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ing many truths lay hid, which are now set in the most clear light; and the instance of the apostles abundantly shows the truth of what I have now advanced; who, although they were already in a state of grace, and their salvation was secured, yet for some time were ignorant of the necessity of the sufferings and death of Christ, and of the true nature of his kingdom." We see nothing, then, in the implications of scriptural doctrine, which requires us to place all the unenlightened heathen out of the pale of possible salvation. Christian theology will sustain no damage from admitting their salvability.

4. There are express teachings of Scripture which contradict this extreme theory. If there is any doctrine clearly and repeatedly taught in the Bible, it is, that all mankind are in a salvable condition; that is, are placed by the grace of God in Christ, in such a position, that they may obtain salvation; that eternal life is within the reach of all; that no one need despair because he deserves condemnation, but may find mercy on condition of repentance.

(1) There are the numberless passages which speak of the universal relations of the atonement of Christ. We are told with special emphasis and distinctness, that he died for "the world," that "he tasted death for "every man," and that "he gave himself a ransom for all." The object of his death is acknowledged to be, to place eternal life within the reach of those for whom he died. But in what possible sense did he die for the heathen who have never heard of him, if they are on that account, from birth to death, in a hopeless condition? What a mockery it is, to affirm that an atonement was made for them, if its benefits are suspended upon their hearing of it and accepting it during their earthly lives -a condition impossible of fulfilment to successive generations! Do these theorists mean to turn the doctrine of a general atonement into ridicule, or to make it a solemn nullity? And then we must remember the passages which speak of the universal efficacy, in certain respects, of the work of the Redeemer. What can be meant by the declaration: "That was the true Light which lighteth every man

that cometh into the world?" We are aware that eminent scholars think that the last clause refers to Christ and not to man, and that the verse should have been rendered: "That was the true Light, which was to come into the world, and that lighteth every man; but even then, the sense as applicable to the present subject, is in no respect altered. It is affirmed, that his light of hope and joy shines upon "every man." In what sense? Not that he actually saves all men, for other passages teach the contrary; but that he places salvation within the actual reach of all, so that the darkness of despair is illumined by his light. Can it mean less and mean anything? But if that be its meaning, those who live and die amid the darkness of heathenism, are not shut up in hopeless gloom by reason of their guilt. Christ has shined upon them, though they know it not: his atonement has opened the way for their penitent return, though they never heard of his death. They may be saved by him though ig norant of him!

(2) And here we may apply the passages which explicitly declare the acceptance of all true penitents in whatever circumstances found. God has supreme regard to character, and not to mere knowledge. He requires all to be penitent because all are voluntary sinners and may cease from sin. He requires such as have heard of Christ, to accept him, because with them faith is possible and reasonable. Others will be accepted on the ground of Christ's atonement, and on the single condition of repentance. Therefore in the Old Testament no other condition was ever mentioned. The prophets promised pardon to all, Jew or Gentile, who would repent, saying nothing of specific faith in a future Saviour, though in fact that Saviour was typified by the sacrifices, little as they understood it. The simple word to the sinner was: Turn and live. Ezekiel, for instance, came with this message "Thus ye speak, saying, If our transgressions and our sins be upon us and we pine away in them, how should we then live? Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live turn ye, turn ye from

your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?" And so when Jonah went to Nineveh, he preached simple repentance. He neither preached nor understood the doctrine of vicarious atonement through the blood of Christ. God indeed had regard to it in his own mind, as the ground of all mercy in all ages to this lost race, but he did not then reveal it to those whom he called to repentance with a promise of pardon. The Ninevites, under this very restricted. preaching, repented and were accepted; and Christ said (little reconcilable as his words are with the Presbyterian "Confession of Faith"), that "the men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation and shall condemn it; because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and behold a greater than Jonas is here" (Matt. 12: 41). Why then may not a heathen, who turns from sin as far as he is aware of it, and grieves over his short-comings in duty, and worships God according to the best of his knowledge, though in forms rude and incongruous, why may he not be accepted on the same principle?

The New Testament, also, seems to allude favorably to the same class of cases. When Peter met the company of men who were not liv

Gentiles at the house of Cornelius ing as Jews and had not yet been instructed in Christianity, and who therefore knew nothing of atonement through Christ, but who were nevertheless pursuing a course of sincere endeavor according to their scanty light he began his address with this noble and liberal declaration: "Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons; but in every nation, he that feareth him and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him." And why should we not give the soul in China or India, that is honestly struggling in darkness, sometimes victorious, sometimes defeated, the benefit of this truth, and believe that God accepts him and will save him for the sake of a Saviour whom he knows not? And was not this Paul's ground? An attentive perusal of the first two chapters of the epistle to the Romans will show that he not only proves the heathen to be sinners and therefore deserving of death, but also that they are blameworthy if they VOL. XV. No. 59.

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do not obtain salvation in their present circumstances, even without a revelation. His language is: "For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified. For when the Gentiles, who know not the law [in the Bible], do by nature [influenced by natural conscience] the things contained in the law, these having not the law are a law unto themselves." "Therefore, if the uncircumcision [the Gentile or heathen] keep the righteousness of the law, shall not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision?" shall he not be accepted as within the covenant? And so when he stood before the Areopagus at Athens to condemn idolatry, he plainly intimated that, so far as they had fallen into absurd and evil forms of worship from ignorance, God would overlook it, and would hold them only accountable for their use of the light which had been, and which should be hereafter, granted: "And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent." And the same idea he had communicated to the people of Lystra, a few years before, when they were about to sacrifice to Barnabas and himself: "Sirs, why do ye these things? We also are men of like passions with you, and preach unto you that ye should turn from these vanities unto the living God, who made heaven and earth and the sea, and all things that are therein; who in times past suffered all nations to walk in their own ways. Nevertheless he left not himself without witness, in that he did good and gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness." The whole tone of this is not more reproving than extenuating, and implies that God, while holding them accountable for grateful love in view of his benefits, made allowance for the darkness which for ages had brooded over the earth.

But here it is objected by the advocates of the extreme theory, that the heathen would indeed be saved, if they did their whole duty according to the light of nature; but that, in fact, no one ever did this. To this we reply, that the objector speaks of performing duty in a legal and not in an evangelical sense. Does he mean to imply that the heathen

are born into the world under a purely legal system, a cove. nant of works, that requires uninterrupted obedience as a condition of life? If so, on what authority? The Bible affirms the contrary, by declaring the whole world to be under mediatorial government, and by assuring us that Christ "tasted death for every man." Therefore it simply requires the heathen to render obedience in an evangelical sense, that is, to repent of all known sin, to aim at a holy life, to be contrite for their failures in duty, and to endeavor to make progress in the way of piety. And here we must remember, that if Abraham and Jacob could be good men in their age, and yet fall into polygamy, concubinage, and falsehood; and if David could be accounted a man after God's own heart, and yet under peculiar temptation become an adul terer and a murderer, it is quite conceivable that, in the far greater darkness of the heathen, men may be accepted of God, who indulge in practices that shock our sense of right. They may nevertheless be aiming to do right as they understand it, though with frequent shortcomings over which they grieve and against which they struggle as do we against our besetting sins. In favor of such the declaration of the Saviour comes with all its amplitude of meaning: "But he that knew not and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes" (Luke 12: 48).

III. We pass now, finally, to the true evangelical theory of missions, which regards the preached gospel as an indispensable instrumentality to induce repentance on any general scale among the heathen nations. This view admits all the real facts of the case, both the melancholy and the hopeful, while yet it avoids the difficulties which press upon the two other schemes. It admits, on the one hand, the moral agency, the guilt and the condemnation of the heathen world; and, on the other, the existence of hope for all those who have never heard the gospel, but who, to the eye of God, give evidence of penitence for sin and of a desire and purpose to overcome evidence that the great and merciful Judge will of course value according to the darkness of mind and unfavorableness of influence amid which it may be presented. But after

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