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A Book of Gems, or, Choice selections from the writings of Benjamin Franklin cover

A Book of Gems, or, Choice selections from the writings of Benjamin Franklin

Chapter 43: WE ARE A MISSIONARY PEOPLE.
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About This Book

A curated anthology of sermons, debates, tracts, and miscellaneous religious writings arranged by subject and indexed for quick reference. Selections treat biblical authority, church order and practices (such as baptism and communion), pastoral responsibilities and preaching, moral exhortation, repentance and salvation, missionary effort, and reflections on life’s brevity. Short homiletic pieces blend doctrinal argument with practical counsel and urgent appeals for immediate personal and communal reform, offering guidance for Christian conduct and for those engaged in ministry or church renewal.

IT will not do to conclude that we are not a “missionary people.” It is useless to reason against facts. That we have risen, and, in opposition to the established bodies of people in the different parties in this country, successfully planted the cause in the best parts of the country and among the most effective and intelligent people, and, in less than two-thirds of a century, made it one of the most formidable and powerful bodies in the land, and swelled the numbers above that of any Protestant parties in the United States, excepting the Baptists and Methodists, is now a matter of fact. This has been done and is now in history. A people “not a missionary people,” and not an evangelizing people, have never done the like of this. We are to-day going ahead and spreading more rapidly than any people in this country that depend on turning people to the Lord to augment their numbers. We say nothing about a people that count their infants as members of the church, and exclude nobody for disorder.