while how little it is that they can
be brought to know or realize of the real nature of the work abroad; and
then it is the old battle of patronage over again. Those who give the
money must _govern_, and those who receive it must give up
their liberty, and be no longer Christ's freemen."

This is only a specimen, one of many, of the mistaken
impressions abroad in the Church concerning the views and
doings of your Missionaries. May we not, _must_ we not, correct
them? The letter also illustrates the evils resulting from allowing
mistaken impressions to remain in the Church uncorrected. There has long
been an impression in our Church that the A.B.C.F.M. interfered with the
ecclesiastical affairs of our missions. We have been informed that several
of our young men, before our Church separated from that Board, were
deterred thereby from devoting themselves to the foreign Missionary work.
The writer of the above letter, probably having more of the Missionary
spirit, was not willing, on that account, to give up the work, but was
led to offer himself to the Board of a sister Church. The
Mission at Amoy, and our Church, have thus been deprived
of the benefit of his labors by means of an erroneous impression.
When we learned the fact of such an impression existing in this country,
we endeavored to correct it. In our letter of 1856, to General Synod, we
called particular attention to the subject. Here is a part of one sentence:
"It seems to us a duty, and we take this opportunity to bear
testimony, that neither Dr. Anderson, nor the Prudential
Committee have ever, in any communication which we have received from them,
in any way, either by dictation, or by the expression of opinions,
interfered in the least with our ecclesiastical relations." We failed to
get that letter published, and I find the erroneous impression still
prevalent, working its mischief in the churches.

But to return to the subject of the mistaken impressions
concerning the views of your Missionaries at Amoy. These impressions would
have been partly corrected in the Church, if the report of the proceedings
of Synod, in "The Christian Intelligencer," had been more correct on this
subject. That paper states, that, on Friday evening, "Rev. Mr.
Talmage then took the floor, and addressed the Synod for
nearly two hours," but does not give a single word or idea
uttered by him. It is careful to report the only _unkind words_
against the Missionaries uttered during t