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an inheritance on this western continent, but his providential agency is to be traced in their subsequent history. In their memorable struggle for independence, the devout mind will readily recognize the interpositions of an all-wise and gracious providence, not only in delivering them from oppression, and in giving them a rank among the nations of the earth, but in inspiring their counsellors with heavenly wisdom to frame a constitution of civil government, admirably adapted to secure the rights and liberties of the people, and to afford them all the facilities they might reasonably desire to maintain religion at home, and to propagate it abroad. It is true, in the constitution of the United States (and we now rejoice to say in the constitutions of the several States) no provision is made for the support of religion by law, nor is any one sect of Christians preferred to another, but every one is wisely left to worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience. This feature in the constitution of our general and state governments we consider as highly favorable to the cause of truth and the propagation of the Gospel. Most of the constitutions of civil government, which exist in the world, acknowledge some particular religious sect, and make legal provision for its support. And there are those who contend that such provision is necessary and salutary.

Without entering into a discussion of this question at the present time, we may be allowed to say, that we consider it the glory of our country, that we have no religious establishment; and, in our opinion, this fact alone gives us a prodigious advantage in the facilities of propagating the Gospel. We rejoice that religion is wisely left by the civil power free and un

restrained; that it has escaped from the trammels in which it has for ages been held in the old world. All it asks of the civil arm is protection-liberty to live, and to propagate itself by its own vital energy. And this is secured to it under our free and happy constitution. Christians of every name enjoy equal privileges and rights; and all who will, may combine without any hindrance or restriction from the civil power, in propagating what they believe to be the truth of God, whenever and wherever they please, in their own land, or in the remotest parts of the earth. It is this peculiarity in the constitution of our government, that distinguishes us from other nations, and gives us facilities, which they do not possess, to propagate the Gospel in the world. We have not to apply to lords spiritual and temporal, nor even to majesty itself, for liberty to publish the glad tidings of salvation to our fellow men. We are amenable to no judicial tribunal, for the exercise of the rights of conscience. We acknowledge no other head of the church than Him, who purchased us with his own precious blood, nor do we ask any other aid in the spread of the Gospel, than that which is voluntarily afforded by those who love the cause of Christ and desire the extension of his kingdom; and we are persuaded that we are in a more favorable position to advance the interests of that kingdom, than if we were connected with the most powerful hierarchy, and could command the revenues of the papal see, and every ecclesiastical establishment that ever existed on earth. The Gospel will be attended with greater power, and received with greater readiness, when it comes from a nation distinguished for its political and religious freedom, than when it proceeds from those

parts of the world where the unnatural alliance of church and state has long existed, and the purity of the former been affected by the withering and blasting influence of the latter.

The American church enjoys the high privilege of sending the Gospel to the heathen, unassociated with any civil connection, and unfettered by any political alliance. When it makes its appeal to the unenlightened nations of the earth, it is not in favor of an established religion, that exists in connection with any civil government; but simply and exclusively in favor of the religion of the Bible, the pure and unadulterated word of God. And it is obvious, that the appeal will be made with greater power and with greater prospect of success, by a nation that enjoys herself the inestimable blessings of civil and religious freedom.

II. The duty of American Christians to send the Gospel to the heathen will appear, if we consider the advantages of education enjoyed in this land; and the general diffusion of knowledge throughout the community. In no country on this globe are the advantages of education enjoyed to such an extent as in our highly favored land. For this enviable distinction among the nations of the earth, we are indebted to the wisdom, and foresight, and piety of our venerated ancestors. The fathers of New England laid deep the foundations of our national prosperity in the provision they made for the education of the young. Next to the church of Christ, the cause of education, as intimately connected with it, lay near their hearts. Hence the house of God and the house of learning rose, side by side, in every village planted by the

puritans. Nor have we been content, as a people, in providing for the education of the young in the elementary branches of knowledge; but academies, colleges, and seminaries for professional study, have multiplied, with astonishing rapidity, throughout our widely extended territory. Especially are we distinguished above every other nation for the facility with which a thorough liberal education can be obtained by those who are desirous of devoting themselves to professional duties, and particularly to the work of the ministry, and the preaching of the Gospel among the heathen. In this respect the American church possesses advantages for the propagation of the Gospel, vastly superior to any other Christian nation. England herself, with all her resources, has no advantages of education to be compared with those enjoyed by the Christians of the United States. Her two ancient and venerable universities are very much confined to her nobility and higher classes of society, and closed against all whose consciences will not admit of their subscription to the creed of the national church. The dissenters, although a highly respectable and valuable body, many of whom make great and successful efforts for the spread of the Gospel, have comparatively few advantages of a liberal education. They have, indeed, their academies, or classical and theological schools, and they now have access to the privileges of the London university ; but they are, as yet, far behind their brethren in America, in the facilities for obtaining a liberal education, especially for the Gospel ministry. In Scotland the advantages of education are more extensively enjoyed than in any other part of Britain; but, even in that interesting portion of the island, it is question

able whether the means of education are so generally diffused as in our own highly favored New England.

To the reflecting mind it is obvious that the peculiar advantages of education in this country afford great facilities for engaging in the missionary enterprise. The mass of the people, having received themselves a good general education, are in a favorable situation to be approached on the subject of missions from the pulpit, and through the medium of the press. A missionary spirit is much more easily awakened among an educated community, than among the ignorant and illiterate. The liberty of the press, too, is a most favorable circumstance in the situation of American Christians. The wide diffusion of religious intelligence, by the weekly and daily presses through the length and breadth of the land, gives an immense advantage to this country over any other in the world, in awakening and increasing a missionary spirit. This single fact of itself places the American church in the most favorable and commanding situation to send the Gospel to the heathen; and, taken in connection with this, the facility with which she can send forth numbers of liberally educated and thoroughly qualified young men, as missionaries to the heathen, renders her situation unrivalled in this respect by any nation on the globe.

The high reputation enjoyed by American missionaries, and the confidence that has invariably been reposed in them, wherever they have been called to labor, not only among the heathen, but among those of a different country and of a different denomination, with whom they have occasionally been brought in contact, is to be attributed, in a great measure, to the that they have been men, not only of humble

fact,

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