JUVENILE MISSIONARY MAGAZINE.

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APRIL 2, 1866.

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MADAGASCAR.

THE MEMORIAL CHURCHES.

OUR Frontispiece for the present month accurately represents the first of the four Memorial Churches proposed to be erected in the capital of Madagascar. The building at Ambatonakanga, represented in the Engraving, is not quite completed, but will soon be ready to be set apart for Divine worship. Some of our young friends, on hearing of these Memorial Churches, may wish to know how they came to be so named. They are doubtless aware that the term memorial has reference to something which is to be laid up in the memory, or, as we

often say, to be borne in mind; but they have not perhaps heard the reason assigned for applying the term to these new churches. Well, then, they are so called in order to keep in perpetual and honoured remembrance those devoted men-the Christian martyrs-who, during the cruel reign of Ranavalona, the former Queen of Madagascar, laid down their lives rather than deny their Lord VOL. XXIII.-NO. 263.

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