Triumphs of Missions in Madagascar
WHEN Madagascar was first entered by missionaries (1820), the people were found to bear all the marks of heathen and idolatrous degradation. Homes could not be said to exist. Infanticide was common, slavery universal. They attributed to their idols all power, but neither goodness, virtue, nor love. They were mere personifications of human greed, licentiousness, malice, deceit, and cruelty; and the people were like to them. At first the missionaries enjoyed the favor and protection of the rulers. They had, however, labored eight years without gaining a single convert, when a change in the government brought on a long period of vigorous persecution. The eight years following the breaking out of persecution witnessed the gathering of several thousand converts, many of whom were government officials and leaders in the army. With the success of Christianity, persecution was intensified, until, in 1836, the missionaries were forcibly expelled from the island, and for twenty-five years the church there was without outside assistance. These twenty-five years recorded a series of persecutions for intensity and extent scarcely excelled in the history of the Christian church. The ingenuity of cruelty seemed exhausted. They were chopped in pieces, cast into pits, where boiling water was thrown upon them until they died. They were condemned to slavery for life, were hurled from precipices, chained together by links forged about their necks, and driven out to die. They were sold as slaves into perpetual exile. Thus, for a quarter of a century, this young church was absolutely isolated from all communication with the churches in other lands, while it underwent a persecution whose martyrs are numbered by the thousand. Finally, a change in the government15brought religious liberty for the islands. Those in prison were released; those who had been sold as slaves were set free; exiles were permitted to return. It was a year of jubilee. The missionary’s return was the occasion for a triumphal procession which escorted him throughout the island. He found everywhere that this infant church had not only been able to endure, but had actually grown fivefold, and religious teaching had completely permeated the island. Many of the sites where martyrs fell were now commemorated by the erection of Christian churches. Converts were multiplied with almost unparalleled rapidity. The desire for the Word of God was so great that for some time the presses were unable to keep pace with the demand. Sabbath observance, Christian marriage, industry, and honesty took the place of lawlessness and sloth. In the midst of these joyous triumphs a Christian queen came to the throne. The coronation throne was covered with a canopy, on the four sides of which were written the mottoes: “Glory to God,” “Peace on earth,” “Good will to men,” and “God with us.” Her example was of far-reaching influence. One hundred churches were erected within one year. In 1895 there were enrolled 375,000 Christian adherents. A glance at your missionary map of the world will reveal to you the fact that about three fourths of the island is regarded as Protestant Christian. “Except a grain of wheat fall into the earth and die, it abideth by itself alone; but if it die, it beareth much fruit.”—Morning Star.