which were theirs and not ours, ought not our Church to have permitted
us to work with them, as they have been permitted to work with us? If
such be not the true Christian spirit, than we frankly confess that we
know not, and despair of ever learning from the Word of God, what the
Christian spirit is on such a subject. But whether such disapproval on
the part of the English Presbyterian Church would have been strange or
not, it would not have been so strange as was the decision of our
Church, that the churches organized by the English Presbyterian brethren
and by us--all one in fact, growing out of each other, and all adopting
our order, should not be organically one. Hence, when we learned from
our Board the decision of Synod, we felt (correctly or incorrectly) that
there must be some misapprehension. Surely our Church cannot have
correct views of our position, and our course of proceeding. Hence, we
returned answer to the Board as follows:--(Letter dated December 23,
1857.)

After speaking of our hearty approval of the course of our Church in
separating from the A.B.C.F.M., though as individuals we took our leave
of that Board with feelings of sadness, we remarked:

"It seems proper to us also, on the present occasion, to allude to a
subject deeply affecting the interests of the little Church which God
has graciously gathered by our instrumentality from among this people.
This Church is now small, but we trust that, with a continuance of the
Divine blessing, the 'little one' will soon 'become a thousand,' and the
'small one a strong nation.' 'The Lord will hasten it in his time.' We
love this Church, and cannot but watch over her interests with jealous
care. Besides this, the Great Shepherd has made us under-shepherds, and
commanded us to watch over the interests of this flock. We gave a brief
history of our work, and an account of the present condition and
peculiar circumstances of the churches here under our care, and stated
at considerable length our views in reference to the future
ecclesiastical relations of these churches, in a paper prepared for the
information of our Church at home, and addressed to General Synod. The
facts thus communicated ought to be known by the Church. It seems to us
very unfortunate that that paper was not published according to our
suggestion. It stated facts of grave importance. If we could have had a
representative in General Synod, the previous publication of our paper
might have b