The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1869-12-15
What Foreign Missions Effect.

1
gascar, situated on the eastern coast OF Al
rica. Here we shall see, as OF old, infant
churches struggling successfully against the
utmost efforts of the civil power to destroy
them The London Missionary Society com
menced mission on that island in 1890,
under the protection of the King Radama.
The missionaries gave the people a written
language, grammar and dictionary, school
books, hymn book, and the Bible, and
taught some thousands to read the Scrip
lures. The converts were virtually, if not
formally, embodied in churches. A pagan
Queen, the widow of Radama, succeeded her
husband in 1928, and, being hostile to the
Christian religion, forbade the observance of
its ordinances, and the reading of the Bible;
and persistence in either was punishable with
death. Perceiving that the gospel continued
to gain ground, Notwithstanding her decree,
she, in 1885, banished all the missionaries.
The Christians, still increasing, were then
subjected to fierce persecution, which con-
tinued through twenty-five years, until her
death in 1861. They were poisoned; they
were hanged; they were speared; they were
stoned, and the stoning was a most barba-
rous mode of execution. They were thrown
down fatal precipice. Loaded with heavy
iron collars, and chained together, they were
driven into banishment. They were burned
at the stake; and some were cruciGed. Many
were sold into slavery. 1t is believed that
more than two thousand persons suffered as
Christians, during this persecution, in some
cruel form or other.
So far as was possible, they associated to-
gether as Christian communities; and there
were those of their number intelligent and
courageous enough to act as pastor and
teachers, though always at the peril, and
sometimes at the sacrifice, of life. The result
was continual growth in numbers through
all the prosecutions.
The queen was succeeded by her son, who
favored the Christians, and invited the re-
turn of the missionaries. This was seven
years ago and now, as we have the account
from the well-known DIR. William Ellis, in
his work recently published, entitled "Mada-
gascar Revisited" dedicated, by permission,
to the Queen of England, and from other
sources, there are, within and around the
capital of Madagascar, ninety churches, with
more than five thousand members, one hun
dred and one native pastors, and twenty
thousand claiming the Christian name. In
the space of four years the number of nomi-
nal Christians was more than, doubled. and
the number of the communicates was in
creased ten fold And we hear that queen,
lately come to the throne, has virtually en-
braced the Christian religion, and that if she
should live we may expect Christianity to
be soon adopted as the national religion.
FEEJEE ISLANDS.
But the most remarkable results are in
the Feejee Islands, about eighty in number,
with population of two hundred thousand.
Thirty years ago the people were all canni-
balls, and delighted in their horrid teasts. If
a hundred white men had been cast upon
their shores before the entrance of the gos-
pei, they would all have been Immediately
killed and eaten. Seamen dreaded them.-
An American vessel from Vancouver's
Island, not long ago, was wrecked at sea-
The crew took to their boat, and after drift
ing some hundreds of miles, struck at length
on coral reef. On reaching the shore,
they found themselves on one of the Feeiee
Islands, and gave themselves up for lost. But
one Of them picking up book from the
sand, exclaimed, "Jack, | say, all's right:
here is Bible. Thank God, Christianity
is here, and we shall be saved" And so it
proved. There is no record of more remark
able courage and self-denial, and success in
missions, than that of the English Wesleyan
missionaries on those islands. The mission
was commenced in the year 1885, and within
thirty years of its commencement, one hun.
dred thousand, or about one half of the in :
habitants, were in possession of the Scrip
lures in their own language; and, according
to the latest intelligence, ninety thousand
attended public worship, including the Sab
bath School children; and there were twenty
two thousand church-members. The Fee
jeean preachers numbered six hundred and
sixty. three Forty-fve of the native preach
ers had received ordination, or were candi-
dates for it; while the number of teachers
exceeded one thousand, and there were thir.
ty-six thousand in the schools. The people,
thus brought under the power of the gospel,
have of course ceased from their cannibalism,
and polygamy and infanticide, are fast pass
ing away. A value is set upon human life.
No more do the avengers of blood come as
savage warriors, or as stealthy assassins, but
make their peaceful appeal to laws, founded
on the word of God. An English naval Of
icer, speaking lately of religious service
he attended on one of these islands, says:
81 was very much impressed by the scene
before me. Only fifteen years before, every
man saw was cannibal. Close to me sat
the old chief, Bible in hand, and spectacles
on forehead, who was, twenty years back,
one of the most sanguinary and ferocious
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