is translated “gentiles” oftener than by any other word, that is, about ninety-three times; by “heathen” four or five times; and in the remaining passages it is mostly translated “nations.”  That it means the Gentiles or heathen here appears from the fact that they are represented as ignorant of Christ, and are judged, not by the standard of Christian faith, but by their humanity and charity toward those in suffering.  Jesus recognizes, therefore, among these ethnic or heathen people, some as belonging to himself,—­the “other sheep,” not of the Jewish fold.

The Apostle Paul, who was especially commissioned to the Gentiles, must be considered as the best authority upon this question.  Did he regard their religions as wholly false?  On the contrary, he tells the Athenians that they are already worshipping the true God, though ignorantly.  “Whom ye ignorantly worship, Him declare I unto you.”  When he said this he was standing face to face with all that was most imposing in the religion of Greece.  He saw the city filled with idols, majestic forms, the perfection of artistic grace and beauty.  Was his spirit then moved only with indignation against this worship, and had he no sympathy with the spiritual needs which it expressed?  It does not seem so.  He recognized piety in their souls.  “I see that ye are, in all ways, exceedingly pious.”  He recognized their worship as passing beyond the idols, to the true God.  He did not profess that he came to revolutionize their religion, but to reform it.  He does not proceed like the backwoodsman, who fells the forest and takes out the stumps in order to plant a wholly different crop; but like the nurseryman, who grafts a native stock with a better fruit.  They were already ignorantly worshipping the true God.  What the apostle proposed to do was to enlighten that ignorance by showing them who that true God was, and what was his character.  In his subsequent remarks, therefore, he does not teach them that there is one Supreme Being, but he assumes it, as something already believed.  He assumes him to be the creator of all things; to be omnipotent,—­“the Lord of heaven and earth”; spiritual,—­“dwelleth not in temples made with hands”; absolute,—­“not needing anything,” but the source of all things.  He says this, as not expecting any opposition or contradiction; he reserves his criticisms on their idolatry for the end of his discourse.  He then states, quite clearly, that the different nations of the world have a common origin, belong to one family, and have been providentially placed in space and time, that each might seek the Lord in its own way.  He recognized in them a power of seeking and finding God, the God close at hand, and in whom we live; and he quotes one of their own poets, accepting his statement of God’s fatherly character.  Now, it is quite common for those who deny that there is any truth in heathenism, to admire this speech of Paul as a masterpiece of