Dear Heathen:
The Lord Jesus Christ hath promised that the time shall come when all the ends of the earth shall be His kingdom. And God is not a man that He should lie nor the son of man that He should repent. And if this was promised by a Being who cannot lie, why do you not help it to come sooner by reading the Bible, and attending to the words of your teachers, and loving God, and, renouncing your idols, take Christianity into your temples? And soon there will not be a Nation, no, not a space of ground as large as a footstep, that will want a missionary. My sister and myself have, by small self-denials, procured two dollars which are enclosed in this letter to buy tracts and Bibles to teach you.
Archibald Alexander Hodge, and Mary Eliz. Hodge,
Friends of the Heathen.
(June 23, 1833. A letter to the "heathen" from ten-year-old A.A. Hodge and his sister Mary Elizabeth, given to J.R. Eckard, a Princeton Seminary graduate who was to go to Ceylon. Quoted in Princeton Seminary: Faith and learning 1812-1868, v. 1, p. 193).
(HT: Christ Church Moscow Website)
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2 comments:
Okay, other than Hodge being postmil, how is this post on postmillennialism?
Just wondering...
The belief that the ends of the earth shall be his kingdom before his coming. This is the belief that the millennium is literal in time and space, at least a thousand years if not longer.
It's great that this theology captivated his kids and went beyond the type of theological arguing that only happens in the academy or presbytery. Their view of the millennium took practical shape.
Thanks for asking. See you Sunday!
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