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Jtef tfcat sincerity ttf the One thing needful , and that in every nation , Pagan as well as evangelized , he that feareth God , and worketh righteousness , is accepted of him . " On this point Mr . Palfrey oi >~ serves , . *? i can in no way see that this objection does not lie with precisely equal
force against the original revelation . of Christianity . When God revealed , and our Lord and his apostles published , this religion , was it not as true as it is at this moment , that in every nation he that feareth . God and worketh righteousness is accepted of him * As far as our argument against the necessity of diffusing our beneficent faith can be maintained
upon this ground , let it be shewn why it might not equally have been urged upon them . Was a sincere man among the Roman sages then , in spiritual peril one particle greater than a sincere East-Indian now ? To attend to a less consideration , was Greek or Parthian , in a wretched condition of social life , more demanding some merciful intervention to raise him to a better , than Greenlander or Gaffrarian at this day > Was the moral darkness and the moral
danger of the world at the era of the third Caesar , reckon its absolute amount as you will , was it greater than that of the Pagan nations of the present period ? And if the truth that safety depends upon sincerity , and not on forms of faith , did not then prevent the promulgation of Christianity at grievous cost , as it certainly did not , why should this same truth , for here I speak of nothing else ,
now prevent endeavours to diffuse it ? The reason for publishing it was them what it now is . A heart right with God , however unenlightened , no doubt is , and always has been , an object of his complacency . But it is in the nature of Christianity to produce more of those sincere men whom God approves , to make them better men than they have otherwise the means of becoming , and so to make all who receive and use it
happier in this life—and the next > ** continues Mr . Palfrey ; and supports his view by the consideration that , " intended , as we are , to be as happy as we are capable of being , and the exercise of the graces enforced by Christianity being the great source of enjoyment to a moral being , then , in exact prpportion to the maturity to which those graces have been brought in any mind , must be the sources and amount of ita heavenly felicity . " It is rather to be regretted that Mr . Palfrey has here , touched upon debateable
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ground . Every argument , ( or the cause of missions , which seems to imply that the future happiness of our fellow-creatures can be in any degree diminished or heightened by a free-will effort of ours , has a chilling , rather than an animating , effect upon the spirits . It is placing an intervening contingency between the ma * nifestations of God ' e love and the
creatures who need it , and implying that he requires our aid before he can make a part of his creation perfectly happy . The reflection is unavoidable ; if mortal be * ings , who have never heard of Chris * tianity , cannot after this life be raised to an equal degree of happiness with those who have walked by and improved its light here , how large a proportion of
the human race is thus disqualified 1 How many , for no fault of their own , but merely through the indolence of their more favoured brethren , are doomed to enter even heaven labouring under a species of degradation I la using this argument , we seem , indeed , to be quite out of our proper path . The Almighty has no where informed us that if we do
not help our brethren they will fail of happiness , but he has written his law of kindness on our hearts , prompting us to partake with others every blessing and consolation we enjoy , and it appears clearly to be his will , that his merciful designs towards his creatures should not be hidden from them , but proclaimed wherever we have opportunity *
From the mixed motives , therefore , of Christian love and filial obedience , it is our part to act ; but the moment we get beyond this , and begin to speculate about how much worse our brethren would be without us , or how much bet *
ter they are , for this world and the next , because we have lived , we seem to be encroaching upon the Divine prerogative , and giving a degree of consequence to the instrument , when it is not warranted by the natural dictates of piety , or the declarations of revelation .
In the Memoirs of that amiable man , the Missionary Martyn , there is a passage in which this spirit of speculation is displayed in a most extraordinary degree . Reproaching himself when in India for having neglected , on some particular occasion , to proclaim the gospel to the multitudes round him , he breaks forth * into bitter lamentations over his
own sinful supineness . " Thousands of souls perishing , " says he , " and a missionary so near them I" One is lost in astonishment at , the delusion which could lead a believer in a beneficent God
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€ ritic ( ll Nottcfa 185
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1828, page 185, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2558/page/41/
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