was made in the Synod to open a correspondence with
the judicatories of other denominations. This motion was resisted, and
for the time proved abortive. At next meeting of Synod, however, the
measure was brought before that body, by a proposal from the General
Assembly to correspond by delegation. This proposal found many, and some
of them able, advocates in the Reformed. P. Synod. The measure was,
however, again defeated; but immediately after the failure, a number of
ministers forsook the Reformation ranks and consorted with the General
Assembly. In the year 1828, the Synod gave its sanction and lent its
patronage to the Colonization Society, which was continued till the year
1836, when its patronage was transferred to the cause of Abolition. The
spirit of declension became manifest at the session of Synod in 1831,
when some of the most prominent and practical principles of the Reformed
Church were openly thrown into debate, in the pages of a monthly
periodical, under the head of "Free Discussion." Through the pernicious
influence of that perfidious journal, sustained by the patronage of
ministers of eminent standing in the church, a large proportion--neatly
one-half--of the ministry were prepared, by the next meeting of Synod in
1833, to renounce the peculiar principles and long known usages of the
Reformed Covenanted Church. Organizing themselves as a separate body,
yet claiming their former ecclesiastical name, they deliberately
incorporated with the government of the United States, and some of the
senior ministers, more fully to testify their loyalty, in their old age,
took the oath of naturalization!--thus breaking down the carved work
which they had for many years assiduously labored to erect.

It was hoped that the severe trial to which the professing witnesses of
Christ were subjected at that time, would have taught them a lesson not
soon to be forgotten. It was thought by many that the church was now
purged from the leaven which had almost leavened the whole lump. The
Synod met in 1834, when a perverse spirit was evident in the midst of
its members. The Colonization and Abolition Societies, with other
associations--the exfoliations of Antichrist--had evidently gained an
ascendency in the affections of many of the members. The altercation and
bitterness with which the claims of these societies were discussed,
evidenced to such as were free from their infection, that some of those
present viewed these popular mo