The case was thoroughly appreciated. A few enthusiasts might talk of
Madagascar as christianized, and think it needed Christian help no
longer. But the Committees of Missionary Societies, the men who have
been dealing with the practical life of heathen nations for many years,
and have been studying the many problems involved in their redemption,
were not likely to make that mistake. A new born child is not the
educated, thoughtful, self-denying man, he some day may be. With his
birth and growth the trials and responsibilities of parents begin. Many
a missionary has found that his work in instructing the heathen was as
nothing, compared with the labour, anxiety and trial, which fell to his
lot, when he began to gather converts around him, and by God’s help
endeavoured to train them to holiness and trust, while “the world, the
flesh, and the devil” were drawing them back again to evil. With the
thankfulness and congratulations which this great change inspired in the
friends of the Imerina Mission, it was felt that new duties of a most
serious kind devolved upon them; and the Directors of the London
Missionary Society, who had maintained that mission and had aided the
Malagasy Churches for more than fifty years, determined without delay to
enlarge the mission by all the agencies which the crisis called for.
Large sums of money were contributed almost unasked; and within the five
years that have since elapsed twenty English missionaries have been
added to the staff previously labouring in the island. It was resolved
to commence new stations, and to enlarge and strengthen the Theological
and Normal Schools; to increase and stimulate general education; and to
make the Press more efficient. Other Christian missions, working in
cordial co-operation with the London Missionary Society, were enlarged
at the same time.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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