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Redeemer as the only Saviour of the world, will humbly solicit admittance into the Christian Church; and "there shall be one fold and one Shepherd." Hence the apostolic declaration, "For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in, and so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob : for this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins."* What a glorious Eden will this blighted world present, when every heart shall be filled with the principles of Christianity.

"Father of faithful Abraham, hear

Our earnest suit for Abraham's seed;
Justly they claim the softest prayer
From us, adopted in their stead,
Who mercy through their fall obtain,
And Christ by their rejection gain.

*Romans xi. 25-27.

"Outcasts from Thee, and scattered wide

Through every nation under heaven; Blaspheming whom they crucified;

Unsaved, unpitied, unforgiven;

Branded like Cain, they hear their load,
Abhor'd of men, and cursed of God.

"But hast Thou finally forsook,

For ever cast Thine own away?

Wilt Thoù not bid the murderers look

On Him they pierced, and weep, and pray?

Yes, gracious Lord! Thy word is past,
All Israel shall be saved at last.

"Come, then, thou great Deliverer, come! The veil from Jacob's heart remove; Receive Thy ancient people home!

That, quickened by Thy dying love, The world may their reception find, Life from the dead for all mankind."

CHAPTER III.

THE FINAL TRIUMPH OF CHRISTIANITY.

WHAT an amount of responsibility devolves upon those who are intrusted with the "oracles of God," that they may scatter its Divine rays over the habitable world, and dissipate the gloom with which it is enveloped.

This we believe has been the design of God, in raising our nation to what it is in commerce, civilization, and Christianity; that by the agency of the Church, the "Lamp of Life" may be conveyed to every climate where a human being exists, that all may hear the glorious tidings, that "Christ Jesus, by the grace of God, tasted death for every man."

But before we shall individually feel the pressure of our duty, we must open our hearts to receive the Gospel, and experimentally know its regenerating power. Until a radical change is effected in our moral nature, we shall feel but little interest in the salvation of others,

but delight in those things which are fraught with the most calamitous results.

The renovating power of the Gospel can extract the roots of sin, destroy the works of the devil in the human heart, and raise out of the ruins of the fall a Church, "against which the gates of hell can never prevail."

It matters not where the sons of Adam are scattered over the face of the earth, whether they are in the distant isolated regions, or in the thickly populated city; whether they are the subjects of slavery, (that cruel bondage which darkens the horizon under which they live, and stamps disgrace upon the nations that practice it,) or free men. It matters not whether they are enveloped in heathen darkness, prostrating themselves in religious worship before idols of their own making, or men enlightened in the nature and worship of the true and living God; whether they are fierce Canibals, or refined Europeans,-"The Gospel of Christ is the power of God unto salvation, to every one that believeth.”* Only let the

* Romans i. 16.

human family be brought under its benign influence, and “the dark places of the earth, which are full of the habitations of cruelty,' shall become civilized and evangelized; then will they "cast their idols to the moles and to the bats," and shall worship Him who is the "only true God, and Jesus Christ whom He hath sent."

The signs of the times are indicative of good. The Divine Being has, in His infinite mercy, opened fresh fields for usefulness.

Nations, which were closed against the Gospel, where heathenism, superstition, bigotry, and intolerance prevailed, to an awful extent, have been induced to receive the Word of God.

China, with its teeming millions, who prided themselves in their intellect and superiority over the nations of the earth, were beginning to renounce their superstitions, and to fall before that "NAME which is above every name;" but, alas! recent events have altered the aspect of things,—a dark cloud hangs over

* Psalm lxxiv. 20.

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