he A.B.C.F.M., and in
setting up a separate and ecclesiastically organized mission, that
Synod was anxious to introduce into its different Mission fields a
system of Church government which it believed to be scriptural, and
adapted to all lands. Consequently, in these Mission fields it sought to
form Classes or Presbyteries which should be connected with Provincial
and General Synods in the same way as are the Classes on the American
continent. And Dr. Peltz is apprehensive lest the General Synod in
America should regard as a deviation from this plan the amalgamation in
one Presbytery of their own agents with those of another Church.

"We are hopeful, however, that on further consideration, our brethren in
America may allow their Missionaries in China to continue the present
arrangement, at least until such time as it is found that actual
difficulties arise in the way of carrying it out. 'Behold how good and
how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity;' and there
are few brethren towards whom we feel closer affinity than the members
of that Church, which was represented of old by Gomarus and Witsius, by
Voet and Marck, and Bernard de Moore, and whose Synod of Dort preceded
in time, and pioneered in doctrine, our own Westminster Assembly. Like
them, we love that Presbyterianism and that Calvinism which we hold in
common, and we wish to carry them wherever we go; but we fear that it
would not be doing justice to either, and that it might compromise that
name which is above every other, if, on the shores of China, we were to
unfurl a separate standard. We would, therefore, not only respectfully
recommend to the Synod to allow its Missionaries to unite,
Presbyterially as well as practically, with the brethren of the R.D.C.;
but we would express the earnest hope that the Synod of the sister
Church in America may find itself at liberty to extend to its
Missionaries a similar freedom."

These sentiments were _unanimously_ adopted by the Synod of the English
Presbyterian Church.

It seems perfectly reasonable that two Churches of Christ so nearly
alike, in attempting to plant the Church of Christ in the same place in
a heathen land, should strive, if possible, to form their converts into
one organization. The existence of different Denominations in the same
place in any Christian land, at the best, is only a necessary evil. God
may bring some good out of this evil, but this is not a sufficient
reason why we sh