They were the first gatherings of the kind at which I had been present in Madagascar. As I attended meeting after meeting the impression made upon me as a visitor was that of “fields white unto harvest.” To my unaccustomed eyes the white lambas, which seemed to fill the Churches, suggested the white fields referred to in the Gospels. And then came the thought which gave rise to glad thanksgiving, that in Madagascar the harvest indeed had been plenteous, though the labourers had been few. Then came a vision of the great harvest-home when from the north and south, the east and west of this island men and women, boys and girls would all be gathered into the Kingdom, and those who sowed and those who reaped would rejoice together.
Three meetings stand out in my memory. On the Wednesday there was a representative gathering of the delegates from the L. M. S. and P. M. S. Churches in Antranobiriky Church. M. Couve, of the Paris Society, addressed some burning words to the delegates, which went to their hearts. I spoke of the United Malagasy Church of the future, and rejoiced to find so hearty a response to the idea of union. Next day at the Assembly M. Couve spoke with great earnestness on the duty of self-support, and Mr. Houghton gave an eloquent address on self-government.
The third meeting was a memorable one. It was a united Communion Service held on Thursday afternoon in the Church of the French Protestant Mission. The spacious church was crowded to its utmost limits. The aisles and stairs were thronged with devout worshippers. A native pastor conducted the service. Missionaries and evangelists, pastors and preachers joined with some 800 Christians and the Deputations from the two societies round the table of our Lord. Men and women, brown and white, were all as one in that sacred service of commemoration and consecration. The solemnity of the gathering was emphasised by the thunderstorm which broke over the town while the service was proceeding. The church became dark. The wind howled. The lightning flashed. The thunder rolled. The rain fell. And then came the brilliant sunshine—a prophetic vision of the history of the Church of Christ in Madagascar. Persecution, trouble, and anxiety have beset that Church in the past. Even now there are clouds upon the horizon. But the day is surely coming when the glorious shining of the Sun of Righteousness will flood this great island with light and love, and all who live in it “shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and ... as the stars for ever and ever.”
Mr. Huckett has long carried on a fine piece of work in the Theological Seminary. Here pastors and evangelists receive a three years’ course of training, and there is a two years’ course for catechists and itinerating preachers. Mr. Huckett also superintends the boys and youths from the country mission stations, who come up to Fianarantsoa to complete their education, living in the cottages above referred to, which are supported by the Glasgow Foundry Boys’ Religious Association. Another branch of Mr. Huckett’s manifold labours is the secretaryship of the local agency of the British and Foreign Bible Society. From the Bible and Book Room in the Compound the Scriptures are distributed to the whole of the South of Madagascar, and five colporteurs are at work.
At the Girls’ High School, conducted by Miss Hare, there are one hundred girls on the books, of whom on the occasion of our visit ninety-six were present. There is ample accommodation for more scholars, but the Government regulations prevent it being utilised. Some of the girls at the school come from the country stations and live in the Mission house with Miss Hare. It would be a very great help to the work if a Boarding Home for Girls could be established in Fianarantsoa. In addition to her duties in the School, Miss Hare also has the oversight of the wives of the students at the Theological Seminary. The Paris Mission carries on the Boys’ High School and a Normal School, to which the L. M. S. students go.
About an hour’s journey from Fianarantsoa another fine example of missionary activity is to be seen at the Leper Home, at a place pathetically called “The Village of Hope.” This work was started by Mrs. Huckett twenty years ago. My visit was a sad experience, and will be an abiding memory. No leper who enters this home, in which there are forty-three inmates, ever comes out again. The sufferers die, and are buried in the grounds. My thoughts naturally carried me back to Dr. Fowler’s Leper Home in Central China at Siao Kan. “The Village of Hope” might well be called the “Village of Despair,” for maimed and missing hands and feet told their tale only too plainly, and pitiable sores on the legs and face were common. But without exception all the patients seemed bright and happy, and one could not doubt the joy that had come into the lives of the poor afflicted creatures, thirty-three of whom were Church members, while others were enquirers. We visited the rooms in which they live, and afterwards attended a pathetic and yet happy meeting in the Chapel at which we all spoke. The lepers were genuinely glad to see us and gave us a hearty welcome. After we left we could see the whole community, standing in their white lambas just outside the gate on the top of the hill, waving farewells to us for fully half an hour.
Thirty-two miles south of Fianarantsoa is the growing Government town of Ambalavao, which is reached by pousse-pousse along another well-engineered road through the mountains. As we approached the town we were met by streams of natives, many gaily decorated, returning from the annual three days’ fair. For many years Ambalavao was worked from Ambohimandroso, but it has been a residential station since 1903 under the care of the Rev. D. M. Rees, whose untiring efforts are ably seconded by those of his wife, who has the great advantage of an excellent knowledge of French. The Mission house is an old Malagasy residence which has been enlarged. The Station Church is one of the most handsome and best built churches in Madagascar. On the occasion of our visit it was crowded to its utmost capacity by a gathering representing the forty-four outstations in the district.
Six miles south of Ambalavao is situated Ambohimandroso, the most southerly station of the L. M. S., where the Rev. Thomas and Mrs. Rowlands (who, like Mr. and Mrs. Rees, keep up the connection between Wales and Madagascar) have faithfully carried on work for the last thirty-four years. At the bottom of the valley between the two stations is a river which is crossed by a ferry, where I was met by a crowd of school children who escorted me up the steep hill to the Mission house, the boys assisting in propelling the pousse-pousse. Here again a crowded and enthusiastic united meeting was held, with representatives from most of the fifty-one out-stations connected with this Mission. Schools were inspected, visits paid to some of the Native workers, and other gatherings held. Mr. and Mrs. Rowlands find house-room for a dozen girls from country districts who are attending school. Each evening these girls file into the drawing-room for singing and prayer. On the occasion of my visit they sang “Nearer my God to Thee” in English. Then followed their salutation, “Good-night, Mr. Hawkins,” with a curtsey. I replied, “Good-night, girls; God bless you.” Then came their answer, “Thank you, Mr. Hawkins.” The same formula is gone through with “Madame” and “Sir.”
The morning I left, the girls were up early to see me off, and stood in a row alongside the filanjana. In a frivolous moment as I was leaving I pretended to weep to express my sorrow at parting from them, and off I went. Mrs. Rowlands told me a week or two afterwards that at my departure all the girls had burst into tears and cried bitterly, saying, “What a tender-hearted gentleman to cry when he leaves us. He must be thinking of his own daughter in England who has dark hair and dark eyes like us!”
From Ambohimandroso I proceeded to the Society’s newest station in Betsileo at Alakamisy Itenina, where since 1905 the Rev. D. D. Green, another Welshman, has resided and superintended the work of the thirty-seven outstations, of which this place is the centre. The journey occupied all day, and the road lay amongst the mountains, the views of the hills and clouds being magnificent. Several crowded meetings were held at the station and at outstations. At one place the crowd that had gathered together was three times as large as the Church could contain, and the meeting was held in the open-air, in defiance, I am afraid, of the French law. I stood under the shadow of the Church. In the immediate foreground was the great congregation, some on the seats which had been taken out of the Church, and some on the ground—a very picturesque crowd in white and gaily-coloured lambas. Beyond the worshippers stretched a glorious vista of mountain and valley, rolling away into “the purple distance fair,” with the brilliant sunshine bathing all in a flood of golden light.