e plan of Synod
would place your Missionaries _ecclesiastically_ almost beyond your
control. They must be dismissed from the various Classes in this
country, and, together with the native churches under their care, form
themselves into a Chinese Classis. Either they will have a controlling
influence over the native portion of this Classis or they will not. If
they have, then your only way to discipline them will be to discipline
their Classis. It would be a new doctrine in our Church, to make the
Board of Foreign Missions an _ecclesiastical_ medium between the Synod
and one of its Classes, or to enforce discipline over the ministry by
the _money rod_. The Classis, _as such_, must be disciplined by the
direct act of Synod. Or, suppose the Missionaries do not have such
controlling influence over the native members of Classis, for the native
members will outnumber, and, unless the action of Synod (as we greatly
fear) seriously retard the work at Amoy, will very soon greatly
outnumber the Missionaries. What then? Your Missionaries are under the
ecclesiastical control of the native converts. Their doctrines and
morals are to be decided on by a court composed mainly of recent
converts from heathenism. The only way to bring them before the higher
courts in this country, is through this native court, as we have already
seen, almost an impossibility. Is it not plain that the Church at home
will not thus have a moiety of the control over her Missionaries she now
has? Is this the way to keep the Church at Amoy sound and pure? It
seems to be supposed by some that the Missionaries desire to be
separated from the control of the Church at home. This is altogether a
mistake, and another result of withholding their views from the public.
They have no such desire. The contrary is altogether the fact. They do
not desire to be placed under the control of the native Chinese
churches. They did not derive their authority from those churches, they
are not sustained by them, and they are in no sense their agents, but
they derive their authority through, are sustained by, and are
altogether the agents of the Church in this country; therefore the
Church at home has and should retain control over them. They are
amenable to the Church at home, through their several Classes. These are
the only courts qualified to take cognizance of their doctrines and
morals. They desire to remain in this relation. We think they have a
right to demand this, until suc