Morning Star

For the Morning Star.

Will the Heathen be saved, if the gospel is not preached unto them?

There are many reasons assigned, or rather there are many excuses made for not sending the word of life among the Heathen—and there are some who, it seems, sincerely indulge the thought that the Heathen will unquestionably be saved if they die in their present condition.— Such, of course, have no anxiety for those who are immersed in the darkness of Heathenish idolatry. Not only do they withhold that aid which is necessary to support the gospel in benighted Hindostan, but so long as such a faith is nurtured, the salvation of the Heathen cannot properly be an object of their prayers.

If the Heathen who do not enjoy the light of the gospel, and consequently are not favored with the means of grace, will be saved without this blessing, then, to be sure, it is quite unnecessary to be at any trouble or expense in publishing the news of peace and pardon unto them.

That the Heathen will no more be saved without faith in Christ, than will sinners in a gospel land, is a position that I shall take and endeavor to sustain.

1st. The scriptures make no particular distinction betwixt unbelievers in general, with respect to their present condition and their final disposition. They are all included in unbelief—they have all gone out of the way—they have no fear of God before their eyes—the way of truth they have not known. It is an express declaration of the Son of God that he that believeth not in Christ shall not see life. The same unerring Author also affirms that unless a man is born again he shall not see the kingdom of Heaven. The fact that a large portion of unbelievers are where the means of grace are not realized, will not make void the substantial declarations of the gospel. The Heathen, then, must cheerfully and heartily cast their dumb idols to the moles and bats, and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, or perish everlastingly.

2d. If the unbelieving Heathen, who worship their little gods many and their great gods many, and who have not the true and living God in all their thoughts, are saved in consequence of their ignorance of him, and the sincerity of their oblations, as some suppose—and, if those who die in their sins in gospel lands are punished with everlasting destruction, it follows, conclusively, that the preaching of the gospel is the efficient cause of their damnation.—Because

The distinction betwixt us and the Heathen morally is made by the preaching of the gospel of God unto us and not unto them. Had we enjoyed no more of Heaven's radiant light beaming upon us by means of the gospel preached, than they have enjoyed, our condition would have been no better than theirs. Our moral degradation, wretchedness and wo, would have been as great as theirs. In this case our future prospects as well as our present condition would have been equal to theirs.

If they will be saved without the gospel and without faith in Christ, we also should have been saved without these, and consequently if any perish in a land of light, they will not fall through unbelief, but because the gospel has been preached unto them—a strange idea this for Christians to entertain—and to this conclusion they must necessarily come, who think that the idolatrous Heathen will be saved in consequence of their ignorance of the true God.

According to the doctrine of the apostle, and of the whole Bible, the design of preaching the gospel is to save them that believe; not to be the procuring cause of the condemnation of them who believe not in the only begotten Son of God.

3d. The Heathen are not only sunken to a great depth in ignorance and superstition, but they are grossly wicked in their lives, and excessively abominable in their every day transactions—Almost every species of wickedness that is forbidden in God's law is continually practiced by them, abundantly more so as a common thing and by people in general, than among us. Now if the Heathen are saved without faith in Christ, to one or the other of the following conclusions we must come—Universalism is true, every person on earth will be saved without regard to their good or evil deeds, or else God saves one portion of unbelievers and transgressors, and destroys another—that indeed he has respect to persons—that he saves unbelieving and idolatrous Heathen, and damns those sinners who have the misfortune (for if such were the case, it would indeed be a misfortune) to live in a land of Bibles, of sanctuaries, and of gospel blessings. Either view of the subject does not, I apprehend, delineate the Father of Mercies in his true character. He is without respect of persons. In every nation he that fears God and works righteousness is accepted by him; but he that continues in unbelief will be driven away in his wickedness, with all the nations that forget God.

4th. Christ plainly represents (Mat. 7: 13, 14,) that the number of the human race which go to destruction in the broad way through the wide gate, is much greater than that which go to life in the narrow way through the strait gate. The idea that all the Heathen will be saved is directly at variance with the assertion of our unerring Lord. For if it be supposed that all in Heathen lands are saved, and all in Christian countries (usually so denominated) are lost, still the number saved will be vastly greater than the number destroyed. So then we come to the conclusion finally, that "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be damned."

Having come to this conclusion I am firmly of opinion that every reasonable effort should be made to improve the condition of the Heathen.

B. S.