The Christianity of thousands who professed it, when the queen did, was but a thin veneer over their heathenism or semi-heathenism. Christianity had become the religion of the queen and government, and thus became the professed religion of the great mass of the people in Imèrina, some of the outlying provinces, and most of the Hova stations among the other tribes. Christianity was professed publicly in many cases, while idolatry and the ‘working of the oracle’ were practised in private. Even after the majority of the people in the central provinces had built churches, worshipped in them, and become church members, heathen practices lingered among them, and died hard, as they always do. In many cases church membership was not regarded as incompatible with moral laxity, and hence suspension from church fellowship was painfully frequent. But there was nothing strange or astonishing in such a state of things. It was only history repeating itself. As I have already said, mission work in Madagascar has always suffered in some measure from its very success. It has lacked in depth from its great extension. Hence individual dealing with candidates for church membership was almost an impossibility. During the first rush into the then existing churches, and into those that were formed just after the idols were burned, the work of the missionaries then in the island was difficult in the extreme. They could not overtake a tenth of the work that suddenly came upon them. There were so many pressing duties, so many village churches and preaching stations to superintend. Then, again, it was most difficult to get at the real state of the candidates for church fellowship, even when the missionary could examine them, as they simply acquiesced in all you said, and answered ‘yes’ to all your questions, even when the one ‘yes’ contradicted the other. Thousands accepted Christianity as they accepted the queen and the Malagasy government. Many at the burning of the idols said, ‘In the days of the old queen all who prayed to Jesus Christ were put to death; but now the queen herself, the prime minister, and the members of the government pray to Him, and if we don’t pray also perhaps we may be punished.’ So little did they know about Christianity and its teachings, and how could they have known? They simply took to ‘the praying’ and worshipping on the Sabbaths as to a new form of _fànompòana_, ‘government service.’ It is much to be thankful for that this ignorance and these unworthy motives were overruled for good. Thousands who, if they did not go to church to laugh, only went to do their _fànompòana_ as they thought, became praying people indeed. Others got into the habit of attending church on the Sabbath, gradually became interested in the services, and ultimately got good. They met with the Lord of the services, and now they take rank among the most devoted and zealous of His servants.