532 
HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR. 
as her letters testify, was filled with the love of Jesus. She 
endured as seeing Him who is invisible. Her letters are 
composed principally of passages from the Gospels and 
Epistles, and these, doubtless, under the influence of the 
Holy Spirit, were the entire support of her mind in the 
last hour of trial. If 4 the blood of the martyrs is the seed 
of the Church,’ we may trust that Rafaravavy will not have 
died in vain. She died directly and exclusively in defence 
of the Gospel.” 
Allusion has been made to her letters. It may suffice at 
present to give the following extract from one of her com¬ 
munications to Mr. Johns, written shortly before her last 
imprisonment.— 
“ Blessed be God, who hath given us access by our Lord Jesus 
Christ. My earnest prayer to God is, that he would enable me to 
obey the words of Jesus to his disciples, Matt. xvi. 24 . ‘ If any 
man desire to come after me, let him deny himself/ &c. Hence 
then, none of these things move me, nor count I my life dear to 
myself, that I may finish my course in the service I have received 
of the Lord Jesus. Do not you, Missionaries, grieve under an idea 
that your labour here has been in vain in the Lord; through the 
blessing of God, it succeeds. ‘ If our Gospel be hid, it is hid 
to them that are lost; but it is the power of God to them that 
believe.’ Here is my ground of confidence; the power of God 
cannot be effectually resisted. I will go in the strength of the 
Lord. Though I should walk through the valley of the shadow of 
death, I will fear no evil, for God is with me. ‘ Though he slay 
me, yet will I trust in him. ‘ Precious in the sight of the Lord 
is the death of his saints.’ May I ‘ be found in him, not having 
mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is 
through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by 
faith; that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, 
and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto 
his death; if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of 
the dead. Not as though I had already attained, either were 
already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that 
