here be many _insuperable_
difficulties so long as these bodies remain _American Missionary
bodies_, instead of being _native ecclesiastical bodies_? Practically
they do not need representation in the Church at home more than our
Missions need representatives in the Board of Missions. In the aggregate
of all the above-mentioned ecclesiastical missionary bodies, there is
_but one native pastor_, and this, as might be expected, so far as we
are aware, furnished the only case in which difficulty has occurred.
Doubtless in the instance referred to, the native pastor was in error,
and, as he found some _insuperable difficulty_ in getting his case
before the General Assembly, a similar effort is not likely soon to be
made.]

So is the Classis of Arcot appealed to. Such appeals put us in a
somewhat painful position. As with the Presbyterian bodies just
mentioned, so with the Classis of Arcot. We have no rivalry with the
brethren there, and do not wish to say a word that looks like stricture
on their policy. We do not utter a word of this kind, except in
self-defense. We rejoice in all their successes. But the time will come,
if the blessing of God continues to follow their labors, when they will
be compelled to adopt our principles. The Missionaries at Arcot are not
properly _pastors_ of the native churches. They exercise the pastoral
office only temporarily, until native pastors are raised up. Their
relation to the Synods in this country is not like that of the other
Classes of our Church. They never have had and never will have a proper
representation in these higher courts. They have never had a native
elder present. They never have even a partial representation of
ministers, except under the afflictive dispensations of Providence. For
several years past they would have been without any representation at
all, but for the fact of one of their number being in this country whose
ill health forbids his return to that field of labor. It is by being
unfitted to be a member of the Classis that he becomes able to be a
representative of the Classis in the Synod! At the present time, because
of the still American character of their body, they may feel no serious
inconvenience. If our position had been like theirs, occupying the
ground at Amoy alone, possibly we should have done as they have. We
should have understood well enough that the connection of the native
Church with the Church at home could only be _nominal_. But if our
Chur