.

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