ength of their present
prosperity. Hence the great but not too rapid increase, in their
numbers. Hence it is that, though persecution left them poor, they
have built nearly a hundred village chapels; that their search into
the Word of God is deep, continuous, and unwearied; that their
congregations are crowded; that, at a missionary prayer meeting held
early in the day, sixteen hundred persons gather together; and that,
when a volunteer preacher finds it inconvenient every Sabbath to
visit a distant village, his brethren invite him permanently to
reside there, and offer to pay him a sufficient income till that
village shall be christianized.

[Illustration: AMBATONAKANGA CHURCH, MADAGASCAR.]

How shall we forget their grateful rejoicings when the first stone
church in memory of their martyrs was set apart for worship! By the
entire christian population, and even by many heathen, it was felt
to be a truly festive day. From early dawn they began to gather around
the edifice, eager to secure a place on an occasion so memorable.
You see the little parties of christian villagers making their way
across the western plain; coming in from the southward, where many
churches lie; or from the north, where, in the sacred village of
Ambohimanga, the man who should have been chief guardian of its
heathenism, is now the teacher of its christian church. Streaming
along the public roads of the city, the many processions, headed by
their singers, mount to the noble platform of rock on which the Church
of AMBATONAKANGA stands. The building will hold eleven hundred
people, but over four thousand have gathered around it: the doors
are opened at eight; sixteen hundred manage to squeeze in, and the
remainder wait in patience for five hours more, to get their turn
in the afternoon service. Attended by a procession, duly marshalled
with music, high officers of the government bear from the Queen a
condescending message of congratulation and encouragement. And then
the native pastor opens the service. He is one of the earliest
Christians in the island; a man of great ability, of noble,
long-tried character. He was a convert in the old chapel that stood
on that very ground. For years he was hunted for his life; but the
Lord kept him. His noble wife, a true martyr, died in chains; but,
hid in hollow walls, in holes of the rock, in solitary huts and
cowhouses, he marvellously escaped. And when at last, like the rest
of the "slain" church, after l