GUILT OF NEGLECTING THE HEATHEN.
During all the years that I have been allowed to labor for the heathen,
my mind has been led to contemplate, constantly and intensely, the
obligations of Christian nations towards those who sit in darkness;
obligations arising from the command of Christ, and the principles of
the Gospel. And I shall, therefore, in this chapter, freely, fully, and
solemnly express the sentiments which have been maturing in my mind, on
the _great guilt_ which Christians incur in _neglecting the heathen_.
The heathen world, as a mass, has been left to perish. And by whom? Not
by the Father of mercies; he gave his Son to redeem it: not by the
Saviour of sinners; look at Calvary: not by the Holy Spirit; his
influences have been ever ready: not by angels; their wings have never
tired when sent on errands of mercy. All that Heaven could do has been
done, consistently with the all-wise arrangement of committing an
important agency to the church. The church has been slothful and
negligent. Each generation of Christians has in turn received the vast
responsibility, neglected it in a great measure, and transmitted it to
the next. The _guilt_ of this neglect who can estimate?
That such neglect is highly criminal, the Bible everywhere testifies. It
says, "If thou forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto death, and
those that are ready to be slain; if thou sayest, Behold, we knew it
not; doth not he that pondereth the heart consider it? and he that
keepeth thy soul, doth not he know it?" And shall not he "render to
every man according to his works?" This solemn interrogation needs no
comment. The obvious import is, _If our fellow men are perishing, and we
neglect to do what we can to save them, we are guilty of their blood_.
But this testimony does not stand alone. What does God say to the
prophet, who should see the peril of the wicked, and neglect to save him
by giving him warning? "His blood will I require at thy hand." What does
God say of the watchman of a city who should see the sword come, and
blow not the trumpet? "If the sword come and take any person from among
them, his blood will I require at the watchman's hand."
But this is not only the sentiment of the Bible, but the voice of common
sense.
A neighbor of mine is drowning in the river. With a little exertion I
can save his life, but neglect to do it. Shall I escape the goadings of
conscience and the charge of blood-guiltiness?
A house is in flames. The perishing occupants, looking from a window,
implore of me to reach them a ladder. I have some little affairs of my
own to attend to, and turn a deaf ear to their cry. The flames gather
around them: they throw themselves from the window, and are dashed in
pieces on the pavement. Who will not charge me with the loss of those
lives?
To-day, a raging malady is spreading through the streets of a large
city. The people are dying by hundreds. I know the cause; the fountains
of the city are poisoned. From indolence, or some other cause, I neglect
to give the information, and merely attend to my own safety. Who would
not load me with the deepest guilt, and stamp me as the basest of
murderers?
Both Scripture and common sense, then, concur in establishing the
sentiment, that if our fellow men are perishing, and we neglect to do
what we can to save them, we are guilty of their blood. But if this
doctrine be true, its application to Christians, in the relation which
they sustain to the heathen world, is irresistibly conclusive and
awfully momentous. The soul shudders, and shrinks back from the fearful
thought: If six hundred millions of our race are sinking to perdition,
and we neglect to do what we can to save them, we shall be found
accountable for their eternal agonies.
If such a charge is standing against us, we shall soon meet it. The day
of judgment will soon burst upon us. Let us look, then, at the subject
candidly, prayerfully, and with a desire to do our duty.
The conditions on which the charge impends are simply two: that the
heathen world are sinking to perdition, and that we are neglecting to do
what we can to save them. If these two points are substantiated, the
overwhelming conclusion is inevitable. It becomes us, then, to look well
at these points--to examine them with faithfulness and with honesty.
* * * * *
Is it true, that _the heathen world are sinking to perdition_? As fast
as the beating of my pulse, they are passing into the world of
retribution, and the inquiry is, What is the doom they meet? Do they
rise to unite with angels in the songs of heaven? or sink in ceaseless
and untold misery?
Certain it is, that they are not saved through faith in Christ; for
"how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard?" It is also
clear that God, in his usual method, does not bestow the gift of
repentance and eternal life where a Saviour is not known. "It pleases
God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe." Those
who are saved, are said to be "begotten by the word of truth"--"born of
the word of God." As the heathen nations, therefore, are not furnished
with the appointed means of salvation, it follows inevitably that, as a
mass at least, they are sinking to perdition. They are the "nations
which have forgotten God," and "shall be turned into hell."
It is unnecessary to enter into the inquiry, whether it is possible, in
the nature of the case, for a heathen unacquainted with the Gospel to be
saved. It is sufficient to know the FACT, that God has ordained the
preaching of the Gospel as the means of saving the nations; and that
there is probably no instance on record, which may not be called in
question, of a heathen being converted without a knowledge of the true
God and of his Son Jesus Christ.
But the consideration, solemn and conclusive, which needs no other to
corroborate it or render it overwhelming, is the _character_ of the
heathen. Look at their character, as portrayed by the Apostle Paul in
the first chapter to the Romans. Read the whole chapter, but especially
the conclusion, where he describes the heathen as "being filled with all
unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness;
full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, back-biters,
haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things,
disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenant breakers,
without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful." This description is
not understood in Christian lands, neither can it be; but missionaries
to the heathen, who are eye-witnesses of what is here described, place
an emphasis on every epithet, and would clothe every word in capitals.
The character of the heathen is no better now than in the days of Paul.
It is _worse_. It is impossible that such a state of society should
remain stationary. A mortal disease becomes more and more malignant,
till a remedy is applied; a sinking weight hastens downwards with
continually accumulating force; and mind, thrown from its balance,
wanders farther and farther from reason. It is thus with the disease of
sin, the downward propensities of a depraved nature, and a soul revolted
from God. Besides, Satan has not been inactive in heathen lands. He has
been aware that efforts would be made to save them. And night and day,
year after year, and age after age, he has sought, with ceaseless toil
and consummate skill, to perfect the heathen in every species of
iniquity, harden their hearts to every deed of cruelty, sink them to the
lowest depths of pollution and degradation, and place them at the
farthest remove from the possibility of salvation. It is impossible to
describe the state of degradation and unblushing sin to which the
nations, for ages sinking, have sunk, and to which Satan in his
undisturbed exertions for centuries has succeeded in reducing them. It
is impossible to give a representation of their unrestrained passions,
the abominations connected with their idol worship, or the scenes of
discord, cruelty and blood, which everywhere abound. I speak of those
lands where the Gospel has not been extended. Truly darkness covers such
lands, and gross darkness the people. Deceit, oppression and cruelty
fill every hut with woe; and impurity deluges the land like an
overflowing stream. Neither can it be said, that the conduct of the
heathen becomes sinless through ignorance. From observation for many
years, I can assert that they have consciences--that they feel
accountable for what they do.
Will, then, God transplant the vine of Sodom, unchanged in its nature,
to overrun his paradise above? Will he open the gates of his holy city,
and expose the streets of its peaceful inhabitants to those whose heart
is cruelty, whose visage is scarred with fightings, and whose hands are
red with blood? "KNOW YE NOT, THAT THE UNRIGHTEOUS SHALL NOT ENTER INTO
THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN?" Where, then, is the hope of the unconverted
heathen? If there were _innocent_ heathen, as some men are ready to
imagine in the face of God's word, and in the face of a flood of facts,
then indeed they might be saved without the Gospel. But this mass of
pollution, under which the earth groans, must disgorge itself into the
pit of woe. We cannot evade the conclusion, painful as it is, that the
millions of this world of sin are sinking to perdition.
_The American churches have peculiar advantages_ to carry abroad the
Gospel of Christ; and ability in such an enterprise is the measure of
our duty. "If there be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to
that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not." "To whom much
is given of him will much be required." And to determine whether
Christians in the United States are _doing what they can_ to save the
heathen from their awful doom, the second point of inquiry proposed, it
is necessary to look at their unparalleled advantages.
It may be said then, that Christians in America are not trammeled in
their efforts to do good by any governmental restrictions, or
ecclesiastical establishment. The remark is trite, but no less true,
that the genius of our free constitution is eminently propitious to call
forth energy and enterprise. And the remark applies with no more force
to worldly matters, than to the business of doing good. The religion of
Christ courts no extraneous influence, and is dependent for its power on
no earthly aid. Under our free government, uncontrolled, unrestrained
and unsupported, it is left to exert its own free and native energy. We
can plead, therefore, no arbitrary hindrance of any kind in the work of
propagating the Gospel. And we can carry the Gospel, too, disconnected
from any prejudicial alliance with political interests. This is the
free, disencumbered, and unshackled condition in which the Gospel is
permitted to have free course in our beloved land; and it is a talent
put into our hands to be improved.
Again, no country possesses such advantages of education as the United
States. In no land is knowledge so generally diffused throughout the
different grades of society, and in no land do such facilities exist for
acquiring a thorough education. Schools, colleges and seminaries, are
open equally to the high and to the low, to the rich and to the poor;
and only a good share of energy is required, to rise from any grade or
condition of society, to eminence in general learning or professional
study. The general intelligence of the community is such, that nothing
but _disinclination_ can prevent men from being acquainted with the
wants of the world, and their duty to evangelize it; and the facilities
for fitting themselves for the work are such, that nothing but criminal
delinquency can hold back a very large army from entering the field.
This is an immense advantage committed to the American churches, for
propagating the religion of Christ. It is another very precious talent
committed to their trust, which if they fail to improve, they treasure
up guilt.
Again, the American churches possess a great advantage in the facilities
so generally enjoyed for accumulating wealth. The road to comfort and to
affluence is open to all; and notwithstanding all reverses, the remark,
as a general one, is still true, that the prosperity of the United
States--of the whole mass of the people--is altogether unexampled, and
that enterprise is vigorous and successful. In the greatest strait, how
much retrenchment has there been in the style of living? And as we look
into the future we see, (God's providence favoring,) that wealth is
destined to flow in upon the land like a broad and deep river. Look at
the extent of territory, bounded only by two rolling oceans; and at the
resources which from year to year are developed--varied, unnumbered, and
inexhaustible. If then unto whom much is given, of them will much be
required, what may not God justly demand of American Christians?
Another advantage which the American church possesses, is the Spirit which
has been poured out upon her from on high. God has been pleased to bless
her with precious revivals. The Holy Ghost has come down frequently and
with power, and gathered in multitudes of souls. What God has wrought
for the American Zion has been told in all lands, and every one applies
the Saviour's injunction, "Freely ye have received--freely give." One
great reason, perhaps, why the blessings of the Spirit are not now more
richly enjoyed, is the neglect of Christians to make this return, and to
labor gratefully for the destitute and the dying. It _was expected_, and
justly too, that the land of apostolic revivals would be the first to
imitate the apostles in the work of saving the heathen. A failure to do
this may bring a blight upon the churches, if it has not brought it upon
them already.
Surely, if there is a nation on earth to whom are intrusted many talents,
ours is that nation. Our ability is not small. We must come up to a high
measure of Christian action, before it can be said with truth, that we
are _doing what we can_ to save our ruined race. The United States, a
nation planted by God, enriched by his providence, nourished by his Holy
Spirit, and brought to the strength of manhood in this solemnly momentous
time of the nineteenth century, seems to have committed to her in a
special manner the work of the world's conversion. Who knoweth but that
she is brought to her preëminent advantages for such a time as this--for
the interesting period preceding the latter day glory; and now if she
prove herself unworthy of so lofty and responsible a trust, and neglect
to put forth her strength to usher in the glorious day, deliverance will
break out from some other quarter, but she, like a third Babylon, may
sink in the bottomless abyss. An immense responsibility rests upon us. O
that God would give us grace to act worthy of our trust--_to do what we
can_ for a dying world!
Let us inquire, then, Do we _pray_ for the heathen as much as we ought?
Were one duly impressed with the condition of perishing millions,
certainly no less could be expected of him, than to fall on his knees
many times a day, and to lift up his cry of earnest entreaty on their
behalf. Filled with the love of Christ, and having distinctly and
constantly before his mind the image of millions of immortal souls
dropping into perdition, surely he could not refrain from an agony of
prayer. Under such a sense of the wants and woes of our perishing race,
a sense true to facts, he would have no rest.
But what prayer has actually been offered to the Lord for benighted
nations? Is it not a fact, that many professed Christians do not remember
the heathen once a day, and some not even once a month? Let the closet,
the family altar, and the monthly concert testify. Prayer-meetings for
the heathen--how thinly attended! what spectacles of grief to Jesus, and
to angels! And if that prayer only is honest which is proved to be so by
a readiness to labor, give, and go, there is reason to fear that few
prayers for the heathen have been such that Christ could accept them,
place them in his golden censer, and present them before the throne.
Since such is the case, what wonder is it that a million and a half of
Christians in the United States should be so inefficient? Inefficient, I
say, for what do this million and a half of professed Christians
accomplish? By their vows they are bound to be as self-denying, as
spiritual and devoted, as though they were missionaries to foreign
lands. If we should send abroad a million and a half of missionaries, we
should expect that, under God, they would soon be the instruments of
converting all nations. But what, in fact, does this vast number of
professed Christians--or in other words, of the _professedly missionary
band_ of Jesus Christ, accomplish in the narrow limits of the United
States? O, there is a deplorable lack in the churches, of the deep
devotion and missionary character of our ascended Saviour.
Again, Do we _give_ as much as we ought to evangelize the heathen? It
would perhaps be a liberal estimate to say, that a million and a half of
professed Christians in the United States give, on an average, year by
year, to save the heathen, about twenty-four cents each, or two cents a
month. There are other objects, it is true, that call for contributions;
but put all contributions together, and how small the amount?
The Jews were required to give to religious objects at least one-fifth
of their income. One-fifth of the income of a million and a half of
Christians at seven per cent., supposing them to be worth on an average
five hundred dollars each, would be ten and a half millions of dollars.
This is merely the income of capital of which we now speak. A fifth of
the income from trade and industry would probably double the amount, and
make it twenty-one millions. Is anything like this sum given by American
Christians to support and propagate the religion of Jesus? What
Christians have done, therefore, is by no means a measure of their
ability.
To see what men can do, it is necessary to look away from Christians, to
those whose ruling principle is a thirst for pleasure, for honor, and
for gain. How vast a sum is expended at theatres--on fashionable
amusements and splendid decorations--not to mention the hundreds of
millions sunk by intemperance, and swallowed up in the deep dark vortex
of infamous dissipation! Men are lavish of money on objects on which
their hearts are set. And if the hearts of Christians _were set_ on
saving the heathen, as much as wicked men are set on their pleasures,
would they, think you, be content with the present measure of their
contributions?
Look, too, at what men can do who are eager in the pursuit of wealth.
Under the influence of such an incentive, railroads, canals, and
fortresses spring into being, and fleets bedeck the seas like the stars
of the firmament. Money is not wanting when lucrative investment is the
end in view. Even professed Christians can collect together heavy sums,
when some great enterprise promises a profitable income. They profess,
perhaps, to be accumulating money for Christ; but, alas, to what a
painful extent does it fail of reaching the benevolent end proposed!
Worldly men accomplish much, for their hearts are enlisted. Professed
Christians, too, accomplish much in worldly projects, for their minds
become engrossed. What then could they not accomplish for Christ, if
their feelings were equally enlisted in his cause? They might have, in
serving Christ, intellects as vigorous, muscles as strong, and this
advantage in addition, a God on high who has vouchsafed to help them.
Take another view of the case. The child that is now sitting by your
side in perfect health, is suddenly taken sick. Its blooming cheeks turn
pale, and it lifts its languid and imploring eyes for help. You call a
physician, the most skillful one you can obtain. Do you think of expense?
A protracted illness swells the bill of the physician and apothecary to
a heavy amount. Do you dismiss the physician, or withhold any comfort
for fear of expense?
Your child recovers, and becomes a promising youth. He takes a voyage to
a foreign country. The ship is driven from her course, and wrecked on
some barbarous coast. Your son becomes a captive, and after long anxiety
you hear that he is alive, and learn his suffering condition; and you
are told that fifty dollars will procure his ransom. I will suppose you
are poor, have not a dollar at command, and that the sum can be raised
in no other way than by your own industry and toil. Now, I ask, how many
months would expire before you would save the sum from your hard
earnings, and liberate your son? But what is an Algerine dungeon? It is
a heaven, compared with the condition of the heathen. In the one case,
there are bodily sufferings; in the other, present wretchedness and
eternal agonies.
I once fell in company with a man of moderate circumstances, with whom I
used the above argument. He promptly replied, "It is true. Three years
ago I thought I could barely support my family by my utmost exertions.
Two years since, my darling son became deranged, and the support of him
at the asylum costs me four hundred dollars a year. I find that with
strict economy and vigorous exertion I can meet the expense. But if any
one had said to me three years ago, that I could raise four hundred
dollars a year to save a lost world, I should have regarded the remark
as the height of extravagance."
Now, I ask, ought not men to feel as much in view of the eternal and
unspeakable agony of a world of souls, as a parent feels for a suffering
child? God felt MORE. He loved his only Son with a most tender
affection--inconceivably more tender than any earthly parent can
exercise towards a beloved child. And yet, when the Father placed before
him, on the one hand the eternal ruin of men, and on the other the
sufferings and death of his beloved Son, which did he choose? Let
Gethsemane and Calvary answer. Can Christians then have much of the
spirit of God, and not feel for the eternal agonies of untold millions,
more than for the temporal sufferings of a beloved child? But if
Christians felt thus, what exertion would they make--how immense the
sum they would cheerfully raise, this present year, to evangelize the
heathen! Feeling thus, a few of the wealthy churches might sustain the
present expenditures of all foreign operations. Yet all the American
churches combined, _feeling as they do now_, fail to send forth a few
waiting missionaries, and suffer the schools abroad to be disbanded. The
truth is, in the scale of giving, the church as a body (I say nothing of
individuals or of particular churches) has scarcely risen in its feeling
above the freezing point. What they now contribute is a mere fraction
compared with their ability.
Millions are squandered by professed Christians on a pampered appetite,
in obedience to fashion, a taste for expensive building, a love of
parade, and on newly-invented comforts and conveniences, of which the
hardy soldiers of Jesus Christ ought ever to be ignorant.
Then, again, some who are economical in their expenditures, have little
conception of what is meant by total consecration to God. There must be
an entire reform in this matter. Every Christian must feel that his
employment, whether it be agriculture, merchandise, medicine, law, or
anything else, is of no value any farther than it is connected with the
Redeemer's kingdom; that wealth is trash, and life a trifle, _except_ as
they may be used to advance the cause of Christ; and that so far as they
may be used for this purpose, they are of immense value. Let every
Christian feel this sentiment--let it be deeply engraven on his heart,
and how long, think you, would pecuniary means be wanting in the work of
the world's salvation?
And do we _go and instruct_ the heathen as we ought? This is indeed the
main point. To pray, formally at least, is quite easy; to give, is a
little more difficult; but to go, in the minds of most persons, is
entirely out of the question. Satan understood human nature when he
said, "All that a man hath will he give for his life." Speak of going,
and you touch the man, his skin and his bones. To go, requires that a
man have such feelings as to begin to act in earnest, as men do in other
matters. Men act in person, when they are deeply in earnest. In the case
supposed of a sick child, does the mother simply express a desire that
the child may recover? does she merely give money, and hire a nurse to
take little or no care of it? No: in her _own person_ she anticipates
its every want, with the utmost attention and watchfulness. When a son
is in bondage on a barbarous coast, does the father merely _pray_ that
his son may be redeemed? does he merely send _money_ for his ransom? No:
he chooses, if possible, _to go in person_ and carry the sum, that no
means may be left untried to accomplish the object he has so much at
heart. Men who are deeply interested in an important matter, where there
is much at stake, cannot be satisfied with sending; they choose to _go
themselves._ This remark is true in all the enterprises and transactions
of life the world over.
If then, after all, the measure of going is the true measure of
interest, to what extent, I inquire, have Christians of America gone to
the heathen? Alas! the number is few, very few.
Look at the proportion of _ministers_ who go abroad. In the United
States the number of preachers, of all denominations, is perhaps not far
from one to a thousand souls. This is in a land already intelligent and
Christian; in a land of universities, colleges, and schools; in a land
of enterprise, of industry, and of free institutions, where the arts
flourish, and where improvements are various and unnumbered; and more
than all, in a land where more than a million and a half of the people
are professed Christians, and ready to aid the ministers of Christ in
various ways. On the other hand, even if missionaries from all
Christendom be taken into the account, there is not more than one
minister to a million of pagan souls, with almost no intelligent
Christians to assist as teachers, elders, catechists, and tract
distributers; no physicians, artists, and judicious legislators, to
improve society and afford the means of civilized habits; no literature
worthy of the name; no colleges, or even common schools of any value; no
industry and enterprise, and every motive for it crushed by arbitrary
and tyrannical institutions: the mind degraded and besotted,
inconceivably so, and preoccupied also with the vilest superstition, the
most inveterate prejudices, and the most arrogant bigotry. Who can
measure the vast disproportion? What mind sufficient to balance extremes
so inconceivably immense? On the one hand a minister to a thousand
souls, with many helpers and a thousand auxiliary influences in his
favor; on the other, one minister to a million of souls, with no helpers
and no auxiliary influences, finding out an untrodden track amidst
unnumbered obstacles, and penetrating with his single lamp into the dark
and boundless chaos of heathenism. This is the manner in which
Christendom shows that she loves her neighbor as herself; and in view of
it, judge ye, whether American Christians go as much as they ought to
instruct and save the benighted nations.
We said, that the number of missionaries to the heathen population is
about one to a million of souls; but let not the conclusion be drawn,
that every million of heathen souls has a missionary. By no means. The
few hundred missionaries preach to a few hundred thousand souls. The
millions and hundreds of millions of heathen, are as destitute of
preaching as though a missionary had never sailed, as destitute of the
Scriptures as though a Bible were never printed, and as far from
salvation, I was about to say, as though Jesus Christ had never died.
Men speak of operating upon the _world_. Such language is delusive. The
present style of effort, or anything like it, can only operate on some
small portions of the earth. To influence materially the _wide world_,
Christians must awake to a style of praying, giving, and _going_ too, of
which they have as yet scarcely dreamed. The work of going into all the
world and preaching the Gospel to every creature, has scarcely been
undertaken in earnest. And how vain it would be to expect to make any
material impression on the world, as a whole, when so small a company
from all the ministers in the United States go abroad, and a less number
even of lay members from the vast body of a million and a half.
The heathen are not lost because a Saviour is not provided for them.
"God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son." The
preaching of the cross is "the power of God and the wisdom of God" both
to the Jew and the Greek. Facts show, that in every nation, however
barbarous and degraded, the Gospel of Jesus has power to convert,
purify, elevate and save. These facts are irresistible.
Neither are the heathen lost, because the ocean separating them is
rarely passed. For the sake of gain, men can visit the most distant and
sultry climes. To solve a question of science or merely to gratify
curiosity, they can circumnavigate the globe, or penetrate far into the
icy regions of the poles. The improvements in navigation and the
extension of commerce have united the two continents in one. The
Atlantic ocean no longer separates you from Africa, nor the Pacific from
China. The amount of intercourse between the seekers of wealth from
Christian lands and almost every heathen country, is absolutely immense.
Why then are the heathen left to perish? There is a lack of earnestness
in the church in the work of the world's conversion. What does the
present earnestness of the church amount to? They contribute on an
average two cents a month each, and they find that the pittance of money
will more than suffice for the small number of men: and then the cry is
"More money than men." A few men are obtained and then the pittance of
money fails, and "More men than money" is the cry. A year or two
afterwards the supply of men is gone, and the cry again is reversed. As
if, in repairing the wastes of the New-York fire, the citizens collect
together a small quantity of brick, and then find they have more brick
than workmen. So they employ a few more men, and then find they have
more men than brick. Was this the rate at which the ravages of the great
fire were so soon repaired? Was this the measure of their engagedness in
rebuilding the city?
Some derangement takes place in the Erie Canal: a lock fails, an
aqueduct gives way, or a bank caves in. Is business stopped on the canal
till the next season, because the times are hard, and it is difficult to
obtain money to make repairs? Some derangement takes place in a
railroad: is travelling postponed till next year? But in the work of
doing good, the reverse of times is regarded as a sufficient excuse to
detain missionaries, disband schools, and take other retrograde steps.
We coolly block our wheels, lie still, and postpone our efforts for the
world's conversion till more favorable times. Men are earnest in worldly
matters: in digging a canal, in laying a railroad, or in repairing a
city; but in God's work--the work of saving the nations--their efforts
are so weak that one is at loss to know which is most prominent, the
folly, or the enormous guilt.
Is it not a fact, that in our efforts for the heathen we come so far
short of our ability, that God cannot consistently add his blessing.
Can it be that the service rendered by the church as a body is
acceptable to God? It is not according to that she hath--it forms an
immense and inconceivable contrast to that measure of effort which lies
fully within her power. Is it not, then, as though an imperfect
sacrifice were offered to the Lord--a lamb full of blemish? If the
church were weak, and it were really beyond her ability to do more than
she does at present, then God would accomplish great victories by the
feeble means. He can save by few as well as by many. He would make the
"worm Jacob to thresh mountains." But since God has blessed the American
church with numbers, and with great and peculiar advantages, he requires
of her efforts that accord with her ability. The poor widow's mites
accomplish much; but the wealthy man's mites, or the wealthy nation's
thousands, when she is fully able to give millions; and her very few
sons, when it would even benefit her to spare a host of her ablest men;
what shall we say of such an offering? The reason why God blesses the
efforts of the American church may be, that there are _some widows_, and
some others too who do what they can--who honestly come up to the
measure of their ability. For the sake of these God may add his
blessing, just as for the sake of ten righteous men he would have spared
Sodom. But no very great and conspicuous blessing can be expected to
attend the labors of missionaries, such as the conversion of China, or
of Africa, till the church begins to _pray_, _give_ and _go_, according
to her _ability_; till she begins to come up to the extent of her powers
in her efforts to save the heathen. Then, when she renders according to
that she hath, her service will be accepted; it will be a sweet savor
before God; his throne of love will come near the tabernacle of his
saints, and the noise of his chariot soon be heard among the ranks of
the enemy. The church then, with Christ at their head, shall go on
rapidly from conquering to conquer, till all nations, tongues and
people, shall bow the knee before him. As soon as the church shall put
forth all her strength so as to render an acceptable service to God, it
is of little consequence whether she be weak or strong, few or many, the
blessing will descend; the mountains will break forth into singing, and
the trees shall clap their hands for joy; God will come, take up his
abode with the saints, and verify all that is expressed by "the latter
day glory."
It is plain, then, not only that Christians come far short of doing what
they can to save the heathen, but that if they would come up to the
measure of their duty they might, under God, rescue the dying nations
from their impending doom. If they would engage in earnest, pray with
fervency and faith, and prove their zeal by giving and by going, then
the providence of God would not leave a bolt or a bar in their way,
except what might be necessary to test their perseverance. Let every
ambassador of Christ, and _every Christian too_, possess the unreserved
consecration of Paul, and manifest that burning zeal which carried him,
as on the wings of an angel, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable
riches of Christ; let every redeemed sinner, minister or layman, stand
ready, not merely to contribute of his substance, but to traverse with
cheerful step the burning plains of Africa or the icy mountains of
Greenland: then the darkness that now envelopes the earth would soon be
dispelled, the torch of Revelation be carried to the most distant lands,
and its light be made to penetrate the most gloomy abodes of men; the
radiance of heavenly truth would be poured around the dying bed of every
pagan, intelligence now in to us from every quarter, not only of
individuals, but of nations converted to God, and the shout of triumph
would soon be heard, "The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdom
of our Lord."
It seems to be true, therefore, that the heathen are sinking to
perdition; and true, also, that we might, under God, be the means of
saving them. Shall we not then be found _accountable_ for their eternal
agonies? O Christian, pause and look at this thought! Look at it
deliberately, for we shall be obliged to do so at the judgment day. No
one can plead exemption from it, unless he does _what he can_ to save
the heathen. O my soul, how much blood, how much weeping, wailing and
gnashing of teeth, will stand at thy account in the day of judgment!
I appeal to each one of you, examine yourselves in the light of this
truth. Call up your prayers, your contributions, and your personal
efforts. Compare what you have done with what Jesus did for you. I
entreat you, open your ears, and hearts too, to the groans of a dying
world. Listen to the notes which, like the noise of seven thunders, peal
after peal, are rolling in upon your shores.
"Hark! what mean those lamentations,
Rolling sadly through the sky?
'Tis the cry of heathen nations,
'Come and help us, or we die!'
"Hear the heathen's sad complaining,
Christians! hear their dying cry;
And, the love of Christ constraining,
Haste to help them, ere they die!"
Yes, reader, haste to help them. Confer not with flesh and blood. Meet
all vain excuses with a deaf ear and a determined spirit. Let pity move
you, the love of Christ constrain you, and a sense of responsibility
urge you, to take that precious Gospel on which your hopes rely, and to
carry it, without delay, to the perishing nations.