Again, the American churches possess a great advantage in the facilities
so generally enjoyed for accumulating wealth. The road to comfort and to
affluence is open to all; and notwithstanding all reverses, the remark,
as a general one, is still true, that the prosperity of the United
States--of the whole mass of the people--is altogether unexampled, and
that enterprise is vigorous and successful. In the greatest strait, how
much retrenchment has there been in the style of living? And as we look
into the future we see, (God's providence favoring,) that wealth is
destined to flow in upon the land like a broad and deep river. Look at
the extent of territory, bounded only by two rolling oceans; and at the
resources which from year to year are developed--varied, unnumbered, and
inexhaustible. If then unto whom much is given, of them will much be
required, what may not God justly demand of American Christians?
Another advantage which the American church possesses, is the Spirit which
has been poured out upon her from on high. God has been pleased to bless
her with precious revivals. The Holy Ghost has come down frequently and
with power, and gathered in multitudes of souls. What God has wrought
for the American Zion has been told in all lands, and every one applies
the Saviour's injunction, "Freely ye have received--freely give." One
great reason, perhaps, why the blessings of the Spirit are not now more
richly enjoyed, is the neglect of Christians to make this return, and to
labor gratefully for the destitute and the dying. It _was expected_, and
justly too, that the land of apostolic revivals would be the first to
imitate the apostles in the work of saving the heathen. A failure to do
this may bring a blight upon the churches, if it has not brought it upon
them already.
Surely, if there is a nation on earth to whom are intrusted many talents,
ours is that nation. Our ability is not small. We must come up to a high
measure of Christian action, before it can be said with truth, that we
are _doing what we can_ to save our ruined race. The United States, a
nation planted by God, enriched by his providence, nourished by his Holy
Spirit, and brought to the strength of manhood in this solemnly momentous
time of the nineteenth century, seems to have committed to her in a
special manner the work of the world's conversion. Who knoweth but that
she is brought to her preeminent advantages for such a time as this--for
the interesting period preceding the latter day glory; and now if she
prove herself unworthy of so lofty and responsible a trust, and neglect
to put forth her strength to usher in the glorious day, deliverance will
break out from some other quarter, but she, like a third Babylon, may
sink in the bottomless abyss. An immense responsibility rests upon us. O
that God would give us grace to act worthy of our trust--_to do what we
can_ for a dying world!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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