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.