e. While desirous to secure the voluntary gifts and willing service of the churches, as hitherto, the Conference were fully of opinion that the local gifts are not sufficient, and the true zealous Christians are not numerous enough, to sustain the well-trained evangelists and native missionaries needful for the mission; and that additional money help is needed from England, to be employed on the healthy conditions laid down by our Directors.
f. All were anxious that the mission should seriously take up new work at definite points among new tribes, as the churches also need an outlet for their zeal.
There yet remained to apply our discussions to the actual improvement of our own mission in detail. Hence naturally followed a District Committee Meeting, which with its sub-committees, sat five days. The meeting was a thoroughly good one and got through a great amount of solid work. The brethren in many respects placed the mission in Imerina on a broader basis than before; they adopted some important principles as elements of the system on which it shall be instructed; and they agreed so to locate themselves in country stations, as both to spread their influence over a wider area, and to make the labours of each co-operate with the efforts of all around him. And now that the Directors in London have carefully reviewed, extended and confirmed their recommendations, the great purpose had in view in the recent enlargement of the Madagascar Mission, and the fuller scale of expenditure for which the Society’s friends made provision, will speedily be carried into effect.
The Conference meetings were concluded with a little entertainment to which Mr. and Mrs. Pillans and myself invited all the members. It was held in the Andohalo school-room and proved a great success. Tables, tea-trays and crockery were willingly lent on every hand; the ladies of the various missions were exceedingly kind, both in superintending previous arrangements, and aiding the tea at table: our English stores proved most serviceable and popular. In addition to the sixty members of Conference, we had present six of the principal officers of Government, and seven of the chief native ministers: we were seventy-eight in all. After our little feast was over, we had some capital speaking and some good singing, for about three hours. The native guests liked this part of our entertainment extremely; at their own feasts they simply eat for a couple of hours or so and then go home. But here there was much cordial fellowship; the singing was inspiriting; the speaking dealt with lofty topics and was full of life and power: they were quite stirred by it and did their own part well. Eloquently did Andriambelo contrast the present with the “dark days” gone by. And heartily did Ravonináhitriniarivo (the head of one of the recent expeditions) express his thanks to their friends “over the sea” for the great things which they had done for Madagascar.
Soon after these consultations an event occurred which threw strong light on the inner life of the people generally and on the religious feelings and principles lying below its surface. After long waiting there arrived in the capital a consignment of the reprint of the Malagasy Bible, just prepared by the British and Foreign Bible Society. It proved a neat, handy volume, and there were six thousand copies. Looking at the value attached to a shilling by the Malagasy, it was resolved to sell the Bible for that sum. The people were greatly excited by the news of its arrival: the Depository was besieged by applicants from the Queen downwards: and in a fortnight they were gone. Mr. Grainge felt sure that if he had had six thousand more, every copy would have been sold. Many of these Bibles were purchased by people in the capital for their friends in distant parts of the country.
In the four churches erected in memory of the Christian martyrs, and on the places where they were put to death, the Directors and friends of the Society in England have taken a deep interest. In that interest my colleague and I heartily shared, and it was a peculiar pleasure to us to visit these buildings and to hear over again from the lips of preachers and friends the story of the fidelity and the suffering of which they are a memorial. Our first Sabbath service in Antanánarivo was in the Ambátonakánga church in the centre of the city. We joined the meetings of the Congregational Union of Imérina in the church at Ambóhipotsy. The general Conference was held at Fáravohitra. And we were privileged to share in the opening services of the church at Ampamarínana which was completed during our visit. All these buildings are of stone; they are great ornaments to the city; and they do great credit to the three gentlemen who have superintended their erection. They are much admired by the natives: and they have exercised a most powerful influence in stimulating those improvements in building, which have distinguished the city during the last ten years. A fifth Memorial Church, which will render the list complete is now in course of erection. The Norwegian Missionaries have also erected a large church near Ambátonákánga, with a highly original spire. But these are not the only churches of importance in the city. So far as the congregations are concerned there are five other churches whose members are as numerous and influential as these: while in the immediate suburbs some five or six more exist, whose congregations are large. Including the Royal Chapel in which there is now a fully organised Christian Church, there are not less than sixteen churches in the city, which have sprung from the Mission and gather large congregations of sincere and faithful worshippers every Sabbath-day. All the principal families of the Imerina province are directly or indirectly connected with them: while others will be found in the churches of Náméhana, Ambohimánga, Ambátománga, and other flourishing towns: and there are two congregations even in the old idol town of Ambohimánambola. None can look upon the great transformation which the city and province have undergone in recent years without exclaiming “What hath God wrought?”
The fourth Memorial Church was opened (as I have said) during our visit: and we held it a high privilege to share in the public services held upon the occasion. The 28th of March 1874, was the twenty-fifth anniversary of the terrible occasion on which the four nobles had been burned at Faravohitra, and fourteen others had been thrown over the cliffs of Ampamarinana: and it was resolved formally to open the church at the latter spot and dedicate it to purposes of public worship on that day. The church which, with the rocks beneath, appears in the frontispiece, is a handsome building; the campanile tower stands well out at the north-east corner, and the wheel windows with their stained glass add much to the beauty of the interior. Large congregations gathered to the services both on the Saturday and on the following day: and the people manifested the deepest interest in them. Indeed on the Sunday afternoon the church was crowded to its utmost. Many members of the martyrs’ families were present. Others were there who had seen them carried along the road. One was present who had officially shared in their condemnation. These faithful witnesses whom nothing daunted, whose peace nothing could disturb, occupied the first place in every one’s thought; and their fidelity, their patient endurance, the uses of suffering and God’s blessing on faithfulness were the topics made specially prominent in our addresses, hymns and prayers.
The treatment of the matter in these public services required care: and the members of the ruling family had many fears respecting it. The Queen is a Christian: the principal nobles are Christians: they could not but admire with us the principle and the faith of the sufferers whose death that day brought to mind. But the persecutor, through whose stern attachment to the national idols the martyrs had lost their lives, was the present Queen’s aunt, and was her predecessor on a throne, whose edicts have always been regarded by the Malagasy with profound respect. It could not but be painful to the Queen to hear that anything hard or harsh was spoken of her aunt, even on so sacred a matter as this. We felt the difficulty: and from the high regard in which the Queen and those around her are held, it was agreed that scarcely any reference should be made to the chief mover in the sorrows of the past: but that we should dwell prominently if not exclusively upon the martyrs themselves. The course pursued was privately reported to the authorities by some who were present at the services: and evidently gave them satisfaction. So great is the revolution in the nation, so completely has the rule of the idols and diviners passed away, that the injustice and the mistakes of the wrongdoers may well be forgotten and forgiven. As if to teach us this lesson, during the last few years, the rocks over which the sufferers were thrown, have been thickly overgrown with dense masses of the prickly pear cactus. And while their ashes rest in peace under the shadow of the Memorial Church, and the grass is green upon their grave, myriads of scarlet flowers bloom above the rocks once stained with their blood, and cover them with a mantle of beauty fresh from the hand of God.
CHAPTER VI.