Madagascar. I need not remind you that there were at first eight years, during which the missionaries and agents of this Society had free action in that island. That was the seed-time for Madagascar. Then the Gospel was preached; then multitudes were trained in the Missionary School. But then came a quarter of a century of persecution -persecution as relentless as any that we find recorded in connection with the names of Nero and Diocletian. That testing-time came after the seed-time. It came to show what the seed was that had been planted, and it served to show that the seed must have been wholly right seed. Surely we should not otherwise have seen such fruits as have followed. Where in ecclesiastical history will you find a church that has sent forth so large a proportion of its members to take the crown of martyrdom as the church of Madagascar? I know not one. Then, again, you hardly anywhere have a record of persecution to death, but there you find, side by side with the record of those who were enabled to be faithful, a record of others who recanted. In our own Reformation, perhaps, the most beautiful and devout spirit that graced it was that of Bilney, who was converted to God along with Latimer; but even Bilney, when placed before the array of power, shrank from the fiery trial though he afterwards challenged it, and bore it with a martyr's firmness. Cranmer, too, the founder of the Church of England-a man of God, I hold him to have been, notwithstanding all that Lord Macaulay has said of him-he had his weakness, for he recanted again and again and it is expecting too much of human nature to suppose that a fiery trial of that kind should come up anywhere without there being instances of such infirmity. But, somehow, it has so happened that in the accounts which we have had of the persecutions in Madagascar, there is not a single record of recantation. Is not this very remarkable? You

see the christians hunted through city and wilderness; you see them driven away from home, and all endearing connections of home; you see them shaken with terror as they think of the physical torture that must come upon those from whom they are separated; you see them in chains, and dungeons, and torture themselves; you look at them as they are hurled from the rock, or transfixed with the spears; or burnt to death; but their God will not allow them to recant. These are experiences that have been permitted in the providence of Heaven to the infant church of Madagascar. Oh, sir, is there not something to come out of this? Is there not something to come out of this strange novitiate that will be also strange? If we mark the law of God's universal proceedings in this world, we shall be led to think so. When God destined a prophet in ancient times to some great work, He always sent that prophet to the school of adversity, that he might there be trained in the faith and power of endurance necessary for his responsible trust. When God means that a nation shall become powerful, He does not assign that nation its place in the lap of ease and indolence, somewhere between the tropics. No; He places it on a soil that is rugged, He surrounds it with a climate that is fitful, He makes it a necessity of its con dition that it should toil hard with brain and muscle, and intertwines with that toil change and suffering, which only such nations know. That is the way; that is the way in which God makes great nations. So also as to churches; where was there ever a prosperous church that was not more or less a suffering church? I know of a thousand instances almost in which prosperity has sunk a church into dead formalism, or drifted it into the foulest heresies; I know of no instance in which a church has not become bright and strong by the opposite of prosperity. Oh, my brethren! woe to you, woe to you, when all the influences that are in action around you are of a kind to

hush that poor nature of yours into repose and sleep. Your friends may well weep for you then. But happy are you, happy are you, when those influences are such as to move the very depths of your nature, and to bring out all the man, all the christian man, that is in you, and that it is possible to bring out. Now, God has adopted such a course with Madagascar, that I cannot but anticipate in the future christianity of Madagascar, christianity of a pure type. I cannot but expect to see in the churches of Madagascar, churches of a high order, models of what christianity is, and of what men should be prepared to do and to endure for its sake. There are thousands streaming to your different sanctuaries, and placing them selves under christian influences; there are hundreds who are accepted as spiritual-minded converts. You ascend in thought to the invisible world. There are many who have gone into that world from the strife in Madagascar. And then, at the head of that multitude, see the band of martyrs! Look at the crowns upon their heads, look at the robes of light in which they are clothed. Think of the sanctity that is perfected in their nature, mark their conversion of themselves to God. And you-you-you have been used by God to place that picture, that reality, in Heaven. Oh, dear brethren, what should we feel? Elatement ? Vanity? Oh, away with the thought! No; we are constrained as we think of it to sink deeper than ever into our own unworthiness and nothingness. Dear brethren, God has laid us under a new and special obligation by all this; yes, binding us to put our hand to this work more thoughtfully, more prayerfully, more largeheartedly, and with more selfsacrifice than ever.

MADAGASCAR.

317

BY THE BISHOP OF MAURITIUS.

I have been invited by the Directors of the London Missionary Society to come here this morning to bear witness to what I have seen of the results of the Society's labours in Madagascar, and I shall do so with very great pleasure. First of all, I shall do so from a principle of gratitude. I have received very many favours from the Directors and agents of the London Missionary Society, and I should be very sorry indeed if I were ashamed in any place or at any time to confess my great obligations to them. All the information which I have been able to obtain respecting Madagascar, in which I have felt deeply interested ever since I first set foot on the island, has been obtained through the publications of this Society. In the year 1856, it was my privilege to see Mr. Ellis before he went to that island, at a time when the journey was encompassed with perils of the most serious nature. It needed no edict whatever from the late queen to put him in prison or to take away his life; all that was needed was a little management in one or two districts to cause delay, and, as is well known, Mr. Ellis would never have been seen again. I confess I admired-you will, I hope, excuse the word-the pluck which Mr. Ellis showed under those circumstances; I greatly admired the steadfast manner in which a man of his age adhered to his determination to go at all hazards to the capital of the country, and to carry out, if possible, the object for which he was sent. Then, with reference to the men whom I am myself training and preparing for work in unoccupied districts of Madagascar, let me say that the attention of those persons was first attracted to christianity by agents of the London Missionary Society. Again, instead of having to work for years at acquiring the language for the purpose of translating the

version ready to hand. I say a most excellent version, for I have ascertained by a very careful process that it really deserves that description. The plan which I adopted for the purpose of satisfying my mind on that point was this. I got Native Malagasy christians who knew the French Creole language to sit down before me. I then read portions of the Malagasy Bible aloud, and got them to translate orally what I read; and the result was to convince me that the printed translation was exceedingly correct. For this excellent translation of the Holy Scriptures I am also indebted to the London Missionary Society. Then, on going to the island itself, the first letter that I received was a letter from a little christian congregation at the port of Tamatave, one of the worst places on the face of the earth; and it is most important to bear in mind that the most fearful vices prevail in the island of Madagascar. This letter was an earnest invitation to me, as a beloved brother, to visit the place. I accepted it with great pleasure. All along the line of march to the capital the native christians crowded around me and my companions, and rejoiced in every opportunity that was afforded for the reading of the Scriptures and the singing of hymns, an occupation in which they manifested great delight. They always appeared ready to sing and pray, and I was sometimes obliged to ask them to stop. Let me just give you one picture of the state of things which, as a faithful witness, I am bringing before your minds to-day. At Antananarivo several persons came to call upon General Johnson and myself, and we perceived at once from their appearance that they were country people. We ascertained that they came from a village some miles off, and having found that we were going towards that village, they begged us to come and see them. I promised that we would, and we did so. We met eight men and eighteen women and children

After a time they began singing out of their hymn book, which is their constant companion, many of the books having no doubt for a long time been hidden under ground. These christian people would have gone on singing and praying, and conversing about religion for hours. They commenced over and over again; but I told them that I and my friends had to get to another place by that night, and that if we continued any longer, we should not be able to reach it by daylight. I may here remark that the people, from the highest to the lowest, appeared to possess a remarkable power of expressing their thoughts. Some of them, with the greatest readiness, expanded into an address their thoughts on passages of Scripture suggested to them by myself. In short, many of them seemed to be most skilful orators. On one occasion, while I was asleep in my palanquin, I was awoke by hearing the bearers reading and singing below. One of the bearers, who was a professing christian, told me that his master was formerly a nobleman, who, long after the missionaries were expelled, taught him christianity. This nobleman,

he said, was seized and imprisoned. He escaped once, but was seized and imprisoned again, and afterwards put to death. That man's simplicity and earnestness were remarkable. I never saw anything equal to them in England. When that young man had his New Testament before him, or when anything of a religious character was going on, there was an amount of concern in his face that I never saw in this country or elsewhere. There was another young man accompanying him who was exceedingly active." He was always ready to do any kind of work during the day, but as soon as we had halted for the night, he wanted to listen to the reading of the New Testament. On my inquiring of him how he had been impressed in favour of christianity (he was not yet baptized), he told me that on one