But if any among those heathen--hearing within their hearts the other
voice, the gracious voice which says, "Do unto others as you would they
should do unto you,"--feel that that voice is a good voice and a right
command, which must be obeyed, and which it is beautiful and delightful
to obey, and so obey it; may we not hope then, that Christ, who has
called them, will perfect His own work; and in His own good way, and His
own good time, deliver them from their sin and ignorance, and vouchsafe
to them at last that knowledge of the true and holy God, Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit, whom truly to know is everlasting life? They are Christ's
lost sheep: but they are still His sheep who hear His voice. May He not
fulfil His own words to them, and go forth and seek such souls, and lay
them on His shoulder, and bring them home; saying to His Church on earth,
and to His Church in heaven, "Rejoice with Me: for I have found my sheep
which was lost?"
Now if we can thus have hope for some among the heathen abroad, shall we
not have hope, too, for some among the heathen at home? for some among
that mass of human corruption which welters around the walls of so many
of our cities? I am not going to make vain excuses for them; and say
they are but the victims of circumstance.
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