The only residential station in Madagascar which I was unable to visit was that at Ambohimahasoa, a town of growing importance, where the Rev. Charles Collins has laboured for the last eleven years, superintending from that centre thirty-eight outstations. Both my colleagues, however, were able to visit it, and attended a large number of meetings there.
The Society’s work in Betsileo is well organised, and has been carried on for the last forty-three years with great and growing success. From the centre at Fianarantsoa, over a wide-spreading district comprising 244 outstations, the Gospel has been faithfully preached, schools have been conducted, Christian Endeavour Societies, Dorcas meetings, and many other missionary activities have been carried on, and this manifold work has been accomplished by means of a small European staff which has never exceeded ten missionaries. Their efforts have been seconded by a native staff of about fifty ordained pastors and 500 preachers. The Church is a growing one, but much yet remains to be done to complete the evangelization of the large territory in which the Society is at work. Beyond to the south, as already mentioned, are the unevangelized tribes of the Bara and Tanala districts, amongst whom up to the present very little work has been done. But the future is rich with promise, and if the existing work can be maintained and somewhat extended, the Society will have a rich reward in building up a Native Church so strong and so missionary, that before many years have passed it will be able to carry the light into the dark places around.
CHAPTER IX
Glad and Golden Days
Spread the Light! Spread the Light!
Till earth’s remotest bounds have heard
The glory of the Living Word;
Till those that see not have their sight;
Till all the fringes of the night
Are lifted, and the long-closed doors
Are wide for ever to the Light.
Spread the Light!
O then shall dawn the golden days,
To which true hearts are pressing;
When earth’s discordant strains shall blend—
The one true God confessing;
When Christly thought and Christly deed
Shall bind each heart and nation,
In one Grand Brotherhood of Men,
And one high consecration.
John Oxenham.
After our return from Betsileo and our visitation of the Imerina country stations, we spent three weeks in Tananarive to meet with the missionaries in their District Committee, in order to consult together as to the present position and future work. We also took part in a Conference with the representatives of all the Protestant Missionary Societies at work in the island, and attended the great half-yearly meeting of the native Christians known as the Isan-Enim-Bolana. It is not the purpose of this record of travel to discuss questions of missionary politics, or to deal with matters considered at the Joint Conference. Suffice it to say that the intercourse with the missionaries of our own and other Societies during those closing weeks of our stay was a time of happy fellowship. In the interludes between more serious work delightful social receptions and garden parties were organised by several of the Missions, and we enjoyed the hospitality of the Bishop of Madagascar and of our French and Norwegian friends.
There was one gathering, however, of very special interest to us, as representatives of the L. M. S. On September 30th it was our privilege to take part in the celebration of the jubilee of the landing at Tamatave of our honoured veteran missionary, Dr. James Sibree. Mr. Sibree, as he was then, went out to Madagascar as architect of the Memorial Churches to be erected in Tananarive in commemoration of the martyrs “faithful unto death,” who lost their lives during the time of persecution. These Churches remain until this day, not only as memorials to the martyrs, but as monuments to the taste and skill of Mr. Sibree as an architect. But his services in this direction have not been confined to the Memorial Churches. In after years to the present time he has prepared the plans of upwards of 40 Churches in different parts of Madagascar.
But Dr. Sibree will leave behind him, when the time comes for him to bid farewell to Madagascar, a more enduring memorial than churches of brick and stone. When he had completed the task which originally took him to the island he returned to England, and, after taking his theological course at Spring Hill, went back to Madagascar as a clerical missionary, and from that day to this, with ceaseless energy and devotion, he has been engaged in building the Invisible Church, “a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.”
The epitaph upon the tomb of another architect, Sir Christopher Wren, in St. Paul’s Cathedral, “Si monumentum requiris circumspice,” is equally applicable to Dr. Sibree, for no missionary has left behind him in Madagascar a more enduring memorial of his life and work than will Dr. Sibree. His energies, too, have found an outlet in other directions. His most conspicuous service to the Mission has been rendered in connection with the training of preachers and pastors. For upwards of thirty years he has been associated with the Society’s Theological College in Tananarive, and during that period several hundred students have received the benefit of his instruction and influence. As a writer of books and articles he has given to the world much information, not only with regard to Madagascar, but also with regard to the Cathedrals of the Homeland. The articles on Madagascar in the last two editions of the Encyclopedia Britannica have come from his pen, and he is a recognised authority on all matters relating to the island. He has rendered invaluable service as a translator, and especially in the revision of the Malagasy Scriptures. He does not know what it is to be idle. In his seventy-seventh year he is an example and a rebuke to men of half his age; from early morning until late at night he is always at work.