AT the request of my friend, the author of this book, I write these few lines to introduce him and his work. Dr. Richards has been a missionary of the Church Missionary Society in Travancore since 1871. He was at different times Vice-Principal of the Society’s College at Cottayam, Principal of the Cambridge Nicholson Theological and Training Institution at the same place, and Missionary-in-Charge of at least three of the Mission districts. He was one of the revisers of the Malayalam Bible, the chief reviser of the Prayer Book in the same language, and for these important services Archbishop Temple conferred on him the Lambeth D.D. He was also editor of the Travancore Diocesan Gazette. He has well studied the past history of the ancient Syrian Church of Malabar, and has been intimately cognizant of its various divisions and developments in recent years.
All this I can say of the author, and I could say more were it necessary. Of his book I have no authority to speak—it speaks for itself. It is obviously based on first-hand knowledge, and contains much important and curious information.
These ancient Churches of the East deserve our sympathy, and I trust the present work may awaken much interest in the Syrians of Travancore.
They were for centuries a light in a dark place—a feeble light it is true, but one which we cannot but believe that it pleased God to use.
Eugene Stock.
March 7th, 1908.
