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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’ M
