Untitled - Libr@rsi

1651 - 52] RELA TION OF i6si -52 173
won the victory, had it not been for a little ray of
^race that made me offer a Prayer to God, very short
but very fervent, under favor of which I extricated
myself from the
brand of hell.'
hands of that woman, or that fire-
"
In the second place, the feelings that he entertained
for the Faith were so ravishing that our
Fathers were astonished at them. He could not sate
himself with talking about our religion, in terms and
with comparisons so well adapted to his Auditors
that he himself was astonished that, although he
had been so ignorant and stupid before his Baptism,
[29] he understood and expressed so well the maxims
of the Gospel. Therefore it was that he often introduced
parenthetical remarks into his speeches, to let
his hearers know that what he said was not from his
own mind. Otsinonaka louei.
*
I am kin and rela-
tion to the worms I have ; nothing of my own it ; is
'
God who loosens my tongue. It was remarked that,
for more than four months before his death, he
always spoke in his Harangues of the uncertain hour
'
of our departure. Let us hold ourselves ever in
'
readiness,' he would say, for we shall be overtaken,
and we shall exclaim with astonishment, " Lo! we
are dead." '
His nieces caused me to make this
reflection.
' He has shown,* said
'
they, that what
he inculcated so often was found true in his own
person ; for he died at a time and in a place that he
had not foreseen.'
" In the third place, he was very thankful for the
benefit of the Faith, and most often began the
speeches that he delivered to his people with these
'
words : I beg you, my brethren, hold the Faith in
high esteem. Oh, how greatly am I indebted to God