Bates, Joshua. A Sermon, delivered in Boston, May 29, 1816, before the Massachusetts Society for promoting Christian Knowledge. Dedham: Abel D. Alleyne, Printer, 1816. [11616]
Removed, no wrapper, 8 1/2 x 5 inches, 36 pp., foxing. Good. Pamphlet.
The text is John 17:17, "Sanctify them through thy truth." "The great design of Christianity is to prepare men for heaven. Viewing them, as sinners, it calls them to repentance. Vindicating the justice, which condemns them, it furnishes a propitiation for their sins, and provides a consistent method of exercising mercy towards them. Finding them rebels against the authority of Heaven, it makes to them a proclamation of pardon, and beseeches them to be reconciled to God..." - p. 3.
A sermon on the importance of evangelism and home missionary work. Includes the 1816 Annual Report of the Directors of the Society, with a list of evangelists and their reports of their activities.
Joshua Bates (1776-1854), “an eminent Congregational minister” from Massachusetts. Bates graduated at Harvard College, served as a teacher in the Andover Phillips Academy, afterward ordained the pastor of the Church at Dedham, Massachusetts. In 1818 he became president of Middlebury College, and was chosen chaplain to the U. S. Congress.
