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