Will the heathen be saved, who never heard the gospel? I ask you, dear children, do _you_ think the heathen can be saved, unless the gospel be preached unto them, and they _believe_ in the name of Jesus? It is very painful to all think, that all the millions of our fellow creatures, who are now ignorant of the Savior, must, when they die, sink down to hell. But how can it be otherwise? "Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." But "how shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach, except they be sent!" And now, dear children, I desire to ask again, what do _you_ think of these words, which I have quoted from the tenth chapter of Romans? What do you think St. Paul meant? He means to say,‑‑if I understand him, he means to affirm,‑‑in the most positive manner, by the questions which he asks, that the heathen, who do not hear and believe the gospel, _cannot be saved_.
I fear that many very good people have wrong ideas on this subject; and do not consider and realize the awful condition of the heathen; for I am persuaded, that if they did see and realize, they would do very differently from what they ever have done yet; they would feel and act as Jesus Christ did; they would be willing to become poor, to labor and toil, and even die for the salvation of the heathen.
With a desire that you may have correct ideas of the real condition of the Chinese, I have been urged on to write these letters. I have stated many facts; but you will desire, I presume, to know something more about their _ideas of death, style of mourning, funerals_, &c.
Having very little if any knowledge of the true God, the Chinese are entirely ignorant of _another world:_‑‑of heaven and hell,‑‑of the joys of the one, and the terrors of the other, as revealed in the Bible. All their notions about the soul of man, are very dark and confused. Many think that the _soul dies_, and ceases to exist with the body. Others think that when the body dies, the soul goes away and enters into other bodies‑‑birds, beasts, or men. All this ignorance makes the Chinese very careless about death, and all that which is to come upon them. They die like the brutes. Such are their ideas of death.