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 God, 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 God’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 
