by the Rev. H. Southgate, confirmed me in the opinion that I ought to hold no intercourse with them, and decided me not to return the visits which one or two of the missionaries obligingly paid me, though I did not see them, being absent at the time. In thus acting I did violence to my own natural feelings, for I had been personally acquainted with these gentlemen years before, and held them in high esteem for their uniform kindness and other excellent qualities. But I had a duty to perform for the Church,—I was commissioned by my superiors to seek intercourse with the heads of the Eastern communities, and to make known to them, not only our good-will towards them, but our doctrines and constitution, and I sacrificed my feelings to what I deemed to be a solemn and imperative obligation. For how could I rightly perform the latter, if at the same time friendly intercourse with those who were doing all in their power to create schisms in the Churches, pointed me out as their associate? or how could I justify such intercourse with my repeated expositions and assurances to them that the Independents were not of us, but originally Separatists from the Church of England, and held doctrines widely differing from our own? It was impossible; and any such fellowship on my part would have been hollow and insincere. And why should the Independents object that their peculiar doctrines should be made known to the Eastern Churches? If true, he who exposes them will serve as their minister; and if false, the sooner they abandon them and return to the Catholic faith of their ancestors the better. If the differences which separate us are as trifling as they would make them, then their continuance in schism is the greater sin, and they must feel persuaded that, if united with us, their work would be far more likely to be blessed among the Christians of the East.
Let it not for a moment be thought that any ill-will has dictated the above. As a body of men the American Independents are exemplary in their lives and conversation, and my heart's desire is that they may see the great hindrance which their continued separation causes to the success of Eastern missions, and be led to join with us in the confession of "one Lord, one faith, one baptism."
During our stay in Constantinople the American dissenting
