The Duty of American Christians to send the Gospel to the Heathen. A SERMON PREACHED AT HARTFORD, SEPT. 14, 1836, BEFORE THE AMERICAN BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS FOR FOREIGN MISSIONS, AT THEIR TWENTY-SEVENTH ANNUAL MEETING. BY JOHN CODMAN, D. D. BOSTON: PRINTED BY CROCKER AND BREWSTER, 2075 AX4 1810-1900 SERMON. MATT. X. 8. Freely ye have received-freely give. THE words of the text form a part of the Saviour's instructions to his disciples, when he sent them forth to preach the Gospel to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. They had themselves been recently called from their various occupations in life, to the high and responsible office of apostleship in the Christian church. They had been endued with power against unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of disease. They were commissioned, as they went, to preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand-to heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, and cast out devils. And they were directed to impart to others the miraculous gifts of the Gospel, with the same freedom and readiness with which they received the power of working miracles from their Divine Master. Freely ye have received-freely give. These words, although immediately addressed to the twelve apostles, are applicable to the disciples of Christ in every age and in every part of the world. They have freely received, not indeed the miraculous powers with which the apostles were invested, but what is to them of far greater value, the blessings of the Gospel, in their saving and sanctifying influences, and they are under the most solemn and endearing obligations freely to impart these blessings to their fellow men. We might dwell, with untiring delight, on the freeness of the grace of God in originating the plan of human salvation-on the scheme itself, as displaying, in the highest degree, the riches of God's mercy-on his unspeakable love in providing a Saviour for our guilty race and on the free and unmerited impartment of the Holy Ghost to the human heart; and we might enlarge on the obligations which this freeness of salvation imposes upon all Christians to communicate the Gospel to others. These themes would neither be foreign to our text, nor inappropriate to the occasion upon which we have assembled. But our principal design is to call the attention of this numerous and respected audience, to THE DUTY OF AMERICAN CHRISTIANS TO SEND THE GOSPEL TO THE HEATHEN. They have, as we shall attempt to show in the following discourse, in an eminent degree, freely received, and they are under peculiar obligations freely to give. The American church occupies a vantage ground in the missionary enterprise, which is not possessed by any other portion of Christendom; and it is the special duty of its members to improve the advantages they enjoy in bringing back this revolted world to the allegiance of its rightful Sovereign. That we may be convinced of the truth of this declaration and act under the weight of its influence, let us consider, I. Our early history, and our political and religious institutions. With our early history we are all familiar. Two centuries have scarcely elapsed, since this fair land was the abode of savage man. The native indian reared his wigwam on the spot where stands this Christian temple, and the sound of the war-whoop was heard instead of the hymn of praise. We have heard with our ears, and our fathers have told us what work God did in their days, in the times of old. How he drove out the heathen with his hand, and planted them; how he did afflict the people, and cast them out. For they got not the land in possession by their own sword, neither did their own arm save them; but his right hand, and his arm, and the light of his countenance, because he had a favor unto them.' The overruling providence of God was distinctly marked in every step that led to the settlement of this land by our pious ancestors. He put it into their hearts to escape from the persecuting spirit of the age and country in which they lived, and guided them over the trackless deep to this new world. From him they freely received this good land-this land, for which they did not labor-this land flowing with milk and honey. From him, also, they freely received their political and religious institutions. The hand of God is not only to be viewed in conducting our fathers from their native shores, and in giving them |