rdaining office-bearers,
and all the incipient steps of the organization of the Church from among
the heathen. The Constitution was made for the government of a Church
already organized and matured, and in America; therefore, it is not
strange that such things were not provided for. Our duty seemed very
plain. We must fall back on the great principles of church government
taught in the Word of God. We believed these principles to be set forth
in the Constitution, and other standards of our Church.

When, through the instrumentality of the preached Word, men gave
satisfactory evidence that they had experienced "the renewing of the
Holy Ghost," without the advice of Consistories, by virtue of our office
of Ministers of the Word, we administered to them the sacrament of
baptism, thus admitting them into the church. Now the Lord's Supper must
be administered to these believers, baptism to their infant children,
and to new converts, and the discipline of God's house maintained. By
virtue of that same office, and by virtue of the authority given by the
Master to his Church, we felt that we had the right, aye, that it was
our bounden duty, to perform such acts. We could not yet for a long time
set apart a proper Consistory, but we must not therefore be "lords over
God's heritage." In receiving new members, and in all acts of
discipline, we must advise with the church already gathered.

The church grew, and in due time a Consistory was called for; must the
work stop, because the Constitution had made no provision? No. The
little church had the right to choose men, and having chosen suitable
men, it was our duty to ordain them. The authority we thus exercised was
not usurped, but was implied in the commission we received from our
Master through the Church. The same may be said of the authority of the
brethren at Amoy, when, in connection with the representative elders of
the various churches, they proceeded to the ordination of native
pastors, and the organization of new churches. It was not necessary for
the performance of every act to get a new commission from the Church.
When the Church sent us out, the one commission contained all the
authority necessary for the complete organization of the church. It is
an absurdity to deny, on _constitutional grounds_, the right of the
Missionaries to perform these last acts unless you deny their right to
perform all their other acts except the simple preaching of the Gospel.
Their acts w