History and Ecclesiastical Relations of the Churches of the Presbyterial Order at Amoy, China — John Shaqi
History and Ecclesiastical Relations of the Churches of the Presbyterial Order at Amoy, ChinaTalmage, John Van Nest
Religion
History and Ecclesiastical Relations of the Churches of the Presbyterial Order at Amoy, China
Talmage, John Van Nest
Missions -- China; Presbyterian Church -- Missions
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 work, even though
that work be not carried forward in the manner which they consider
altogether the best. If we are right, these brethren will soon see that
we are right, and however powerful the motive to be addressed to the
desire of extending our own Church, they will find infinitely more
powerful motives to be addressed to a more noble desire of the Christian
heart. If our people have not yet learned, they should be taught to
engage in the work of evangelizing the world, not for the sake of our
Church in America, but for the sake of Christ and His Church, and when
the Church thus built up is like our own, they should be fully
satisfied. We believe they will be satisfied with this.
3. The only other supposed advantage I can now think of, is the
advantage of carrying out the _policy_ of our Church. This, in itself
considered, might be regarded worthy of but little attention.
Cannot--ought not--the Church change her policy if wrong, or if a better
can be adopted? Surely her laws are not like those of the Medes and
Persians. But the argument has been used with so much earnestness and
perseverance, both in the Reports of the Committees and in the
discussions in Synod, that it demands some investigation. Instead of
the course pursued by the Missionaries being, as it is contended,
contrary to, it is the true policy of our Church--the policy in
existence long before the decision of 1857. If the course now required
of them be the present policy of our Church, it is a _mistaken_ policy,
contrary to the very genius of our institutions, and ought to be
corrected. It is so contrary to our time-honored Constitution that
either it or the Constitution must be sacrificed. In order to save the
policy it was found necessary during the past year to amend the
Constitution by a clause so sweeping, that if the circumstances of a
Missionary Classis require it, "_all the ordinary requirements of the
Constitution_" may be dispensed with by the General Synod. Can it be
that a policy which requires _such constitutional changes_ can be the
old and proper policy of our Church? But if the policy be continued we
are not yet done with changes. The very _name_ of our Church must be
changed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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