History and Ecclesiastical Relations of the Churches of the Presbyterial Order at Amoy, China | Page 5

occasion demanded. They did the same for us. In
fact, we and they have worked together as one Church, and almost as

one Mission, with the exception of keeping pecuniary matters distinct.
More recently the English Presbyterian Mission was reinforced by one
member with a family, and it seemed a proper time for them to
commence more direct work at Amoy. A very populous suburb
(E-mng-kang) was selected as a suitable and promising station. They
assumed the immediate care, and all the expense of it, employing, as at
all the other stations, indiscriminately, members of their own or of our
churches as helpers.
We are not afraid that our Church will ever blame us for working thus
harmoniously, and unitedly, with our English Presbyterian brethren,
and we feel confident that none of her Missionaries would consent to
work on any other principles. If there be any who, under similar
circumstances, would refuse thus to work, this would be sufficient
evidence that they had mistaken their calling. If any blame is to be
attached to the course the Missionaries have pursued, it is not that they
have worked thus in harmony and unison with the English Presbyterian
brethren, but that they have failed to keep the churches under their care
ecclesiastically distinct. Some do feel inclined to censure us for this. It
must be, however, because of some great misapprehension on their part.
The Synod has distinctly uttered a contrary sentiment, i.e. that the
course of the Missionaries is not censurable. We do not believe that our
Church, when she understands the true state of the case, will ever
censure us on this account. It would not be according to the spirit of her
Master. He prayed that His people might be one, but he never prayed
for their separation from each other. When separation is necessary, it is
a necessary evil. But more of this hereafter. Our Church might well
have censured us, if we had adopted lower principles as her
representatives in building up the Church of Christ in China.
The first organization of a church at Amoy under our care, by the
ordination of a Consistory, took place in 1856. The Missionaries of our
Board then on the ground were Doty and Talmage. Mr. Douglas was
the only Missionary of the English Presbyterian Church. (Mr. Joralmon,
of our Church, arrived between the time of the election and the
ordination of office-bearers.) When the time came for the organization

of the Church, we felt a solemn responsibility resting on us. We
supposed it to be our duty to organize the Church in China with
reference simply to its own welfare, and efficiency in the work of
evangelizing the heathen around. Believing (after due deliberation) that
the order of our own Church in America would best secure this end, of
course we adopted it. We did not suppose that we were sent out to build
up the American Dutch Church in China, but a Church after the same
order, a purely Chinese Church. How much the growth and efficiency
of our Church in this country has been promoted by retaining (rather
inserting) the term "_Dutch_" in her name, I will not now attempt to
discuss. I suppose the principal argument in favor thereof is found in
the fact that our Church, in the first instance, was a colony from
Holland. The Church in China is not a colony from Holland, or
America. We must not, therefore, entail on her the double evil of both
the terms "_American_" and "_Dutch_" or the single evil of either of
these terms. Your Missionaries will never consent to be instrumental in
causing such an evil.
We had already adopted the order and customs of our Church at home,
so far as they could be adopted in an unorganized Church. The English
Presbyterian brethren had adopted the same. They found that there were
no differences of any importance between us and them; the churches
being gathered under our care and under theirs--growing out of each
other and being essentially one--neither we nor they could see any
sufficient reason for organizing two distinct denominations. Especially
had we no reason for such a course, inasmuch as they were willing even
to conform to our peculiarities. We most cordially invited Mr. Douglas
to unite with us in the organization of the Church, and he as cordially
accepted of the invitation.
In reference to this subject Mr. Douglas wrote to their Corresponding
Secretary as follows: "I need hardly say that this transaction does not
consist in members of one church joining another, nor in two churches
uniting, but it is an attempt to build up on the soil of China, with the
lively stones prepared by the great Master-builder, an ecclesiastical
body holding the grand doctrines enunciated at Westminster and Dort,