The roofs run from east to west over the two north rooms: and from north to south over the dining room. And the house presents the following appearance.
MR. PEARSE’S HOUSE.
I give these particulars for two reasons. In erecting this house for the Rev. J. Pearse, Mr. Pool not only provided a modest and comfortable dwelling, thoroughly suitable for an English family; but in the form he gave it he so exactly hit Malagasy taste that the people were charmed with it. Wealthy natives began building others like it for themselves: it became the model which they were anxious as far as might be to copy; and scores of new houses like it may now be seen, not only in Antanánarivo, but dotting the more distant parts of Imerina; to the great comfort of the people and the improvement of the arrangements of their homes. The large one-roomed houses of old Madagascar will, in due time, disappear before these newer dwellings. Even the numerous Field Marshals give them their approval, though they scarcely know how to use them.
My colleague and I at this time enjoyed the opportunity of visiting the principal institutions of the city maintained by the various missions. We addressed the Theological students, for instance: visited the Friends’ Boys’ School, and Miss Gilpin’s noble Girls’ School; our own Girls’ Central School; the Normal School; and the Medical Mission Hospital, to which Dr. Davidson had just returned after his visit to Europe, and in which Dr. Mackie and he find so great a sphere of usefulness. We were present also at the half-yearly meeting of the Imerina Church Union; and were greatly struck with the interest which the members took in the public affairs of the churches and the spread of Christianity in the island.
It was a peculiar pleasure to me to renew my acquaintance with the native churches of which the Society has now so many in various parts of the world. I have worshipped with our converts in many languages and in many lands. And everywhere I have admired the gentleness of that Christian life which is being developed amongst the races of the East. Our English Christian life is of a high order, full of energy, heroic, tried in its principle, self-denying in its service, ever on the watch against undesirable complications, dealing with the deepest problems of religious, social and public life. Its loftiness of principle however renders it a piety of a somewhat hard type, trammelled with the order, the stiffness, the proprieties of many, many centuries. These Eastern converts, made in our own time, are more free. They have more of feeling in their nature, more sentiment, more of the affectionate and the emotional in their life and worship. And what gentle Christians their good women become. How these Malagasy people sing: and how they enjoy their singing. An hour’s “service of song” is the ordinary prelude to the Sunday morning’s worship. They have a fine sense of time: they appreciate harmony in the highest degree: they always take four parts; and when (as in the Capital) they are well taught, they sing with a fervour, a sweetness and a plaintive tenderness, which often brought tears into my eyes. It is very refreshing to see their simple piety, their delight in worship, their strong attachment to the Word of God. This is the good side of these churches, the encouraging element in the Mission work around us. There is alas! too much which is defective, even in Imerina. In the Betsileo the people are still more backward. There the outlying congregations get almost no teaching: good preachers and competent teachers are few: the singing is poor; the schools are poor; readers are few. We are anxious to meet these things: to spread our English Missionaries more widely among them: the Normal Schools and Theological Classes will year by year increase the number of trained instructors. There is real life on all sides. We have now to build it up: to nourish, feed and strengthen it in these children in the faith, until, under God’s blessing, they grow up into the full stature of men in Christ Jesus.
Every work on Madagascar describes the festival of the Fandróana. This year it began on the fourth of December and we had the pleasure of seeing some of its observances. Many superstitious rites were once connected with the festival: in these Christian days it has become almost entirely a season of universal fellowship and social regard. Fat bullocks occupy a conspicuous place in its arrangements: and noble specimens are brought into the city. They are slaughtered on a special day: and then everybody sends to everybody affectionate messages and presents of beef. Every family receives abundance: and the poor get a large supply. Our native friends of all ranks sent huge quantities to the Mission families; and our servants and dependents, the Mission Hospital and the Church poor, came in for a good share. Christianity has purified the festival and lifted it into a higher region of human sympathy and consideration: and long may the Fandróana last, a national Christmas in reality though not in name.
As soon as it was over Mr. Pillans and I left the city on a visit to the three Country Missions already established in Imerina. To these and similar stations the Directors of the Society attach the highest importance. They gladly attach to the City a small number of missionaries for the instruction of the Theological and Normal Schools, on which all stations in town and country depend; and for the guidance of the City Churches, whose views and example become the model which the Country Churches copy. Beyond this limited number, the Directors are anxious that every missionary available shall have pastoral charge of a large district at a distance from the Capital; and that these brethren, residing in the midst of their people, shall be to them new centres of Christian light and life and power. They hold in high honour the men and women who are willing thus to isolate themselves for the sake of the Master and of the weak yet willing children who need their help. Such men become “Bishops” indeed, during the youth of these imperfect churches: we have many such in our Society; we see similar brethren in other Societies; and great is their usefulness.
We proceeded in the first instance to the district of Vonizongo, which lies north-west from Antananarivo, at a distance of thirty miles: and we started on Friday, December 12th. We had with us thirty men, of whom fifteen had been our companions in the Betsileo journey: their wages were sixpence a-day and twopence for food, out of which one penny was clear profit! Our road lay through the City Market, across the rice fields and along the embankments of the Ikopa river for several miles. To the north we had the long ridge which bears the important town of Ambóhidratrimo: once one of the twelve cities of Imerina, and the head of a little kingdom. It contains three hundred houses, and on the crest of the hill, above a mass of giant boulders, towers a splendid Amóntana tree, which is visible over all Imerina. At a later period we visited the town, and saw Mr. Baron settled in his new quarters. Beyond this town, we passed through a great deal of swamp, the remains of the original marshes of Imerina, and still full of the papyrus reeds, which the people find so useful for roofing. Thence we skirted Ambóhimanóa, a noble hill on a broad base, one of the great landmarks of the province; rested for a while at Soávina; crossed the ridge of Ambóhimirímo; entered the broad valley of Vonizongo; and after traversing endless rice fields, on paths six inches wide, at the end of eleven hours, reached the Mission-house at Fiháonana, and received a warm welcome from Mr. and Mrs. Matthews.