gulating ecclesiastical body, or to
consent that any ministers of our Church should hold seats in such a body.
If we do it, we transcend the most liberal construction which has ever been
known to be given to the powers of General Synod. How, then, can we do
this thing? Whatever our sympathies, how can we violate our own order, our
fundamental principles, the polity to which we are bound by our profession,
by our subscription, by every tie which can bind religious and honorable
men?

"Moreover, the thing we are asked to do contravenes our missionary policy
from the beginning. As far back as 1832, when we made a compact with the
American Board, one essential feature of the plan was that we should have
'an ecclesiastical organization' of our own. Without this feature that
plan would never have been adopted; and the apprehension that there might
be some interference with this cherished principle was at least one of the
reasons why the plan, after working successfully for a quarter of a
century, was at length abrogated. And so when, in 1857, we instituted a
missionary board of our own, this view was distinctly announced.

"It was my privilege to draw up the report on the subject which has been so
often referred to. That report did not express merely my view, or that of
the committee, but the view of the entire Synod. Nor from that day to this
has there been heard anywhere within our bounds even a whisper of objection
from minister, elder, or layman in regard to the positions then taken. It
is our settled, irreversible policy. Deep down in the heart of the Church
lies the conviction that our missionaries, who carry to the heathen the
doctrine of Christ as we have received it, must also carry the order of
Christ as we have received it. Certain unessential peculiarities may, from
the force of circumstances, be left in abeyance for a time, or even
permanently, but the dominant features must be retained. It is not enough
to have genuine Consistories, we must have genuine Classes. And, under
whatever modifications, the substantive elements of our polity must be
reproduced in the mission churches established by the blessing of God upon
the men and means furnished by our Zion.

"Further, Mr. President, it is to be remembered that we are acting for all
time. It is not this one case that is before us. We are settling a
precedent which is to last for generations. Relax your constitutions and
laws for this irregularity and you open a g