Volume 2 of Gurnall’s The Christian in Complete Armor covers the belt of truth, breastplate of righteousness, and shoes of readiness. The quotation below is found in his study of the shoes, where he begins by describing the goodness of the gospel. Here, however, Gurnall turns his attention to the weighty question about those who have not yet heard the gospel, the unreached. His exhortation is much needed today as he calls for compassion and urgency.

Because a dismal night of spiritual poverty and blindness is stretched over whole nations, they are under a continual massacre from the bloody butcher of hell! And that soulfiend makes easy conquest of people in darkness. He lays his knife to their throats and meets with no resistance Se he finds them fast asleep in their ignorance—destitute of the only ight which can reveal the way of escape from the destroyer.

Saints who have tasted the sweetness of gospel grace tremble at the pitiful condition of the ungodly—and may God forgive us for not weeping even more for them. We do not live so far from these people that we should not pity them, pray for them, and sincerely desire their salvation. And do not be deceived—failure to do these things smears us with the guilt of their blood, which is shed continually by the murderer of mankind.

While you cannot give these unlearned people a portion of your own salvation, remember that they are starving to death because they have never feasted on the Bread of Life. Some have even taken up the false hope that heathens can find Christ by knowing the sun, moon, and stars, by seeing the greatness of creation. Those with this view may seem to be kinder to the heathen, but I fear it will be shown in the end that they are the more cruel for not rather working and praying for the light of gospel preaching to arise in power in the nations.

When military personnel judge the defense of a camp to be adequate, reinforcements and aid often begin to arrive more slowly. And for this reason I wish Satan had not deceived so many in this same fashion. If such a wonderful lesson could be learned from the stars, we should by now have heard of some thus taught. Of course a star did lead the wise men to Christ, but a heavenly preacher opened hat text to them; otherwise they would never have understood what they saw.

Pp. 250-251