426 VISITS TO i[x\.DAGASCAR. chap. xv. 



name's sake. The following exact and verbatim statements 

 refer to the severe persecution in th,e year 1849, and will 

 make their own appeal to every heart. They are offered 

 without apprehension, as those to whom they refer have 

 passed into a world where " the fury of the oppressor " and 

 the cruelty of the persecutor can never enter. 



"On the 14th of March, 1849, the officer before whom the 

 Christians were examined said, 'Do you pray to the sun, or 

 the moon, or the earth?' 



" R answered, 'I do not pray to these, for the hand of 



Grod made them.' 



"'Do you pray to the twelve mountains that are sacred?' 



" R . ' I do not pray to them, for they are mountains.' 



" ' Do you pray to the idols that render sacred the kings ?' 



" R . ' I do not pray to them, for the hand of man 



made them.' 



" 'Do you pray to the ancestors of the sovereigns ?' 



"R . 'Kings and rulers are given by Grod that we 



should serve and obey them, and render them homage. 

 Nevertheless they are only men like ourselves : when we pray, 

 we pray to Grod alone.' 



" ' You make distinct, and observe the Sabbath day.' 



" R . ' That is the day of the great Grod ; for in six days 



the Lord made all His works. But Grod rested on the seventh, 

 and He caused it to be holy ; and I rest, or keep sacred that 

 day.' 



" And in similar manner answered all the Christians. And 

 when a man, who had kept aloof, saw that one — a woman — 

 did not deny Grod, and remembered that to deny Grod was 

 followed with compunction, he went and sjioke as the others 

 had done. And when these brethren and sisters were bound, 

 the husband of one of them, who had heard their confession, 

 came and said to them, ' Be not afraid, for it is well if for 



