It  required  the  successful  demonstration  of  experience
wholly  to  remove  this  misconception  from  the  New  Eng-
land mind ;  and  even  when  western  Congregationalism  had
shown  its  right  to  be,  the  rise  of  the  Arminianly  inclined
theolog}^  of  Oberlin,  and  other  evidences  of  an  independent
spirit,  led  to  unjust  suspicions  of  infection  with  doctrinal
unsoundnesses  and  somewhat  retarded  the  growth  of  full
cordiality  of  feeling  between  the  churches  of  the  East  and
those  in  the  West  who  were  struggling  to  maintain  a  pure
type  of  Congregationalism.  No  wonder,  then,  that  during
the  first  half  of  the  nineteenth  century  the  Presbyterian
body  on  the  whole  gained  by  the  "  Plan  of  Union  "  ;  and
that  its  ultimate  result  was,  if  one  may  accept  the  figures
given  by  the  late  Rev.  Dr.  A.  H.  Ross, — and  no  one  has
devoted  more  thorough  study  to  the  subject, — the  trans-
formation of  "  over  two  thousand  churches,  which  were
in  origin  and  usages  Congregational,  into  Presbj-terian
churches."     It  was  under  this  "Plan"  that  the  religious


THE    '' PLAN  OF   UNION:'  319

foundations  of  western  New  York,  of  Ohio,  of  Illinois,  and
of  Michigan  were  largely  laid.
