ciiAr. VI. CONSTANCY UNTO DEATH. 161 



effect that if he would renounce his religion, and serve the 

 queen, not only should his life be spared, but all the benefits 

 of the sovereign's favour should be bestowed, he thanked 

 the queen for the message, but declared he could not forsake 

 Christ. He was not insensible to the advantages offered ; 

 though the queen's benefits could only extend to this life, 

 and the favour of his Saviour would last for ever. *' Yet," he 

 added, " I can serve the queen." The answer was not deemed 

 satisfactory, and he was put to death. 



Had the authorities or the people in general understood 

 and appreciated the principles and character of the Christians, 

 the government would have perceived that it was cutting the 

 sinews of its strength by destroying them, and depriving the 

 community of its most valuable members. The time has, 

 perhaps, not yet arrived for us to become acquainted with all, 

 or even with the principal motives by which the present 

 government has been influenced ; but their proceedings have 

 developed principles, on the recognition of which depends the 

 stability of all human organisations, and have afforded illus- 

 trations of lessons, often taught before, and which are of the 

 deepest interest to all concerned for the liberties and the 

 well-being of mankind. What Nebuchadnezzar attempted 

 on the plains of Dura, what the Koman emperor attempted 

 in the days of Pliny, and what more recent rulers, in after 

 times, have attempted in the states of Europe, has in our 

 times been attempted in Madagascar, modified, it may be, by 

 the external usages of the age or the circumstances of the 

 people, but differing little in the spirit, the agency, or the 

 end. 



With the results of the past we are acquainted ; the issue of 

 the present, though admitting of no doubt, either to the 

 student of history or the believer in revelation, remains yet to 

 be disclosed. Events have taken place in the present day in 

 Madagascar which will perhaps exert a more powerful in-^ 



M 



