156 VISITS TO MADAGASCAR. chap. vi. 



and hearts ; the truth had operated like seed germinating 

 upon a virgin soil, and the freshness and vigour of its 

 growth had been proportionate. I could not avoid noticing 

 the absence of all bitter and vindictive feelings towards those 

 who had inflicted the sufferings they had borne. They 

 seemed to regard it as permitted by Grod, and to speak of it 

 as a cause for exercising confidence in the Most High. 



The circumstances of the individuals about whom we often 

 conversed had been peculiar and almost unprecedented in 

 the annals of the past. Those from whom alone they had 

 received instruction on the subject of religion had been 

 removed almost as soon as their lessons had begun to take 

 effect ; and thus deprived of their teachers, but few means 

 were left to them of supplying the deficiency which must 

 have been severely felt. They had been required by the 

 authorities under whom they lived to surrender all their 

 books, and the few retained were forbidden to be used. 

 The chief means of preserving their faith were small por- 

 tions of Grod's Word. As, in our physical organisation, the 

 loss of one faculty is often attended with the augmented 

 efficiency of those that remain, so with regard to their means 

 of spiritual improvement, deprived of all other advantages, 

 and possessing that which remained only in a very limited 

 degree, they seemed to have acquired a familiarity with 

 those portions of Divine truth to which they had access, and 

 to have studied them with an avidity, affection, and perseve- 

 rance truly wonderful. From all the accounts that were 

 given, the Truth seems to have been sought as a priceless 

 treasure, and hoarded in their hearts as something more 

 precious than gold and dearer than life. Their faith in its 

 entireness and solidity was based simply on the Scriptures. 

 They seem neither to have known nor thought of any system 

 or creed as such, but to have regarded the truth of the 

 Bible as that which was able to make them wise for both 



