ciiAi'. XV. THE CHRISTIANITY OF THE PRESENT. 425 



may, for purposes to us inscrutable, be allowed by the all- 

 wise and all-merciful God to be again enforced. 



It may be sufficient therefore to say that, so far as my 

 opportunities of observing it have extended, the religion of 

 the present is the same as that of the past, and appears to be 

 sincere and satisfactory, a religion derived simply and solely 

 from the teachings of Grod's holy word, unfolded, applied, and 

 sustained by the operations of the Holy Spirit. Under this 

 Divine influence it appears to have attained a measm'e of 

 development that is truly marvellous. That it is to be 

 ascribed to this source alone would appear from the fact, 

 that a large number of those who have suffered became 

 Christians after the last missionaries had left the country. I 

 repeatedly passed the places where the martyrs suffered, 

 spots that will be consecrated by the most hallowed and 

 affectionate associations in the minds of the Malagasy through- 

 out all future ages. I had met and conversed repeatedly 

 with their widowed survivors and their orphan children, as 

 well as with those who witnessed the steadfastness of their 

 faith and the quiet triumph of their death ; and from their 

 testimony had derived more than confirmation of all that we 

 had previously heard. 



The authorities in Madagascar, who sought by torture and 

 death to extinguish the Christian faith, by whatever motives 

 they may have been actuated, only imitated the Diocletians 

 of the early ages, and the Alvas, the Medicis, and the Marys 

 of more recent times, and with corresponding results in the 

 invincible constancy of those who fell and the subsequent 

 fruits of the imperishable seed which was scattered in the 

 martyrs' blood. Deeply affecting were the details which I 

 received of the sorrows and the consolations of the sufferers ; 

 of their conduct in the hour of peril, as well as on the day of 

 impeachment and of trial ; with the noble testimony which 

 they bore, when brought before judges and rulers, for His 



