ment towards Christianity was most unmistakably shown.

This ceremony took place on Thursday, September 3, 1868. It was held, not in Imahamàsina, where the edict against Christianity was published, but in an open space called Andohàlo, situated in the centre of Antananarivo. This space contains about seven acres, and, according to some estimates, would seat from eighty.to a hundred thousand persons. It is in shape a rough oval, and the ground gently rises on nearly all sides, so that spectators may occupy not only the open space itself, but also the compounds of the many houses that surround it. It thus forms a kind of natural amphitheatre, admirably adapted for the huge public assemblies in which the Malagasy have for generations taken delight.

On the morning of Thursday, September 3, 1868, a bright, warm spring day, this open space was filled at an early hour by many thousands of Malagasy. Not only were most of the able-bodied men from the various districts of Imèrina present, but chiefs from the Betsilèo country in the south, and from the Sakalàva country in the west, were also there. Some had come from the distant north, and others from Fort Dauphine, far away in the south. Among the illustrious strangers present might have been seen Mademoiselle Juliette, the venerable chieftainess of the Betsimisàraka tribe, and the almost equally well known Iòvana, the dignified and eloquent Queen of the Tanàla. A lofty and spacious platform had been erected in Andohàlo, and it was in front of this that the leading chiefs of the country were seated. Their dresses were an interesting study. Usually the Malagasy do not care so much for bright colours as many Eastern nations, but on any state occasion their assemblies give the beholder the idea of a well-stocked flower garden, where the brightest and most varied colours mingle in the richest profusion. These gaily dressed magnates formed the inner circle, and then on all sides, filling every available piece of rising ground, were seated the thousands of the common people, mostly clothed in their flowing white lambas, and, with true Malagasy patience, sitting quietly on the ground from early morning till late in the afternoon.

Soon after nine a procession left the palace, consisting of members of the government, public officials-civil and military-and a hundred ladies, dressed in European fashion. These walked, escorting the queen in her palanquin of scarlet and gold. As she reached.

Andohàlo, she alighted and walked to the sacred stone on which the sovereigns of Madagascar have been accustomed to take their stand on state occasions, and after having stood there for a few moments, took her seat on the platform under a handsome canopy. This canopy, supported on pillars, coloured green, and decorated with gilded mouldings, was hung with green velvet embroidered with gold. The dome-shaped head was of scarlet velvet, ornamented with silver spear-heads. On the four sides were inscribed in the native language the mottoes, Glory to God," "Peace on earth," "Good-will to men," "God be with us." But this was not the only declaration in favour of Christianity: at the right hand of the queen was a small ornamental table, on which lay a handsomely bound Bible and a copy of the Laws of Madagascar. And in harmony with this, the natives, the older men among them especially, noticed with wonder that none of the old national idols were to be seen. On such occasions these idols had always held a conspicuous place; and notwithstanding the favour shown by Radama II. to the Christians, they were not absent even from his coronation in 1862. Instead of the idols was seen a white silk flag with the initials of her majesty's name, and a royal crown. The Christian mottoes and the copy of the Bible were a striking and most unmistakable declaration that the second Ranavàlona intended to govern upon far different principles from those that had guided the policy of her aunt and namesake, who had died just seven years before.

But in addition to these silent marks of change, there were in the queen's speech equally interesting declarations in favour of the Word of God. Remembering how the first Ranavàlona had hated the Bible, and how during her reign the most persistent attempts had been made to destroy every copy, it was not without deep emotion that some present noticed how words taken from the Scriptures were woven into the Royal Speech. The passages thus used were these:"The commandment is a lamp, and the law is a light;" and "Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright, for the end of that man is peace.” And then later on came a sentence referring in express terms to Christianity, thus :-" And as to the praying" (the usual word for the Christian religion), "it is not compulsory, nor is there any hindrance, for God made you.” This is the Magna Charta of religious liberty in Madagascar.

A succession of important events tended to

confirm and deepen the impression produced by the coronation. On Sunday, October 28, 1868, a religious service was begun in the palace for the benefit of the queen and prime minister and their attendants. About the same time all government work was stopped on Sunday, and the various markets formerly held on Sunday were changed to some other day; proclamations were also made to the effect that the queen commanded people to abstain from ordinary work on the Sunday. Early in the following year (February 21, 1869), the queen and her husband, the prime minister, were baptized. On July 20th the foundation-stone of a handsome stone church was laid within the palace enclosure. On September 8th the chief idol, Kelimalàza, was publicly burned by order of the queen in the sacred village of Ambohimanambòla, and during the remainder of September a general burning of idols took place throughout the central provinces, and at all other places to which the Hova authority extends.

Events of this kind could not fail to affect powerfully a gregarious people like the Malagasy. Thousands came at once under the influence of Christian instruction. Requests for teachers poured in from all quarters, and within a few months the nine churches of Antananarivo, aided by the palace church, sent out 126 evangelists. The old congregations greatly increased in numbers, and on every hand new congregations sprang up with marvellous rapidity. Between April and December, 1868, the number of adherents of the London Missionary Society and Friends' Foreign Mission had risen from about 20,000 to 37,000. By the end of 1869 they had reached 153,000. A year later they had become 231,000; and at the present time they exceed a quarter of a million. To these must be added the adherents of the Norwegian and Propagation Societies' missions.

Among these recently gathered converts much Christian work is being done. Thirty missionaries belonging to the London Missionary Society, five or six belonging to the Friends' Foreign Mission, about twenty belonging to the Norwegian Missionary Society, and ten or twelve connected with the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel are at work among them. More than a thousand congregations have been formed, and several thousands of native agents are engaged in various kinds of Christian work. Many schools have been established: 730 in connection with the London Missionary Society and Friends' Foreign Mission, and others in connection with the remaining missions. Three mission presses are at work printing books of different kinds for the use of the converts, and from these presses more than 200,000 books of various kinds are issued every year. Facts like these lead us to take a hopeful view of the future of the Malagasy race. It should, however, be stated that although in religious matters great changes have taken place with unusual rapidity, in regard to material development the Malagasy have not made any very great progress. The fact that they have not throughout the island any properly made roads-many of the main ones being as primitive in their construction as that which is shown in our illustration-indicates very clearly their backwardness in such matters. But improvements of many kinds are steadily taking place, and Christianity is beginning to search its way into all the ramifications of personal, social, and national life. Remembering what Madagascar was at the beginning of this century, the long and patient suffering and martyrdom of her converts and their great increase in the past ten years, we think there is ample reason for deepest gratitude for the past, and bright and reasonable hope for the future.

their kindred, the Saxons, who inhabited adjacent isles of Denmark, at the mouth of the Elbe-and these latter actually came by invitation, and proved at first a heathen scourge to a country by which the good news

of the Gospel had already been widely received.

When the Roman legions left Britain, being imperatively called for nearer home, the Picts and Scots were no longer held in check, and made their way south once more as "robbers and rovers," ,"till the peaceful inhabitants, wasted and wearied, by the advice of their king, Vortigern, called in the skilful generals of the Saxons, Hengist and Horsa, who, ere long, cleared the country of its turbulent northern enemies, but meanwhile established themselves in their stead. King Vortigern then fell in love with the Saxon beauty, Rowena, and so allied himself with the new race, which was against the protest of his people, who soon afterwards endeavoured to drive the Saxons out of Britain. Bloody battles were fought, as we find from fragments of the old Welsh bards, and great leaders fell; but if at first the Saxons retreated, it was only to return with reinforcements, and treacherously to slay, at a feast, three hundred of the British chiefs and nobles. It is supposed that this cruel massacre occurred on Stonehenge, and was considered an acceptable sacrifice to the gods of the Pagan invaders.

We have no space for the heroic deeds of the British king, Arthur, and others, or for records of the battles that decimated the native Celtic population, and established in England the lineage of the Saxon conquerors. Another of their tribes, the Angles, under their king, Ida, followed in their train, and settled in Suffolk and Northumberland. All which occurred in the next century to that in which the Romans left the island; and, ere long, eight Saxon kingdoms arose-north, south, east, and west-which seem also to have been always going to war with one another, till fresh enemies of still another kindred race, the Danes, caused the union of the forces, now all known as Anglo-Saxons, for material defence, and then we arrive at the time of our great Alfred, whose name will never die. The language which these second settlers in Britain brought with them was called the Old Saxon (or Low German), which may still be heard spoken in Hanover and Holstein. Its different dialects were by degrees modified into the Anglo-Saxon; and it is to the inquiry, how far the Word of God was rendered into that tongue, that we must first address ourselves; and it is from King Alfred's time and point of view that we will retrace it, viz., the latter half of the ninth century, as he died in 901. He thus reviews the ravages of the Danish invaders.

"I thought how I saw, before it was all spoiled and burned, how the churches were filled with treasures of (MSS.) books, and also with a great multitude of God's servants; yet they reaped very little fruit of these books, because they could understand nothing of them, as they were not written in their own native tongue. Few persons south of the Humber could understand the service in English, or translate Latin into English. I think there were not many beyond the Humber, and none to the south of the Thames, when I began to reign. Thank God, there are now some bishops who are capable of teaching."

The Danes were still wild followers of Odin, and were called "the heathen men." We hear of their burning houses and churches from east to west of the island, and of the Christians buried in the ruins.

Christian life, therefore, had nearly died out amid the secular troubles; but it was not dead in Alfred's own heart, and he was himself able to translate from the Latin many literary treatises, and crowned his labours by prefixing to the body of his laws for his kingdom a translation of the Ten Commandments, which are called "Alfred's Dooms," besides large portions of the three following chapters of Exodus. His translation is somewhat of an abridgment. referring to it in the "Ancient Laws and Institutes of England," published by command of King William IV., we find the decalogue thus given :

On

I. Love thou not other strange gods above me. 2. Utter thou not my name idly, for thou shalt not be guiltless towards me if thou utter my name idly.

3. Remember that thou hallow the rest day. Work for yourselves six days, and on the seventh, rest: for earth, the seas, and all creatures that are in them, in six days Christ wrought the heavens and the and rested on the seventh day; and, therefore, the Lord hallowed it.

4. Honour thy father and thy mother whom the Lord hath given thee, that thou mayest be the longer living on earth.

5. Slay thou not.

6. Commit thou not adultery. 7. Steal thou not.

8. Say thou not false witness.

9. Covet thou not thy neighbour's goods unjustly. 10. Make thou not to thyself golden or silver gods.

It is very interesting further to compare King Alfred's renderings of the three succeeding chapters of Exodus with our own translation of the same.

In his thirty-third law, he thus, like Moses, bids his people, "Be ye not comers from afar and strangers, for ye were formerly strangers in the land of the Egyptians."