[Illustration: ANDRIAMBELO.]




VII.--THE NATIVE CHURCHES.


The high and useful position attained by the Society is further
illustrated by the character and importance of the Native Churches.
These are our actual converts, the most striking, the most patent,
if not the most real among the fruits of our past labours. These
churches are unevenly distributed, but the explanation is easy. As
a rule, they are largest in fields of labour which have been longest
cultivated, and where converts are easily won. They appear,
therefore, in inverse ratio to time and difficulty. To the native
races of Polynesia, desolated by wars, torn in pieces by faction and
strife, Christianity came as the healer and peace-maker, and was
welcomed as soon as understood. To the native races of South Africa,
and to the people of the West Indies, to the weak who had been crushed
and enslaved by the strong, it came with loving smiles as deliverer
and friend. By the devil-worshipper of Travancore, ignorant,
degraded, friendless, afraid of malignant spirits, it was welcomed
for its kindness. To the caste-ridden people of the great cities and
towns, to the sudra of South India, to the Brahmins everywhere, it
came as an enemy, destroying their social life, breaking up the bonds
of Hindooism, smiting the gods, putting down the priesthood,
destroying the vested interest, and drying up the wealth produced
by centuries. Who can wonder that to the learned, the powerful, the
bigoted, it was "foolishness;" while to the despised and poor,