CONVERSION OF THE WORLD.
By U. L. H.
WHAT are the present prospects of a church that has set out in all confidence to convert the world? How may those now putting on the harness boast of greater expected success than is warranted by the experience of those who have put it off after having fought the good fight? The prophets could not convert the world; are we mightier than they? The apostles could not convert the world; are we stronger than they? The martyrs could not convert the world; can we do more than they? The church for eighteen hundred years could not convert the world; can we do it? They have preached the gospel of Christ, so can we. They have gone to earth's remotest bounds, so can we. They have saved "some," so can we. They have wept as so few believed their report, so can we. They have finished their course with joy, and the ministry they have received to testify of the gospel of the grace of God; we can do the same. Can we reasonably hope to do more? "It would take to all eternity to bring the Millennium at the rate that modern revivals progress," said the venerable Dr. Lyman Beecher, before a ministerial convention, held close by old Plymouth rock. And what hope is there that they will progress more rapidly? Is it in the word of God? Glad would we be to find it there. Sadly we read that "evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived." Has God a mightier Saviour—a more powerful Spirit? Has he another gospel which will save the world? Where is it? There is any way to the kingdom other than that which leads through much tribulation? Is there another way to the crown besides the way of crosses? Can we reign with Him unless we first suffer in his cause? No doubt the world might be converted if they desired to know the Lord. And so, had all who heard received with gladness the word of God, the world might have been converted within twenty years of the day of Pentecost. If each Christian had brought one single soul to God with each successive year, the calm splendors of the Millennial era might have shone upon the declining years of the apostles of Jesus Christ. But instead of this, ages of darkness came on. The world did not repent, but the church apostatized. If the gospel were to convert the world, we should have seen tokens of it ere this. But where are such omens to be found? Shall we look at Judson, who labored ten long years before one sinner yielded to the claims of the gospel? Shall we look at the dense darkness of the heathen world? Shall we look at the formalism of the professed church? Shall we look at the wide extension of infidelity? Shall we look at the abounding of iniquity and the waxing cold of love? Shall we look at a world, where eighteen hundred years of toil and tears have not brought one-twentieth part of mankind even to a profession of true Christianity; and where not more than one-fifth claim for themselves the dubious title of Christian nation? Shall we look over a world in which we can not find one nation of Christians, nor one tribe of Christians, nor one city of Christians, nor one town of Christians, nor one village of Christians, nor one hamlet of Christians, save here and there a questionable faith has led a few, with hypocrites even then in their midst, to withdraw themselves from the world and cherish the untried virtues of secluded life? Surely, after eighteen hundred years of experiment with that system which was to convert the world, men might point to some country, to some province, to some nation, and say, behold the commencement of a converted world. But will the gospel then prove a failure? That depends upon what is to be expected of it. If the gospel was to effect the eternal salvation of all mankind, then failing to accomplish that work is a failure of the gospel. If the gospel was to convert the world, then if it is not done it will prove a failure. But if the gospel was preached "to take OUT OF the Gentiles a people for His name," then it is not a failure. If it was given that God might in infinite mercy and love "save SOME," then it is not a failure. If it was given that every repentant sinner might have eternal life, and that every good soldier might receive a crown of glory, then it is not a failure. If it was given that an innumerable company might be redeemed OUT OF every nation and kindred and tongue under heaven, then it is not a failure. If it was given that the vales and hills of Paradise restored, might teem with a holy throng who shall be "equal to the angels, and be the children of God, being the children of the resurrection," then it is not a failure. If it was given that the elect might be brought into one great family of holy ones, then it is not a failure. And was this its object, rather than the exaltation of a worldly church, while beneath the theatre of their easy triumph there slumbers the ashes of prophets and the dust of the apostles? Are they to hold jubilee a thousand years, while the martyrs' unceasing cry, "how long, O Lord," goes up to God? Are they to have their songs of triumph, while the whole creation groaneth for deliverance, and while that longed-for day of the redemption of our body is postponed? Nay, verily, the hope of the one body is one hope. The hope of the church stops not at death, it sweeps beyond earth's scenes of tempest and of storm, and reposes in the calm beamings of the Sun of righteousness which shall glow above the bosom of Paradise regained. Thus teaches the word of the Lord. Thus reponds the universal church. There are, I know, with regard to the details, differences of opinion. But this only strengthens the argument. It shows that the church were not led by blind reverence to the traditions of their fathers. But on the leading features they all agree. Wide apart as the poles in their theological opinions, they all agree in one point, that the coming of Jesus and the scenes of judgment must precede the rest of the church of God. They all agree that the church shall never reign till she reigns complete in the presence of her Lord. They all agree that earth is not her rest until renewed by the power of God. They agree that the world will not be converted, but that the Judge of quick and dead must come upon a race not ready for the harvest of glory, but ripe for the sickle of wrath. And is not this the voice of the prophets and apostles? If we read that God will comfort all that mourn in Zion, is it not at "the day of vengeance of our God?" If Christ is to have the heathen for his inheritance, will he not "break them with a rod of iron, and dash them in pieces as a potter's vessel?" If the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our Lord and his Christ, is it not when "nations are angry and God's wrath is come?" If the new covenant be made with men, is it not beyond preaching and teaching, that they shall not any more teach his neighbor or his brother, saying, Know ye the Lord, for all shall know him from the least even unto the greatest? If Jerusalem is to be comforted by the blessing of God, will he not make her an eternal excellency? If God create new heavens and a new earth, shall not God's saints "be glad and rejoice forever in that which he creates?" If the "righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father," will not the tares be first gathered in bundles and cast into "the furnace of fire?" So of the whole Scripture. The old earth must be dissolved ere the new one can appear—Satan must be dethroned ere Christ can reign, and death must be swallowed up in victory ere the saints can sing the victor's song. Toward those scenes we hasten. The coming of the Lord draweth nigh. The rest is before us, and the toil is very brief. But alas for the world. Woe to an earth that will not repent. The deluge and the Dead Sea tell us what God has done. The Scriptures tell us what he will do. The sword shall not always sleep in the scabbard—even now it is about to be unsheathed. Watchman, set the trumpet to thy lips! Sound in the ears of the world the dread alarm—"But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come and take away any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman's hand!"