The schools occupied much of my time and attention. I was convinced that in no other way could I better serve the objects of the mission in Madagascar. The foundation for something higher than the three R’s was laid. The minds of the children were stored with the knowledge of Him ‘Whom to know is life eternal.’ Some warm-hearted friends of missions seemed to suspect that we gave too much time and attention to our schools, and not enough to what they called ‘the preaching of the Gospel.’ They forgot that preaching is not the only means by which a knowledge of the Gospel may be imparted. Real ‘evangelistic work’ may be done to greater advantage in the village school than on the village green. The value which we assign to teaching is the result of experience. The means we had were not the best, but they were all that we had, and we made the best of them. I did not like school work; I had had no special training for it. I preferred preaching and Bible-class work; but it was not a case of choice but of necessity. The schools had to be founded, worked, and kept at their best; they were the hope of the country and of Christianity in it. Of the adults, who had grown up in ignorance, superstition, and sin, I confess I had not all the hope I would have liked to have had of their becoming ‘new creatures in Christ Jesus’; but of the children I had every hope. In them we had an approach to virgin soil on which to sow the ‘good seed of the Kingdom.’ As has been said, ‘Men must be formed to the practice of the elementary virtues of Christianity before it is possible for them to recognize the beauty of holiness, and the nobleness and eternal obligation of righteousness.’