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granting these preliminary positions, the solemn question returns: How much is the aspect of the heathen world thereby relieved? We may reasonably conclude that the infants and quite young children are saved, the number of whom we know to be millions; since from one-third to one-half of all that are born in those lands die, in early childhood, from disease, exposure, want, or infanticide. This alone is no small relief to the view sometimes presented, of unbroken generations descending to the pit, age after age, since the flood. Then we suppose that of the adult population some are living, in the sense before explained, conscientiously though imperfectly. But are they many? No. The missionaries declare that they seldom or never find such; that all seem to be selfish and corrupt, loving sin and hating the light; that it is rarely (not once in a million cases) that a man is found who seems to be in heart prepared to welcome the truth when it reaches him. Some missionaries of long experience say, that they never met with a single instance of the kind. Now let us concede, that the facts within the knowledge of the missionaries are by no means all which exist, and moreover, that the missionaries may have looked for too much in the circumstances, and have been more severe in their judgment than their Maker would be, still it is impossible to resist the conclusion, that there must be very few compared with the number of the adult population.

The great mass of this population are still in the bondage of sin. To this great mass of responsible transgressors, we propose to send missionaries carrying the gospel of Jesus Christ, and hoping to accomplish three important ends.

1. To reveal to their dark minds the fact that eternal salvation is within their reach. They do not know it; that is, they have no certain convictions, and no intelligent view of the grounds of hope. They are conscious of sin; they are burdened with a sense of guilt; they are aware of having wronged their fellow men and offended God; they live in fear of deserved divine wrath; they do not understand the way of securing a certain pardon, even if they are disposed to repent; they offer sacrifices, they pay large sums of money, they perform immense

labors, they endure cruel self-inflicted sufferings, all to propitiate the Deity, and yet obtain no relief and die at last in despair. The light of nature teaches nothing concerning a way of salvation. God's evident goodness, and the fact that sinners are spared upon the earth, afford a hint of the divine mercy; but there is nothing to indicate the extent or grounds of the mercy-nothing to assure the heathen that repentance will secure pardon. It is no small thing to carry to them the certain tidings of salvation for lost men procured by the incarnation, life, and death of the Son of God. It is a message of great joy. It opens a door of hope to their souls. It teaches them that "God is just and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus;" that "there is now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." It assures them, that, although they sit in the darkness of ignorance, sin, and death, yet the gloom is not unbroken; that Christ, as the "Sun of Righteousness," has risen upon this benighted earth, with "healing in his wings [beams]," and that "He is the true Light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world." Even those who were striving to please God according to their crude ideas of right, and who would have been saved, will now be brought into an assurance of salvation, will be advanced in knowledge and in holiness, and will be enabled to live in holy joy, while "the peace of God that passeth all understanding shall keep their hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." All who hear the preached word will be taught this life-giving truth, and God will be honored in the proclamation through the world of his grace and mercy to dying men as exhibited in the gift of his Son to die in their behalf.

2. The preached gospel will present the most powerful motive to induce repentance. We have seen that it is not sufficient that the heathen might be saved without a knowledge of the gospel, if they would repent and serve God according to their present light. The difficulty is, that, as a general thing, they do not and will not repent under the influences at present operating upon them. We know how diffi

cult it is to persuade men to repent even in Christian lands, with so many favorable influences concurring to secure the result. What then must be the improbability of a heathen turning from his loved vices to a life of purity, without the Bible, without the ministry, without the church, without the Sabbath, without the example of individual saints, without the encouragement of any one or anything, save of his own half-enlightened conscience, and amid surrounding pollution such as we cannot possibly conceive! Motive stimulates to action, and the motive which needs to be brought to bear upon a dark pagan mind is "the truth as it is in Jesus." He must be made to understand what God is, in the majesty and purity of his nature; what the divine law is, in its claims upon the heart and life; what his own character is, in its vileness and evil desert; what the moral impotence of his diseased will is, in its bondage to sin; and then what Christ has done for the world, to place salvation within the reach of all; and what He is ready to do for the individual sinner who receives him as the all-sufficient Saviour.

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is the truth which convicts of sin and subdues the soul to penitence and love. If we wish to reclaim men from wickedness, we must hold up the cross. It is not enough to preach morality and industry; it is not enough to discourse to them on the vague truths of natural theology. The Moravians did this for years to the degraded Greenlanders, without eliciting a single response. But when Christ was preached and they were told that the Son of God exchanged the glories of heaven for the woes of Calvary, that they might be rescued from sin and hell, their sluggish minds were moved and their hard hearts were melted. This was the influence which shamed Paul out of a life of selfishness, as we learn from his own lips: "For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead; and that he died for all, that they who live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him who died for them and rose again." Thus the gospel works upon character as no other influence can, and hence it is the chosen instrumentality of the Holy Spirit for effect

ing the conversion of sinners. Therefore Paul went everywhere preaching the gospel, knowing that nothing else would make any impression on the masses of sinful mind around him, and declaring that "it pleased God by the foolishness [as the world deemed it] of preaching to save them that believe." With this same view we send forth missionaries to the remotest parts of the earth, that we may bring to bear upon the nations that influence which alone suffices to attract men from sin to holiness. If abstractly the heathen may be saved without the gospel, provided they repent of sin, practically few of them will repent, except as they are made acquainted with the grace of Christ.

3. Lastly, as an incidental and subordinate result, and in some cases as an auxiliary influence to illustrate the beneficent character of Christianity, missions operate to elevate communities in temporal respects. The grand aim of missions is spiritual, and the missionary addresses himself directly to the mind and heart of every heathen to convince him of sin and danger and to induce him to repent, and exercise faith in Christ. Still, where he can make temporal benefits auxiliary to his chief work, he will do so, both as conferring favors on the destitute and as preparing them to listen favorably to his message of salvation. He will do what he can to heal diseases, to impart education, to encourage industry and the mechanic arts, to aid the poor, to comfort the afflicted, to redress the wrongs of the oppressed, and, in general, to elevate society to the level of Christian civilization. He will thus do immediate good of a temporal nature, will illustrate the beneficent spirit of the Christian religion, and will gain access for spiritual truth to many minds that could not otherwise be reached. And so, also, civilization will necessarily result from the operation of piety, which stimulates the whole man to action, makes him responsible for the best use of all his powers, and brings him in contact with truths and influences of the most elevating character. The degree of attention that must be given to this secular work, will vary with the condition and customs of nations. Nomadic tribes, such as the Indians of our own continent, can

hardly be reached to much effect, except as they are induced to form stationary communities and cultivate the soil. All experience, from that of Eliot to that of the most recent missionary, proves the truth of this assertion. But such secular aid is purely incidental, as when you require a man to stand still, while you converse with rim, and is never absolutely essential to the operation of divine truth upon the heart. The truths of the gospel are simple, and the most degraded heathen can be made to understand their practical import. They do not need to be educated or civilized up to a given point in order to enable them to repent of sin and accept of Christ. A previous work of civilization might be more needful, were the missionary cause dependent on mere natural appliances for its success. Such appliances are used, but behind them is the Holy Spirit to give efficacy to the truth by his supernatural power. Relying on his promised aid, we look for speedy results from an early and direct presentation of purely spiritual truth. From the inward change thus wrought, we proceed to outward renovation and improvement, thus simultaneously fitting men for two worlds.

Such, then, is the theory of missions. No grander enterprise was ever undertaken or conceived. It aims to subdue this world to Christ, for his glory and the salvation of lost men. The foundation principles are, that Christ of right owns the world, and that the world stands in perishing need of his salvation. No man can be saved without him, and but few without the knowledge of him. The truth which centres in him, is the power which, in the hand of the Spirit, is to regenerate human character and to bring all nations at the last to the obedience of faith. Based thus on immutable truth, the missionary cause, sustained by reason, enjoined by Christ's own command, fortified by the divine promises, goes forth, through toil and suffering, to secure a certain victory. Who will march by its side? Who will consecrate himself to its work?

The missionary cause appeals with special power to the Christian heart. More than anything else it represents the great object which Christ came to this world to accomplish,

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