The people who returned from captivity came back in a state of absolute destitution. And it refreshed one’s heart to witness the way in which the Christian people of the A-kànga district received them and helped them. They made collections of money, manioc, rice, clothing, &c. for them. They helped to dig and prepare their rice-fields--a thing that many of them, poor creatures, were far too weak to do for themselves. They helped them to rebuild or re-thatch their huts and churches, and in many ways showed such practical sympathy with them in their distress as won the hearts of numbers of the merely nominal adherents to Christianity, and outsiders, for they said: ‘If this is a sample of the fruits of the “New Religion,” it must be a good thing.’ In stating how these young Malagasy church members behaved towards their fellow members and others in their distress, I am but making known the grace of God bestowed on them. They had had great trials themselves, had suffered much, and had been robbed by the heathen rebels. Moreover, many of them who were formerly affluent had been reduced to poverty by the abolition of household slavery. But still they rose to the occasion in a way that was eminently to the credit of their Christian profession. Their zeal was an object-lesson such as many have never witnessed before; a great contrast to the selfishness of heathenism to which they had been accustomed. Many were thus led to take a much deeper and kindlier interest in the ‘New Religion.’ I managed to engage a very clever young fellow, a French corporal, and a Bachelor of Science, who was freed from military duty, to teach French in the A-kànga High School for Girls. He came to our house two afternoons a week to read French with me. We read through the Gospels, the Acts, and the Epistle to the Romans together. When we came to the account of the Crucifixion in the Gospels, that young fellow broke down, burst into tears, and weeping, said: ‘Was it really like that?’ I asked, what? When he answered: ‘The Crucifixion of our Lord.’ ‘Have you never read about that before?’ I asked. ‘No,’ he answered, ‘I have not; for I have never seen a Bible before in my life until I saw this one of yours!’ As I have mentioned, that soldier was a Bachelor of Science, a German scholar, and a fair English one, and yet he had never seen a Bible in his own or any other language before. He was a Roman Catholic, but by no means a bigoted one.