"So far as we can judge from the report of the proceedings of Synod, as
given in The Christian Intelligencer, one of the most important
considerations--perhaps altogether the most important mentioned--why the
Church, gathered by us here, should not be an _integral part_ of the
Church in America, was entirely overlooked. That consideration relates
to the _unity of Christ's Church_. Our Saviour prays: 'Holy Father, keep
through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be
one as we are one.' 'That they all may be one, as thou, Father, art in me,
and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe
that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me, I have given
them, that they may be one, even as we are one.' Will our Church require of
us, will she _desire_ that those here who are altogether _one_--one in
doctrine, one in their views of Church order, and one in mutual love--be
violently separated into two Denominations? We cannot believe it.
Suppose the case of two Churches originally distinct. By coming into
close contact, and becoming better acquainted with each other, they find
that they hold to the same doctrinal standards, and they explain them in
the same manner; they have the same form of Church government, and their
officers are chosen, and set apart in the same way; they have the same
order of worship, and of administering the sacraments; all their
customs, civil, social, and religious, are precisely alike, and they
love each other dearly; should not such churches unite and form but one
Denomination? Yet, such a supposition does not, and cannot, even after
you allow all the likeness and unity between the two churches it is
possible to conceive of, represent the circumstances of the churches
gathered by us, and by our Scotch brethren of the English Presbyterian
Church. Our [theirs and ours] Churches originally were one, and still
are one; and the question is not whether those churches shall be united,
but, shall they be separated? Possibly (not probably) the question will
be asked, why were these churches allowed originally to become one? We