CHAP. 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 Roman 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- 
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