158 
VISITS TO MADAGASCAR. 
CHAP. VI. 
here given of the consistent lives of those who were regarded 
as Christians and continued to be numbered with the people 
of Gfod. Doubtless there were exceptions, but they were only 
exceptions; and such was the general nature of the evidence 
given in their favour, and such, we have reason to believe, 
had been in reality the blameless tenour of their lives. 
At the time of my visit, these people had been seventeen 
or eighteen years without any foreign teachers, or any ex¬ 
perienced counsellor or guide; and as I heard that at 
different times there had been considerable numbers, I was 
led to make inquiries respecting the course they had pursued 
in reference to such proceedings as would be likely to be 
engaged in by persons dwelling near or holding social inter¬ 
course together. While I heard of nothing to disturb the 
unselfish affection, the benevolent consideration, and the 
sacred fellowship which they seem to have shared together, 
I was as much surprised as delighted to find that their 
organisation for the purpose of mutual edification and the 
spiritual benefit of others, had been according to the plain 
and simple model propounded in the Holy Scriptures. Just as 
it is there exhibited, so far as their means admitted and their 
necessities required, it had been by them adopted; and 
whatever distinctive form their ecclesiastical polity, if such a 
term be applicable, may in any future age assume, all that 
can be said of the Martyr Church of Madagascar in its earlier 
years is, that it has been built by its own members, guided, 
we trust, by Gfod’s Spirit, upon the foundation of the few 
solid and imperishable principles set forth in the teaching of 
the Hew Testament. 
It has been already stated that the government of Mada¬ 
gascar had forbidden the performance of any act of Christian 
worship under the severest penalties. There has consequently 
been no public worship or other outward religious observance; 
but I learned that in reference to those teachings which 
