room-mate at college thirty-one years ago, and ever
since we have been fast friends. As to the other, his parents-themselves
among the most eminent and devoted Christians ever known-were long members
of the church in New Jersey, of which I was formerly in charge. For
several years I was his pastor. I signed the testimonials of character
required by the American Board before they commissioned him. I pronounced
the farewell address when he left this country in 1850. I have watched
with intense interest his entire career since, and no one welcomed him more
warmly when he returned last year, bearing in his face and form the scars
which time and toil had wrought upon his constitution. It is needless to
say, then, that I love him dearly for his own sake, for his parents' sake,
for his numerous friends' sake, but, more than all, for that Master's sake
whom he has so successfully served. Nor is there anything within reason
which I would not have the Church do for him. He shall have our money, our
sympathy, our prayers, our confidence-the largest liberty in shaping the
operations of the Mission he belongs to.

"But when we come to the matter now at issue, I pause. Much as I love our
brother, I love Christ more. Nor can I surrender, out of deference to our
missionaries, the constitution, the policy, the interests of our
Church,--all of which are involved in this matter. Nay, even their own
welfare, and that of the mission they are so tenderly attached to, demand
that we should deny their request. What is this request? That we should
allow our brethren at Amoy, together with the English Presbyterian
missionaries there, to form with the native pastors and the delegates from
the native churches, an independent Classis or Presbytery, over whose
proceedings this body should have no control whatever, by way of appeal, or
review, or in any other form. Now, the first objection to this is, that it
is flatly in the face of our constitution and order. A 'self-regulating
Classis' is a thing which has never been heard of in the Dutch Church since
that Church had a beginning. It is against every law, principle, canon,
example, and precedent in our books. Perhaps the most marked feature of
our polity is the subordination of all parts of our body, large or small,
to the review and control of the whole as expressed in the decisions of its
highest ecclesiastical assembly. I submit that this Synod has no right to
form or to authorize any such self re