of the
Churches, in either or both Montreal or Quebec, who do not meet in
class, and whose names are not, and I think whose names never have been,
on any class book. But I think the natural and necessary effect of the
whole is, to terminate my connection with the Methodist Church. I still
remain undecided; but I see no other course on the ground of
consistency, propriety, or duty, as well as of religious enjoyment. But
this is only to yourself. The remaining question will be whether I
should remain a private member of a Church, or enter another Church. On
this point I am quite undecided. May I be divinely directed!

In a further letter directed to me from Paris in September, 1855, Dr.
Ryerson discussed the whole question at issue. After pointing out the
unfair conduct of the Editor of the _Guardian_ in attacking and
misrepresenting a member of the Conference, and then saying that his
columns were closed against any further discussion of the subject, Dr.
Ryerson said:--The Editor of the _Guardian_ and others represent me as
hostile to class-meetings. This may do injury, in the estimation of some
persons, to a means of religious edification which I regard as one of
the most efficient human agencies for promoting spiritual-mindedness
among religious people. The responsibility of such a proceeding is with
themselves. The Editor of the _Guardian_ represents this as a matter of
dispute between the Conference and myself. This is wholly incorrect. The
resolution of the Conference is avowedly based upon my letter, and upon
that alone. That record cannot be falsified. The variation between the
wording of the resolution of the Conference and the latter part of my
letter referred to in it, is not of the slightest consequence. The acts
of the Conference, as well as of the Legislature, are to be judged of,
not by what may have been said by individual members in the course of
discussion, but by its attested records and official papers.

Now with the same truth and propriety that my assailants charge me with
having written against class-meetings, might I charge them with being
opposed to prayer-meetings and love-feasts, and even the Lord's Supper,
because they do not make the observance of all or of any one of these
institutions (though the latter is expressly instituted by our Lord
himself), a condition of membership in the Church of God. Because I have
avowed my long-settled conviction that class-meetings ought not to be
exalted abo