"From Bombay we look down the coast for seventy miles, we see two missionaries-fourteen miles further we see two more; looking in a more easterly direction at the distance of about three hundred miles, we see one missionary, chiefly occupied however, as a chaplain among Europeans. In an eastern direction, the nearest missionary is about one thousand miles from us. Looking a little to the northeast, at a distance of thirteen hundred miles, we see ten or twelve missionaries, in a little more than as many miles, on the banks of the Ganges. Turning thence northward, nearly thirteen hundred miles more, we see three, or four, or five more, separated from each other by almost as many hundred intervening miles. And looking onward, beyond these distant posts, in a northeast direction, through the Chinese Empire and Tartary to Kamschatka, and thence down the northwestern coast of America, to the river Columbia, and thence across the mountains to the Missouri, the first missionaries, we see in that direction, are brethren, Vail and Chapman among the Osages. Again, we look north, at the distance of one hundred and eighty miles, and we see two missionaries; but from thence (with two or three doubtful exceptions) through all the north of Asia, to the pole, not a single missionary is to be seen. In a north-western direction, it is doubtful whether there is now one missionary, between us and St. Petersburg. Westerly, the nearest is at Jerusalem, or at Beyroot. South-west, the nearest is at Sierra Leone, and more to the south, the nearest may be among the Hottentots, or in Madagascar!" This was the state of the heathen world, when Hall took his flight to the kingdom of eternal light and love. Little comparatively, has been done to evangelize the great family of man. Perhaps there may be four hundred missionary stations in the different parts of the globe, and five : : hundred missionaries, to preach to five hundred millions of immortal beings, one mi sionary to a million. Shall the sympathies of Christians forever sleep over such moral death? Shall the heathen perish for lack of knowledge? It must not be. It will not be. The time will come when "the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea, and all shall know the Lord, from the least of them to the greatest of them." It is so written in the statute book of Heaven. In the accomplishment of this prediction, the great Head of the Church has given directions to his disciples, "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature." But why should this command be obeyed? - There are four motives to obedience. 1. The gospel is absolutely necessary to the well being of man. Naturally he is in a revolted state, alienated from God and a life of holiness. Disorder reigns within. "The whole head is sick and the whole heart is faint." "They have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked the Holy one of Israel to anger, they are gone away backward." All are alike ruined by sin, whatever their language, color, climate, or nation. Consequent upon this, are the frowns of indignant Heaven. A paradise is turned into hell. Adversity and misery stalk abroad in the earth. There is no peace to the wicked, and the wages of sin is death. Our world is one vast Aceldama, one great charnel-house. Death has reigned without interruption, from Adam to the present time. Besides, multitudes in regions of utter despair, and interminable wo, are now experiencing the second death-the gnawings of that worm, which shall never die, and the pains of that fire which shall never be quenched. And multitudes more of hardened impenitent sinners, will be doomed to endure the blackness of darkness forever, Such are the evil effects of sin. And nothing but a restoration to the entire love of God, and the perfect obedience of gospel holiness, will redeem man from that wretchedness, to which he is exposed by sin. The renovation of the heart by the Holy Ghost; supreme affec-* tion for him who is the fountain of all good; repentance for every deviation from moral rectitude; and faith which worketh by love, and restores man to confidence in God; -these are the graces which constitute the religion of Jesus Christ; and these are sufficient. They qualify for happiness, whether on earth, or in heaven; nay, they are heaven begun already in the soul-prelibations of the blessedness of the saints in light. - The gospel is the only remedy for the malady of a lost world. This is as true in application to the Hindoo, Chinese, and Hottentot, as to the European or American. The gospel is the great instrument, in the hands of the Divine Spirit, of convincing and converting sinners, and preparing them for the kingdom of glory. "Is not my word like as fire, saith the Lord, and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?" It was the prayer of the Saviour, respecting his. disciples, " Sanctify them through thy truth; thy word is truth." Peter, in his epistle to Christians, considers them as "being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever." Paul, addressing the Corinthian church, says, "In Christ Jesus I have begotten you, through the gospel." We have no account in scripture that any, who had arrived to years of discretion, were ever converted, until the means of instruction had been used with them. The understanding is the medium through which the heart is affected. When God was about to gather in his chosen of the Jews, he sent them the prophets; when he was about to display his grace in the salvation of the Gentiles, he sent forth the heralds of the gospel. Instruction precedes conviction; conviction, conversion; conversion, sanctification; and sanctification, eternal glorification in heaven. "He that believeth shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned." "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God, and how can they hear without a preacher." But a question here arises, Is the gospel essential to the salvation of the heathen? This question so affecting in its nature, it becomes us to answer with caution and modesty and as warranted by the word of God. "The truth," says Dr. Doddridge, "seems to be this; that none of the heathen will be condemned for not believing the Gospel, but they are liable to condemnation for the breach of God's natural law; nevertheless if there be any of them in whom is a prevailing love to the Divine Being, there seems reason to believe that for the sake of Christ they may be accepted of God." "If we suppose a heathen," observes the Rev. John Newton, "brought to a sense of his misery, to a conviction that he cannot be happy without the favor of the great Lord of the world; to a feeling of guilt, and a desire of mercy, and that, though he has no explicit knowledge of a Saviour, he directs the cry of his heart to the unknown Supreme to have mercy upon him, who will prove that such views and desires can arise in the heart of a sinner, without the energy of that Spirit, which Jesus is exalted to bestow? Who will take upon him to say, that his blood has not sufficient efficacy to redeem to God a sinner who is thus disposed, though he has never heard of his name? Or who has a warrant to affirm, that the supposition I have made, is, in the nature of things, impossible to be realized." He adds, "For want of express warrant from Scripture, I dare not give the sentiments I have now offered a stronger name than probable, or conjectural." The most that these candid and charitable persons say, on this subject is, that there is a possibility, and in a given case, which rarely or never occurs, a bare probability, that a heathen may be saved. Now and then, perhaps, a Nathaniel or Cornelius may be found. While we are disposed to acknowledge the fact, we are constrained to confess, that we see no evidence of their fitness for heaven. It is a declaration of the great apostle to the Gentiles, true in the nature of things, that without holiness no man shall see the Lord. That the heathen generally are unholy will be doubted by none acquainted with their apparent moral condition. There is scarcely a vestige of holiness among them. So impure is even their religion, that it would : cause the blush of shame to describe it. "Universal history, ancient and modern," says Dr. Scott, “does not bring to our knowledge one person, who, without revelation in some way or degree; was a humble, penitent, and spiritual worshipper of God, a conscientious worker of righteousness in his habitual conduct." Says Dr. Ward "Amidst a pretty large acquaintance with the heathen in India, I have never seen one man who appeared to fear God and work righteousness." We have then no authority from the light of nature to say the heathen wili be saved, and we have no warrant to say this from the sacred Scriptures. The remarks which have been made in regard to the heathen, will also apply to the Mohammedans and Jews. So far, therefore, as human ken can discern, we see no hope of the salvation of this vast multitude of human beings, while immersed in such gross depravity, ignorance, and superstition. They must be furnished with the gospel. 2. Another motive for evangelziing the heathen, is the command of Christ. "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every |
