pollution, under which the earth groans, must disgorge itself into the
pit of woe. We cannot evade the conclusion, painful as it is, that the
millions of this world of sin are sinking to perdition.

_The American churches have peculiar advantages_ to carry abroad the
Gospel of Christ; and ability in such an enterprise is the measure of
our duty. "If there be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to
that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not." "To whom much
is given of him will much be required." And to determine whether
Christians in the United States are _doing what they can_ to save the
heathen from their awful doom, the second point of inquiry proposed, it
is necessary to look at their unparalleled advantages.

It may be said then, that Christians in America are not trammeled in
their efforts to do good by any governmental restrictions, or
ecclesiastical establishment. The remark is trite, but no less true,
that the genius of our free constitution is eminently propitious to call
forth energy and enterprise. And the remark applies with no more force
to worldly matters, than to the business of doing good. The religion of
Christ courts no extraneous influence, and is dependent for its power on
no earthly aid. Under our free government, uncontrolled, unrestrained
and unsupported, it is left to exert its own free and native energy. We
can plead, therefore, no arbitrary hindrance of any kind in the work of
propagating the Gospel. And we can carry the Gospel, too, disconnected
from any prejudicial alliance with political interests. This is the
free, disencumbered, and unshackled condition in which the Gospel is
permitted to have free course in our beloved land; and it is a talent
put into our hands to be improved.

Again, no country possesses such advantages of education as the United
States. In no land is knowledge so generally diffused throughout the
different grades of society, and in no land do such facilities exist for
acquiring a thorough education. Schools, colleges and seminaries, are
open equally to the high and to the low, to the rich and to the poor;
and only a good share of energy is required, to rise from any grade or
condition of society, to eminence in general learning or professional
study. The general intelligence of the community is such, that nothing
but _disinclination_ can prevent men from being acquainted with the
wants of the world, and their duty to evangelize it; and the facil