If one stands on the verandah of “the House of Sweet Breezes” at Anjozorobe, the Society’s most northern station, and turn one’s eyes to the north, there is a stretch of country extending well-nigh 500 miles to Diego Suarez. In this vast district, the area of which exceeds that of England and Wales, there is at the present time but one white missionary. It is true that some dozen native missionaries, sent out by the Isan-Enim-Bolana of Imerina, are at work in this territory, and many of these men are carrying on their missionary labours with energy and devotion, but without any European supervision. The Native Missionary organisation which sent them forth would welcome such supervision, and would be prepared to send more labourers into the vineyard, if well-trained men were available for service. In the near future the main work of the European missionary must be the training of the Native missionary. As the Church at the centre grows and multiplies, and becomes stronger and more efficient, the need of the presence of a large number of European missionaries will gradually diminish. The test of the success of their work will be that they have made themselves unnecessary. As the College in Tananarive attracts and trains and sets to work Christian Natives of good education and apostolic fervour, so the work now carried on by the European missionaries will steadily pass into the hands of the Native Pastors, and, under the blessing of God, the day will come in the not distant future when the foreign worker will be able to withdraw, having completed his task.
“And lo! already on the hills
The flags of dawn appear;
Gird up your loins, ye prophet souls,
Proclaim the day is near;
The day in whose clear-shining light
All wrong shall stand revealed,
When justice shall be clothed with might,
And every hurt be healed:
When knowledge, hand in hand with peace,
Shall walk the earth abroad,—
The day of perfect righteousness,
The promised day of God.”