Through lands that were dark / Being a record of a year's missionary journey in Africa and Madagascar

by F. H. Hawkins

The congregations find great enjoyment in the singing of hymns, and very large numbers read their Bibles, while Sunday School work is splendidly organized. A considerable proportion of the Church members take part in Christian work. There are more than seven times as many ordained native agents at work in connection with the Society in Madagascar as in all the other Mission fields of the Society combined, except Polynesia. In addition, there are over 2,500 preachers, a number largely in excess of the number of preachers in all the other fields of the Society put together. Moreover, the number of Church members and of other native adherents in Madagascar connected with the Society is far more than those in any other Mission field, and the same remark applies to the number of Sunday Schools and Sunday School scholars.

One cannot fail to be much impressed by the great capacity of the Native leaders of the Christian Church in Madagascar. It would be difficult to find a more capable set of men in any Mission field. They are doing splendid work, and if this “apostolic succession” can be maintained, the Malagasy Church of the coming days will not lack for competent native leadership.

Moreover, as the work of our Missionaries in Madagascar is examined, it becomes clear that the Mission is admirably organized. The men and women who have served the Society in Madagascar in the past have, under the guidance of God, laid the foundations of the work wisely and well. Their successors are worthy of their great heritage. It was a cause for rejoicing to find that the Native Church built upon those foundations is a strong and living Church—full of promise for the future. If the present Missionary work can be continued, and possibly slightly increased, for a few more years, there is every reason to hope that the Native Church will, in the not distant future, become a self-supporting, self-governing, as it is already, to a limited extent, a self-propagating Church, and strong enough to carry on its own work of evangelizing the whole island.

This growing Native Church is largely composed of Hovas, the most advanced tribe among the Malagasy, and is to a great extent concentrated in the Central Province of Imerina round Tananarive. This is not an accident. It is believed that the best way to bring about the coming of the Kingdom in the Island is to build up a strong Church in the centre. As that Church increases in numbers and in spiritual power it will be able to extend its own Missionary efforts, which are already not inconsiderable, and to dispense, as time goes on, with the help of the white Missionary to an ever-increasing degree, thus freeing him for any work that remains to be done in the outlying parts, and ultimately making it possible for him to withdraw altogether—having finished his work. To weaken our efforts at the present time would be to delay and imperil this consummation. To maintain them will be the surest and most speedy way of hastening on the day when the Missionary force can be withdrawn and the Native Church left to bring each successive generation into the Kingdom.

There were many indications that the Native Church is itself steadily keeping in view this ideal. I may quote a paragraph from the translation of an Address presented to us by the Pastors of the Commune of Tananarive the day after our arrival:

“We want you to know that we earnestly desire our Churches to become independent, i.e. self-supporting. It is natural for young people to want to set up housekeeping for themselves, and it is the same with the Church. The near approach of the hundredth anniversary of the arrival of Missionaries amongst us makes our hearts all aglow with the desire for the independence of our Churches. There is no day which we should more like to see than that on which we shall go with the last Missionary to the railway station. On that day we shall overflow with joy and sorrow, and our laughter will mingle with our tears.”

The inner circle of Churches in Imerina is associated with seven Churches in the capital known as “the Mother Churches.” Four of these are the Memorial Churches erected in the years following the re-opening of the Mission in 1862, after the twenty-five years of the great persecution. The oldest and most famous is the Church of Ambatonakanga, which was opened in 1867. It is the Mother Church of all Madagascar. On its site the Bible was first printed in Malagasy in the thirties of the nineteenth century, here the first converts made their public profession of Christianity, and here stood one of the two first places of Christian worship in the Island. The simple chapel erected in 1831 was afterwards turned into a gaol during the persecution, and here many Christians suffered imprisonment. Adjoining it is the grave-yard, where rest the remains of several British missionaries who have given their lives to the service of Christ in Madagascar. This Church, which has long been self-supporting, has associated with it twenty-seven country Churches, and for some years has been under the pastoral care of the Rev. William Evans, one of the noble succession of Welshmen who have done so much to advance the coming of the Kingdom in the Island.

Mr. Evans has also charge of the Martyr Memorial Church of Ampamarinana—“the place of Hurling”—which is situated on the south-west of the ridge on which the city is built. To the west of the Church is the top of a rocky precipice, where in earlier years sorcerers were executed by being hurled down the cliff to the plain, 400 feet below. During the persecution, as Christians were supposed to possess some powerful charms enabling them to defy their persecutors, fourteen of the noble army of martyrs were in 1849 thus put to death. The present Native pastor of the Church is Andriamifidy, who was at one time Foreign Secretary in the old Malagasy Government, and from this Church several of the present leading Native Pastors have come. Associated with it in the district to the west of the city are twenty-seven country Churches.

The third Martyr Memorial Church is that of Ambohipotsy, situated in a commanding position at the extreme south of the city ridge with a magnificent view on all sides. This beautiful stone building was erected to commemorate the first Christian martyrdom—that of the brave Christian woman Rasalama, who was speared to death near the spot in 1837, in a place where other Christians subsequently met their doom in like fashion. The work of this Church and district, comprising some forty-six country outstations to the south of the city, is now superintended by Mrs. Thorne, who is bravely and successfully carrying on the work of her late husband.

The fourth Memorial Church is that of Faravohitra, erected on the northern ridge of the capital by the contributions of the children of Great Britain to commemorate the burning alive of four martyrs in 1849. The work at Faravohitra and in its extensive district to the north, comprising fifty country Churches, is under the charge of the Rev. Robert Griffith, another of the Welsh missionaries who have devoted themselves to the service of Christ in Madagascar.