One Hundred years in ceylon or the centenary volume of the church missionary society in ceylon 1818-1918

In consequence of my having had the honour of compiling 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 fifty-seven years ago (1861) but he retired in 1884 and rejoined in 1907 so that his actual service in the field is less than Mr. Balding’s. The book therefore is authoritative in an unusual degree. In 1868 a snall Jubilee volume was prepared by the Ceylon missionaries. It was not an encouraging recital of the fifty years.