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Where did the region called "Out West" begin in 1800?

It began a few miles west of the Hudson River.1 What religious denominations were found there? There were Congregationalists from New England, and Presbyterians from the Middle States.

What was the Presbyterian Church at that time?

It was the prevailing church in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. The first Presbyterian church had been gathered in Philadelphia in 1690, but the General Assembly was not organized till 1789, when" The whole Presbyterian Church consisted of one hundred and seventy-seven ordained ministers, and one hundred and eleven licentiates (two hundred and eighty-eight in all), with four hundred and nineteen congregations, of which two hundred and four were without pastors. It began home missionary work in 1802.3

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What relations then existed between the Congregationalists and Presbyterians?

The relations were very close and cordial. The Connecticut ministers had declared that their system was Presbyterian rather than Congregational, and many Presbyterian ministers having studied

1 Leavening the Nation, pp. 33, 34. Outside of New England, the population of the remaining eleven states was about four million, clustered along the Atlantic, and the western boundary of the United States was the Mississippi River.

2 Historical Sketch of Presbyterian Board of Home Missions, 1802-1888.

8 Leavening the Nation, p. 36.

with Congregational pastors, had adopted the New England theology.1

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What was the " Plan of Union "?

It was a plan by which Congregationalists and Presbyterians, with sincere desire to sink denominational issues, agreed to work together in home missionary fields, and did work from 1801 to 1852. What were the reasons for such union?

They were (1) that in worship, spirit, and to a great extent in ancestry and theology, the two denominations were similar. (2) That in new communities but one house of worship and one pastor would be needed. (3) That such a union would prevent schism. (4) It was thought that a uniform system of church government for both could be easily arranged.

What was the plan?

It was that a Presbyterian church might be served by a Congregational minister, or a Congregational church by a Presbyterian minister, and each minister and each church should be governed by the principles of his or its denomination.

1 An annual joint convention of representatives of the Synod of New York and Philadelphia, and the General Associations of Massachusetts and Connecticut, met from 1766-1775. After 1794 delegates from the Presbyterian General Assembly, and the General Associations of both Massachusetts and Connecticut, attended the meetings of the other body, and had power to vote, till the rupture with the Presbyterians in 1837. -Hist. Cong'l Churches in the U. S., pp. 315, 316.

What may be said of this plan?

It was fair; it left each community to manage its own concerns; it was wholly unselfish, and to carry it out both pastors and people sacrificed "personal preferences and cherished usages and traditions, to the interests of the kingdom of heaven." 1

What great misconceptions prevailed among the Congregationalists of New England?

They had no conception of the future development of the country, and viewed the territory west of the Hudson as if it would remain a sparsely settled frontier. They held the delusion that Congregational churches belonged exclusively to New England and would not flourish elsewhere, and that the Presbyterian Church was not congenial to New England, but was especially adapted to new communities. Therefore, Congregational pastors advised their people moving west to become Presbyterians; students in theological seminaries were taught that "Congregationalism is a river rising in New England and emptying itself South and West into Presbyterianism "; 2 and the Congregationalists thought their mission was to build up Presbyterian churches.

What was the result?

The result was that while two-thirds of the money 3 and a majority of the missionaries came 1 L. W. Bacon, The Congregationalists, p. 153.

2 Leavening the Nation, p. 40.

8 Leavening the Nation, p. 41.

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from Congregationalists, two-thirds of the churches became Presbyterian. Congregational strength, polity, and influence were sacrificed in a most patriotic and unsectarian, but, as far as its own denominational future was concerned, short-sighted manner. A Presbyterian authority estimates that before 1828 over 600 churches had been added to the Presbyterian body," and a Congregational authority 1 estimates that before the plan was abolished in 1852 " over 2,000 churches which were in origin and usages Congregational had become Presbyterian." The Presbyterian Church became strong in New York, Ohio, Michigan, and Illinois, while the Congregational churches were comparatively few, because for fifty years the Congregationalists not only did not seek the growth of their own denomination, but put their strength into building up another denomination. Hence" a large part of their greatest work for the nation stands without credit to themselves, and is even credited to others." 2 It is doubtful if church history records another act of such heroic and unsectarian self-sacrifice for the public welfare.

What caused the plan to be given up?

(1) The withdrawal of the old-school Presbyterians in 1837. (2) The awakening of the Congregationalists to denominational consciousness in 1852, when it was seen (a) that though they were furnishing eighty-one per cent of the funds, and the Presbyterians nineteen per cent, yet the Congregationalists had few more churches in New

1 Dr. A. H. Ross.

2 L. W. Bacon.

York and Ohio than had been founded by missionaries of Connecticut and Massachusetts thirty years before; (b) that Congregational churches were as well suited to the West as they were to Massachusetts and Connecticut; and (c) that the unsectarian Congregationalists of New England had been, as one historian has said, "the Lord's silly people." 1

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What is the Congregational Home Missionary Society?

It is a society in which, under the name of the "American Home Missionary Society," Congrega

1 See Hist. Cong'l Churches in the U. S., pp. 316–318, 381, 382; also Congregationalists in America, Chap. XVII.

The Presbyterians “were nearer the scene of missionary labor; their denominational spirit was more assertive than that of the Congregationalism of the day; their Presbyteries were rapidly spread over the missionary districts, and the natural desire for fellowship where the points of separation seemed so few led Congregational ministers to accept the welcome offered therein."Hist. Cong'l Churches in the U. S., p. 318.

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"To the zealous propagandist, eager to belong to a big sect, [this] must seem nothing less than disastrous.' . . . Others will reckon it among the highest honors of a sect which in many ways has been nobly distinguished in the service of the Church Catholic, that it was capable of so heroic an act of self-abnegation. There are some competitions in which the honors and the ultimate rewards of victory belong to the defeated party."— The Congregationalists, pp. 153, 154.

"If it be true that Congregationalism is poorer by two thousand churches, many of them among the strongest of the land, it is an honorable poverty, which, like that of the Apostle, has made many rich." — Leavening the Nation, p. 41.

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