Page:Theological essays (IA theologicalessay00maurrich).pdf/27

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

which have very remarkably characterized our Colonial Bishops. For the events which followed this Dedication I cannot feel anything but thankfulness. Though Dr. Colenso had proved by his Sermons that he believed in the endlessness of future punishments, he had asserted most broadly and distinctly his conviction, that we are living in a world which God loves, and which Christ has redeemed, and had affirmed that this was the message which he was called to bear to the natives, as well as to the colonists, of South Africa. Those who think that the world is not redeemed, that God's love is limited to a few, felt that a golden opportunity was afforded them of obtaining from the authorities of the English Church, a practical contradiction of the doctrines which they abhor. The attempt was made, and it failed. Bishop Colenso is permitted to carry to the English and the Zoolus, the same Gospel, which St. Paul was denounced by his countrymen as a heretic and blasphemer, for carrying to Jews and Gentiles, in Greece and Asia Minor. May the message be as mighty and effectual in the nineteenth century as it was in the first!

London, December 9th, 1853.