Neve, proceeding as a Medical Mis

sionary to the Kashmir Mission. The Committee's Instructions having been delivered by the Rev. W. Gray, and acknowledged by Dr. Neve, he was addressed by the Rev. Canon Money, and commended in prayer to the favour and protection of Almighty God by the Rev. Canon Richardson.

A letter was read from General Haig, who went out lately to take temporary charge of the Koi Mission on the Godavery, entering very fully into the state of the Mission, and making proposals for its extension, which contemplated three new mission stations, and the appointment to each of these stations of two competent Native lay agents and a Native doctor, to work under the superintendence of the Missionary at Dummagudem. A letter was also read from Bishop Sargent, stating that the Tinnevelly Provincial Native Church Council had taken so deep an interest in the extension of the work among the Kois that they had offered to send two experienced Native lay agents, at a cost to themselves of Rs. 600 a year, to help in working out General Haig's plan. The Committee received these letters with much thankfulness, and sanctioned the expense necessary for the carrying out of the plan over and above the grant from the Tinnevelly Council.

Letters were read from Sir Wm. Muir and the Rev. H. P. Parker respecting the future employment of Mrs. Grime, now in charge of the Alexandra Girls' School at Amritsar. Sir Wm. Muir requested, on behalf of the Indian Female Normal School and Instruction Society, that Mrs. Grime's services might be placed at that Society's disposal for the work of a Female Normal School at Allahabad. The Committee cordially agreed to this proposal.

The Rev. J. W. Balding, one of the Missionaries ordained on St. Peter's Day, was appointed to the Singhalese Mission in Ceylon, in the place of the Rev. A. F. A. Gollmer, who is to remain in England for the present.

Mr. J. W. Strickson was appointed assistant master at the Shanghae Anglo-Chinese School.

Committee of Correspondence, September 29th.- Letters were read from the Bishop of Caledonia and some of the Missionaries on the North Pacific coast, respecting certain questions that had arisen at Metlakahtla.

In

structions were agreed to for transmission to Mr. Duncan and the other brethren.

Committee of Correspondence, October 4th.-The Honorary Clerical Secretary reminded the Committee of the circumstances under which they resumed their regular meetings after the recess, General George Hutchinson and the Rev. Robert Lang having just joined the Secretariat, and himself being almost new to the work, and suggested that the meeting be opened with special prayer, particularly in view of the important questions pending in several of the Missions. Prayer was then offered by the Rev. Canon Money, beseeching the help of God in carrying on the Society's solemn and important work, commending the Secretaries to His guidance and grace, and praising Him for all His mercy in the past.

;

A letter was read from the Rev. W. Oakley, stating that the Rev. G. T. Fleming, who had been sent out to superintend the educational work at Jaffna, was about to be removed to Kandy to assist the Rev. J. G. Garrett at Trinity College, in consequence of the climate of Jaffna not suiting him also that the Rev. J. D. Simmons, senior Missionary at Jaffna, was medically ordered to return home next spring. The Committee appointed the Rev. E. M. Griffith, formerly of the Tamil Cooly Mission, who was well acquainted with the Tamil language, and had recently graduated at Cambridge, and whose appointment by a previous minute to Mauritius it had been determined not to carry out, to superintend the Society's educational work at Jaffna.

Arrangements were sanctioned for the purchase by the Society of a piece of land on the Skeena Forks now in the hands of the Bishop of Caledonia. Other smaller grants were made for extension of work in the North Pacific.

The Rev. C. G. Daüble, who is returning this autumn to the Society's Mission in the North-West Provinces of India, was appointed to Agra, in view of the great importance of that station and of the desirableness of adhering to the principle of concentrating the work in the North-West Provinces at the large centres.

The Committee took leave of the Rev. A. F. Painter, returning to the Travancore Mission after a short furlough. He was commended in prayer to the favour and protection of Almighty God by the Rev. W. Walsh.

A letter was read from Sir John Kirk, H.B.M. Consul-General at Zanzibar, who had just arrived in England, acknowledging a letter which had been written to him by the Secretaries, and stating that it would afford him great pleasure to assist the Committee with any information in his power with reference to the Society's Mission in East Africa.

The Secretaries reported that 7097. had now been raised towards the cost of sending a Medical Missionary to Gaza, and Mr. J. H. Fergusson stated that further sums had been received by the Medical Missionary Association, partly in annual subscriptions, towards the 50l. per annum required for three years for medical apparatus. The Secretaries were directed to look out at once for a suitable medical man to join the Mission.

NOTES OF THE MONTH.

DEPARTURE OF MISSIONARIES.

Yoruba.-The Rev. J. S. and Mrs. Bradshaw left Liverpool on Oct. 15 for Lagos.

East Africa.-The Rev. A. D. Shaw left London on Sept. 29 for Zanzibar.

Punjab.-The Rev. Dr. Neve left London on Sept. 28 for Kashmir. The Rev. E. Guilford left London on Oct. 19 for the Punjab.

North India. The Rev. H. Lewis left London on Oct. 5 for Agra. The Rev. J. W. Hall left London on Oct. 3 for Calcutta. The Rev. J. and Mrs. Brown left London on Oct. 19 for Calcutta.

South India.-The Rev. J. Verso left London on Oct. 3 for Madras. The Rev. A. F. and Mrs. Painter left London on Oct. 19 for Madras.

Western India.-The Rev. H. A. Bren left London on Oct. 19 for Bombay.

Ceylon.-The Rev. E. T. and Mrs. Higgens and the Rev. J. W. Balding left London on Oct. 19 for Colombo.

China.-Dr. D. Main left London on Sept. 28 for Shanghae.

RETURN HOME OF MISSIONARIES.

East Africa.-Mr. J. R. Streeter arrived in London on Oct. 11 from Zanzibar.

Contribution List.

In the following list of receipts from Sept. 12th to October 10th are acknowledged all remittances from Associations, Benefactions, and Legacies of 51. and upwards, and Collections of 10s. and upwards. All other sums are acknowledged in the Annual Reports. Parties not finding such payments duly acknowledged are requested to inform the Secretary without delay.

Contributions to the Church Missionary Society are received at the Society's House, Salisbury Square, London; or at the Society's Bankers, Messrs. Williams, Deacon, and Co., 20, Birchin Lane, London. Post Office Orders payable to the Lay Secretary, General George Hutchinson.

THE

CHURCH MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCER

AND RECORD.

DECEMBER, 1881.

THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD.
IV.

BUDDHISM IN CEYLON.

BY THE REV. R. COLLINS, M.A.,

Vicar of St. Silas, Leeds; Late Principal of Trinity College, Kandy; Author of "Missionary Enterprise in the East," &c. (Continued from p. 653.)

HE fragmentary and disconnected character of the doctrines of the Buddhism of the present day, as professed in Ceylon, is a further (at least presumptive) evidence that it is a ruin of a once more perfect edifice. It contains many things that would be seen to be truths in a proper connexion, but that are absurdities in their present relations. It is like a ruined abbey, where there is the window, but no room for it to lighten ; the flying buttress, but no wall for it to support; the mullions and the tracery, but not the glass they were designed to carry. There is the doctrine, that "what a man sows, that must he reap;" but the denial of individuality makes it impossible: there is the result of merit and demerit extending to future ages, but only a fiction on which it can declare itself, and only blind fate to direct it: there is the measure of justice, but no one to hold the scales: there is a future for a man's life hereafter, but not for himself: there is a beautiful morality, the way to that future, with a promise of a "City of Peace" at the end, but that "City of Peace" is found to be the blackness of annihilation. It is like the elaborate wall with windows, doors, and buttresses, that promises a roof, but stares only at the vacant heavens. It is possible, of course, that Gautama may have handed down these fragments of truth much as we find them; but, if so, there must have been a more perfect system somewhere behind. Did Gautama find these truths as ruins? or did his followers make them such?

Whether history will ever reveal to us the true answer to these questions, we cannot tell; but as a ruin Buddhism appears to-day in Ceylon, containing many beautiful, divine truths, but disconnected, and as useless for any practical end as ruins generally are. Accordingly we must be prepared to find that there is but little moral force in modern Buddhism. With a noble code of ethics, there is no higher motive for abiding by it than the prospect of successive births either in earth, or one of the Buddhist heavens, or one of its hells; and that no prospect of continuance of individual conscious existence, but only of some result somewhere of merit or demerit. The philosophical

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