This standers suspecting what was going on. The corpse was secretly removed from the palace the same night. On the next day, the new Dairi quitted his palace, and went through the city in a triumphal car, drawn by a hundred white horses, and surrounded by all the priests. Everywhere he came, the people bowed down to the earth, as if a real god were before them. On that day, all the prisoners were set free, labour was stopped, and everywhere there was joy and rejoicing, because the Dairi had safely made his journey to the gods, and stayed away so short a Priest told the people that the soul Such is the religion of Japan at the present moment, and sad to say there is not a single missionary in all that vast empire, for, until lately, no foreigner was allowed to enter the country. Let us pray, dear children, that the Gospel light may shine in this dark country, and scatter the clouds of ignorance and superstition. POPERY IN TRINIDAD. MANY of the exhibitions of Popery we have here are childish in the extreme. When conducting a meeting the other Sabbath, I had occasion to speak of the nature of repentance, and of its being something else than penance. Not thinking myself suffi ciently understood, I tried, by way of questioning, to bring out the meaning of both. To the question "What is penance?" I got for an answer- "Carrying grass, massa, for the priest's horse."-United Presby terian Record. Price 6d. per doz. or 3s. 6d. per 100; 20 copies sent free by post for 10d., paid in advance. Published by GALL & INGLIS, 6 George Street, Edinburgh. HOULSTON & WRIGHT, London. ESCAPE OF A NATIVE CHRISTIAN IN INDIA. A NATIVE CHRISTIAN Woman in India | as their desire and object was to kill was in the greatest danger, a few months ago, of falling into the hands of the blood-thirsty Sepoys, by whom she would certainly have been killed, April 1859. all the Christians they could get hold of. Her only hope of escape was in reaching the river Ganges, on which she knew there was a boat whic 26 THE MARTYRS OF MADAGASCAR. would take her out of the reach of danger. But how to make her way to the river? It was some distance off, and the road was beset by these murderous men: the natives, also, were not Christians-still they were not bigoted Mahommedans or Hindús. A plan was therefore arranged for conveying her in safety to the river. She was to feign herself a corpse, and, as such, she was to be carried by four of the natives upon their shoulders, according to the custom which prevails in India, where the natives think they are sure of heaven if their bodies are cast into the sacred stream. The plan thus arranged perfectly answered. Although the men who carried the body were stopped by numbers of the Sepoys, yet they were allowed to pass, and the Christian native woman thus reached the boat in safety, and effected her escape. THE MARTYRS OF MADAGASCAR. We think our readers will recollect the stories we have told them at different times of the visits made by Mr Ellis to Madagascar, and we are sure they will read with interest the following extract from his delightful book lately published. They will see that it describes the courage and faithfulness of the noble little band of Christians in Madagascar, under the terrible persecutions they suffered after the missionaries had been driven away. Mr Ellis says: 66 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 in the day of impeachment and of trial; with the noble testimony which they bore, when brought before judges and rulers, for His name's sake. "The following exact and verbatim statements refer to the severe persecution in the 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 God made them. THE MARTYRS OF MADAGASCAR. 27 "Do you pray to the twelve number of the accused. Then he mountains that are sacred? R, I was examined, and, as he made the do not pray to them, for they are same avowal, they bound him also. mountains. And they removed these ten brethren and sisters, and made their bands hard or tight, and confined them each in a separate house.' "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 God, that we should serve and obey them, and render them homage. Nevertheless, they are only men like ourselves; when we pray, we pray to God alone. "You make distinct and observe the Sabbath-day? R. That is the day of the great God; for in six days the Lord made all His works. But God 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 God, and remembered that to deny God was followed with compunction, he went and spoke 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 that you die. He was a soldier from a distance, and not of the | "The writers of the journal add: And, at one o'clock at night, we met together and prayed. On the 22d of March, when one had said, Jehovah is God alone, and above every name that is named, and Jesus Christ is also God, the people cried out mocking. And to another the officer said, Rabodampoimerina (the sacred name of our Queen) is our god, but not your god. He answered, The God who made me is my God; but Rabodo is my queen or sovereign. And when he refused other answer, they said, Perhaps he is an idiot, or a lunatic. He answered, I am not an idiot, and have not lost my understanding. Then there was a commotion and buzz among the people, saying, Take him away. And they took him to prison. "And before it was light, on the following day, the people assembled at A- -y. Then they took the eighteen brethren that chose God, and to inherit life, and to become His sons and His daughters, and they bound their hands and feet, and tied each of them to a pole 28 THE MARTYRS OF MADAGASCAR, wrapped in mats, and placed themed requested him to ask that they with the other prisoners. And of these united brethren and sisters ten were from Vonizongo. And when the officers, and troops, and judges arrived, they read over the names of each class of prisoners, and then placed them by themselves, and stationed around them soldiers with muskets and spears; and the sentences were then delivered, consigning some to fine and confiscation, others to slavery, others to prison and chains, some to flogging, and eighteen to death-four to be burned, and fourteen to be hurled from the rocky precipice and afterwards burned to ashes. “And the eighteen appointed to die, as they sat on the ground surrounded by the soldiers, sang the 137th hymn:-* When I shall die, and leave my friends, When departed has my life, Then I shall be happy. might be killed first, and then burned. But they were burned alive. "When the officer was gone, they took those eighteen away to put them to death. The fourteen they tied by the hands and the feet to long poles, and carried on men's shoulders. And these brethren prayed and spoke to the people as they were being carried along And some who beheld them said that their faces were like the faces of angels. And when they came to the top of Nampaminarina, they cast them down, and their bodies were afterwards dragged to the other end of the capital, to be burned with the bodies of those who were burned alive. "And, as they took the four that were to be burned alive to the place of execution, those Christians sang the 90th hymn, beginning, When our hearts are troubled, each verse ending with, Then remember us. "When that hymn was finished, Thus they sang on the road. And they sang the 154th: when they came to Faravohitra, there There is a blessed land, Nor cause of trouble come. "That was the hymn they sang |