Carey, Pearce or Edwards, living or dead, could not have made such a promise. It would have been criminal assumption. It would have been like the ravings of insanity. But it was not insanity in Christ. It was truth. He has verified it, so far as the case would admit; he will verify it again.

When we reflect that our Savior here addressed the eleven disciples, if not five hundred brethren at once, that they were about to be scattered every where preaching the word, and that some of them were to live to a great age, as John, we see this doctrine fully developed. These persons were to live to various ages, to say nothing of their successors. They were to be scattered into various places. How could any but the Divine Being be with them all to the end, able to console and support the last, and to know that he should be able to do it? Did it not demand omnipresence to do this? Did it not require omniscience to know that he should be able to do it,-to know where he should be, how he should act, and with whom he should be holding converse, years and years thereafter? Did it not demand the power of life and of death, did it not require conscious immortality, indwelling eternity, to do this, in a changing, dying world? Surely he who could thus in his last words on earth arrogate to himself eternity, omniscience and omnipresence, must have been a great impostor,—or the great God, and that he was not the former, his life, his death, attests.

Suppose the passage should be interpreted, as some demand, "I am with you to the end of this age, i. e., the apostolic age;" still, he must be endowed with omnipresence. Scattered as the disciples were about to be, how could he have been with each, if he were no more than man? For it is not said his influence should be with them,-the savor of his presence,-his remembered instructions, -his ever living consolations,-but "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." The nominative is inserted in the Greek, that it may be the more emphatic and definite,-I, "I am with you," my person, myself.

Or suppose that it be interpreted,-"to the end of this dispensation," in distinction from the Jewish. Christ is the Lord of this dispensation; and to make such a promise as is contained in the text is equivalent to saying, “I am with you as long as the Christian dispensation lasts." But this, again, is a claim to immortality.

Or suppose it be said, "I am with you till the end of the world,”—the common interpretation, then all is granted that we claim. Hence, therefore, Christ's right to make such a promise is founded on his eternity. The same word which in this verse expresses the continuance of his presence with his disciples, is elsewhere used to designate eternity. Hence also he says in other places, claiming to himself the same prerogative,-"I am he that liveth and was dead; and, behold, I am alive forevermore." "I have power to lay down my life, and I have power to take it again." "In him was life." "I am the way, the truth and the life,” the source of life,—spiritual life,—natural life,—all life. Had not the eternal Being a right to speak in such words of promise to his disciples?

His right rested on his power. He exhibited his power in his miracles, and in his assertions. He showed that he had power over the physical and the spiritual world,-over the elements of nature,-over the issues of life and of death. The realm of death, as well as of life, was perfectly under his control. Having subsidized all nature, in all its forms, not to aid, but to exhibit his power, not to secure, but to adorn his triumphs, he entered the dominions of death. He snatched the decaying victim from the grave, and bade him live again. Thus he sustained his claim to the empire committed to his trust "when all

power was given to him in heaven and in earth." Thus did he show that he held even the keys of hell and of death. And if, according to the axiom of philosophy, the greater contains the less, then he who had the higher power over life and death, had also the lower power over inferior subjects. Why should not such a being make any, any promise to his disciples?

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Christ's right rested on his covenant relation to his servants. As we have intimated, the words contain the items of a business transaction. We have here the terms of a covenant. In respect to the missionary work here enjoined, certain conditions are set forth, with a reward promised. It is as if he had said, -Do you go into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature," and I will “be with you alway, even unto the end of the world." It is the English brethren's, "Do you go down into the well, and 1 will hold the rope." And he does hold it; and he will hold it. Men may forget their duty. They may leave sending the gospel to the heathen, to dispute about questions of party zeal. They may, in the narrowness of their souls, let go the rope, and leave their brethren to their fate. But let those who have gone down into the well be cheered by the thought that he, the mighty, eternal one, the lover of souls, the glorious Redeemer, the ever living Jehovah, does hold the rope, and will hold

it.

For the work

"Lo, I am with you alway." The covenant is not annulled. is yet going on. And he who engages with Christ, assuming one side of the treaty, shall find Christ engaging with him, and assuming the other. Christ's promise, in this respect, rests on the covenant relations of Christ to his servants in respect to this very work.

His right to make the promise and our obligation to trust in it, rest on his harmony of plan with the Divine Being. Harmony of nature produces harmony of plan; oneness of nature, oneness of plan. It is evident that God designs to secure the success of missions. He who watches the progress of things with but a careless eye, and still more he who has been a diligent observer of them for the last thirty years, will perceive how God is employing every thing to promote this end. Wars are made the means of opening a way for the conquests of the gospel. Victories, national and political, men may rejoice over, as triumphs secured to party ends, to the public convenience, or to national glory. Discoveries in science and inventions in the arts, diminishing human labor and augmenting human wealth, we are prone to admire for their influence on our coffers and our comforts. But conquests and victories, discoveries and inventions, steamships and overland passages, railroads and telegraphs, God yokes them all to the triumphal car of the gospel. When Columbus discovered the path across the ocean to the new world, it was the path for the gospel to take in its advancement. When the pilgrims, leaving England, went for a while to Holland, they could not stay there, because God would have them found in America a new empire,-an empire for the gospel and for Christ. When the English government established their merchants and their factories in the Eastern world, they did but open a way for the extension of the triumphs of religion. When, in 1825, the Burman empire was dismembered, and large portions of its territory given in charge to a Christian nation, it was that the gospel might be preached without molestation to the inhabitants. He who opens his eyes will see how God has fashioned all his arrangements, providence, the coming and the sacrifice of Christ, prophecy, human advancement, the general course of events, as if with reference to the success of the gospel. The plan of the divine nature is one. The plan of the Father is the plan of the Son. Their works spring from one centre. They tend to one result. They exhibit

one harmonious wisdom. They are the offspring of one mind. When we consult history and the course of events in reference to this point, why should we not trust in his promise,-"Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world."

Christ's right to make such a promise stands in his purpose, through his disciples to convert and save the world. He has set his systems of means in operation in reference to this end. He has expressed his purpose by no doubtful indications. Prophecy foretold it. The work of Christ confirmed and commenced it. His commission to his disciples transmitted the trust. Successive generations of Christians, under the same seal and authority, have prosecuted the work; sometimes under prosperity, sometimes under painful reverses, it has still proceeded, and it will proceed. For, saith Jehovah, "1, the Lord, will hasten it in his time." Some of the servants of God may labor long and see no fruits of their toils. Their hearts may sink in discouragement. But God's final purpose is to employ these disciples, and such labors as they are engaged in, to bring about the grand consummation. Their evangelical efforts may seem to them like water scattered upon the ground. But though man cannot gather it up, it is not lost. The spilled water returns to the earth, in its season, in reviving dews or fertilizing showers. It melts away in the vapors of the morning, as they roll majestically along the mountain sides; it shines in the splendid garniture of the evening sky. It is a maxim that nothing is lost in nature. Physical particles are not annihilated; they only change their relations; and continually reäppear in new forms of utility and beauty. Spiritual labors and influences are not annihilated. The labors and the words of ministers and of missionaries, of faithful Sabbath school teachers, of pious parents, and of devout Christians may seem to be wasted. But wait for the great consummation. They shall reäppear in the characters of the saved. They shall swell the new song in heaven. They shall sparkle in gems wreathed about the Savior's brow. The spiritual husbandman, far more than the temporal, may sow in hope. The corn may rot in the earth. Drought may consume, or blight may waste the expected crops, although still God will provide food for the diligent and industrious. But not so the spiritual husbandman.

Even if no apparent result should spring from the evangelical labors of the faithful servant of God, let him toil on. God will be responsible for the fruits. And above every raging tempest of trial and persecution, in every scene of toil, distress and death, let him listen,-for he will hear the silvery tones of the promise unrecalled and unrecallable,-"Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." S. F. S.

(To be continued.)

CAN THE HEATHEN BE SAVED WITHOUT THE GOSPEL?

The following note accompanying the subjoined article, and addressed to the Editor, shews the occasion and manner of its preparation.

"Being by invitation present, a few evenings since, at a weekly exercise of one of the societies connected with the Western Baptist Theological Institute, near Cincinnati, I was so deeply interested in the subject of discussion that I take the liberty of giving a synopsis of the manner it was treated by the young gentlemen, for your Missionary Magazine. Its relevancy must be obvious; but whether it is otherwise entitled to a place in your invaluable journal, you must be the judge.

"The question was; Can the heathen be saved without the gospel? The speakers did not appear to be arranged on affirmative and negative sides; but each gave his views of the subject generally, presenting what in his opinion sustained the affirmative, and what might be deemed to militate against it. Each adduced at discretion direct arguments, offering and answering objections at will. The exercise was not, properly speaking, a debate, but a united investigation of the subject, in which each contributed what he could to the common stock of information.

"I have no intention, if I could, of following the order of the investigation. My design is merely to give results. In these, at the close of the exercise, there was manifestly unanimity."

1. It was deemed evident, that the heathen are under the moral government of God: that they have, in common with all men, a moral constitution, and that they have sufficient knowledge of their duty to render them accountable: that although there are abundant means of knowledge within their reach, which they have no disposition to improve, yet, indisposed as they are, there is forced upon their understandings and consciences light sufficient, if improved, to make them unspeakably more virtuous than they are. Several of the young gentlemen gave, in confirmation of this doctrine, very judicious and lucid expositions of those familiar passages in the first and second chapters of Romans. "The invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and godhead; so that they are without excuse." Also, "The Gentiles show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness," &c.

To this express teaching of the word of God, it was added, that the heathens' treatment of one another shows that they consider themselves accountable. They mutually act on the principle that many duties, at least, are known, and that thus far they are to be held responsible.

2. The accountability of the heathen being thus established, the inquiry arose; Is not the same light, &c., which is sufficient to render a creature accountable, equally sufficient to make him an acceptable worshipper of God? Might it not lead him to repentance, and so convert him?

On this there was considerable discussion, and at first, in some of the speakers I thought, some confusion. But the darkness gradually gave way, and the idea became apparently simple, and well sustained by the general teachings of the scriptures, that the means necessary to render a man accountable would enable him to meet the demands of the divine law, provided he had a right disposition of heart. If in all respects he were susceptible to right religious im

pressions, and he sincerely hungered for truth and righteousness, there would be no obstacle to his working out his own salvation. If we except here an undue tendency on the part of some of the speakers to reason beyond what is revealed, I confess that my pleasure was great in observing the general conviction on which the minds of the members seemed finally to settle and rest ;that the heathen might, one and all, were their hearts right,-were not their hearts "fully set in them to do evil," "not willing to retain God in their knowledge," arrive at salvation with the limited means they possess. As their accountability cannot exceed their privileges, so nothing but a spirit of obedience is wanting to make their condition safe.

3. But it was admitted by all that this spirit of obedience is wanting, and universally: that however ignorant the heathen are of the attributes of the glorious God, yet their indisposition to worship him as such is even greater. None doubted that the declaration, "The carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be," is of universal application, extending to every member of the human family. On this point no time was spent. It was granted with equal readiness, that no influence short of that of God's Spirit could excite in the heart of the heathen, or of any one else, this spirit of obedience, or rightly dispose a heart for the worship of a holy God.

4. The question was finally reduced in substance to this form: As men must be converted before they can, that is, will obey God, or seek after spiritual life, is there any evidence that the Divine Spirit ever exerts its saving influences where the gospel is not preached? There can be no doubt of the sufficiency of their religious intelligence, to be converted, but does the Spirit ever employ, as the instrument of regeneration, truth from which the doctrine of a Mediator is excluded? There were, it was said, many pious persons before the advent of Christ,-Abraham and his spiritual seed were true worshippers;—but they, it is obvious, had a knowledge of a Savior to coine, and trusted in him. It was believed that there were, in early times, those scattered through the heathen world, who might be pious,—of whom Job was a striking instance. Balaam, though belonging to an idolatrous nation, understood much of the true God and of the promised Messiah. He knew enough of the gospel to save him, had it not been for his covetousness. Others similarly situated may have believed and have been saved. The ideas and hopes of a Savior, doubtless, faded slowly from the minds of the heathen world. It is plain, therefore, that all known instances of piety previous to the coming of Christ, may have been the result of the doctrines connected with his anticipated mission to this world. Cornelius, to whom Peter preached the gospel, as he was a Jewish proselyte, doubtless expected the promised Deliverer. The apostle assured Cornelius that He had come, and that the promised Spirit had been poured out. It was agreed that no well authenticated instances of conversion among the heathen had ever been discovered by modern missions, except as the fruits of the gospel. Even the Karens, a people retaining a greater number of primitive religious ideas than any other heathen nation, seem never to have furnished a solitary example of true piety,—of actual conversion,-till taught the way of salvation by Christ. History obviously gives no countenance to the opinion that the Spirit of God is ever exerted in producing a saving change of heart, or of leading men to the worship of God, where the doctrine of a Savior is unknown.

But the question was not left here. The teachings of the scriptures came next under consideration. These, it was thought, were full and explicit in sup