HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR. 
459 
u He was enabled to receive the gospel of Christ like a little 
child. He felt himself to be a lost sinner, and he found in Jesus 
Christ a Saviour just suited to him, and he believed on him; 
rejoicing that he had died to save sinners, and was able to save 
unto the uttermost all that come unto God by him. 
“ While religion thus wonderfully improved his intellectual and 
moral character, it imparted new vigour to all his actions and 
habits. He became increasingly active and diligent as a servant. 
His mind seemed to expand, and his faculties appeared enlivened 
by the new views which Christianity gave of the relation in which 
he stood towards the great Creator and Preserver of the universe. 
“ There was in his character a union of the utmost humility and 
self-abasement, with a certain degree of manly sentiment and 
aspiring hope. He knew that he was among the lowest in the 
ranks of his own countrymen, of whom the highest were greatly 
inferior to the Europeans ; yet he felt that, as a Christian, he could, 
equally with the highest, know and adore his Creator. He often 
used to say, ‘ I am only a poor slave, but nevertheless I trust I 
love the Lord Jesus.’ 
u Although he was a stranger to that refined sensibility which is 
found among polished society, lie possessed a sensibility of infi¬ 
nitely more importance and value, a constant fear of offending his 
Creator, and a quick perception of the sinfulness of actions. He 
would never shrink from eating his humble meal of simple rice, 
or manioc root, from a leaf of the banana tree, or piece of rush 
matting; but he shuddered from uniting with his countrymen in 
their licentious, impious, and cruel practices. He beheld without 
emotion their half-naked persons, wretched houses, and miserable 
outward condition, for with these he had always been familiar; 
but he was horror-struck at the contemplation of their utter igno¬ 
rance, stupid, idolatrous, and ungoverned sensuality. This sensi¬ 
bility was to him a sort of spiritual eye-sight, and new-created 
faculty, which warned his soul of whatever was offensive to God, 
as our outward senses discover to us whatever is agreeable or 
repugnant to our bodily appetites. 
“ About the middle of the year 1830, a very greatly increased 
attention to Christianity was manifested by the natives of Mada¬ 
gascar ; greater numbers pressed eagerly to us for instruction than 
