Let brethren in the Ministry try the experiment, and tell their people of the wonders of God’s grace:—­that he has led his servants from our own Church in this land, and from the Presbyterian Church in Great Britain, in their work of evangelizing the heathen, and laying the foundation of the Church of Christ, to lay aside all national animosities, and rise above all denominational prejudices and jealousies—­that he has given to the Presbyterian Church in England, and the sister Church in Scotland, a spirit of catholicity and liberality as exhibited in the previous part of this paper—­and that, as a consequence, he is causing his Church to grow up in the region of Amoy in beautiful proportions, all the congregations under their care and ours also manifesting the same spirit of catholicity and liberality, submitting to each other according to the Divine command, working together with the utmost harmony, and, as a consequence, with wonderful effectiveness.  Can you account for such things except by the energy of the Spirit of God?  Surely it is not the spirit of the world, neither is it the spirit of the devil.  Try the experiment, then, and see whether the wonders of God’s grace will alienate the hearts of his people.  Your Missionaries have no doubt—­we can hardly understand how any who examine the subject can doubt—­we are sure that no one can personally behold the work and yet doubt, that the wonderful blessing of God, which has accompanied the work at Amoy, has been both the cause and the result of this harmonious labor on the part of your Missionaries, and those from the sister Churches in England and Scotland.  Therefore, we feel assured that the simple recital of the grace of God thus manifested, must influence the hearts of his people most powerfully, and therefore it is that we beseech the Church not to interfere with, and hinder the work of God.  May we not refer, without being charged with disrespect, to the Synod of Jerusalem as a proper example for our General Synod?  Peter says, “Why tempt ye God to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither we nor our fathers were able to bear?” And then the decree, which the Synod sent to the Churches, runs thus:  “It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things.”  The ecclesiastical “power which the Lord hath given” to his Church is “to edification, and not to destruction.”

If the Missionaries be allowed to proceed in building up a Church, like our own, simply with reference to the evangelization of China, doubtless brethren in the ministry, and other influential men, could take occasion therefrom to prejudice the Churches against our work.  They could do this, if they were so disposed, without any such occasion.  But will they do it?  We cannot believe that they will.  They love the cause of Christ too well, and desire to see the world converted to God too ardently, to permit them to throw any obstacles in the way of our