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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/24304.txt b/24304.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..43ca65e --- /dev/null +++ b/24304.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8954 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of American Lutheranism, by Friedrich Bente + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: American Lutheranism + Volume 2: The United Lutheran Church (General Synod, General + Council, United Synod in the South) + +Author: Friedrich Bente + +Release Date: January 15, 2008 [EBook #24304] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AMERICAN LUTHERANISM *** + + + + +Produced by one of Myra Eve Bodling's grandfathers. Readers +should note that, despite remarks in the Preface, the +planned vols. 3 and 4 never appeared in print. Volume 1 +is Project Gutenberg EBook #20941. + + + + + + +American Lutheranism +VOLUME II +The United Lutheran Church +(General Synod, General Council, United Synod in the South) +By +F. BENTE +St. Louis, Mo. +CONCORDIA PUBLISHING HOUSE +1919 + + +PREFACE. + +American Lutheranism will appear in four volumes, this present second +volume to be followed by the first, dealing with the early history of +Lutheranism in America. + +The third volume will present the history of the Ohio, Iowa, Buffalo, +and the Scandinavian synods. + +The fourth volume will contain the history and doctrinal position of the +Missouri, Wisconsin, and other synods connected with the Synodical +Conference. + +As appears from this second volume, our chief object is to record the +facts as to the theological attitude of the various Lutheran bodies in +America, with such comment only as we deemed necessary. + +As to the quotations from the _Lutheran Observer_ and other English +periodicals, we frequently had to content ourselves with retranslations +from the German in _Lehre und Wehre_, _Lutheraner_, etc. + +Brackets found in passages cited contain additions, comments, +corrections, etc., of our own, not of the respective periodicals quoted. + +If errors, no matter of whatever nature they may be, should have crept +in anywhere, we here express our gratitude for corrections made. + +Further prefatory and introductory remarks will accompany Vol. I, which, +_ Deo volente_, will go to the printers forthwith. + +F. Bente, Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, Mo. + +May 28, 1919. + + +TABLE OF CONTENTS. + +THE UNITED LUTHYERAN CHURCH.................1-11 +Merger.........................................1 +Constitution...................................5 +Character......................................9 +THE GENERAL SYNOD.........................12-175 +Organization..................................12 +Character.....................................19 +Constitution..................................22 +Evaluation....................................25 +Doctrinal Basis...............................32 +Basis Interpreted.............................40 +Unionism......................................48 +Union Letter of 1845..........................58 +Christian Union...............................63 +Theology Reformed.............................68 +Revivalism....................................76 +"American Lutheranism"........................89 +Definite Platform Controversy................101 +Position of District Synods toward Platform..111 +General Synod's Attitude toward Platform.....117 +York Convention..............................123 +Secessions and Separations...................130 +Influential Theologians......................136 +Missouri's Influence.........................153 +Explanatory Statements of Doctrinal Basis....158 +Restatement of Basis.........................161 +Actual Conditions............................166 +Un-Lutheran Practise.........................170 +THE GENERAL COUNCIL......................176-227 +Synods Composing the Council.................176 +Charles Porterfield Krauth...................181 +Other Representative Theologians.............187 +Constitution.................................190 +Subtile Unionism.............................195 +The Four Points..............................198 +Akron-Galesburg Rule.........................202 +Interdenominational Fellowship...............204 +Attitude toward Lodges.......................207 +Chiliasm.....................................210 +Other Aberrations............................212 +Romanism.....................................214 +Synergism....................................217 +Liberalistic Trends..........................220 +Equivocal Doctrinal Attitude.................224 +THE UNITED SYNOD SOUTH...................228-243 +Organization.................................228 +Doctrinal Basis..............................229 +Indifferentism...............................232 +Un-Lutheran Practise.........................234 +Tennessee and Holston Synods.................236 +Common Service...............................241 + + +The United Lutheran Church. + +MERGER. + +1. Origin of the New Body.--On April 18, 1917, at Philadelphia, the +Joint Quadricentennial Committee, appointed by the General Synod, the +General Council, and the United Synod in the South to arrange for a +union celebration of the Reformation, decided that the merging of the +three affiliated general bodies would be "the fittest commemoration and +noblest memorial of the four-hundredth Reformation Jubilee." Accordingly, +the presidents of these bodies, being present, were requested to form a +joint committee, which should prepare a constitution for a united Church +and present the same to the three general bodies for their consideration, +and, if approved, for submission to the District Synods. The +constitution, framed by the committee, was in the same year adopted by +all of the three general bodies, the General Synod, which, in 1820, had +been founded for the express purpose of uniting all Lutheran synods in +America, being the first to assent to the Merger during its session at +Chicago, June 20 to 27, 1917. The various District Synods also having +approved of the union and having ratified the constitution, the Merger +was consummated at New York City, November 15, 1918. Dr. F. H. Knubel, a +member of the General Synod, was elected President of the new body-- +"The United Lutheran Church in America." Of the total number of +Lutherans in America (63 synods, 15,243 congregations, 9,790 pastors, +2,450,000 confirmed and 3,780,000 baptized members) the United Church +embraces 45 synods, 10 theological seminaries with 46 professors and 267 +students, 17 colleges, 6 academies, 3,747 congregations and +mission-posts, 2,754 pastors, almost 1,000,000 baptized members, and +758,000 confirmed members, the General Synod contributing 364,000, the +General Council 340,000, and the United Synod in the South 53,000. The +United Church is the second largest Lutheran body in America, the +Synodical Conference outnumbering it by only about 50,000 confirmed +members. The merged bodies will continue to exist legally until no +property rights are imperiled. In 1919 it was decided to consolidate the +_ Lutheran_, the _Lutheran Church Work and Observer_, and the _Lutheran +Church Visitor_. The new church-paper will be _The Lutheran_, with Dr. +G. W. Sandt as editor-in-chief. + +2. Refusing to Enter the Merger.--The United Lutheran Church, +according to the _ Lutheran_, "has inaugurated a new era of progress for +our beloved Lutheran Church. . . . Three names have gone down, but a new +and greater name has arisen from their ashes." This, however, was not +the view of the Iowa and Augustana synods, though both indirectly, +through their connection with the General Council, had for years been in +church-fellowship also with the General Synod, hence, consistently might +have entertained scruples to join the Merger no more than the Council. +When, at Philadelphia, October 25, 1917, the General Council passed on +the Merger, Dr. M. Reu, the representative of the Iowa Synod, was the +only delegate (advisory) who voted against it. Pointing especially to +the fact that the General Synod, at its last convention in Chicago, had +elected as president a man [Dr. Geo. Tressler] who was publicly known to +be a Mason of a high degree, Dr. Reu warned against the union, as it +would practically mean the abandonment of the Council's position on +pulpit- and altar-fellowship, as well as on the lodge-question. The +_Kirchenblatt_ of the Iowa Synod: "It is apparent that the influence of +the General Synod on the General Council has paralyzed the practical +principles of the fathers, and that the contemplated Merger is +tantamount to an anulment of these principles, as far as the official +practise of this new church-body will come into question. And yet, just +this life, the ecclesiastical life and practise of the ministers and +congregations, is the mirror in which the real confessional attitude may +be seen. We [Iowa] owe much to the General Council, and will always +remember this gratefully, but now our roads separate and we must part. +American [?] Lutheranism [?], [tr. note: sic] which the General Synod +has always stood for, and which has had its adherents also in the +General Council, especially among its nativistic representatives, will +control also the new church-body. This, according to our understanding, +means that a far-reaching influence of a Reformed nature will manifest +itself, especially with respect to church-practise and the attitude +toward all manner of societies and antichristian lodges." (_Lehre und +Wehre_, 1917, 521. 572.) + +3. Withdrawal of the Augustana Synod.--For more than a decade prior to +the Merger the current within the Swedish Augustana Synod had been +running against the General Council. Accordingly, to the Augustana Synod +the contemplated union was an occasion rather than a cause for refusing +to join the movement and for severing her connection also with the +Council. Indeed, at the convention of the General Council at +Philadelphia, October 25, 1917, all of the Augustana representatives had +cast their votes for the new organization. At her last convention, June +8, 1918, however, the Synod, in spite of the most strenuous efforts on +the part of the delegates of the General Council to draw her into the +union, passed the resolution: "_Resolved_, That the Augustana Synod does +not at this time see its way clear to enter the proposed merger of the +United Lutheran Church in America, but declares itself in favor of a +federation of Lutheran church-bodies in North America." A subsequent +resolution severed her connection with the Council. The reasons advanced +by the Augustana Synod for her action were not of a doctrinal or +confessional nature, but rather pertained to the interest of her +peculiar work among the Swedish population of our country. Yet the +course chosen by the Augustana Synod was, at least part, the result also +of the secret fear that the new body would rapidly sink to the level of +the doctrinal and practical laxism of the General Synod. Warning against +the Merger, the _Lutheran Companion_, of the Augustana Synod, wrote: "We +must hold ourselves aloof from spiritual fellowship with such churches +or denominations, some of whose factors advocate and defend lodgism, +dancing as a pastime for the young people under the auspices and +sanction of the church, etc." (_L. u. W._, 1917, 522.) Disappointed on +account of the withdrawal of the Augustana Synod, the _Lutheran_, of the +General Council, commented: "The Augustana Synod has subordinated unity +of faith to unity of race. This is as un-American as it is un-Lutheran, +and the day of its real Lutheran union is thereby indefinitely postponed. +. . . We are persuaded that this separation was willed by man and not by +God, though we also believe that He will, in the end, overrule it for +good. . . . The Augustana Synod has missed its opportunity; it has +limited the sphere of its influence; it has placed synodical and social +interests as a clog in the wheel of the Lutheran Church's progress as a +whole, and set the Church back a generation or more to start afresh on +the pathway to its ultimate goal. . . . Lutherans are now to be fenced +off into social groups to be known as the Swedish, the Norwegian, the +German, and the English divisions of the Lutheran forces in this +country." (_L. u. W._, 1917, 522; 1918, 329 ff.) + +4. Attitude of the Ohio Synod.--Though representatives also of the +Ohio Synod served on the Joint Quadricentennial Committee in order to +arrange for a union celebration of the Reformation together with the +representatives of the General Synod, the Council and the United Synod +South, the official organs of the Ohio Synod were severe in condemning +the Merger. The _Lutheran Standard_, August 4, 1917: "There are chiefly +two practical differences that keep us apart, namely, that concerning +altar- and pulpit-fellowship and that concerning the lodge. Concerning +the first point the constitution [of the Merger] has nothing to say +whatever. Relative to lodge-membership, the general body will have only +advisory power." The _Kirchenzeitung_, of the Ohio Synod, May 12, 1917: +"The great and glorious work of Dr. Krauth in the Council has been +nullified. The General Synod's practise of fraternizing with the sects +will prevail. What is sound and good in the Council will crumble; the +proposed union is a great victory for the lax portion of the General +Synod and a pitiable defeat for the Council. Indeed, we shall be told +about the 'salt' that the Council may be in the new body, but that is an +old, old game, which cannot fool people any more. And this to celebrate +the Reformation Jubilee! Would that Luther could return and with the +thunder of his scorn shatter this celebration of his work! Where +unionism has its jubilee, all true Lutherans turn away in sorrow and +anger." (_Luth. Witness_, 1918, 406.) However, considering that pulpit- +and altar-fellowship, where-ever justified, clears the way for all other +external unions, and that Ohio representatives served on the +Quadricentennial Committee for a union celebration of the Reformation, +the above criticism, warranted though it be, will hardly be viewed as +consistent. + + +CONSTITUTION. + +5. Doctrinal Basis.--The Constitution of the United Lutheran Church +provides: "Article II: Doctrinal Basis. Section 1. The United Lutheran +Church in America receives and holds the canonical Scriptures of the Old +and New Testaments as the inspired Word of God and as the only +infallible rule and standard of faith and practise, according to which +all doctrines and teachers are to be judged.--Section 2. The United +Lutheran Church in America accepts the three ecumenical creeds; namely, +the Apostles', the Nicene, and the Athanasian, as important testimonies +drawn from the Holy Scriptures, and rejects all errors which they +condemn.--Section 3. The United Lutheran Church in America receives +and holds the Unaltered Augsburg Confession as a correct exhibition of +the faith and doctrine of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, founded upon +the Word of God; and acknowledges all churches that sincerely hold and +faithfully confess the doctrines of the Unaltered Augsburg Confession to +be entitled to the name of Evangelical Lutheran.--Section 4. The +United Lutheran Church in America recognizes the Apology of the Augsburg +Confession, the Smalcald Articles, the Large and Small Catechisms of +Luther, and the Formula of Concord as in the harmony of one and the same +pure Scriptural faith."--"Article IV. Section 2. Any Evangelical +Lutheran synod applying for admission which has accepted the +Constitution with its Doctrinal Basis, as set forth in Article II, and +whose constitution has been approved by the Executive Board, may be +received into membership by a majority vote at any regular convention." + +6. Further Confessional Statements.--Among the other sections of the +Constitution expressing directly or indirectly the confessional and +doctrinal attitude of the new body are the following: "Article VI: +Objects. The objects of the United Lutheran Church in America are: . . . +Section 1. To preserve and extend the pure teaching of the Gospel and +the right administration of the Sacraments. (Eph. 4, 5, 6; the Augsburg +Confession, Art. VII.) Section 2. To conserve the unity of the true +faith (Eph.4, 3-16; 1 Cor. 1, 10), to guard against any departure +therefrom (Rom. 16, 17), and to strengthen the Church in faith and +confession. Section 3. To express outwardly the spiritual unity of the +Lutheran congregations and synods, to cultivate cooperation among all +Lutherans in the promotion of the general interests of the Church, to +seek the unification of all Lutherans in one orthodox faith, and thus to +develop and unfold the specific Lutheran principle and practise, and +make their strength effective."--"Article VIII: Powers. . . . Section +6: As to the Maintenance of Principle and Practise. The United Lutheran +Church in America shall protect and enforce its Doctrinal Basis, secure +pure preaching of the Word of God and the right administration of the +Sacraments in all its synods and congregations. It shall also have the +right, where it deems that loyalty to the Word of God requires it, to +advise and admonish concerning association and affiliation with +non-ecclesiastical and other organizations whose principles or practises +appear to be inconsistent with full loyalty to the Christian Church" +[weak and misleading, if Freemasons and similar lodges are meant; the +more so, as quite a number of the clergymen in the Merger are lodgemen]; +"but the synods alone shall have the power of discipline" [conflicts +with principle of unity in doctrine and practise].--"Article III. +Section 7. In the formation and administration of a general body the +synods may know and deal with each other only as synods. In all such +cases the official record is to be accepted as evidence of the doctrinal +position of each synod, and of the principles for which alone the other +synods are responsible by connection with it." This section, according +to which the new body assumes responsibility only for the official +doctrine and practise of the District Synods as such, but declines to +answer for what the congregations, pastors, and laymen may teach and +practise, unduly limits the responsibility for false doctrine and +practise, conflicts with the Scriptural rule of Christian fellowship, +and stamps the United Church as unionistic.--"Article VIII: Powers. +Section 5: As to Doctrine and Conscience. All matters of doctrine and +conscience shall be decided according to the Word of God alone." [What +of sections 2, 3, and 4 of Article II on Doctrinal Basis?] "If, on +grounds of doctrine or conscience, the question be raised as to the +binding character of any action, the said question shall be referred to +the Commission of Adjudication. Under no circumstances shall the right +of a minority be disregarded, or the right to record an individual +protest on the ground of conscience be refused."--"Article XII: +Commission of Adjudication. Section 1. A Commission of Adjudication +shall be established, to which shall be referred, for interpretation and +decision, all disputed questions of doctrine and practise, and this +commission shall constitute a court for decision of all questions of +principle or action arising within the United Lutheran Church in America, +and which had been properly referred to it by resolution or by appeal of +any of the synods. . . . Section 4. The consent of at least six members +shall always be necessary for a decision." According to this article, +unanimity in questions of doctrine and practise is not required--a +violation, once more, of the principle of Christian unity! + +7. A Legislative Body.--Among the doubtful paragraphs of the +Constitution are also the following: "Article III. . . . . Section 6. +Congregations representatively constituting the various synods may elect +delegates through their synods to represent them in a general body, all +decisions of which, when made in accordance with the Constitution, +_bind_, so far as the terms of mutual agreement make them binding, those +congregations and synods which consent to be represented in the general +body."--"Article VIII: Powers. Section 4. If synods have had due and +legal opportunity to be represented in the conventions of the United +Lutheran Church in America, they are _bound_ by all resolutions that +have been passed in accordance with this Constitution; but each synod +retains every power, right, and jurisdiction in its own internal affairs +not expressly delegated to the United Lutheran Church in America."-- +"Section 7: As to Books of Devotion and Instruction, etc. The United +Lutheran Church in America shall provide books of devotion and +instruction, such as liturgies, hymn-books, and catechisms, and no synod +_without its sanction_ shall publish or recommend books of this kind +other than those provided by the general body."--"Article XIV: Synods. +Section 1. No synod in connection with the United Lutheran Church in +America shall alter its geographical boundaries _without the permission_ +of the general body." According to the sections quoted, the United +Lutheran Church is not a mere advisory, but a legislative body. + +8. Relations with Non-Lutherans.--According to the _Lutheran Church +Work and Observer_ the question of cooperation with other than Lutheran +bodies is left open by the constitution of the United Lutheran Church. +Construed in its historical context, this means that the United Church +tolerates, and does not disapprove of, fraternal intercourse with the +sects. The Constitution provides: "Article VI: Objects. The objects of +the United Lutheran Church in America are. . . . Section 7: To enter +into relations with other bodies in the unity of the faith, and to +exchange official delegates with them."--"Article VIII: Powers. +Section 1: As to External Relations. The United Lutheran Church in +America shall have power to form and dissolve relations with other +general bodies, organizations, and movements. To secure uniform and +consistent practise, no synod, conference, or board, or any official +representative thereof, shall have power to independent affiliation with +general organizations and movements." Does this and the preceding +section refer also to non-Lutheran movements, organizations, and bodies, +such as the Federal Council, of which the General Synod was a member? In +the _Lutheran Church Work and Observer_, January 3, 1918, Dr. A. Pohlman +suggested that the "Merger idea be enlarged so as to include all +Protestant denominations, in order to get better known in America, +increase our prestige and influence, and take a more decided interest in +the affairs of the world." "We can well afford," says he, "to rub out +some of those things which conceded to be secondary." More contact with +the other denominations would obliterate much of the "foreign" from our +Lutheranism, and make us an "American Lutheran Church." + + +CHARACTER. + +9. Actual Position of the New Union.--The Merger did not come as a +surprise, for the uniting bodies, being of a common origin, had for a +long period occupied essentially the name position as to doctrine and +practise, exchanged delegates, and cooperated in various ways. Nor was +it accompanied by any essential change in the doctrinal or practical +attitude of any of the synods and congregations now constituting the new +body. Yet it will be admitted that, by merging, the General Synod, +constitutionally, made a confessional stride forward, while, as to their +official attitude toward Lutheran practise, the United Synod in the +South, and especially the General Council, took a step backward. For the +level and measure of the new Union will naturally be that of the most +liberal of the united bodies, _viz._, the actual present, practical as +well as doctrinal, position of the synods which constitute the General +Synod. According to the Preamble of the Constitution the object of the +Merger was "to make the inner unity, which we" [the official bodies as +such] "have with one another manifest in common confession, defense, and +maintenance of the faith, and in united efforts for the extension of the +Kingdom of God at home and abroad." However, the new Union was not the +result of any discussions of, and subsequent agreements and settlements +in, any doctrinal or practical differences. The "inner unity" of the +merging bodies themselves, especially of the General Synod, never was a +real agreement in the truth, but rather an agreement to disagree with +respect to Lutheran doctrines and practise. The United Church was not +born of real inner Lutheran unity of the spirit, but of the desire of +external union, in spite of the lack of real doctrinal agreement. The +Merger is in more than one way a concession to the original unionistic +spirit of the General Synod. Especially the absence, in the Constitution, +of a paragraph directed against pulpit- and altar-fellowship with +non-Lutherans, and of a definite and satisfactory statement pertaining +to antichristian societies, cannot but be viewed as an _ex professo_ +lowering of the Lutheran standard to the laxism always prevailing in the +General Synod. The real doctrinal and confessional position of the +United Lutheran Church, apart from the merits and demerits of its +Constitution, is, in the last analysis, not so much determined by its +official declarations as by the actual conditions prevailing in its +synods and congregations. The real standpoint of a Church is not the one +written and subscribed to on paper, but which manifests itself in her +actual teaching, life, and practise. Judged, then, by what the merging +bodies actually were immediately prior to their union, the real United +Lutheran Church in America is not nearly on a par with what its +doctrinal basis would seem to warrant. G. A. Tressler, the former +president of the General Synod, said in the _Lutheran_, November 7, +1918: "My hope and wish is that, as far as the United Lutheran Church +is concerned, it may merge our best and submerge the rest." What of this +"best"? And what is "the rest"? The history of the three merging bodies +will tell. + +10. National Lutheran Council.--According to Article VI, Section 3 of +the Constitution, it is the object of the United Lutheran Church "to +cultivate cooperation among all Lutherans in the promotion of the +general interests of the Church; to seek the unification of all +Lutherans in one orthodox faith." The ultimate goal of the United +Lutheran Church self-evidently is the organic union of all Lutheran +synods and congregations of this country as "The Lutheran Church in +America," or, at least, "The Federated Lutheran Church in America." "The +National Lutheran Council," organized September 6, 1918, in Chicago, is, +no doubt, viewed by many as a stepping-stone to, and a means for the +attainment of, this end. The United Lutheran Church, says the +_Philadelphia Seminary Bulletin_, "is but part of a larger movement in +the direction of Lutheran unity and activity for which we thank God and +take courage. Illustrations of this are: The National Lutheran +Commission for Soldiers' and Sailors' Welfare, The National Lutheran +Council, and the proposed Central Lutheran control of all American +Lutheran Foreign Missions." (1919, 2, p. 4.) The objects of the National +Lutheran Council are: statistical information; publicity in all matters +that require common utterance by the Lutheran Church; representation of +our Church in its relation to entities outside of itself; dealing with +the problems arising out of war and other emergencies; the solution of +problems arising from social, economic, intellectual, or other +conditions, or changes affecting religious life and consciousness; the +fostering of true Christian loyalty and the maintenance of a righteous +relation between Church and State as separate entities with correlated, +yet distinctly defined functions; provision through the National +Lutheran Commission for the spiritual welfare of the people who are +living and working in the 24 "War Production Communities," part of which +work is to be done in cooperation with other denominations; to serve in +solving the problems of the Lutheran Church in European countries where +the war has upset political, social, and religious conditions; to adjust +matters on the Home Mission field, in order to restrict and stop +destructive competitive church-work; to discourage, ignore, and abandon +public polemics among Lutherans; to prepare a statement defining the +essentials of a catholic spirit as viewed by the Lutheran Church. With +the exception of the Synodical Conference (always wary of entangling and +unionistic alliances), practically all of the Lutheran synods in America +are connected with the National Lutheran Council. (_L. u. W._, 1919, 86 +ff.) A meeting of the presidents and representatives of various Lutheran +bodies, culled by the National Lutheran Council and held in Chicago, +March 11 to 13, 1919, adopted a number of statements on reconciliation, +absolution, the means of grace, justification, faith, conversion and +election. However, these declarations, though, as far as they go, +apparently not in dissonance with the Lutheran confessions, cover +neither all the doctrines controverted in our Church, nor all of the +disputed points involved in the doctrines dealt with at Chicago. With +respect to lodgism the Conference resolved: "We promise each other that +it shall be our earnest purpose to give a fearless testimony, and do our +utmost to place our respective church-bodies in the right Christian +position in this matter." (_Lutheran_, March 27, 1919.) The results +attained by the Conference will be referred for approval to the bodies +represented: United Lutheran Church, Joint Synod of Ohio, Iowa Synod, +Buffalo Synod, Augustana Synod, United Danish Synod, Norwegian Church, +Free Church. + + +The General Synod. + +ORGANIZATION. + +11. Discouraging Beginnings.--The oldest Lutheran synods of America +are the Ministerium of Pennsylvania, organized 1748; the New York +Ministerium, 1786; the Synod of North Carolina, 1803; the Joint Synod of +Ohio, 1818; the Synod of Maryland and Virginia, 1820; and the Tennessee +Synod, 1820. They embraced about 35,000 members, over one-half of them +belonging to the Pennsylvania Synod. On October 22, 1820, at Hagerstown, +Md., four of these synods organized as the "General Synod of the +Evangelical Lutheran Church in the United States of America," with David +Kurtz of Baltimore as president. According to its preamble the +Constitution was adopted by the following synods: "The German +Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Pennsylvania and the neighboring States, +the German and English Evangelical Lutheran Synod in the State of North +Carolina and the bordering States, the Evangelical Lutheran Ministerium +in the State of New York and the neighboring States and countries, and +the Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Maryland, Va., etc." (_Proceedings,_ +1829, 49; 1839, 47.) The Pennsylvania Synod was represented by 5 pastors +and 3 delegates, the New York Ministerium by 2 pastors, the North +Carolina Synod by 2 pastors, and the Maryland Synod by 2 pastors and 1 +delegate. Since 1811 C. A. Stork (Storch) and especially Gottlieb Shober +(Schober, a Moravian, serving Lutheran congregations) of the North +Carolina Synod had been prominent among the promoters of the general +body. The "Mother Synod" of Pennsylvania, which at the same time was +planning a union with the Reformed, took the initiative in the movement. +At the convention at Harrisburg, 1818, they declared it "desirable that +the various Lutheran synods should stand in closer connection with each +other," appointed a committee to prepare a feasible plan of union, and +invited the different synods to send representatives to her next meeting +in Baltimore, 1819, where the contemplated Lutheran, union was the +principal topic of discussion. A tentative constitution, drafted by +Shober and a committee of the Pennsylvania Synod, was approved with 42 +against 8 votes and published over the signatures of its officers,-- +the so-called _Planentwurf_, which, in a somewhat modified form, was +adopted 1820 at Hagerstown as the Constitution (_Grundverfassung_) of +the General Synod. At the first regular convention of the new body, held +at Frederick (Fredericktown, Friedrichstadt), Md., in October, 1821, +twenty delegates were present, representing the synods of Pennsylvania, +North Carolina, and Maryland-Virginia. It was a beginning fraught with +discouragements. Owing to religious indifference, the rationalistic New +York Ministerium had immediately permitted its connection to lapse, till +resumed in 1837. The Tennessee Synod violently condemned the new body as +hierarchical, and because its constitution did not so much as mention +the Bible and the Augsburg Confession. The Ohio Synod, which, in 1819, +after a discussion of the _Planentwurf_, had approved of the formation +of a General Synod, now stood aloof, because a number of her ministers +denounced its Constitution, not for confessional reasons, but because of +its alleged hierarchical features. (Graebner, _Geschichte_ 1, 701.) In +1823 the Pennsylvania Synod declared her withdrawal on account of the +union planned with the Reformed, and because some of her congregations, +fearing infringements of their liberties, protested against the +connection. It was due chiefly to the exertions of S. S. Schmucker, then +but twenty-five years of age, that the second regular convention, 1823, +in Frederick, was held, the newly organized West Pennsylvania Synod +forming the third body required by the constitution. + +12. From the Early Proceedings.--The report of 1823 closes as follows: +"On bended knees, and with hearts filled with holy emotion, the brethren +then united with the Rev. J. G. Schmucker in a most impressive address +to the mercy-seat of Christ, in an acknowledgment of the gratitude for +the past blessing of the great Head of the Church, and in humble +supplication for the future guidance of His Holy Spirit. And when they +had sung an hymn, they separated to return to their several abodes." +(8.) Regarding the withdrawal of the Pennsylvania Synod, the resolution +was adopted: "Resolved, That it is with feelings of deepest regret that +we learn from the minutes of the Synod of Pennsylvania that they were +induced by peculiar circumstances, for the present, to recede from an +institution which they aided in establishing, and which they still +profess to regard as proper and highly beneficial to the interests of +the Church; but that this Synod entertain the highest confidence in +their brethren of Pennsylvania, and confidently trust that they will +without delay resume their connection with the General Synod." (5.)-- +The "Address of the General Synod to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in +the United States," added to the Minutes of 1823, remarks: "Whilst the +General Synod, with due deference to the judgment of this respectable +Synod, cannot divest themselves of doubt as to the expediency of the +temporary recession of the Pennsylvania Synod from the general union of +the Lutheran Church, they rejoice that in the very act of withdrawing +they declare their unaltered conviction of the propriety and utility of +such a union, and intimate that their recession shall continue only +until the prejudices against the General Synod shall in some measure +have subsided. But, most of all, the General Synod rejoiced in the +measures which have already been taken by the brethren west of the +Susquehanna, among whose churches these prejudices do not exist, to +return to the general union of the Lutheran Church." (11.)The minutes of +1823: "Several delegates were absent in consequence of indisposition, +but a representation of a majority of the synods in connection with the +General Synod being present, the brethren, in reliance on the guidance +of the Holy Spirit, proceeded to business." (4.) With respect to the +fears expressed by Tennessee that the establishment of a General Synod +would endanger both the Lutheran and American liberties, the "Address" +of 1823 states: "The brethren of this Conference [Tennessee], as well as +individuals in some other sections of the United States, have heretofore +doubted the utility of the General Synod; but it is hoped their +apprehensions will be dissipated when a few years of experience shall +have demonstrated its utility, and when maturer reflection on the nature +of our constitution shall have convinced them that, if ever our Church +at large should so far degenerate as that a majority of any future +General Synod should not only be so void of common Christian integrity, +but so destitute of every sentiment of probity and honor, as to wish +those evils which have been feared, still even then the attainments of +them would, in our happy government, be physically and civilly +impossible." (14.) Repudiating the charge of the Tennessee Synod that +the object of the General Synod was an amalgamation with other +Protestant denominations, and urging the Carolina and Tennessee Synods +to cover their doctrinal differences by charity, the "Address" continues: +"Whilst the General Synod disclaim the intention which has perhaps, +through want of better knowledge, sometimes been attributed to them, +namely, to form a union of different denominations, one object at which +they aim certainly is to prevent discord and schism among the different +portions of the Lutheran Church. It is therefore with much pleasure that +they perceive that the Carolina Synod adopted measures at their last +session to bring about, if possible, a reconciliation with several +brethren [Tennessee Synod], who had seceded from them. And the General +Synod cannot forbear recommending to both parties the exercise of that +charity, toleration, and forbearance which were so illustriously +exemplified in the life of our divine Redeemer, and urging on them the +impressive declaration of His Apostle: 'Follow after charity'; 'Charity +suffereth long and is kind,' 'seeketh not her own, is not easily +provoked'; 'charity beareth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all +things.' Therefore we beseech you, brethren, by the mime of our Lord +Jesus Christ, 'that there be no divisions among you, but that ye be +perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.'" +(12.) + +13. Vigorous Growth Following Disappointments.--During the period of +1831 to 1864 a large number of district Synods joined the General Synod. +The Hartwick Synod, organized 1830 in Schoharie Co., N.Y., by seven +pastors who had separated from the New York Ministerium in order to +satisfy more fully their craving for revivals, was admitted by the +General Synod in 1831; in 1908 it merged in the New York Synod. The +South Carolina Synod, organized 1824, entered the General Synod in 1835. +The New York Ministerium returned 1837. The Synod of Virginia, organized +in 1829 by eight ministers and two lay delegates and confessing the +Unaltered Augsburg Confession, was admitted by the General Synod in 1839. +The Synod of the West, embracing Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, and +Missouri, of which Wyneken was a member till 1845, was organized in 1835 +and united with the General Synod in 1840. In 1846 this body was divided +into three parts; one called the Synod of the Southwest, located in +Kentucky and Tennessee, another called the Synod of Illinois, located in +the State of Illinois, and the third retaining the name of the Synod of +the West, located in Indiana.(_Proceedings_, 1848, 47.) The East Ohio +Synod, since 1836 a separate English branch of the Ohio Synod, united +with the General Synod in 1841. The East Pennsylvania Synod, founded +1842 by nine ministers withdrawing from the Pennsylvania Ministerium, +who advocated the use of the English language, revivals, and greater +liberty in the form of worship, was received by the General Synod in +1842. The Allegheny Synod, organized 1842 by ministers and congregations +of Western Pennsylvania, united in 1843. The Southwest Virginia Synod +was also admitted in 1843. The Miami Synod was organized 1844 in Ohio +and joined the General Synod in 1845. The Illinois Synod, a descendant +of the Synod of the West, was organized 1846 and joined the General +Synod in 1848. When, in 1867, this Synod was dissolved, the greater +part amalgamated with the Illinois District of the Missouri Synod. The +Wittenburg Synod, organized 1847 in Ohio, was admitted 1848. This body +was led by Ezra Keller and S. Sprecher, professors of Wittenberg +College, Springfield, O. The Olive Branch Synod of Indiana and adjacent +parts was organized in 1848 and received into the General Synod in 1850. +In 1894 the Middle Tennessee Synod united with the Olive Branch Synod. +Its device is an olive branch upon an open Bible; its motto: "In +necessariis unitas, in dubiis libertas, in omnibus caritas." The +Pennsylvania Synod reunited with the General Synod in 1853. The Texas +Synod, organized 1851 by Rev. Braun (sent by Dr. Passavant) and eight +ministers from St. Chrischona, joined the General Synod in 1853, the +General Council in 1868, and in 1895 the Iowa Synod as its Texas +District. The Synod of Northern Illinois, organized 1851 by English, +German, Norwegian, and Swedish ministers in Illinois, Iowa, and +Wisconsin, was also admitted in 1853. The Pittsburgh Synod, the +so-called "Mission Synod," whose policy was largely shaped by W. A. +Passavant, was organized in 1845 and admitted by the General Synod in +1853. In 1867 it joined the General Council. The Kentucky Synod and the +Central Pennsylvania Synod, which was organized in the year 1855, joined +the General Synod in 1855. The Synod of Northern Indiana, organized 1855, +the Synod of Iowa, organized 1852, and the Synod of Southern Illinois, +organized 1856, were received in 1857. In 1897 the Synod of Southern +Illinois united with the Synod of Central Illinois as Synod of Central +and Southern Illinois. The Melanchthon Synod was admitted in 1859; the +Franckean Synod, organized 1837, and the Synod of Minnesota, organized +1860, in 1864. The Minnesota Synod joined the General Council in 1867 +and in 1872 the Synodical Conference. + +14. Secessions and Accessions.--The title "General Synod" was for the +greater part of her history descriptive of, not what the General Synod +was, but what she desired to become. In a letter to Solomon Henkel, +dated January 23, 1826, Henry Muhlenberg remarks: "Of the seven Lutheran +synods only three belong to the General Synod, and yet its +representatives assume the name 'The General Synod of the Lutheran +Church in the United States'!" In 1829 there were 74 ministers in the +synods connected, and 123 in the synods not connected, with the General +Synod. In 1834, of 60,971 Lutheran communicants the General Synod had +20,249 and the Ministerium of Pennsylvania 26,882. In 1860 the Lutherans +in America numbered 245,000 communicants, about two-thirds of whom +belonged to the General Synod, then embracing 26 district synods with +1,313 pastors and 164,000 communicants. The following decade, however, +marked a heavy decrease. Owing to unguarded resolutions with respect to +the Civil War, the Southern Synods withdrew, and in 1863 organized the +General Synod South. In 1866 the oldest and strongest synods seceded and +immediately formed the General Council. The consequent numerical loss +was more than 200 pastors and 76,000 communicants. After these reverses +a number of smaller synods acceded to the General Synod. In 1867 the +Susquehanna Conference, formed in 1845 and belonging to the East +Pennsylvania Synod, organized as Susquehanna Synod and resolved to unite +with the General Synod. Susquehanna University, at Selinsgrove, is +located in her bounds. The Synod of Kansas, organized in 1868 by +ministers and laymen in Kansas and Missouri, was received 1869. Midland +College and the Western Theological Seminary are upon its territory. The +German Wartburg Synod united 1877. It had been organized 1875 by the +German Conference of the Synod of Central Illinois formed at the +dissolution of the Illinois Synod in 1866 by ministers who remained +loyal to the General Synod, among them Severinghaus, the editor of the +_Lutherischer Kirchenfreund_. The _Kirchenfreund_ was succeeded by the +_Lutherischer Zionsbote_, established in 1896 as a joint organ of the +German Wartburg and Nebraska Synods, representing at the same time the +German interests of the entire General Synod. The German Nebraska Synod +was organized in 1890 and admitted by the General Synod in 1891. Its +congregations are located in Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, Colorado, and +the Dakotas. The Wartburg and Nebraska Synods received a part of their +ministers from Breklum and Chrischona. As to pulpit- and +altar-fellowship and lodge-membership, the Wartburg and Nebraska Synods +have not been as liberal as the English Districts of the General Synod. +The Rocky Mountain Synod, embracing the territory of Wyoming, Colorado, +and New Mexico, was organized in 1891; the California Synod in 1892. The +New York Synod was admitted in 1908. In 1859 seven English pastors, +withdrawing from the New York Ministerium, formed the Synod of New +Jersey. Again in 1866, on account of the withdrawal of the Ministerium +of New York from the General Synod, fifteen ministers separated and +organized the Synod of New York. In 1872 both united as Synod of New +York and New Jersey. This body, in 1908, merged with the Hartwick, +Franckean, and Melanchthon Synods, thus forming the present Synod of New +York. Prior to the Merger in 1918, when the whole Lutheran Church in +America embraced 2,450,000 confirmed and 3,780,000 baptized members, the +General Synod ranked third in size among the general bodies. It reported +474,740 baptized members, 364,000 communicants, 1,857 congregations, +with 1,426 pastors. Apart from a number of benevolent institutions and +colleges, the General Synod maintained theological seminaries in +Hartwick, N.Y.; in Gettysburg, Pa.; in Springfield, O.; in Selinsgrove, +Pa.; in Atchison, Kans.; in Lincoln, Nebr.; in Breklum, Germany. In 1825 +S. S. Schmucker was elected professor of Gettysburg Seminary. He served +till 1864. The school was opened in September, 1826, with ten students. +In 1830 E. L. Hazelius entered as second professor. In 1833 he was +succeeded by Charles Philip Krauth, who served till 1867. Among the +succeeding professors were H. I. Schmidt, 1839-43, Hay, Brown, C. F. +Schaeffer, C. A. Stork, Valentine, Richard, Singmaster. The General +Synod supported foreign missions in Liberia and India. "Father" Heyer, a +scholar of Helmuth, was the pioneer American Lutheran missionary in +India. The chief periodicals are _The Lutheran Quarterly_ (now Vol. 42) +and the _Lutheran Church Work and Observer_. The _Lutheran Observer_, +which merged into the last named organ in 1916, was established in 1831 +by Morris and edited by B. Kurtz from 1833 till 1861. + + +CHARACTER. + +15. Object Not Unity, But Union.--In the _Lutheran Observer_, +January 2, 1863, H. Harkey wrote: "Some say that unity must precede +union. But the Bible demands that we unite. Hence those who magnify +these differences [among Lutherans] and endeavor to keep us separate are +the greatest sinners in the Church." This has always been the view of +the General Synod: union, irrespective of doctrinal differences. But, +while striving after true unity in the Spirit is always and everywhere +of divine obligation, external organic union is not an end _per se_ +divine. And while efforts at organic union, even at their best, always +remain a matter, not of Christian duty, but of Christian wisdom and +liberty, all endeavors at union which disregard the divine norm of +Christian fellowship are anti-Scriptural. At the organization of the +General Synod, however, the sole ambition was to unite the whole +Lutheran Church in the United States in a well-organized and imposing +body. The object was not unity, but governmental union. Dr. Valentine +said in 1905: "Though the primary object of its organization was not +confessional, but practical, looking to fellowship and cooperation on +the basis of acknowledged Lutheran standing, the General Synod at once +placed a positive Lutheran basis under its practical work." (_Luth. +Cycl._, 193.) The fact is that the question whether the uniting bodies +were truly Lutheran and in doctrinal agreement was neither asked, nor +investigated, nor presupposed, but simply ignored. W. M. Reynolds said +in 1850: "The constitution of the General Synod does not present a +system of doctrine, a confession of faith. On the contrary, this +constitution itself confesses that it was drafted 'only for purposes of +government and discipline,' and expressly denies the right 'to any +General Synod to make changes in matters of faith which in any way might +burden the consciences of brethren.'" (_Lutheraner_, April 30, 1850.) + +16. Conceived in Indifferentism.--Unionism and indifferentism mark the +character of the General Synod from its very beginning. And how could +this have been otherwise? The un-Lutheran spirit of the General Synod +was not so much acquired as inherited. The Pennsylvania Synod, while +promoting the Pan-Lutheran union, was at the same time planning a union +with the Reformed! In 1819 and 1822 resolutions were passed to this +effect. And before this, in 1792, the same Synod had adopted a +constitution in which the Lutheran Symbols were not even mentioned. One +of the reasons for severing her connection in 1823 was the fear that the +General Synod might prove an obstacle in the way of the contemplated +Lutheran and Reformed union. In the New York Ministerium Socinianism +ruled supreme. Quitman, for twenty-one years its president, permitted +rationalists only in his pulpit, and in 1814, with the consent of his +synod, he published a catechism denying the deity and atonement of +Christ. F. C. Schaeffer, of New York, in a letter to the convention at +Baltimore, 1819, urged the Pennsylvania Synod "to leave nothing undone +that might serve, in a proper way, to bring about a union of the +different Lutheran synods in the United States." But in the same breath +he proceeds: "It is also desirable that another object, of gravest +importance, should be duly considered--a closer union between the +Lutheran and Reformed churches in our States. In this laudable and truly +evangelical cause our brethren in Germany [Prussian Union, 1817] have +set us an excellent example . . . as the Lutherans and Reformed in +Germany are united in one Evangelical Church, and are no longer +separated as different churches, but form one fold, the true Germans in +America will, in this respect, try to imitate the Germans in Germany." +(Spaeth, _C.P.Krauth_, 1, 323.) In North Carolina, where the +rationalistic Catechism of Velthusen was used, conditions were no +better. Shober, of the North Carolina Synod, who served on the committee +appointed for the drafting of the _Planentwurf_, and exerted himself to +the utmost in the interest of the Lutheran union, was a Moravian, who, +though serving Lutheran congregations, harbored Reformed views and +reveled in the prospective dawn of the grand union of all Protestant +denominations, to which, according to his views, the General Synod was +to serve as a stepping-stone. Accordingly, the aim of the General Synod +neither was, nor could be, confessional unity, but, _ad intra_, a mere +external organic union, irrespective of doctrinal differences, and _ad +extra_, a unionistic intercourse with the Reformed and other Protestant +denominations. And throughout its history this has remained the +paramount object of the General Synod. In accordance with this policy +she has made concessions in both directions, as required by expedience +and the circumstances, to doctrinal laxism as well as to Lutheran +confessionalism, the latter especially during the last decades. Union +was always the primary, true unity hardly ever even a secondary +consideration. The plan, however, of sacrificing, in a merger with the +Reformed, its own identity as an independent Lutheran body was never +directly adopted by the General Synod. It was, partly, in this interest +that, in 1862, at Lancaster, the General Synod resolved "that as the +erection of Union Churches is not always productive of Christian union +and brotherly love, but rather of strife and contention, we recommend to +all our ministers and people to build no more such churches." (18.) In +its address of 1823 the General Synod "disclaimed the intention to form +a union of different denominations." (12.) If by "union" they meant a +merger, then the General Synod throughout its history has remained true +to the declaration of 1823. For, though always encouraging some sort of +union with all evangelical denominations, the General Synod as such has +never taken a stand in favor of an amalgamation with these bodies. + + +CONSTITUTION. + +17. Features of the Constitution.--The charge of Romanism, made +especially by the Tennessee Synod against the General Synod, was not +without foundation. The _Planentwurf_ of 1819 provides: "Until, however, +the formal permission and consent has been granted by the General Synod, +no new established body shall be recognized among us as a ministerium, +and no ordination performed by it as valid." This section was omitted in +the constitution adopted 1820. The _Planentwurf_ of 1819 furthermore +provides: "The General Synod has the exclusive right, with the consent +of a majority of the special synods, to introduce new books for general +public use of the churches, as well as to make emendations in the +liturgy." (Graebner, _Geschichte_, 1, 691 f.) This section was embodied +in the constitution of 1820. According to Article III, Section 2, of the +Constitution adopted in 1820, the General Synod reserves for itself the +right of approving all such books and writings "as a catechism, form of +liturgy, collection of hymns, or confession of faith," proposed for the +use of the church. "No synod," the section prescribes, "and no +ministerium connected with the General Synod shall therefore publish for +public use any new book or writing of the kind mentioned without +previously having submitted a complete copy to the General Synod, and +heard her opinion, or criticism, or advice in the matter. Whenever the +General Synod shall deem it proper, they may propose to the special +synods and ministeriums new books or writings of the kind mentioned +above for general or special public use. The special synods and +ministeriums also shall duly heed a proposal of this kind, and if any +one of them should not consider such a proposal appropriate, it is to be +hoped that the reasons will be given to the next General Synod, in order +that they may be entered in the minutes of the General Synod." +(_Proceedings_, 1829, 51.) In the amended constitution of 1835, Article +III, Section 2, eliminating the objectionable features, reads as +follows: "Whenever the General Synod shall deem it proper or necessary, +they may propose to the special synods or ministeriums new books or +writings, such as catechisms, forms of liturgy, collections of hymns for +general or special public use in the church. Every proposal of this kind +the several or respective synods may duly consider; and if they, or any +of them, shall be of opinion that the said book or books, writing or +writings, will not conduce in the end proposed, they may reject them, +and adopt such liturgical books as they may think proper." +(_Proceedings_, 1839, 48.) The first report to the General Synod on the +state of the Gettysburg Seminary begins as follows: "In presenting to +the _Supreme Judicatory of the Lutheran Church in America_ an account of +the progress of the institution so recently founded," etc. +(_Proceedings_, 1827, 13.) The constitution of 1829, framed and adopted +for and recommended to the District Synods, provides for the expulsion +and punishment of congregations that refuse to submit to the resolutions +of Synod as follows: "If a congregation heretofore connected with a +Synod should refuse to obey the resolutions of that Synod or the +precepts of this formula [constitution], it shall be excluded from the +connection with that synod as long as its disobedience lasts, and +without special permission from the president neither any other synod +nor a Lutheran pastor or candidate shall serve her." (_Proceedings_, +1829, 30.) + +18. Doctrinal Features.--The _Planentwurf_ states: "The General Synod +has no power to make or demand any changes whatever in the doctrines of +faith adopted heretofore among us." In the constitution of 1820, Art. +III, Sect. 2, this was amended as follows: "But no General Synod shall +be allowed . . . to introduce such alterations in matters appertaining +to the faith, or to the mode of publishing the Gospel of Jesus Christ +(the Son of God and ground of our faith and hope), as might in any way +tend to burden the consciences of the brethren in Christ." (1829, 51; +1839, 48.) Interpreted historically, this section was evidently intended +to make the General Synod safe, not indeed for loyal Lutheranism, but, +on the one hand, for evangelicalism over against Unitarianism and, on +the other hand, for confessional indifferentism and doctrinal freedom +with respect to the distinctive doctrines of the Evangelical +denominations. A. Spaeth remarks: "The Radicals, or New-measure men, who +in their generation had not heard the Gospel preached and the faith of +the Church taught according to the pure Confession of Augsburg, might +look upon any attempt to go back to that Confession and to stand by it +as an 'alteration, and tending to burden their consciences.'" (1, 334.) +It was to serve the same indifferentistic purpose when Article III, +Section 5, declares: "The General Synod may give advice or opinion when +complaints shall be brought before them by whole synods, or +congregations, or individual ministers concerning doctrine or +discipline. The General Synod shall, however, be extremely careful that +the consciences of the ministers be not burdened with human laws, and +that no one be oppressed by reason of differences of opinion on +non-fundamental doctrines." (1829, 52; 1839, 49.) The original reading +of this section, as adopted 1820, omits the clause "on non-fundamental +doctrines" found in the constitution published in the minutes of 1829, +thus granting absolute doctrinal freedom. (Graebner, 708.) For the words +"human laws" the amended constitution of 1835 substitutes "human +inventions, laws, or devices." (1839, 49.) Dr. Spaeth: "As the bulk of +the confessional writings of the Lutheran Church was classified by the +leaders [Schmucker, Kurtz, etc.] with 'human inventions, laws, and +devices' or, at the very best, with 'non-fundamental doctrines,' any +pastor or professor might feel perfectly safe in throwing overboard the +mass of these symbolical books and their contents without fear of having +to answer for it." (334.) Article III, Section 8, evidently intended to +satisfy the craving for a closer union with the Reformed and other +Evangelical bodies, reads as follows: "The General Synod shall . . . be +sedulously and incessantly regardful of the circumstances of the times, +and of every casual rise and progress of unity of sentiment among +Christians in general, in order that the blessed opportunities to +promote concord and unity and the interests of the Redeemer's Kingdom +may not pass by neglected and unavailing." (1839, 50; 1829, 53.)-- +According to Article III, Section 2, quoted in the preceding paragraph, +the General Synod claimed the right to propose to the special synods not +only catechisms, forms of liturgy, and collections of hymns, but also a +confession of faith. Appealing to this section, S. S. Schmucker, in +1855, claimed that he was within his constitutional rights in urging the +General Synod to substitute the Definite Platform for the Augsburg +Confession. Spaeth: "It was, with a good show of justice, claimed by the +American Lutheran side in the General Synod that the very constitution +of the body entitled it to make a new revision even of the Augsburg +Confession!" (335.) It was in keeping with these principles as well as +the conditions then prevailing in the Lutheran synods that the +constitution adopted at Hagerstown contained no confessional basis +whatever, not even a mere reference to the Augsburg Confession. Shober, +probably in order to obviate the charges of the Tennessee Synod, made an +effort to have a recognition of the Augsburg Confession incorporated in +the constitution, but failed. That the omission was intentional is +apparent also from the fact that the General Synod maintained its +silence in spite of the vigorous protests of the Tennessee Synod and her +refusal to join the general body, especially for the reason that neither +the Bible nor the Augsburg Confession was mentioned in its Constitution. +"With this constitution before him," says Spaeth, "the editor of the +_Lutheran Observer_, Dr. Benjamin Kurtz, in Baltimore, was right in +stating the case after this manner (_Lutheran Observer_, April 16, 1852): +'We admit that the General Synod never formally or by express resolution +repudiated or abandoned the doctrinal basis (as laid down in the +Augsburg Confession and the Catechism of Luther).' But did it ever +either formally or tacitly profess belief in that basis? What necessity +is there for a body formally to repudiate or abandon what it never +received or adopted? It is a notorious fact that the symbolic basis had +been abandoned in the Church, to a very great extent, before the General +Synod was called into existence, and at its organisation special pains +were taken to guard against all possibility of its future imposition +upon the Church. In defining the doctrinal position of the General +Synod, the manifest intention was to give to each other, and to +establish for posterity, a pledge that the doctrinal basis should never +be allowed to interfere with their consciences." (335f.) + + +EVALUATION. + +19. Serving, in a Way, the Lutheran Church.--Apart from the name there +was nothing of genuine Lutheranism in the constitution of the General +Synod. "The name," said Dr. Mann in 1855, "is the most important +characteristic of the General Synod." "Hatte man," he continues, "dem +Leib die Knochen und die Eingeweide und das Herz herausgenommen, so +konnte man in den leeren Balg hineinschieben, was man wollte, und der +Name Lutherisch blieb ja." In a letter dated April 15, 1857, he said of +the General Synod: "Wer kann dieses mark- und kraftlose Ding, dieses +verwaschene, um jeden individuellen Zug gekommene Gesicht der +lutherischen Kirche gerne sehen?" (Spaeth, _W. J. Mann_, 174. 180.) C. +P. Krauth declared in 1845: "It cannot be denied that the name Lutherans +in this country simply states an historical fact without giving in any +case a sure index to the views, feelings, or practises of those who bear +it." (Spaeth, _C. P. Krauth_, 1, 119.) Yet, even the mere name, the mere +empty skin of Luther, was not without some value. It served as a +constant reminder of the lost crown, and kept numerous Lutherans from +joining the sects. The union of Lutherans into a general body gave a +standing to the Lutheran Church among the denominations, and thus, in a +way, strengthened the Lutheran consciousness. It diminished the +threatening danger of a merger with the Reformed in Pennsylvania and +with the Episcopalians and Presbyterians in North Carolina. And by +inserting the confession of "Jesus Christ as the Son of God and ground +of our faith and hope" into its constitution, the General Synod may also +have acted as a check on the inroads of Socinianism. Furthermore, the +General Synod created a certain interest in the Lutheran Church of +America abroad, especially in Germany, and roused her energies at home. +In 1825 the General Synod established a theological seminary at +Gettysburg, Samuel S. Schmucker being its first professor, with a free +dwelling and a salary of $500 for the first year. In the same year it +was "resolved that an agent be sent to Europe without delay, in order +to receive contributions in moneys and in books for the use of the +Seminary; and that our beloved and honored colleague Mr. Benjamin Kurtz +be such agent." (8.) The minutes of 1827 report that Kurtz had collected +$12,000. (27.) In 1837 Schmucker made a similar tour in America, +collecting from Congregationalists and others $14,917 for the Seminary +Fund. Only if Gettysburg will nourish, said I. Oswald in the Seminary +Report of 1837, "we can expect that the Gospel-trumpet will be blown +from the Wittenberg in America with the result that the Germans who have +settled in the various States and are scattered in our extended +countries (some of whom are famishing for lack of knowledge, and by +reason of circumstances are outcasts of the church) will hear and come +to adore the Lord in His holy mountain." (1837, 61.) In every direction +the General Synod developed a lively activity. In 1842, the year of the +Muhlenberg centennial jubilee, the General Synod made strenuous efforts +to raise a fund of $150,000 for its charitable institutions. (1841, 53 +ff.) "What is this sum," it was said, "for a church numbering 100,000 +members and more than 25,000 families? It amounts to only $1.50 for each +member, and not even $10 for every family!" In 1857 the General Synod +resolved: "That the churches in connection with the General Synod be +recommended to observe our regular ecclesiastical festivals in +commemoration of the fundamental facts of our religion, _viz._: +Christmas, Good Friday, Easter, Ascension Day, and Whitsunday, in the +hope and persuasion that by the divine blessing they will be found to +be, as they have often proved, occasions of reviving to our +congregations." (32.) In 1866 the resolution was added: "That it be +recommended to the ministers and churches in our connection to celebrate +the thirty-first of October in each year in commemoration of the +commencement of the Reformation." (42.) In 1879, the three hundred and +fiftieth anniversary of the publication of Luther's Catechism, the +General Synod resolved that we "reaffirm our appreciation of Luther's +Smaller Catechism as the best manual of instruction preparatory to +church-membership." (39.) In the same year the resolution was adopted: +"That in view of the fact that 1880 will be the semicentennial of the +Augsburg Confession, every pastor of the General Synod be requested to +preach on that subject on or near the twenty-fifth of June in that +year." (40.) The General Synod organized the "Parent Educational +Society" for assisting ministerial students; the "Central Missionary +Society" for domestic missions; the "Foreign Mission Society" for work +in India; and established a "Pastors' Fund," a book company, etc. The +General Synod was always on the alert to draw Lutherans in all parts of +the country into her circles. Thus, _e.g._, when, in 1839, the Saxons +had arrived in Missouri, the General Synod passed the resolutions: "1. +That a special committee be appointed to open a correspondence with the +companies of Lutherans recently arrived in the United States from +Germany, and represented by Dr. Charles Vehse and others, and the Rev. +Mr. Stephan; 2. that the committee write in the name of the General +Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the United States, giving a +sketch of the history and objects of this body, with any other +intelligence which they may think it important to communicate, and +requesting of Dr. Vehse and the Rev. Mr. Stephan and their respective +associates any information which they may think proper to make relative +to their own history, their present situation, and their future +prospects." (19.) + +20. Exaggerated Estimates.--After what has already been said, the +following evaluations of the General Synod will be received with a grain +of salt. In the "Pastoral Letter" of the General Synod, written in 1831 +by David F. Schaeffer, we read: "No church had to contend with so great +difficulties as we have overcome by the help of God. As the English +language is the language of our fortunate country, the untiring +endeavors of our fathers to retain the knowledge of the German language +among the youth were futile. Many who spoke German were not able to read +this language. The consequences of this state of affairs were pitiable. +The religious books of the parents were of no use, and in many cases +true piety was gradually lost as well as the love for our Zion. In the +mean time some Christian denominations who held their service in the +English language were ardently endeavoring to promote the interest of +religion and the growth of their churches. But the God of an Arndt, +Spener, Francke, and of many other renowned founders and benefactors of +our Church still lives. In this most critical moment, when our Church, +which is distinguished for the simplicity of its service, the purity of +its doctrines, and the excellency of its church-discipline, was about to +sink into oblivion, just at this important moment the General Synod was +brought into existence, and through this body the Theological Seminary +and College grew up which now are in efficient operation and in a +flourishing condition. Now our children may be instructed in all the +different branches of the sciences by pious and well-trained teachers of +our faith. Now, by our Seminary, the Church may be supplied with learned +and pious preachers, who are able to instruct their hearers in both +languages. And from this institute they will always go forth as +brethren, inspired by the same spirit and led by the same principles." +(_Proceedings_, 1831,22.) In 1857, Krauth, Jr., defending the General +Synod, said: "She is the offspring of a reviving Lutheranism, born in +the dawn that followed the night which fell upon our Church in this +land, when the patriarchal luminaries of her early history had set on +earth to rise in heaven. When the General Synod came into being, +Rationalism still was in the ascendant in Europe. The names of Gabler +and Bretschneider, of Wegscheider and Roehr, were names which had been +held high in honor in the Lutheran Church in Germany. That Church had +become what such men might have been expected to make her. Where their +influence prevailed, she had become rotten in doctrine, destitute not +only of the power of godliness, but even of the decencies of its forms, +and ready, at the command of a royal devotee of Dagon, for a conjunction +which she once would have regarded as the adding of a scaly tail and +fishy fin to the fair bust of woman; but the bust was as fishy as the +tail now, and they were frozen into happy conjunction. But this was not +the Lutheranism which the General Synod desired to plant and perpetuate +in the New World. When the Lutheran Church looked around her in her +adopted land, she saw ignorance of her principles and prejudices of +every hue prevailing against her. When she looked to her native land, +all was thick darkness there. What was there on this side of the +Atlantic or beyond it to inspire hope? Why not abandon the experiment as +a thing foregone, and yield to the process of absorption into +surrounding sects? It was at this crisis that the life of the Church +displayed itself in the formation of the General Synod. The formation +was a great act of faith, made, as the framers of her Constitution +sublimely express it, in reliance 'upon God our Father, in the name of +our Lord Jesus Christ, under the guidance and direction of the Holy +Spirit in the Word of God.' The framers of that Constitution should be +as dear to us as Lutherans as the framers of our Federal Constitution +are to us as Americans. When the General Synod became completely +organized by the acknowledgment of the doctrinal Articles of the +Augsburg Confession as a standard of faith, it was the only voluntary +body on earth pretending to embrace a nation as its territory, and +bearing a Lutheran name, in which the fundamental doctrines of +Lutheranism were the basis of union. The General Synod was a +declaration, on the part of the Lutheran Church in America, that she had +no intention of dying or moving, that she liked this Western World and +meant to live here. And she has lived and waxed stronger and stronger, +and the General Synod has been a mighty agent in sustaining and +extending her beneficent work, and is destined to see a future which +shall eclipse all her glory in the past. Heaven pity the fate of the man +who looks upon the General Synod as having been a curse to the Church, +or an inefficient worker in it--who imagines that Lutheranism would be +stronger if the General Synod were weaker, or that truth would be reared +upon the ruins of what she has been patiently laboring for nearly forty +years to build." (Spaeth, 1, 383.) + +21. Spaeth, and Jacobs on the General Synod.--After referring to the +unionistic, rationalistic, and Socinian degeneration in the Pennsylvania +and New York Ministeriums prior to the organization of the General +Synod, A. Spaeth continues: "With this powerful influx of rationalism, +and with the tendency of the remaining positive elements of our Church +to assimilate and unite themselves with the surrounding 'Evangelical +Denominations,' there was evident danger for the Lutheran Church in +America of losing her historical connection with the fathers, and +surrendering the distinctive features for which they contended, and as a +religious society becoming simply a member of the Reformed family. At +this point of threatening disintegration and dilapidation, the first +steps were taken toward the establishment of the General Synod, which +was certainly an honest effort to improve the state of affairs, to +gather the scattered members of our Lutheran Church, and to preserve her +as such on this Western Continent. Viewed in this light, the formation +of the General Synod was 'an offspring of reviving Lutheranism,' as Dr. +Krauth called it. But the difficulty and danger arose from the fact that +two conflicting and irreconcilable elements tried to unite in it with a +sort of compromise, the one, latitudinarian, un-Lutheran, unwilling or +unable to prize the treasures of the Mother Church of the Reformation, +and overanxious to exchange them for Puritan legalism and Methodistic +'new measures'; the other, conservative, holding on to the inheritance +of the fathers, and hoping almost against hope to bring the Church back +to their good foundation. If the former element succeeded in keeping out +of the General Synod's original constitution any direct and outspoken +reference to the historic confession of the Lutheran Church, the latter +might have thought themselves secure in the provision which denied to +the General Synod the power 'to make or demand any alteration whatever +in the doctrines hitherto received by us.' But the first-named party, at +the outset, had the popular sympathy on its side; it was the 'American' +over against the 'foreigner'; it was aggressive, and had the advantage +of having able and determined leaders, and thus, during the first +twenty-five years of the General Synod's history, easily ruled the day, +while the Lutheran consciousness of the second party slowly awoke from +its slumbers, and those that were to be its leaders on the day of battle +were quietly maturing from boyhood into manhood." (1, 320.) H. E. +Jacobs, endeavoring to view the origin of the General Synod in its +historical context, writes: "The General Synod must be regarded as a +very important forward movement, and its influence as beneficial. It +necessarily was not without the weaknesses that characterized the +Lutheran Church in America at that time. One who ignores the entire +historical development will find much to criticize and condemn, when +examined from the standpoint of what is demanded by consistency with +accurate theological definitions and clear conceptions of church polity. +But he will find just as much that incurs the same judgment in the +proceedings of the synods that united to form it. The faults peculiar to +each synod were lost, while only the common faults of them all remained. +The General Synod was a protest against the Socinianizing tendency in +New York and the schemes of a union with the Reformed in Pennsylvania +and with the Episcopalians in North Carolina. It stood for the +independent existence of the Lutheran Church in America, and the clear +and unequivocal confession of a positive faith. It failed, as its +founders in the several synods had failed, in specifically determining +the contents of this faith. It was not ready yet, as these synods were +not ready, to return to the foundations laid by Muhlenberg and his +associates, and from which there had been a general recession from +twenty-five to thirty years before. Lament defects as we may, the +General Synod saved the Church, as it became anglicized, from the +calamity of the type of doctrine which within the New York Ministerium +had been introduced into the English language." (_History_, 361 f.) + + +DOCTRINAL BASIS. + +22. First Statement on Doctrinal Position.--The "Address of the +General Synod to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the United States" +of 1823 contains the following reference to the doctrinal attitude of +the General Synod: "An acquaintance with the history of the Christian +Church in the past ages, as well as a knowledge of her present condition +throughout the world, establishes the fact that mankind are prone on +this subject to fall into contrary extremes; some maintaining that if +our external conduct be correct, it matters not what we believe, and +others contending that as long as our creed is sound, the Church has +little to do with private deportment. But the principle which the +General Synod conceive to be taught in Scripture, and which they would +recommend to the Church at large, is this, that we should view with +charity, and treat with forbearance, those who have fallen into an +aberration of non-fundamental importance either from the faith or the +practise of the Bible and the Augsburg Confession; and on the other +hand, that we are bound 'not to eat with a fornicator, or a covetous, or +an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner,' but to 'put +away from among us such wicked persons,' and that 'a man that is an +heretic,' who denies a fundamental doctrine, a doctrine essential to the +Christian scheme, we are in like manner bound 'after the first and +second admonition to reject.'" (14.) A fair analysis of this document +yields the propositions: The General Synod receives the Bible and the +Augsburg Confession. It distinguishes between fundamental and +non-fundamental doctrines and aberrations from both. It holds that some +of the doctrines of the Bible are not fundamental. It also holds that +some of the doctrines of the Augsburg Confession are not fundamental. It +enumerates neither the doctrines of the Bible nor of the Augsburg +Confession regarded as non-fundamental. It defines fundamental doctrines +as doctrines essential to the Christian scheme, hence, non-fundamental +doctrines as not essential to the Christian scheme. Indirectly it admits +that a doctrine essential to the Lutheran scheme is not necessarily a +fundamental doctrine or a doctrine essential to the Christian scheme. It +admits the inference that not all of the doctrines of the Augsburg +Confession are essential to the Lutheran scheme. It denies that all the +doctrines of the Augsburg Confession are essential to the Christian +scheme. It holds that non-fundamental aberrations from the Christian +scheme are not subject to church discipline. It also teaches that denial +of some of the doctrines of the Augsburg Confession is not a matter of +church discipline. In brief, the General Synod, according to the Address +of 1823, held that there are errors subject to discipline, while others +are not, but defined and enumerated neither the former nor the latter. +It failed to draw a line of demarcation between the doctrines which may, +and which may not, be denied with impunity. Indeed, the Constitution +adopted 1820 speaks of "Jesus Christ as the Son of God and ground of our +faith and hope." (Art. III, Sec. 2.) Possibly, however, the General +Synod was not ready in 1823 to enforce the ban on Socinianism. That the +sentiment against it was hardly as pronounced as is frequently assumed, +appears also from the fact that the General Synod, in 1825, appointed a +committee to prepare a hymn-book, liturgy, and a collection of prayers, +in the English language, "adhering particularly to the New York +Hymn-Book and German Liturgy of Pennsylvania as their guides." (11.) The +New York Hymn-Book referred to was Quitman's and the Pennsylvania +Liturgy the one of 1818, both tainted with rationalism. In the +resolutions, however, adopted in the same year with respect to the +Gettysburg Seminary, Jesus is confessed as "God over all, blessed +forever." (5.) And the Pastoral Letter of 1829 declares that the Church +is in need of a confession of faith in order to protect herself against +the Socinians. (17.) + +23. Gettysburg Subscription Limited.--At the time of organization of +the General Synod, Samuel S. Schmucker and F. C. Schaeffer of New York +apparently occupied a relatively advanced confessional position. +According to a letter of Schmucker, dated Princeton, February 20, 1820, +they had promised each other to labor with all earnestness that the +Augsburg Confession should be raised again from the dust, and that every +one subscribe to its twenty-one articles, and declare before God, by his +subscription, that they agree with the Bible, not _quatenus_, but +_quia_. (Singmaster, _Dist. Doct._, 44.) In 1826 Schmucker wrote, in +defense of the Lutheran doctrine of the Person of Christ: "Only lack of +insight and of clearness of intellect can mislead an honest opponent to +impute a contradiction to the doctrine when it denies that the glorified +body of Christ has the properties and is subjected to the laws which we +call properties and laws of matter." (_Lutheraner_, April 12, 1852.) +When, in 1825, the statutes for the government of the Seminary at +Gettysburg were adopted, it was at the instance of Schmucker, the first +chairman of the faculty and for nearly forty years a teacher at the +Seminary, that the General Synod declared "that in this Seminary shall +be taught in the German and English languages, the fundamental doctrines +of the sacred Scriptures as contained in the Augsburg Confession of +Faith," and that any professor may be removed "on account of error +fundamental doctrines, immorality," etc. (5.) Article I, Section 2, of +the Constitution of the Seminary, drawn up Schmucker and adopted by +Synod, states that the Seminary is designed "to provide our churches +with pastors who sincerely believe, and cordially approve of, the +doctrines of the Holy Scriptures as they are fundamentally taught in the +Augsburg Confession." Another article requires every professor-elect to +publicly pronounce and subscribe the following declaration: "I believe +the Augsburg Confession and the Catechisms of Luther to be a summary and +just exhibition of the fundamental doctrines of the Word of God." And +when Schmucker, September 5, 1826, was inducted into the "professorship +Christian theology," D. F. Schaeffer, who delivered the charge, said: +"As the Lord has signally favored our beloved Church, as her tenets are +Biblical, and her veriest enemies cannot point out an important error in +her articles of faith, no more than could the enemies of the truth at +the Diet of Worms prove the books of the immortal Reformer erroneous, +therefore the Church which entrusts you with the preparation and +formation of her pastors, demands of you (and in her behalf I solemnly +charge you) to establish all students confided to your care in that +faith which distinguishes our Church from others. If any should object +to such faith, or any part of it, or refuse to be convinced of the +excellence of our discipline, they have their choice to unite with such +of our Christian brethren whose particular views in matters of faith and +discipline may suit them better. I hold it, however, as indispensable +for the peace and welfare of a Church that unity of sentiment should +prevail upon all important matters of faith and discipline among its +pastors. Hence I charge you to exert yourself in convincing our students +that the Augsburg Confusion is a safe directory to determine upon +matters of faith declared in the Lamb's book." (Spaeth, 1, 336.) +Accordingly Dr. Jacobs interprets the Gettysburg pledge as follows: "It +was a pledge to a distinctively Lutheran position. Such an affirmation +could never have been enforced in the proposed Lutheran-Reformed +seminary which the ministerium [of Pennsylvania] had had in mind. It +could not have been exacted of those who believed the confession to be +in error on those points which divide the Lutherans from the Reformed. +In justice, however, to those who might seem to have been acting a false +part in making this affirmation while they believed the confession to +contain errors, it must be stated, on the other hand, that the full +force of the declaration was not so clearly apparent in a period +directly following one when, as we have seen, the greatest living +theologian of the Lutheran Church in America could distinguish no +difference between the Augsburg Confession and the formularies of the +Church of England." This interpretation appears to be in agreement with +the solemn charge of Schaeffer, according to which the pledge refers to +that faith which distinguishes our Church from others." However, +Schmucker and his successors viewed the phrase "fundamental doctrines of +the Word of God" as a restriction, limiting the subscription to the +doctrines confessed by all evangelical denominations, thus eliminating +from the pledge distinctive Lutheran doctrines. And the historical +correctness of this view has never been satisfactorily refuted. +Schmucker declared time and again: "The Augsburg Confession was not to +be followed unconditionally; its binding force was expressly limited to +the fundamentals. The professor's oath expressly limits our pledge to +the Augsburg Confession to the fundamental doctrines of the Scriptures." +He wrote: "After the abandonment of the General Synod, in 1823, by the +Synods of Pennsylvania and New York, that body was chiefly sustained by +the zeal and activity of younger men, in connection with a few beloved +fathers who remained with us. At the very next meeting of the General +Synod, in 1825, I had the pleasure, as well as honor, to introduce, for +the first time in the history of that body, the recognition of the +Augsburg Confession. At that time there were none amongst the friends of +the General Synod who did not reject several tenets of the Augsburg +Confession, such as private confession and absolution, as we all still +do. Accordingly, the assent to the Augsburg Confession, expressed in the +statutes for the Theological Seminary presented by me, was a _qualified_ +one; it should and was intended to bind only to the _fundamentals_ of +the Scriptures as taught in the Augsburg Confession. The language was +well understood then, and was deemed clear and satisfactory; it has +always been interpreted in the same way since, except by some, of late, +whose predilections would incline them to find in it, if possible, some +support for their more rigidly symbolic views." (Spaeth, 1, 338.) In the +_Evangelical Review_, April, 1851, Schmucker declared: The General Synod +established her theological seminary "not for the purpose of teaching +the symbolic system of the sixteenth century,--for her leading members +had all relinquished some of its features,--but, as her Constitution, +adopted in 1825, explicitly declares, to prepare men to teach, not all +the doctrines or aspects of doctrine in the Augsburg Confession, but the +'_fundamental_ doctrines'; and not those aspects of doctrine which might +be considered fundamental peculiarities of that Confession, but 'the +fundamental doctrines _of the Scriptures_' those aspects of doctrine +which Christians generally regard as fundamental truths of the Word of +God. The symbolical books of the General Synod and the seminary at +Gettysburg are the Bible and the Augsburg Confession, as a substantially +correct exhibition of the fundamental truths of the Bible. To this the +professorial oath of office in the seminary adds a similar _fundamental_ +assent to the two Catechisms of Luther. For the professors to inculcate +on their students the obsolete views of the old Lutherans contained in +the former symbols of the Church in some parts of Germany, such as +exorcism, the real presence of the body and blood of Christ in the +Eucharist, private confession, baptismal regeneration, immersion in +baptism, as taught in Luther's Larger Catechism, etc., would be to +betray the confidence of those who elected them to office, and to defeat +the design of the institution." (Spaeth, 1, 338 f.) + +24. Doctrinal Statements from 1829 to 1835.--The Pastoral Letter of +the convention of the General Synod in Hagerstown (Haegerstadt), 1829, +contains the following statements: The object of the General Synod is +not to introduce absolute uniformity also in non-essential doctrines; +such a unity did not exist in the early Christian congregations; it is +sufficient to adhere to the fundamental tenets of the Reformation; every +teacher and layman is entitled to use his Bible without being bound by +any human confessions; the General Synod merely demands acceptance of +the fundamental doctrines of the Gospel as taught in the Augsburg +Confession, and leaves everything else unlimited; but she does not agree +with those who absolutely reject all confessions of faith; the Church is +in need of a confession in order to protect herself against the +Socinians; most of the confessions, however, have lost themselves into +minute (_spitzfindige_) and doubtful dogmas, and thus encouraged the +spirit of superstition and schism, and naturally must continue to do so, +the longer, the more; in every one of the different orthodox +[evangelical] denominations, frequently, indeed, in the same +congregation, there are persons who differ as much in their opinions as +the confession of their Church differs from that of other Churches; +accordingly, there is no reason why synods bearing the name of Luther +should not unite with the General Synod, though differing in their views +as to non-fundamentals; the General Synod has no power to call members +of individual synods to account for aberrations in doctrine or life; the +most it can do is to admonish such a synod to investigate the matter; +however, a synod refusing to demand orthodoxy in fundamentals can be +expelled from the General Synod; in brief, the four synods now +constituting the General Body are so many independent ecclesiastical +jurisdictions, united only in order to promote brotherly love, and to +combine their forces in the execution of such things as are of general +benefit, and which no individual synod could perform. (16.) "The General +Synod therefore," says the letter of 1829, "only demands of those who +are connected with her that they hold the fundamental doctrines of the +Gospel as they are taught in the Augsburg Confession, and leaves all +other things unlimited." "Why, then," the letter continues, "should not +all those synods of our country that bear the name of our immortal +Luther, and have always yet retained the chief traits of this sublime +Reformer, be united by the tender bond of the General Synod, +notwithstanding the different opinions which they may entertain in; some +points which do not touch the foundation of the Augsburg Confession?" +(16.) It was in accordance with the sentiments expressed in this letter +when the General Synod at the same convention in Hagerstown adopted for +its district synods a constitution with a form of licensure and +ordination containing the questions: "Do you believe the Scriptures of +the Old and New Testaments to be the Word of God and the only infallible +rule of faith and practise?" "Do you believe that the fundamental +doctrines of the Holy Scriptures are taught in a manner substantially +correct (wesentlich richtig) in the doctrinal articles of the Augsburg +Confession?" (43. 45.) Prior to 1864 the General Synod as such, however, +was not in any shape or manner committed to the Augsburg Confession +constitutionally. In 1835, when the Constitution was amended, Synod as +such remained non-committal. The doctrinal basis then adopted and +embodied in the Constitution does not mention the Augsburg Confession. +It reads as follows: "All regularly constituted Lutheran synods holding +the fundamental doctrines of the Bible as taught by our Church, not now +in connection with the General Synod, may at any time become associated +with it by adopting this Constitution and sending delegates to its +convention, according to the ratio specified in Art. II." (_Proceedings_ +1839, 49.) Evidently this deliverance, though marking an advance over +the Constitution of 1820, intentionally omits a direct reference to the +Augustana. Till 1864, then, the exact constitutional basis of the +General Synod as such was not the Augsburg Confession, but the +indefinite phrase: "the fundamental doctrines of the Bible as taught by +our Church." All other confessional deliverances of the General Synod +till 1864 may be summarized as follows: The fundamental doctrines of the +Bible, _i.e._, the doctrines in which all evangelical (non-Socinian) +Christians agree, are taught in a manner substantially correct in the +doctrinal articles of the Augsburg Confession. + +25. "A Solemn Farce."--The doctrinal basis of the General Synod, prior +to 1864, is limited in more than one way. It does not embrace all of the +Lutheran symbols. It includes only the twenty-one doctrinal articles of +the Augustana. It binds only to the fundamental articles of the Bible. +It presupposes that fundamental articles are such only as are agreed to +by all evangelical Churches. It leaves the question whether all of those +twenty-one articles of the Augsburg Confession are to be regarded as +"fundamental doctrines of the Bible" undecided. It adopts the articles +of the Augsburg Confession regarded as fundamental, not simply and +absolutely, but merely as substantially correct." On the question of the +ordination form of 1829 Krauth, Jr., commented in 1857 as follows: +"What, then, is that question? We reply, in general: First, that the +subject of her general affirmation is not the Book of Concord as a +whole, but simply and purely the Augsburg Confession. Secondly, that not +the entire Confession, but only the twenty-one articles of it which +treat of doctrine, are specified in the affirmation. Thirdly, that only +so far as these articles embrace _fundamental_ doctrines does she make +an affirmation. Fourthly, that of these she affirms that they teach the +doctrines in a correct manner, and defines the correctness as a +_substantial_ one." (Spaeth, 1, 386.) J. L. Neve explains: "They +[General Synod] considered what the Lutheran Church has in common with +the other churches, and looked upon this as the fundamentals of +Christianity, while the characteristic peculiarity of the Church of +Luther, her special inheritance, was set aside as non-fundamental and +unessential." (_Geschichte_, 90.) Accordingly, the General Synod, prior +to 1864, did not subscribe to the distinctive doctrines of the Lutheran +Church, but only to the doctrines held in common by the evangelical +churches of Protestantism. Charles Philip Krauth, who was styled a +Symbolist and Old Lutheran by the latitudinarians, declared in 1850, in +his address before the General Synod at Charleston: "The terms of the +subscription [to the Augustana] are such as to admit of the rejection +of any doctrine or doctrines which the subscriber may not receive. It +is subscribed or assented to as containing the doctrines of the Word of +God substantially; they are set forth in substance; the understanding +is that there are some doctrines in it not contained in the Word of +God, but there is no specification concerning them. Every one could +omit from his assent whatever he did not believe. The subscription did +not preclude this. It is at once evident that a creed thus presented is +no creed; that it is anything or nothing; that its subscription is a +solemn farce." (Spaeth, 1, 370.) + + +BASIS INTERPRETED. + +26. Authentic Explanation of Doctrinal Basis.--In his _Popular +Theology_, published for the first time in 1834, S. S. Schmucker wrote: +"The General Synod of the Lutheran Church has adopted only the +twenty-one doctrinal articles, omitting even the condemnatory clauses of +these, and also the entire catalog of Abuses corrected. No minister, +however, considers himself bound to believe every sentiment contained in +these twenty-one articles, but only the fundamental doctrines. +Accordingly, the pledge of adoption required at licensure and ordination +is couched in the following terms . . .: 'Do you believe that the +_fundamental_ doctrines of the Word of God are taught in a manner +_substantially_ correct in the doctrinal articles of the Augsburg +Confession?' The Lutheran divines of this country are not willing to +bind either themselves or others to anything more than the fundamental +doctrines of the Christian revelation, believing that an immense mass of +evil has resulted to the Church of God from the rigid requisition of +extensive and detailed creeds. . . . We can see no sufficient warrant +for any Christian Church to require as a term of admission or communion +greater conformity of view than is requisite to harmony of feeling and +successful cooperation in extending the kingdom of Christ. . . . Had the +early Protestants endeavored to select the principal and fundamental +doctrines of Christianity, required a belief of them from all applicants +for admission into their ranks, and agreed among themselves that +discrepance of views on matters of non-fundamental nature should neither +be a bar to ecclesiastical communion nor fraternal affection, they would +have saved the Church from the curse of those dissensions by which piety +was in a great degree destroyed and on several occasions the very +foundations of Protestantism shaken." (Edition of 1848, 50 ff.) In 1850, +attacking Reynolds in the _Lutheran Observer_ on account of his +defection from American Lutheranism, Schmucker stated: From the very +outset the General Synod had abandoned the distinctive Lutheran +doctrines, and nevertheless retained the Lutheran name; in spite of his +deviations from the Lutheran symbols he, with perfect right, could call +himself a faithful Lutheran. (_L._, 6, 139.) Schmucker, "the most +authentic interpreter of the Constitution of the General Synod and that +of its theological seminary," never identified the "fundamental +doctrines of the Bible" with the twenty-one articles of the Augsburg +Confession. According to him the fundamentals are obtained by striking +from the Augustana everything that is objectionable to any Evangelical +Church and retaining the remainder as the substance of Protestantism. +All of the fundamental doctrines, Schmucker declared, are contained in +the ecumenical creeds; everything else is trans-fundamental, not +required by the General Synod for Christian union and communion. In his +sermon at the convention in Winchester, 1853, Schmucker maintained that +the essential, fundamental doctrines in which the General Synod demands +agreement, are "the cardinal doctrines of the Reformation, the points of +agreement between the different creeds of the sixteenth century," +distinctive doctrines being points of non-essential, non-fundamental +difference. According to Schmucker the General Synod's motto, +"Uniformity in fundamentals and charity or liberty in non-fundamentals," +never meant anything else than uniformity in the doctrines in which the +evangelical denominations agree, and liberty with respect to distinctive +tenets, also those of Lutheranism. In his _Lutheran Manual_ of 1855 +Schmucker wrote: "The founders of the General Synod were men of +enlarged, liberal, and Scriptural views of the kingdom of Christ. +Convinced of the gradual abandonment of the whole mass of symbolical +books in Germany, as well as from the personal examination of them, of +their want of adaptedness to the age, they regarded it as the grand +vocation of the American Church, released by Providence from civil +servitude, to reconstruct her framework, assuming a more friendly +attitude toward sister churches, and so organizing as to promote +Scriptural union among Protestants, and to bring up our +church-institutions to the increased light of Biblical study and +Providential development. This enlightened, this millennial attitude of +the founders of the General Synod, the writer can confidently affirm, +from personal knowledge, having been well acquainted with the greater +part of them, and having been present at Baltimore in 1819, when the +formation of the Synod was, after ample discussion, resolved on; and at +Hagerstown, in 1820, when the Constitution was formed. But the +Constitution speaks for itself; for it invested the General Synod with +power to form a new Confession of Faith, and new catechisms, suited to +the progress of Biblical light and the developed views of the Church. +Subsequently it was believed that the necessities of the case would be +best met by the retention of the Augsburg Confession, on account of its +importance as a link in the chain of historical Christianity, and by +prescribing its _qualified_ adoption, _viz_., as to the fundamental +aspects of Scripture doctrine. . . . It is an incontestable fact, which +can easily be established, that the original standpoint of the General +Synod, whilst controlled by the Pennsylvania Synod, was rejection of the +binding authority of the old confessions. This is undeniably proved by +their not even naming the Augsburg Confession in their Constitution, by +their declining even a qualified recognition of it, and by their +inserting a clause expressly giving authority to the General Synod to +form a confession of faith; yea, even going further, and giving the same +authority to each District Synod also. (See the original Constitution, +Article III, Section 2.) It seems to me no intelligent and unprejudiced +mind can resist this conclusion as to their doctrinal standpoint, whilst +I and others who were present know it to have been as above stated." In +his manuscript notes Schmucker says: "It is worthy of constant +remembrance that during the first four centuries, under the immediate +pupils of the inspired apostles and their successors, the voice of the +universal Church under the whole heaven was that nothing more than +fundamental agreement should be required for communion in the Christian +Church and Christian ministry. Not a single orthodox church practised +differently. All required assent only to the several ecumenical +confessions, the so-called Apostles' and the Nicene Creeds. . . . No, +the practise of binding the conscience of ministers and members to +extended creeds, containing minor points, on which men in all churches +and all ages have differed and ever will differ, and thus splitting up +the Body of Christ without His authority, is, and must be, highly +criminal. The fathers who founded the General Synod all considered the +recognition of fundamentals as sufficient, and here, in this free +country, determined to return to the practise of the earlier and purer +centuries of the Church. These fathers were Drs. J. G. Schmucker, George +Lochmann, C. Endress, F. W. Geissenhainer, Daniel Kurtz, H. A. +Muhlenberg, P. F. Mayer, H. Schaeffer, and D. F. Schaeffer, Rev. Gottl. +Shober, and Rev. Peter Schmucker, with their younger colaborers, Drs. +Benjamin Kurtz, S. S. Schmucker [Charles Philip Krauth?]. [tr. note: sic] +Holding this opinion, they did not introduce any recognition, even of +the Augsburg Confession, into their original Constitution in 1820. But +at the third meeting, in 1825, they adopted certain resolutions for the +foundation of the theological seminary and statutes for its government, +and bound its professors to the fundamental doctrines of Scripture as +taught in the Augsburg Confession. They thus returned to the principles +and practise of the earlier and purer centuries of the Church, when the +influence of the Savior and His inspired apostles was more sensibly felt +in the Church." (Spaeth, 1, 342. 337. 354.) + +27. "Lutheran Observer" Interpreting Basis.--Apart from its coarseness +and fanaticism, especially during the thirty years' editorship of Dr. B. +Kurtz, the _Lutheran Observer_ has throughout its existence, from 1831 +to 1916, always been an essentially correct exponent of the original +doctrinal and confessional attitude of the General Synod. Consistently a +General Synodist cannot disown the _Observer_ without renouncing the +General Synod itself. Now, according to the _Observer_, the General +Synod has always stood for unity in essentials, or fundamentals, and +liberty in non-fundamentals, understanding by fundamentals those +doctrines only in which Evangelical Christendom is agreed, and by +non-fundamentals distinctive tenets, also those of Lutheranism. Quoting +from Dr. S. Sprecher's inaugural address at Wittenberg College, +Springfield, O., the _Lutheran Observer_, October 26, 1849, declared +that Lutherans [of the General Synod], in adopting the confessions, "do +not bind their conscience to more than what all evangelical Christians +[denominations] regard as fundamental doctrines of the Bible. We are +bound to believe only that the sublime plan of the Gospel is taught in +the Augsburg Confession. This is the position held by the General Synod +and by the American Lutheran Church in general, and this seems to have +been the position also of the Church in the earlier and purer days of +the Reformation." (_L._, 6, 57.) In 1860 the _Observer_ declared that +the General Synod was organized on the basis of a compromise with +respect to doctrines of minor import, such as the doctrine of the Lord's +Supper, of the power of Baptism and of absolution. _Observer_, April 8, +1864: "We ought to be one in the doctrine of faith which embraces the +fundamental doctrines of Christianity, while we should practise love +with respect to other things. By fundamental doctrines we understand +such and such only as are necessary to make a man a true child of God. +. . . Who can be a Christian and deny the essence and existence of God, +Christ, and the Holy Spirit, the atonement, the doctrines of repentance +and faith in Christ, the necessity of justification before God and of +sanctification of the heart, or the moral law as the rule of life, the +doctrine of immortality and our future destination? These doctrines, +which are essential to faith and Christian life, are fundamental and +ought to be received by the heart and practised, while all other +doctrines may be necessary more or less in order to perfect the +Christian character and render it more symmetrical, but do not strike +the heart of true religion." (_L. u. W._, 1864, 154.) _Observer,_ March +12 and 19, 1869: "The doctrinal basis of the General Synod demands +adoption of the fundamental doctrines of the Word of God as taught in +the Augsburg Confession, but she has never determined which doctrines +she regards as fundamental and which not. Formerly she was satisfied +with the general judgment of the Protestant world with respect to the +fundamental articles of Christianity . . ., but during the last decade +the question was extensively discussed: What is fundamental? We see no +reason why the General Synod could not and should not supplement her +basis by a definition and enumeration of the fundamental doctrines. . . +. According to the universal judgment of the Church the doctrinal +opinions in which the orthodox Protestant Churches differ are not +fundamental, but non-fundamental doctrines. Whether God's decree of +election is absolute or conditional; whether the corruption of the +fallen nature of Adam was propagated or only the guilt of his sin was +imputed to his descendants; whether the atonement is universal or +limited to the elect; whether justification occurs by the imputation of +the righteousness of Christ to believers or by the imputation of faith; +whether the presence of Christ in the Lord's Supper is bodily or +spiritual; whether the receiving of body and blood is by faith or by the +mouth, is limited to believers or extends also to unbelievers; whether +the church government is participated in by laymen or limited to the +ministers; whether the Scriptural principles on this matter establish an +hierarchy or democracy--these and many other questions are differently +answered by different Protestant denominations, but without objectively +destroying the ground of faith or subjectively the essence of faith. . +. . In short, the doctrinal views which still separate the Protestant +churches are not fundamental." (_L. u. W._, 1869, 121.) + +28. Krauth on "Fundamentals Substantially Correct."--The essential +correctness of Schmucker's and the _Observer's_ interpretation of the +General Synod's doctrinal basis was acknowledged also by Charles +Porterfield Krauth. "The very life," said he, "the very existence of the +General Synod depends upon the distinction between fundamentals, in +which agreement is required, and non-fundamentals, in which liberty is +granted." And while his father had condemned the confessional basis of +the General Synod as a "solemn farce," Krauth, Jr., in 1857, declared: +"Let the old Formula stand and let it be defined." In the _Missionary_, +April 30, 1857, Dr. Krauth explained: "The doctrinal basis of the +General Synod, then, was designed to be one on which, without sacrifice +of conscience, brethren differing in non-fundamentals might meet. It is +a basis which, on the one hand, neither by expression nor by implication +charges error upon any part of the doctrinal articles of the Confession, +but as far as it touches the question at all, expresses or implies the +very opposite; a basis, therefore, on which brethren who receive the +Confession without reservation can rest, but which, at the same time, on +the other hand, defines its position only as to what is fundamental, +leaving entirely untouched the questions whether non-fundamental +doctrines are taught in the Confession, and whether, if taught, they are +taught in a manner substantially correct. Furthermore, in using the word +'substantially' to qualify the term 'correct,' in the affirmation as to +fundamentals, the General Synod meant not to decide, but to leave +untouched the question whether, as to its very letter as well as in its +essentials, the Confession is a correct exhibition of Scripture +doctrine. The position, in effect, implied this: Brethren may differ as +to whether the non-fundamental doctrines as well as the fundamental +doctrines are correctly stated in the Confession. Let them differ. We +make no decision whatever as to that point. Both agree as to +_fundamentals_; therefore fundamentals only shall be the object in this +subscription. We affirm of them that they are taught correctly in the +Confession. Of the non-fundamentals we affirm nothing and deny nothing. +Neither their reception nor rejection has anything to do with this +basis. But brethren differ on another point. Some receive the very +letter of the Confession on all points of doctrine; others, who receive +it to the letter on most points, receive it only as to its main drift on +a few. Let, then, that which is apart from the substance be left out of +view, and be the subject neither of affirmation nor of denial. Let us +make the affirmation simply on the _substantial_ correctness of the +Confession, for on that all are agreed. Here, too, shall be the same +absolute freedom to _receive_ what is apart from the substance as to +_reject_ it." Dr. Krauth proceeds: "The basis of the General Synod, +then, does not imply that non-fundamentals are falsely taught, or that +the correctness of the Confession on fundamentals is _merely_ +substantial. The questions which touch non-fundamentals, or matters +apart from the substance, are _simply waived_ and left undetermined. +Thus interpreted, the most devoted friend of the Confession, in all its +parts, as well as he who is compelled to make a reservation as to some +portions, can freely use the Formula. It was the best basis possible, +under all the circumstances, and we are therefore satisfied with it." +"If, when the General Synod affirmed that the _fundamentals_ were +correctly taught, she had declared or implied that the non-fundamentals +were incorrectly taught, no Lutheran who believed that the Augsburg +Confession is sound on _all_ the doctrinal points it touches, or who +believed that none but fundamental doctrines are set forth in the +Confession, could have received the Formula. She satisfied herself, +therefore, with an affirmative about fundamentals, making neither an +affirmation nor denial in regard to non-fundamentals. She left the +synods in absolute freedom in non-fundamentals, freedom to doubt, to +reject, or to receive them." "So also when she declared that the +fundamentals of Scripture-doctrine are taught in a manner +_substantially_ correct, she neither declared nor implied that they were +not taught in a manner absolutely correct, but ... as all who believe +that they are set forth in a manner _absolutely correct_, believe, +necessarily, that they are taught in a manner _substantially_ correct; +for that which is absolute embraces that which is substantial and +something more; she simply makes an affirmation, so far as two classes +(if thinkers are agreed, affirming nothing and denying nothing as +regards that in which they differ, but having absolute freedom to doubt, +reject, or receive that which goes beyond the substance, and embraces +the minutiae of the form. The man who has a quarrel with this position +of the General Synod has a quarrel not against something incidental to +her, but against her very life. For on this position, expressed or +implied, rested, and continues to rest, the ability of our General Synod +to have a being." (Spaeth, 1, 402. 399. 401. 395 f.) According to Krauth, +then, there was constitutional room in the General Synod for Schmucker +and Kurtz as well as for Walther and Wyneken; room for all who accept +the fundamental doctrines in which evangelical Christians agree, but +deny the distinctively Lutheran doctrines, and room also for men who +confess all doctrines of the Lutheran Symbols. As late as October 29, +1863, Krauth declared in the _Lutheran and Missionary_ that there was +nothing in the Basis of the General Synod to bar even the Missouri Synod +from entering it with the whole mass of confessions in her arms. (_L. u. +W._, 1863, 378.) Dr. Krauth overlooked the fact that a Lutheran who +adopts the symbols _ex animo_, and does not merely carry them in his +arms, is serious also with respect to the confessional damnamuses with +which a unionism and indifferentism, as required by the General Synod, +is absolutely incompatible. In 1901 the _Lutheran Quarterly_ said: "The +damnamuses at the conclusion of several of the articles of the Augsburg +Confession are inconsistencies . . . fundamental contradictions with the +positive sense of the Confession." (359.) The _Quarterly_ could have +said, and probably wanted to say, that these damnamuses are fundamental +contradictions with the doctrinal basis of the General Synod. In +complete agreement with Krauth, the _Observer_ wrote September 11, 1903: +"The General Synod affirms and emphasizes what is universal in +Lutheranism, and leaves the individual at liberty, within this generic +unity, to receive and hold for himself whatever particularities of +Lutheran statement may commend themselves to his acceptance. The only +liberty denied him is that of forcing the particular upon his brethren +who are content to rest in the full acceptance of what is universal in +Lutheranism. It allows the same liberty in practise." (_L. u. W._, 1903, +305.) + + +UNIONISM. + +29. Early Attitude.--The unionism which prevailed in all Lutheran synods +since the days of Muhlenberg was freely indulged in also by the General +Synod during the whole course of her history, in various ways, +especially in the exchange of fraternal delegates and the fellowship of +pulpit and altar. In 1825 the General Synod published with great +satisfaction a letter received from Dr. Planck, of Goettingen, stating: +Though there was in Germany no hope for a union of Protestants and +Catholics, the sectarian hatred between the Lutherans and the Reformed +had abated, indeed, disappeared, inasmuch as a complete union of them +had been effected in Prussia, Hesse, Nassau, the Palatinate, Baden; +these "reunions" had been brought about under conditions which +guaranteed their permanence, since both parties had convinced themselves +that there was no difference of views among them with respect to the +foundation of faith, and had agreed that the difference which might +still exist with respect to some points of the Lord's Supper could no +longer be a hindrance to their unity of faith and spirit; this union, +inasmuch as the parties no longer regarded themselves as divided, really +existed in all Protestant states of Germany, even where, as yet, it had +not been acknowledged formally. (24 f.) According to the Proceedings of +1827 "the Synod was gratified by the deep interest evinced by this +letter [of Dr. Planck] in the affairs of our Church in the United +States, and received the good wishes of its distinguished author with +grateful feelings. The corresponding committee was directed to answer +this communication." (5.) It was in keeping with the spirit of Planck's +letter that the minutes of 1827 furthermore recorded: "The following +gentlemen were present and [were] admitted as advisory members . . .: +The Rev. Mr. Helfenstein, of Philadelphia, as delegate from the Bible +Society in that city; and Rev. Mr. van der Sloot, as delegate from the +General Synod of the German Reformed Church." (5.) "Resolved, That the +General Synod of the Ev. Lutheran Church in the United States regard +with deep interest the exertions of the American Tract Society, and +recommend the design of said society to the churches under their care; +to give it their aid by the formation of auxiliary societies, and such +other means as have been recommended by the parent institution." (7.) +"Rev. Mr. Hinsch appeared and presented to this body the minutes of +the German Reformed Synod, and received a seat as an advisory member, +whereupon it was resolved that an equal number of the minutes of this +Synod be sent to the Synod of the German Reformed Church." (8.) "The +subject of publishing a new hymn-book in the German language, adapted to +the joint use of Lutheran and Reformed Churches, was now taken into +consideration. After some discussion it was resolved that as the joint +hymn-book for the Lutheran and Reformed Churches now in use is +introduced in a large number of our congregations, as it is possessed of +considerable merit, and as the introduction of a new one would be +attended with much expense to our congregations and confusion in worship, +therefore the General Synod deem it inexpedient to publish or recommend +the introduction of a new one in the churches under their care." (11.) +"Rev. N. Sharrets was appointed as delegate to the Synod of Ohio, and +the Rev. B. Kurtz and Rev. J. Schmidt as delegates to the German +Reformed General Synod." (12.) _Proceedings_, October, 1829: "Resolved, +That a committee be appointed to report on the proceedings of the German +Reformed Synod." (6.) "The delegates of the German Reformed Synod, the +Revs. Brunner and Beecher, were cordially received as advisory members." +(4.) The constitution adopted 1829 for the District Synods provides: +"Ministers, regular members of other synods or of sister churches +[sectarian denominations], who may be present or appear as delegates of +such bodies, may be received as advisory members, but have no vote in +any decision of the Synod." (31.) + +30. Exchanging Delegates, Pulpits, Ministers.--In 1847, in a letter to +Ph. Schaff, W. J. Mann describes the relation of the General Synod to +the Methodists and Presbyterians as a "concubinage" with the sects. +(Spaeth, _W. J. Mann_, 38.) The extent, nature, and anti-Lutheran +tendency of this unionism appears from the minutes of the General Synod. +At Hagerstown, 1837, a Presbyterian, an Episcopalian, a Reformedist, and +a Methodist were received as advisory members. Two Lutheran ministers +preached in the Reformed church, two others in the Methodist church, and +Dr. Patton, of the American Education Society, in the Lutheran church. +At Baltimore, 1848, delegates of the General Assembly of the +Presbyterian Church and of the Dutch Reformed Church were received as +advisory members. (5.) The minutes of the German Reformed Synod were +received and submitted to the examination of a committee. (9.) Delegates +were appointed to the Presbyterian and the German Reformed Church. (11.) +At Charleston, 1850, delegates were appointed to the German Reformed, +the Presbyterian, the Cumberland Presbyterian, and the Congregational +Church. It was also resolved that "the minutes [of the General Synod] be +sent to the Congregational Association of New Hampshire, to the Assembly +of the Cumberland Presbyterians, to the Constitutional Assembly of the +Presbyterian Church, and to the Synod of the German Reformed Church." +(28.) At Dayton, O., 1855, sixteen sectarian ministers were seated as +advisory members. (7.) At Reading, 1857, the Committee on Ecclesiastical +Correspondence reported: "With the General Assembly of the Presbyterian +Church we have now been in correspondence for twelve years, and every +interchange of delegates only strengthens the conviction expressed at +its commencement, that it 'would draw more closely the bonds of +Christian union, and so level the mountains and elevate the valleys of +sectarianism as to prepare the way of the Lord in His coming to +millennial glory.' We rejoice to-day to greet a delegate from that large +and influential body of Christians, and tender to him our Christian +salutations and brotherly love." (41.) At Pittsburgh, 1859, where +fourteen sectarian ministers were invited to seats in the convention, +the same committee stated: "The most interesting point to which your +committee would call the attention of the General Synod is the prompt +and cordial response of the Northern Provincial Synod of the United +Brethren (Moravian) to the overture for correspondence made to them at +our last meeting in Reading. Like ourselves, they acknowledge the +Augsburg Confession as their common bond of union, and have, ever since +the commencement of the last century, sustained a peculiar and intimate +relation towards our Church. It is only by discipline and forms of +church-government that we are separated, and we trust that the step +which has now been taken will draw us still more closely together, and +tend to our mutual edification and progress in Christian activity as +well as in brotherly love." (30.) At Lancaster, Pa., 1862, the delegate +to the German Reformed Church reported "that he was most kindly received +by that body, and was charged by the same to return its cordial +salutations to this Synod, with the hope on the part of our German +Reformed brethren that the present fraternal correspondence between our +Churches, twin-sisters of the Reformation, may never be interrupted. The +President of that body was appointed as delegate to this Synod, and we +rejoice to see him present with us now and taking an active interest in +our proceedings." (64.) The delegate to the Moravian Church declared +that "he takes great pleasure in stating that the fraternal greetings +which he was charged to convey to the brethren with most cordially +reciprocated, and the earnest desire expressed that the correspondence, +so auspiciously begun between the two bodies, might be continued." (64.) +At Lancaster it was also recommended to the District Synods that with +respect to the Reformed, Presbyterian, and other Churches they adopt the +rule: "Ministers and members in good standing, desiring to pass from one +of these bodies to the other, shall, upon application to the proper +body, receive a certificate of their standing." (16.) In accordance with +this rule the _Lutheran Observer_, May 17, 1867, advised Lutherans +moving West to unite with sister denominations until a Lutheran +congregation should be established at the place. (_L. u. W._ 1867, 182.) +At York, Pa., 1864, where sermons were delivered by Lutheran ministers +in eight sectarian churches, S. S. Schmucker, delegate to the German +Reformed Church, reported that "an invitation was given him to address +the Synod, and that the feelings of Christian fellowship which he took +occasion to express were cordially and liberally responded to by the +presiding officer of the Synod." (31.) Dr. Sprecher, then President of +the General Synod, said in response to the address of the delegate from +the Presbyterian Church who had spoken of the unity of all Christians, +and assured the convention of the sympathy of his brethren with its +work, that he was happy to see that the time of exclusiveness of the +different denominations had passed by, and that the Church was becoming +more liberal in its views in granting greater liberty in nonfundamental +articles. (_L. u. W._ 1864, 220.) + +31. Exchanging Delegates, etc., Continued.--At Fort Wayne, 1866, where +delegates were appointed to the German Reformed Synod, the Presbyterian +Church, the Moravian Church, and the Evangelical Church Union of the +West, S. Sprecher, delegate to the Presbyterian Church, reported that he +was most cordially received, that the fraternal greetings of this body +were most heartily responded to by the moderator of the Assembly, and +that "on your delegate's quoting, in his address, the Article of the +Constitution of this General Synod, inculcating the duty of Christian +union, as one of the earliest instances, if not the very first, of an +ecclesiastical body's formally expressing such sentiments on this +subject, he was pleasantly interrupted by a hearty expression of +applause." (36.) In the minutes of the convention held at Washington, +1869, we read: "Dr. Gordon, the delegate from the Reformed (Dutch) +Church, then addressed the Synod. The address was characterized by a +truly earnest and Christian spirit, and by assurance of a hearty purpose +to cooperate with us in every noble effort for the glory of God and the +salvation of men. His allusions to Romanism were especially timely and +truthful. The President responded in an address, happily conceived and +forcibly expressed. On motion it was resolved that the overtures of the +corresponding delegate of the Reformed Church concerning the proposed +convention for the formation of church union and cooperative agency +against a common foe be submitted to a committee to report during the +present sessions of Synod." (26.) The delegate of the Presbyterian +Church addressed the Synod "in a very pleasant and appropriate address. +His kind expressions of good will and sympathy and Christian love were +warmly responded to by the President." (27.) The delegate to the German +Reformed Church reported: "An opportunity was granted to your delegate +to present the Christian salutations of our General Synod, to which the +President of their body responded in a warm, fraternal, and most fitting +manner." Delegate to the Presbyterian General Assembly: "My intercourse +with the brethren of the General Assembly was peculiarly pleasant and +satisfactory." (13.) The delegate to the "Unitas Fratrum" (Moravians) +stated "that he was most cordially received by the brethren. There is +something of the simplicity and love of primitive Christianity about +them that renders their assemblages charmingly attractive. The spirit of +the Master was evinced in all their doings. Their discussions of some +points of church-practises, diverging from their accustomed order, were +spirited and thorough, but conducted in the scope of the Pauline +sentiment: 'Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love, in +honor preferring one another.'" (34.) The General Synod declared: "Our +principles not merely allow, but actually demand, fraternal relations +with all Evangelical Christians, and especially with other Lutheran +bodies in this country." (68.) At Canton, O., 1873, where Lutheran +ministers preached in ten sectarian churches, the following letter of +greeting from the United Brethren was read: "Our conference and Church +duly appreciate every mark of good feeling and regard of sister +denominations towards us, and admire the spirit which prompts it, which +says, 'We are brethren,' 'We are one.' We are glad to note that the +sharp corners of denominational antagonism are wearing away, that the +watchmen are seeing eye to eye, that Christians can labor side by side +in the common cause and in the same altars, and meet at the same +communion, and each rejoice in the other's success. We also remember, +with the utmost pleasure, the intimacy of some of the eminent men of +your connection with the fathers of our connection,--instance Dr. Kurtz +and W. Otterbein,--and trust that the sacred mantle of brotherly love +which the fathers possessed may fall upon the sons to many generations. +We rejoice in the marked tendency to fraternal union among the +evangelical churches of the United States, and are hopeful that we may +get near together in all the essentials of Christian oneness. We take +great pleasure in appointing a fraternal messenger to your general +meeting at Canton, O." (34.) At Carthage, Ill., 1877, delegates were +appointed to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, the +Reformed (Dutch) Church, the Reformed (German) Church, the National +Council of the Congregational Churches, the United Presbyterian Church, +the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, the Provincial Synod of the Moravian +Church, the United Brethren in Christ, and to the Evangelical Synod of +the West. (26.) At Altoona, Pa., 1881, the following letter was +received: "The Presbyterian Church greets, in the name of Christ, her +twin-sister, the Evangelical Lutheran Church, born in the throes of the +same spiritual reformation, sharing in common a glorious protesting +history, marked with glorious deeds and names dear alike to both, a +common glorious heritage, kindred symbols and polity, and a work for +Christ side by side. May grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and +the Lord Jesus Christ be with all your ministers and congregations." +(54.) At Omaha, Nebr., 1887, thirty ministers of the General Synod +preached in 18 sectarian churches, etc. Similar facts are recorded in +the minutes of the General Synod down to its last convention in 1917. + +32. Altar-fellowship Practised and Encouraged.--At Hagerstown, 1837, +after a sermon delivered by Dr. Bachmann, "the brethren, united with +many followers of Christ, of our own as well as of sister-churches, +celebrated the Lord's Supper." (3.) At Philadelphia, 1845, the General +Synod "cordially approves of the practise, which has hitherto prevailed +in our churches, of inviting communicants in regular standing in either +church [Lutheran and Reformed] to partake of the Sacrament of the Lord's +Supper in the other, and of the dismission of church-members, at their +own request, from the churches of the one to those of the other +denominations." At York, 1864, and at Fort Wayne, 1866, the report of +the Liturgical Committee was adopted, which contained the resolution +"that on all subjects on which difference of doctrinal sentiment +exists" (_e.g._, the distribution formula in the Lord's Supper), +"Scripture-language, suited to either or both views, is to be employed +without comment." (1864,26; 1866,23.) The result was that the union +distribution formula was embodied in the Communion liturgy. The +_Observer_, July 21, 1865, calling upon all Lutherans to join the +General Synod, said: "And even if we, as Luther and the Reformed +ministers at Marburg, do not think alike on the presence of the Lord in +the Lord's Supper, let us have love to those who are in error, and pray +God that He would enlighten them. What an offense to see so many +thousands of intelligent and pious Lutherans live together like Jews and +Samaritans though they all confess [?] the doctrines of the immortal +Reformer and want to be disciples of Him who said: It will be one flock +and one Shepherd." In 1868 the _Observer_ reported that at Findlay, 0., +Lutherans, Presbyterians, Methodists, Congregationalists, +Weinbrennerians, and United Brethren celebrated the Lord's Supper in the +Presbyterian Church, and adds: "That was a celebration of the Lord's +Supper in the true spirit of the Gospel." (_L. u. W._ 1868,95.) In 1894 +a conference of General Synod pastors in, and in the vicinity of, +Pittsburgh published, in substance, the declaration: "We have open +communion, and invite to it all members of the Evangelical Protestant +Churches." (_L. u. W._ 1895,58.) Till 1899 the Communion formula of the +"Ministerial Acts" of the General Synod contained a general invitation +to all members of other Churches in good standing or to all who love the +Lord Jesus. (_Luth. Quarterly_ 1909,33.) Though followed by a marked +decrease in the indiscriminate invitation to the Lord's Supper, the +omission of 1899 implied neither a criticism nor the abolishment of the +un-Lutheran practise. In 1900 Pastor Butler wrote in the _Evangelist_ +that he agrees with the brethren who make the Lord's Supper a communion +with the Low and High-Church Episcopalians, the Methodists, Baptists, +Presbyterians, Congregationalists, etc. "It is men of Dr. Storr's type," +says Butler, "who, of all others, commend Christianity to thoughtful +and devout people who care but little for the tweedledum and tweedledee +shadings of truth, which divide the religious world." (_L. u. W._ 1900, +246.) Dr. Valentine, in the _Lutheran Cyclopedia_ of 1905: The General +Synod "enacts no restrictive law against fellowship in pulpit or at +altar, but allows to both ministers and members the freedom of +conscience and love in this matter." (195.) + +33. Other Forms of Unionism.--In his pamphlet _The General Synod and Her +Assailants_ J. A. Brown writes: "The General Synod was to aim not only +at union among Lutheran synods, but to be 'regardful of the +circumstances of the times, and of every casual rise and progress of +unity of sentiment among Christians in general, in order that the +blessed opportunities to promote concord, and unity, and the interest of +the Redeemer's kingdom may not pass by neglected and unavailing.' This +she has done by entering into correspondence with other denominations, +and joining in general efforts to evangelize the world. She has +cooperated with the American Bible and Tract Societies, and +Sunday-school Union, and like agencies, and excited the contempt of her +enemies by these 'unionistic efforts.' But it is believed she thus +secured the approval of God and of His true Church, of whatever name." +(24.) At Frederick, 1831, the Sunday-school Society of the General Synod +appointed Dr. Hazelius and the treasurer of the society to publish +German Sunday-school books and tracts in connection with a committee of +the Reformed Sunday-school Society. (29.) At Baltimore, 1833, a +committee was appointed to report on the advantages or disadvantages of +a union between the Reformed and Lutheran Churches. At Hagerstown, 1837, +the General Synod adopted the report of their committee stating with +respect to the proceedings of the East Pennsylvania Synod: "The +proceedings contain a resolution to be concerned as much as possible +about a closer union with the Church of Christ, and that a complete +union of the Evangelical Lutheran and of the Evangelical Reformed +Churches would have the most blessed results." (10.) At the same +convention the "Foreign Mission Society of the Evangelical German +Churches in the United States" was founded, which, however, did not +prove a success, having a temporary existence only. According to its +constitution, the Society was to embrace all churches or individuals of +German descent agreeing with the constitution and making an annual +contribution. (39.) Moravians and Reformed were among its officers. The +letter addressed in the interest of this Society to the Reformed and +other German Churches, inviting them to cooperate, states: "It is our +ardent desire that the German Church as such be united in this matter.... +Because union in this as well as in all other matters is desirable for +the sake of peace, of Christian fellowship, and of true piety,... we, +therefore, cordially invite you, dear brethren [of the Reformed Churches, +etc.] to cooperate. It matters not who leads the way, as long as he is +in the right way." (44.) Synod resolved "that the invitations [to join +the Foreign Mission Society] which had been extended to all German +Churches without exception, suggest an appropriate admonition that, +being convinced that we all are brethren in Christ, our sectarian +divisions should be forgotten, and that they offer an occasion for the +brotherly cooperation of two Churches which are so close to each other +by national descent, similarity of doctrine, geographic neighborhood, +and matrimonial relationship." (13.) Synod furthermore declared "that +according to the meaning of this Synod the plan which is adopted should +include a connection with the American Board of Commissioners for +Foreign Missions." (13.) At Chambersburg, 1839, B. Kurtz presented a +resolution in reference to some plan for a union of effort in the +Foreign Missionary field with "our brethren of the German Reformed +Church." (33.) At the same convention the Foreign Mission Society +proposed organic union with the German Reformed. At Philadelphia, 1845, +the General Synod approved of the Reformed publications of the American +Tract Society, as also of those of the American Sunday-school Union, and +of the extension of the former's operations to the German population. At +New York, 1848, the Evangelical (Union) Synod of the West was invited to +join the General Synod. The same convention resolved that they "regard +with great pleasure the successful operations of the American Tract +Society, among the destitute population of our land, and will cheerfully +cooperate with them as opportunity may offer." (23.) A similar +resolution was adopted in 1864, at York. (_L. u. W._ 1864,284.) At +Dayton, 0., 1855, the General Synod declared its undiminished confidence +in the American Sunday-school Union, and cordially commended it to the +support and hearty cooperation of all churches. (23.) In 1859 (March 23) +the _Olive Branch_, edited by Dr. S. W. Harkey, stated that many +congregations connected with the General Synod were still using the +union hymn-book. Throughout its history ministers of the General Synod +served both Lutheran and sectarian congregations. (_L. u. W._ 1880,190.) +In 1863 Harkey proposed a union of all Lutherans in America on the basis +of the fundamental Christian doctrines, _i. e._, the doctrines held in +common by all evangelical Protestants, including the doctrine of the +divine obligation of the Sabbath which the Augsburg Confession rejects. +(_L. u. W._ 1863,91.) Reporting Dr. Crosby's statement with respect to +the differences of the old and new-school Presbyterians, "We can agree +to disagree," the _Observer_ exclaimed: "Oh, that the intolerant +dogmatists of the Lutheran Church would have attained such a degree of +Christian love and common sense!" (July 12, 1872.) In 1857 the +arch-unionist Philip Schaff wrote in _Rudelbach-Guericke's Zeitschrift_: +"To us America seems to be destined to become the phenix grave of all +European churches and sects, of Protestantism and Romanism." The General +Synod was certainly not a slacker in contributing her bit to fulfil this +prophecy. + + +UNION LETTER OP 1845. + +34. Overtly Renouncing Lutheranism.--In 1845, at Philadelphia, the +General Synod appointed a committee to address, in a letter, the +Evangelical Church in Germany, in order to defend herself against +alleged detractors of her Lutheranism. But the signers of this letter, +Schmucker, Kurtz, Pohlmann, Morris, and H. I. Schmidt (then professor +in Hartwick Seminary), while believing that they were serving this +purpose, in reality made an unreserved confession of the General Synod's +complete apostasy from the Lutheran faith and Church. The letter states: +The General Synod requires only essential agreement in doctrinal views, +strict conformity being impossible in America. Peace can be maintained +only by an eclecticism, which adheres to essentials and passes over +non-important matters. Accordingly, the position of the General Synod is +not that of the Old Lutherans, but of the Union Church in Germany. "Now, +as to our doctrinal views, we confess without disguise, indeed, confess +it loudly and openly, that the great majority of us are not Old +Lutherans in the sense of a small party [Breslauer], which in Germany +bears this name. We are convinced that, if the great Luther were still +living, he himself would not be one of them." "In most of our +church-principles we stand on common ground with the Union Church of +Germany. The distinctive views which separate the Old Lutherans and the +Reformed Church we do not consider essential; and the tendency of the +so-called old Lutheran party seems to us to be behind our age." "The +great Luther made progress throughout his life, and at the end of his +career considered his work unfinished." The General Synod, the letter +continues, agreeing with Luther and the symbols in all essential points, +was endeavoring to complete his work. "The peculiar view of Luther on +the bodily presence of the Lord in the Lord's Supper has long ago been +abandoned by the great majority of our ministers, though some few of the +older German teachers and laymen still adhere to it. Regarding the +nature and meaning of the presence of the Lord in the Supper, liberty is +allowed as in the Evangelical [Union] Church of Germany. The majority of +our preachers believe in a peculiar presence and in a peculiar blessing +of the Lord, but of a spiritual nature only." "Nevertheless, we are +Evangelical Lutheran.... We believe that we may, as honest men, still +call ourselves Lutherans." The letter continues: Instead of organizing a +separate Evangelical [Union] Church, as it exists in Germany, ministers +coming to America should unite with the General Synod. They must, +however, not come with the purpose of remodeling the American Lutheran +Church according to European standards, which would but lead to failure, +strife, and separations. Similar attempts had been made by German +brethren through the _Kirchenzeitung_ [in Pittsburgh] and in Columbus +Seminary, with the result that the paper was losing its support and the +seminary was now suspended. (_Lutheraner_ 1846,43 f. Spaeth, 1, 330-348.) +This blunderful letter was published in Germany in the _Zeitschrift fuer +Protestantismus und Kirche_, Vol. 11, No. 4, Schmucker, Kurtz, and Morris +being personally present in Germany to defend the letter. Loehe remarked: +"We hope that they will carry the conviction from Germany that a time has +arrived different from the one when Kurtz first preached and collected in +Germany." (_Kirchl. Mitteilungen_, 1846,48.) A consequence of the letter +was that, in 1846, four ministers (Kunz, Wier, Isensee, and Meissner, who +immediately organized the Indianapolis Synod, which, however, had a +temporary existence only) left the Synod of the West, declaring that they +could no longer continue their connection with the General Synod because +in her letter she had publicly confessed that she had abandoned a part of +the Lutheran doctrine long ago. (_Lutheraner_ 1846,11.) + +35. Letter Never Disowned by Synod.--The letter of 1845 is a frank +confession and adequate expression of the spirit of unionism then +prevailing in the General Synod. Indeed, several years later (1852, 1856), +H. I. Schmidt, who had signed the letter, expressed his belief in the +Lutheran doctrine of the Lord's Supper, and Dr. Morris declared the +letter "the greatest blunder" ever committed by the General Synod. The +General Synod as such, however, has never criticized, renounced, or +withdrawn the letter. Moreover, in 1848, at New York, the letter, in a +way, received official recognition by the General Synod. (19. 20. 50.) +In his _Denkschrift_ of 1875 Severinghaus explains: "Even if this letter +should have expressed the views of the great majority, it is, +nevertheless, only the testimony of a committee, which indeed was never +disavowed by the General Synod, but which can have no greater +significance than was given it by the authority of the committee of that +time." But Severinghaus continues: "Besides, it is _still_ true that the +majority among us are not old-Lutheran, and that, in general, we occupy +common ground with the Union Church of Germany in most of our +church-principles." The truth is that the leaders of the General Synod, +in 1845, did not occupy higher, on the contrary, even lower ground than +the Lutherans in the Prussian Union. They were not merely unionists, +but Calvinists, Puritans, and Methodists, openly defending Reformed +errors and practises. While the greater portion of the Prussian Union +retained the Lutheran doctrines and usages, the great majority of the +General Synod had sacrificed everything specifically Lutheran: +doctrines, liturgy, Scripture-lessons, church-festivals, customs, robes, +etc. Loehe declared in 1863 that the General Synod was a Union Church, +more so than any in Germany. + +36. Actions in Keeping with Letter.--A number of subsequent actions of +the General Synod were in perfect agreement with the compromising letter +of 1845. At New York, 1848, the General Synod resolved "that Profs. +Reynolds, Schmidt, and Hay be a committee to correspond with the +Evangelical Synod of the West, for the purpose of establishing fraternal +intercourse between them and this Synod, and also with a view to the +union of all parts of the Evangelical Church in the great work of +preaching the Gospel to the German population of the West, and with a +reference to the organization of all parts of our Church in this country +upon a common basis." (23.) At Dayton, 0., 1855, the committee (W. J. +Mann and S. W. Harkey), appointed to open a correspondence with the +Evangelical Church Union of the West, report "that they addressed a +letter to the Synod named, which was favorably noticed in their +proceedings, and a delegate appointed by them to meet with us at this +time." Harkey was appointed as delegate to their next meeting. (15.) At +Pittsburgh, 1859, the delegate to the same body stated: "I wrote to that +body, expressing the very deep interest which we feel in their union. +The communication was very fraternally received and a delegate appointed +to meet us at this convention of General Synod, who is now present." +(32.) At the same convention the committee on Ecclesiastical +Correspondence remarked: "You were pleased to hear Mr. Dresel's +[delegate of the Evangelical Church Union of the West] statements by +which you are assured of the near relationship of the body which he +represents to the Lutheran Church generally. They, too, recognize the +Augsburg Confession as a part of their confessional basis, although they +have modified it by the admission of the Heidelberg Catechism and other +Reformed Confessions to equal authority, standing as they do upon the +basis of the United Evangelical Church of Prussia and other parts of +Germany. It is not our business here to criticize the action of the +State authorities in Germany by which that Union was established, or of +our brethren who found themselves in this country sympathizing with the +Church in which they had there been reared. It was enough for this body +to be assured that these brethren are of an evangelical character, +holding the great doctrines of Protestantism, and zealously laboring for +the diffusion of Christian knowledge and unfeigned piety among their +countrymen, especially in the great valley of the Mississippi. Although +distinct in doctrinal position and church organization, our relations to +them here are of the most interesting character, and you will be pleased +to hear of the progress which they are making in various departments of +Christian labor." (30.) At Washington, in 1869, the delegate to the +Evangelical Church Union of the West reported: "These brethren are +earnestly at work in the Master's cause, and in full sympathy with our +General Synod. Hoping that our fraternal relations may grow stronger +each revolving year," etc. (29.) In 1857 and 1859 the same cordial +attitude was assumed toward the Evangelical Church Diet (Kirchentag) in +Germany, a letter, in behalf of the Diet, having been received from +Bethmann-Hollweg, then Secretary of ecclesiastical affairs in Prussia. +(_Proceedings_ 1857,21.24; 1859,32.37.38.) In 1909 the General Synod +approved of the admission (in 1907) of the _Vereinslutheraner_ within +the Prussian Union into the "Allgemeine Evangelisch-Lutherische +Konferenz." (22.) Siding with the Evangelicals, the _Lutheran Observer_, +October 9, 1863, declared: "The Evangelical Union of the West forms a +wholesome balance against the old-Lutheran tendency of the Missouri +Synod." (_L. u. W._. 1863,379.) It was, therefore, not in dissonance +with the traditions of the General Synod, when, as late as 1909, the +_Lutheran Evangelist_ proposed a union of the General and Evangelical +Synods, maintaining that General Synodists and Evangelicals were +natural allies. (_L. u. W._ 1909,180. 421.) + + +CHRISTIAN UNION. + +37. "Father" of Evangelical Alliance.--At Chambersburg, Pa., 1839, the +General Synod passed the resolution "that the thanks of this Synod be +presented to the American Society for the Promotion of Christian Union +_for this acceptable present_." The present received by the members of +Synod was Schmucker's "Appeal to the American Churches" or "New Plan of +Apostolic Protestant Union." The purpose of this book was to promote +union among the Protestant denominations on the basis of the ecumenical +confessions. It proved to be a powerful factor in the movement which +resulted in the organization of the Evangelical Alliance. Schmucker +himself, together with Kurtz and Morris, attended the "World's +Convention" at London in 1846, where they united with 800 ministers of +50 different denominations in founding the Alliance, which assumed the +motto: "_Unum corpus sumus in Christo_," Schmucker, in particular being +feted as the "Father" of this union. Naturally enough also the General +Synod took a lively interest in the Alliance, though it was not a union +of churches or of representatives of churches, but of individual +Christians who were in sympathy with its aims. In 1869, for example, the +General Synod "resolved that the delegates to the World's Evangelical +Alliance, appointed at Harrisburg, be continued with the addition of +Rev. S. Sprecher, D. D., and Rev. S. S. Schmucker, D. D." (64.) At the +international conferences of the Alliance the General Synod was +regularly represented, also at its last convention in 1914 at Basel. On +a local meeting of the Alliance in 1902, at Easton, Pa., the +_Lutherische Kirchenblatt_ (General Council) reported, in substance, as +follows: "More than 60 delegates were present: Baptists, Methodists, +Congregationalists, Evangelicals, Free Baptists, Lutherans (General +Synod and General Council), Mennonites, Moravians, Presbyterians, +Episcopalians, Reformed, Reformed Presbyterians, and United +Evangelicals. Resolutions formulated by a committee, of which Dr. +Alleman of the General Synod was a member, were unanimously adopted +according to which members of one congregation may be received by +another in a manner 'that no question of church-polity or doctrine need +ever arise.' It was furthermore resolved that in smaller cities and +country congregations union services be held throughout the state." +(_Observer_, Dec. 26, 1903.) The following nine articles, which +Schmucker viewed as a sufficient basis for every kind of Christian union +and cooperation, were adopted by the Alliance at London: "1. The divine +inspiration, authority, and sufficiency of the Holy Scriptures. 2. The +right and duty of private judgment in the interpretation of the Holy +Scripture. 3. The unity of the Godhead and the trinity of Persons +therein. 4. The utter depravity of human nature in consequence of the +fall. 5. The incarnation of the Son of God, His work of atonement for +sinners of mankind, and His mediatorial intercession and reign. 6. The +justification of the sinner by faith alone. 7. The work of the Holy +Spirit in the conversion and sanctification of the sinner. 8. The +immortality of the soul, the resurrection of the body, the judgment of +the world by our Lord Jesus Christ, with the eternal blessedness of the +righteous and the eternal punishment of the wicked. 9. The divine +institution of Christian ministry, and the obligation and perpetuity of +the ordinance of Baptism and the Lord's Supper." + +38. "Apostolic Protestant Union."--The plan of Christian Union hatched +by Schmucker and recommended by the General Synod is delineated in a +report presented 1848, at New York, by the Committee of Conference on +Christian Union appointed at the previous session of the General Synod, +as follows: "The kind of union to which this body was disposed to invite +the several evangelical denominations, and in which she felt it a duty +and a pleasure to lead the way in hope of virtually healing the 'Great +Schism' of Protestantism, is also definitely delineated by the following +portraiture: 'The design to be aimed at shall be not to amalgamate the +several denominations into one church, nor to impair in any degree the +independent control of each denomination over its own affairs and +interests, but to present to the world a more formal profession and +practical proof of our mutual recognition of each other as integral +parts of the visible Church of Christ on earth, as well as our +fundamental unity of faith and readiness to cooperate harmoniously in +the advancement of objects of common interest." (11.) "An article was +prepared in which, after a glance at the solemn injunction of the Savior +and His apostles to preserve unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, +the nature and extent of the union prevailing in the primitive churches +was delineated as consisting of the following features: a. unity of +name; b. unity in fundamental doctrines, whilst diversity in +nonessentials was concealed; c. mutual acknowledgment of each other's +acts of discipline; d. sacramental and ministerial intercommunion; e. +convention of the different churches of the land in synod or council +for mutual consultation or ecclesiastical regulation." (12.) "In +contrast with this picture of primitive union, the present deplorable +divided and conflicting state of the Church was delineated.... In hope +of removing the principal evils of these denominational divisions, your +committee projected a scheme of Christian union based (in the following +four preliminary principles for the guarantee of the rights of +individual conscience and denominational religious liberty: 1. This plan +must require of no one the renunciation of any doctrine or opinion +believed by him to be true, nor the profession of anything he regards as +erroneous; nor does the accession of any denomination to this union +imply any sanction of the peculiarities of any other. 2. It must concede +to every denomination the right to retain its own organization for +government, discipline, and worship. 3. It must not prevent the +discussion of the points of difference between the several associated +denominations, but only require that it be done in the spirit of love. +4. It must either in all or at least some of its features be applicable +to all evangelical, fundamentally orthodox [non-Unitarian] churches, and +each denomination may at option adopt any or all of its features." (12.) +The plan of union offered in accordance with these principles by +Schmucker and the committee embraces the following features: 1. Adoption +of the nine doctrinal articles of the Evangelical Alliance. 2. Regular +interchange of delegates between the supreme judicatories of the several +denominations. 3. Cooperation of the different associated churches in +voluntary societies, notably such as Bible, Tract, Sabbath-school and +Foreign Mission Societies. 4. The more extensive use of the Bible as a +textbook in theological, congregational, and Sunday-school institutions. +5. Occasional free sacramental communion by all whose views of duty +allow it. 6. A general, stated anniversary celebration and smaller state +celebrations, also representation at the ecumenical conventions of the +Evangelical Alliance. (12.) The report concludes: "This plan was sent by +your committee in the form of a proof-sheet to about fifty of the most +distinguished and influential divines of ten different denominations, +and these not only returned letters expressing their substantial +approbation of the plan, but nearly all of them united with your +committee in sending it out over their own signatures as an overture of +Christian union, submitted for the consideration of the Evangelical +denominations in the United States." (13.) + +39. Endorsed by the General Synod.--"According to the conception of +prominent leaders," says Dr. Jacobs, "the General Synod was nothing more +than the realization of Zinzendorf's dream of 1742, which the coming of +Muhlenberg had so quickly dissipated." (_History_, 304.) But judged by +its minutes, what Jacobs limits to its "prominent leaders" is true of +the General Synod as such. Synod certainly did not discourage Schmucker +in his union schemes. In 1839, at Chambersburg, the General Synod was +immediately interested in his "Plan of Apostolic Protestant Union." The +committee appointed in the matter recommended "that Synod approve of the +several features of the union plan, and submit it for serious +consideration to its District Synods." (19.) A following convention +appointed Schmucker, Krauth, and Miller as a Committee of Conference on +Christian Union to confer with similar committees and prominent +individuals of different denominations "on the great subject of +Christian Union." At New York, 1848, Synod resolved that the report on +Christian Union be adopted, and the Committee on Christian Union be +continued." (15.) At Charleston, 1850, the Committee of Conference +remarked in its report: "As the general principles of the Apostolic +Christian Union, _adopted by this body_, were fully detailed in our last +report, it is deemed unnecessary to enlarge on them in this place." +(21.) Schmucker continued his efforts till the year of his death, 1873, +when again he made an appeal to the General Synod "for an advisory union +among all Evangelical denominations" as an "additional aid to the +promotion of the designs of the World's Evangelical Alliance." (53.) The +committee to whom Schmucker's letter and his printed appeal was referred, +recommended the resolution: "Resolved, That while this General Synod +approves of the ends contemplated by the appeal, and commends the +fraternal spirit of its author, yet it does not deem it necessary for +the present to take any further action towards Christian union than that +which is already upon record." (53.) Schmucker's ideas concerning +Christian union, however, were not abandoned by the General Synod. +Moreover, in a way, his plans materialized in the Federal Council, +consisting of about 30 Protestant bodies, at the organization of which, +in 1905, the General Synod was represented by Wenner, Remensnyder, +Grosscup, and Bauslin. (_L. u. W._ 1906, 33.) Theologically the Federal +Council does not even measure up to the ideals of Schmucker, inasmuch as +it reduced the nine points of the Evangelical Alliance, which Schmucker +viewed as essential, to the meager confession of "Jesus Christ as their +divine Lord and Savior," which even Unitarians will not hesitate to +subscribe to. Besides, Seventh-day Adventists, Christians, Friends, and +other bodies tainted with Unitarianism are even now connected with the +Federal Council. In 1909 the General Synod "heartily endorsed the work +of the Federal Council." (115.) In 1917 Synod adopted the report of its +delegates to the Council which said, in part: "It was a great privilege +to have participated in this historic council. As the federation idea +originated in the United States in the mind and heart of a learned and +devout Lutheran, Dr. Samuel S. Schmucker, it was a great joy and +satisfaction to see and participate in this consummation of Dr. +Schmucker's hope of all Protestant bodies in council and cooperation in +the one common task of propagating the kingdom of God in society and +throughout the world." (27.) The ultimate aim of the Federal Council +evidently is an amalgamation of all Protestant Churches. And there are, +even now, General Synodists who are ready to countenance this +eventuality. In the _Christian Herald_, December 12, 1917, Dr. J. B. +Remensnyder spoke of the essential unity of Protestantism separated +only by minor differences, and of "the practical possibility of a larger +union,--one world-wide Protestant Church of Christ," to be brought about +by mutual surrender of secondary differences. "It will not come about," +says Remensnyder, "by one denomination insisting absolutely on its +doctrinal type." In the _Lutheran Church Work and Observer_, May 23, +1918, p. 7 f., a General Synod pastor wrote: "With forms of religion and +denominational differences we have nothing to do.... Let each one have +his own faith, his own light and hope." "There come moments when we +forget our differences and our various labels, when we arise above the +partial, the individual, and sectarian, when a common impulse drives us +headlong into the arms of trust and general comradeship...." + + +THEOLOGY REFORMED. + +40. Championing Reformed Doctrines.--Wherever Lutherans unite with the +Reformed, the former gradually sink to the level of the latter. Already +by declaring the differences between the two Churches irrelevant, the +Lutheran truths are actually sacrificed and denied. Unionism always +breaks the backbone, and outrages the conscience, of true Lutheranism. +And naturally enough, the refusal to confess the Lutheran truth is but +too frequently followed by eager endorsement and fanatical defense of +the opposite errors. This is fully borne out by the history of the +General Synod. As the years rolled on, the Reformed lineaments, at first +manifesting themselves in unionism, came out in ever bolder relief. The +distinctive Lutheran doctrines of the Lord's Supper, the person of +Christ, Baptism, absolution, infant faith, the means of grace, the +Sabbath, abstinence, separation of State and Church, etc., were all +rejected and assailed by the most prominent leaders of the General +Synod. And the unionistic spirit, with which also the most conservative +within the General Synod were infected, paralyzed the courage of the men +who, in a measure, saw and loved the light, and should have been bold in +confessing the truth and uncompromising in defending it against the +opposite errors. In 1831, in deference to sectarianism, the publication +of the _Lutheran Observer_ was transferred to Baltimore, with Dr. Morris +as editor, because it was feared that the Presbyterians might take +offense at the title "Lutheran" if, as was originally planned, it was +published at Gettysburg with the professors as editors! It was in the +interest of eliminating the specific Lutheran doctrines that, in 1845, +at Philadelphia, a committee (Schmucker, Morris, Schmidt, Pohlman, +Kurtz) was appointed to formulate and present to the next convention an +abstract of the doctrines and usages of the American Lutheran Church, on +the order of the Abstract requested in 1844 by the Maryland Synod, in +which the Lutheran doctrine of the Real Presence was rejected. The +report was made at Charleston, S. C., 1850, but "laid on the table, and +the committee discharged from further duty." (27.) In 1855 a bold effort +was made to abandon the Augsburg Confession in favor of the notorious +Definite Platform, from which all specifically Lutheran doctrines had +been eliminated in order to open the way officially for the tenets +peculiar to Reformed theology. Some of the fanatics were not even +willing to tolerate Lutheran doctrine in the General Synod. When in 1852 +the Pennsylvania Synod resolved to reunite with the General Synod, and +called upon all Lutherans in America to follow her example, the +_Observer_, December 21, 1852, published a declaration stating that the +Augsburg Confession taught the real presence of the body and blood of +Christ in the Lord's Supper and several other things, which were +rejected by almost all of the friends and promoters of the General +Synod, and that it was sinful to unite with Lutherans who adhered to +such doctrines. (_Lutheraner_, Dec. 21, 1852.) Former members of the +North Illinois Synod declared in the _Observer_ of January 20, 1860: "We +do not believe in the bodily presence, baptismal regeneration, the +ceremonies of the mass, and in similar nonsense." (_L. u. W._ 1860, 93.) +As late as 1896 the Allegheny Synod refused to ordain a candidate +because he did not hold that the Sunday was of divine institution. +(_L. u. W._ 1896, 281.) + +41. Sailing under False Colors.--Foremost and boldest among the Reformed +theologians within the General Synod were S. S. Schmucker and B. Kurtz, +who nevertheless insisted on sailing under the Lutheran flag. Brazenly +claiming to be the true representatives of Lutheranism, they at the same +time assailed the Lutheran and defended the Reformed doctrines with +ultra Calvinistic zeal and bigotry. They opposed the adoption of all the +Lutheran symbols (especially of the Formula of Concord), as well as the +unqualified subscription to the Augsburg Confession, because they were +imbued with the Reformed spirit and absolute strangers to, and enemies +of, everything distinctive of, and essential to, true Lutheranism. +(_L. u. W._ 1866, 21.) In his _Popular Theology_, published for the +first time in 1834, Schmucker says: "But whilst the Reformers [Luther +and Zwingli] agreed in rejecting this papal error [transubstantiation], +it is much to be regretted that they could neither harmonize among +themselves as to what should be substituted in its stead, nor consent to +walk together in love, when they could not entirely accord in opinion.... +Alas! that men, distinguished so highly for intellect, and chosen of God +to accomplish so great a work, should betray such a glaring want of +liberality toward each other; that, having gloriously cooperated in +vanquishing the papal beast, they should turn their weapons against each +other, for a point not decided in Scripture, and therefore of minor +importance!" (Edition 1848, p. 297.) With respect to the presence of +Christ in the Lord's Supper, Schmucker, in his _Popular Theology_, +distinguishes between the substantial, the influential, and the +symbolical presence and the bald symbolical representation. Then he +continues: "After a protracted and unprofitable struggle, the Lutheran +Church has long since settled down in the happy conviction that on this, +as on all other subjects not clearly determined by the inspired Volume, +her sons shall be left to follow the dictates of their own conscience, +having none to molest them or make them afraid. In the Lutheran Church +in this country each of the above views has some advocates, though the +great body of our divines, if we mistake not, embraces either the second +or third." (305.) Also in his _Portraiture of Lutheranism_ (1840) +Schmucker maintained that the Lutheran Church no longer demands the +acknowledgment of the real presence in the Eucharist, Luther himself, +toward the end of his life, having admitted that he had gone too far in +this matter. + +42. Moses Stuart's Declaration.--Referring to the statements quoted from +Schmucker's _Popular Theology_, Prof. Moses Stuart of Andover said in +the _Bibliotheca Sacra_ of 1844: "I should not do justice to the +Lutheran Church of recent times if I did not say that many within its +precincts have loudly called in question the old doctrine of Luther and +his compeers and successors in respect to consubstantiation [real +presence]. The battle has been fought of late with great power; and +scarcely a doubt remains that the more enlightened of the Lutherans are +either renouncing his views, or coming to the position that they are not +worth contending for. In this country such is clearly the case. Dr. S. +S. Schmucker, the able and excellent exponent of the Lutheran theology +in this country, in his work, called _Popular Theology_, has told us +that they are 'settled down in the happy conviction that on this, and on +all other subjects not clearly determined by the inspired Volume, her +sons shall be left to follow the dictates of their own conscience, +having none to molest or make them afraid.' The great body of Lutheran +divines among us, according to the same writer, doubt or deny the +corporeal or physical presence of Christ in the elements of the +Eucharist. It is not difficult to predict that ere long the great mass +of well-informed Lutherans, at least in this country, will be +substantially united, in regard to this subject, with the other Reformed +Churches." (Spaeth, _C. P. Krauth_, 1, 115.) + +43. Reformed Attitude of the "Observer."--Commenting on B. Kurtz, editor +of the _Lutheran, Observer_, Dr. Spaeth says: "For years and years he +was indefatigable in his coarse and irreverential, yea, blasphemous +attacks upon what was set forth as most sacred in the Confessions of the +Lutheran Church. The loyal adherents of the historical faith of the +Augsburg Confession were denounced as 'resurrectionists of elemental, +undeveloped, halting, stumbling, and staggering humanity,' as priests +ready 'to immolate bright meridian splendor on the altar of misty, musky +dust,' men bent on going backward, and consequently, of necessity, going +downward!" Every distinctive doctrine and usage of Lutheranism was +ridiculed and assailed, in the _Lutheran Observer_, by Kurtz and his +theological affinities. In its issue of June 29, 1849, C.P. Krauth, in +an article on the question of Christ's presence in the Eucharist, wrote: +"From this high position [of the Lutheran confessions, held by some +Lutherans in America] there are almost all shades of dissent and +descent, not only to that which is popularly called the Zwinglian, and +of which the _Lutheran Observer_ may be considered the exponent, but yet +lower to that which we may call, for want of a better name, Socinian." +(Spaeth I, 162.) A few weeks prior (June 8) Kurtz had declared that in +the 60 Lutheran congregations in Maryland not 30 American-born members +could be found who knew what "bodily presence" in the Lord's Supper +meant, much less believed in it. The more the free-thinking, practical, +and common-sense people the United States got acquainted with this +doctrine, the less they would take to it. The same was true of other +obsolete doctrines, such as baptismal regeneration. (_Lutheraner_, +October 30, 1849.) In January of 1854 the _Observer_ announced that an +old manuscript had been discovered in Germany, according to which +Luther, shortly before his death, retracted his controversy against the +Sacramentarians. (_Lutheraner_ 10, 108; cf. 2, 47.) In November of the +same year the _Observer_ declared that Profs. Heppe and Ebrard had +proved that the doctrine of the Lutheran Church on the Lord's Supper was +not the one of Luther, but that of the later Melanchthon. (_Lutheraner_ +11, 71.) Anspach, coeditor of the _Observer_, stated in its number of +November 12, 1858: "Difference of opinion concerning the Sacraments is +tolerated in the General Synod, and although there are some among our +brethren who believe in the real presence of our Savior in the Lord's +Supper in a higher sense than others, they nevertheless hold that this +takes place in a spiritual and supernatural manner." (_L. u. W._ 1859, +30.) In its issue of June 29, 1860, the _Observer_ protested: "We can +never subscribe to the errors of the Augsburg Confession.... Let a +separation take place. Let those who are able to swallow the errors of +the sixteenth century, which have long ago been hissed from the stage, +rally around the banner: 'The true body and the true blood of Christ in +a natural manner in the elements,' and on the back side: 'Regeneration +by Baptism and priestly absolution essential to true Lutheranism'! This +is the theology of the symbolists. This papistical theology we cannot +and will not subscribe to in America. For it is a theology which is not +drawn from the Bible, but from the Roman Bible." In 1861 the _Observer_ +remarked that the Missouri, Buffalo, and other Old Lutherans practise +ceremonies and adhere to doctrines which are as odious to many of us as +those in vogue in the Roman Church. (March 8.) Two years prior the +_Observer_ had blasphemously scoffed at the Lutheran Communion Liturgy +as "altar antics." (_L. u. W._ 1860, 31.) _Observer_, February 12, +1864: "Christ is at the right hand of God in heaven. How, then, can we +speak of Christ's body and blood as present in the Sacrament since no +such body did exist for these 1800 years, never since His ascension into +glory?" (_L. u. W._ 1864, 125.) November 7, 1862: "But who exercises +faith in infant baptism? Not the child, but the father or the sponsor," +etc. (_L. u. W._ 1862, 373.) In 1904 the _Observer_ denied that a child +believes and is regenerated by Baptism. (_L. u. W._ 1904, 471.) +According to the _Observer_ of 1901 a man may become a true Christian +even without any knowledge of the Gospel and of Christ. (_L. u. W._ +1901, 306.) _Observer_, March 27, 1868: "God's Book is a total +abstinence book, and God's Son never made intoxicating wine." In 1867 +the _American Lutheran_ (published by the Hartwick Synod and later +merged with the _Lutheran Observer_), teaching the baldest Zwinglianism, +maintained that Baptism is a mere sign and seal of membership in the +visible Church on earth and no more regeneration itself than the +sign-board "Hotel" is itself the hotel. (_L. u. W._ 1867, 125.) The +_Lutheran Evangelist_, merged in 1909 into the _Observer_ and always +disowning every doctrine distinctive of Lutheranism, stated January 20, +1899: The pastors of the General Synod are too sensible to believe "so +foolish a dogma as infant faith." (_L. u. W._ 1899, 27.) The same paper +had declared in 1892: "They are bad Lutherans who do not view the +Sabbath as commanded by God. If the Augsburg Confession had been written +in our day, it would have delivered no uncertain testimony with respect +to the divine obligation of the Day of the Lord." The _Lutheran Church +Work and Observer_, the official organ of the General Synod, wrote +September 12, 1918: "The General Synod has always stood on the side of +temperance.... Almost all her ministers have been abstainers and +advocates of total abstinence. They have ever aligned themselves with +the temperance forces of the country to put the American saloon out of +business." The first resolution in favor of the temperance cause, +referred to in the minutes of the General Synod, was adopted in 1831 by +the Hartwick Synod. (9.) + +44. General Synod Involved as Such.--In spite of its noncommittal policy +as to doctrine, the General Synod also as such has not been able to +conceal its distinctively Reformed complexion. The letter of 1845 admits +and approves of the fact that Luther's doctrine of the bodily presence +of the Lord's Supper had long ago been abandoned by the great majority +of the ministers of the General Synod. It was the Reformed theology, +taught in the books of Schmucker, in the books of Kurtz, in the +_Observer_ edited by Kurtz, and in the _Hirtenstimme_, published by +Weyl, against which Wyneken protested in 1845, at Philadelphia. But his +appeal for true Lutheranism over against Reformedism impressed the +General Synod merely as funny (spasshaft), and his motion in the matter +was tabled. Wyneken was compelled to sever his connection with a body +whose every prominent feature was Reformed. The confessional Resolution +adopted 1864 at York rejects, as will be explained later, the Lutheran +doctrines of the real presence, absolution, and the Sunday. The minutes +of the General Synod contain frequent resolutions in favor of the +sectarian views of the Sabbath, total abstinence, the introduction of +the Bible into the State schools, etc. At New York, 1848, Synod declared +"that we heartily approve of the 'New York City Temperance Society, +organized on Christian principles,' and believe it to be the only system +of operation that will be ultimately successful and triumphant; that we +commend this Society to the attention of the Synods in connection with +this body, and to our churches generally, and urge them to prosecute +this great and philanthropic enterprise upon the Christian principles +adopted by this Society." (8.) At Harrisburg, 1885, the resolutions were +adopted "that we do hereby declare our belief in the divine authority of +the Christian Sabbath as a day of sacred rest and religious instruction +and worship of Almighty God; that we recommend to the respective Synods +of the General Synod that they take such action from time to time as +shall lead to more frequent and earnest appeals from all the pulpits of +our Church upon this all-important subject; that with uplifted hands to +that God who is the Father of us all we unceasingly implore that the day +be hastened when all the earth shall be freed from the power of sin, and +when life shall be one universal Sabbath to the ends of the earth." +(69.) (_Proceedings_ 1848,44; 1853,28; 1864,45; 1883,46; 1887,61; etc.) +In 1854 T. N. Kurtz of Baltimore published a "Lutheran Almanac," +featuring on its title-page the pictures of Luther, Zwingli, and Calvin +as "those great Reformers," and listing as "great theologians of the +Lutheran Church" also the names of Herder, Paulus, Ammon, Bretschneider, +Wegscheider, Gesenius, Roehr, etc. (_Lutheraner_ 10,15.) This is a +true-to-life picture of the General Synod in her palmiest days-- +Zwinglianism, Methodism, Rationalism being the most protruding features. +(4,198.) + +45. Verdict of Contemporaries.--In his pamphlet _The Distress of the +German Lutherans in America_, Wyneken said with special reference to the +English part of the General Synod: "They have totally fallen away from +the faith of the fathers. Though enthusiastic over the name 'Lutheran' +and zealous in spreading the so-called 'Lutheran' Church, they, in a +most shameful and foolhardy manner, attack the doctrines of our Church +and seek to spread their errors in sermons, periodicals, and newspapers, +notably the doctrines of Baptism and the Lord's Supper and the connected +important doctrines of grace, of the two natures in Christ, etc. ... +Besides, they are ardent advocates of 'new measures' and altogether +Methodistic in their method of conversion." In 1845, after severing his +connection with the General Synod on account of its refusal to renounce +the Reformed doctrines and usages advocated by Schmucker, Kurtz, and +Weyl, Wyneken denounced the General Synod as "Reformed in doctrine, +Methodistic in practise, and laboring for the ruin of the Church, whose +name she falsely bears." (_Lutheraner_ 1845,96.) In a letter to Walther, +dated December 11, 1844, Dr. Sihler wrote: "Our main enemies here in +Ohio are not only the Methodists, but also the false brethren, the +so-called General Synod, which, as generally known, is decidedly +Reformed in the doctrine of the Sacraments, and in its practise +decidedly Methodistic." Again, in 1858, Sihler branded Kurtz, Schmucker, +and others as "open counterfeiters, Calvinists, Methodists, Unionists, +and traitors and destroyers of the Lutheran Church." (_L. u. W._ 1858, +137.) The _Lutheran Standard_, October 27, 1847, declared: "History has +already recorded it for posterity that the General Synod is not an +Evangelical Lutheran body, inasmuch as it fails to adhere to just those +doctrines by which the Evangelical Lutheran Church differs from other +denominations. History declares that the General Synod has expressly +and without disguise renounced the distinctive doctrines of Lutheranism, +and at the same time declared herself in favor of Union and Methodistic +practise." (_Lutheraner_ 2,56; 4,46.) The _Evangelical Lutheran_, +published at Springfield, O., remarked that Schmucker and his compeers +were engaged in selling Reformed goods under the trademark of +Lutheranism. (April 9, 1868.) Dr. Mann, who himself for many years had +intimate connections with Philip Schaff, wrote in the _Lutherische +Zeitschrift_ of November 17, 1866: "It is the peculiarity of the +un-Lutheran party [of the General Synod] that it is essentially +committed to Reformed sentiments. Dr. Schmucker has long ago openly +confessed views which are in open conflict with the doctrines of the +Lutheran symbols, but harmonize with those of the Reformed confessions, +especially of the Zwinglian type. In this sense many of his publications +are written, and in this sense he has taught for many, many years in a +Lutheran seminary. He is inspired by a Zwinglian-Reformed spirit, and +has endeavored to imbue his scholars with it. It has never dawned on him +and them what is properly the Lutheran view of Christianity. He himself +has not the least sympathy for it." (Spaeth, _A. Mann_, 189 f.) In 1873 +the _Lutheran Visitor_ in the South charged the General Synod with +fostering disloyalty to, and causing defections from, the Lutheran +Church by destroying the peculiarly distinctive marks of Lutheranism. +(_L. u. W._ 1873,94.) + + +REVIVALISM. + +46. "Justification by Sensation."--According to the Bible and the +Lutheran Church the divine measures for converting sinners are the +preaching of the pure Gospel and the administering of the unadulterated +Sacraments. "New-measurism," then, as the very term indicates, is a +human makeshift. Indeed, the Lutheran Church approves of all methods, +also new measures, which merely serve to bring the divine means of grace +into motion and men in contact with them. But it condemns all methods +and measures, new or old, which hinder or corrupt or eliminate the +divine means of grace. The new measures introduced by revivalism, +however, are just such corruptions of, and substitutes for, the divine +means of grace. "Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of +God"--of this truth New-measurism is a denial _in toto_. New-measurism +denies the Gospel-truth that God is already reconciled and has already +pardoned sinners. It denies that this pardon is freely offered in the +unconditional promises of God's Word and in the Sacraments, the seals +of grace. It denies that justifying and saving faith is the mere trust +in these promises of God. It denies that faith in these promises alone +engenders divine assurance of pardon. It mistakes, as C. P. Krauth put +it, justification by sensation for justification by faith. (Spaeth 2, +35.) It holds that one cannot be assured of grace without certain +peculiar sensations, emotions, and feelings in his heart. It denies that +faith is purely a gift of God, and teaches that man must cooperate in +his own conversion. It insists that special measures must be resorted to +in order to frighten men into doing their share of conversion, and to +produce the emotional and neurotic conditions which warrant assurance of +grace. As such measures it prescribes emotional appeals, shrieking and +shouting in preaching and praying, special prayer-meetings, the anxious +bench, protracted meetings, camp-meetings, etc. Revivalism brands men as +spiritually dead and unconverted who, like Walther and Wyneken, base +their assurance of grace, not on alleged feelings and spiritual +experiences, but on the clear and unmistakable promises of God in His +Word and Sacraments. New-measurism condemns and ridicules the old +methods of catechetical instruction, doctrinal preaching, and of +administering the Sacraments as spiritually ineffective and productive +merely of head Christianity and dead orthodoxy. "Jist git the spirit +started," said a Methodist to C. P. Krauth, "and then it works like +smoke." "Very much like smoke, I guess," answered Krauth. (1,67.) +Indeed, Pelagianists, who believe that conversion is a mere outward +moral improvement, effected by man's own free will; Romanists, who teach +that man can and must by his own efforts and works earn the grace of +God; Arminians and Synergists, who believe in man's ability to cooperate +in his own conversion and salvation; Calvinists, who, denying universal +grace, base their insurance on special marks of grace in their own +hearts and lives; Reformedists and enthusiasts, who deny that Word and +Sacraments are the only means of grace, collative as well as operative; +Pietists, who insist that the terrors of conscience must be of a +peculiar nature and degree, and that faith must be accompanied by a +happiness and a sanctification of a special kind and measure before a +sinner may fully be assured of his pardon and conversion,--they all may +be, and, in fact, naturally are, in sympathy with one or the other form +of New-measurism and revivalism; but Lutherans, who believe in a Gospel +of real pardon and power--never. If the Lutheran doctrine of grace and +the means of grace is Scriptural, then the work-nerve-and-emotion +Christianity of New-measurism is wrong, and _vice versa_. Not +Lutheranism, but Arminianism, Enthusiasm, and Reformedism are the +premises of revivalism. The fact that New-measurism was enthusiastically +hailed, defended, and extensively introduced by her leading men, is but +a further proof that the spirit then rampant in the General Synod was +not the spirit of Lutheranism. + +47. Lutherans Vying with the Fanatics.--The pietism and unionism of +Muhlenberg and his colaborers was the door through which, in the days of +Wesley and Whitefield, revivalism had found an early, though limited, +entrance into the Lutheran Church. And in the course of its history the +General Synod was zealous in cultivating and developing the evil +inheritance of their fathers. It sounds like a warning against the +threatening contagion when D. F. Schaeffer, in the Pastoral Letter of +1831, admonishes: "Let us faithfully adhere to the Word of God and +follow its precepts unswervingly; let us not follow after those whose +enthusiastic behavior is more apt to promote disorder and confusion than +true edification. Against such we would warn in a most friendly manner, +even if they be never so beloved. As Lutherans we admonish you: 'Be ye +therefore followers of God, as dear children; and walk in love, as +Christ also hath loved us, and hath given Himself for us an offering and +a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor.'" (25.) But the General +Synod herself had already opened the door for, and encouraged, the +movement. According to Chapter XVI of the constitution adopted 1829 for +the District Synods, the annual Special Conferences were to meet for two +days, especially in order "by practical preaching to awaken and convert +sinners and to edify believers." (41.) In the following year the +Hartwick Synod was organized, in order more fully to satisfy the craving +of their members for revivals. At the convention of the General Synod at +Frederick, 1831, a committee reported that the Hartwick Synod, having +unanimously voted to join the General Synod, was divided into two +conferences which were to meet as often as possible, and whose chief +business it was "by earnest and practical sermons to awaken and convert +sinners, and to encourage and edify Christians." (9.) At Baltimore, +1833, the Ohio Synod was censured for certain utterances against the +"new measures" adopted within the General Synod. Finding revivalism in +the Hartwick Synod not advanced enough, a few of its members, in 1837, +organized the Franckean Synod, in order to press "new measures" to the +extreme. On the Hartwick Synod the withdrawal acted as an impulse for a +greater activity in the same direction. At Chambersburg, 1839, a +committee reported on the meeting of this synod held in 1838: "We take +particular pleasure in remarking that the proceedings of this Synod, +especially the statements contained in the annual address of its +President, afford the most satisfactory evidence that this Synod is +decidedly in favor of revivals of religion. Protracted meetings have +been held in various parts, and the Lord has especially blessed them; +from which we have reason to believe that true and undefiled religion +is more and more abounding within its limits. All the religious +operations of the day, such as Tract Societies, Temperance Societies, +etc., etc., enjoy the hearty support of this Synod." (13.) The minutes +of the General Synod, of the District Synods, the _Lutheran Observer_, +etc., soon began to teem with reports on revivals, visitations, +outpourings, refreshing showers, etc. (_L. u. W._ 1857, 27.) At the +convention of the Maryland Synod in Frederick, 1842, Harkey proposed the +publication of the _Revivalist_, a monthly to be devoted to the history +and defense of revivals, revival intelligence, the best measures and +means of promoting and managing revivals--a plan which Synod declined as +"inexpedient." At the same convention B. Kurtz, the advocate of the +wildest revivalism, succeeded in having a committee appointed to draft a +minute expressive of the views of Synod in regard to "new measures." The +report was discussed for two days, when it was referred back to the +committee, and at the next meeting of Synod the committee was excused +from further consideration of the subject. (Spaeth 1, 111.) As late as +1876 the _American Lutheran_ declared that the great majority of the +pastors and congregations of the General Synod favored revivals; that +they managed them on the lines of those conducted by Moody and Sankey; +that some of the congregations employed sectarian preachers for +protracted meetings. (_L. u. W._ 1876, 182.) When, in 1877, the +_American Lutheran_ merged into the _Observer_, Dr. Conrad solemnly +promised to continue defending revivalism. (_L. u. W._ 1877, 60.) In +1908, referring to revivals still occasionally reported in the +_Observer_, the _Lutherische Herold_ remarked that this sort of +enthusiasm, formerly the rule in the Eastern and Central States, had as +yet not nearly died out, _e. g._, in the General Synod congregations of +Eastern and Central Pennsylvania. (_L. u. W._ 1908, 322.) Down to 1918 +occasional revivals were held or participated in by congregations and +ministers of the General Synod. Several years ago Rev. Bell cooperated +in a revival conducted by Billy Sunday in Toledo, etc. According to +_Church Work and Observer_, November 9, 1916, the General Synod church +at Gettysburg, Pa., conducted a joint revival with Presbyterians, +Methodists, and United Brethren. + +48. "The Lever of Archimedes."--In the revival agitation which swept +over America in the decades following 1830 practically all of the +English Lutheran churches (the German churches, in part, stood aloof) +caught the contagion in a malignant form and in great numbers. While +even Prof. J. W. Nevin, Schaff's colleague at Mercersburg, in his book +_The Anxious Bench_ (1844), antagonized the extravagances of a movement +which was germane to his own church, Lutherans such as Schmucker, Kurtz, +Harkey, Passavant, and many others, became extremists in practising, +and fanatics in advocating, "new measures" as the most needful and only +effective methods of accelerating and deepening conversion and reviving +the Lutheran Church. Vying in their wild extravagances with the most +fanatical of the sects, Lutherans, in not a few places, condemned as +spiritually dead formalists, head and memory Christians, all who adhered +to the sound principles and old ways of Lutheranism. (Gerberding, _The +Way of Life_, 197 ff.) S. L. Harkey, himself a fiery New-measurist, +describes a revival held in connection with the convention of the Synod +of the West, in 1839, as follows: "In an instant every soul in the house +was upon the knees, and remained there weeping and praying for mercy." +"The whole congregation became more or less moved. The place became +truly awful and glorious, and it seemed that the time had come when a +decided effort must be made upon the kingdom of darkness, and that under +such circumstances to shrink from the task and, through fear of +producing a little temporary disorder, to refuse to go heartily into the +work, would have been nothing short of down right spiritual murder." "At +one time during the meeting it was found necessary to invite the +mourners to withdraw from the church and remove to the parsonage that +the synod might have an opportunity to proceed with the transaction of +business before it." (Neve, 97.) Dr. Kurtz wrote in the _Observer_ of +November 17, 1843: "The so-called 'anxious bench' is the lever of +Archimedes, which by the blessing of God can raise our German churches +to that degree of respectability in the religious world which they ought +to enjoy." (Neve, 95.) The _Lutheran Observer_ of March 21, 1862, while +defending revivalism and misrepresenting the "symbolism" of the +Missourians as the doctrine according to which one is saved by the +Sacraments _ex opere operato_, without repentance and faith, condemns +the Lutheran system of baptizing, catechizing, confirming, communing at +the Lord's Supper, etc., as Romanism and Sacramentalism, as unbiblical +and not at all the religion of Christ and His apostles, as fundamentally +wrong and utterly ineffective, and disgusting also to Lutherans, as +soon as they were enlightened by the Spirit of God. The _Observer_ +continues: The success of Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians, and even +of the Congregationalists among the Germans is due to revivals. "The +Lutheran Church in Germany and in this country is in need of religious +revivals. Nothing else will save them." (_L. u. W._ 1862, 152.) In 1900, +reporting numerous conversions in consequence of revivals held in +congregations of the General Synod, the _Observer_ remarked: "If half a +dozen of our best preachers would turn evangelists--no greater blessing +could come to our Church." (_L. u. W._ 1900, 179.) The _Lutheran World_, +January 17, 1901: "In our own General Synod any of our churches came to +look upon the Catechism as unfriendly to vital piety, and they cast it +out. Today even there are still those among us who oppose and resist the +use of the Catechism under the false notion that it is the enemy of +practical religion. Their idea of religion is the Methodistic notion. +Fitness for church-membership, according to their view, comes through +the pressure and appointments of the big meeting. Sinners must come to a +bench for mourning, or they must stand up in the congregation, or they +must hold their hands, or they must send in their card asking for the +prayers of the church. Human devices and appointments are fixed on as +requisites for having a genuine conversion and being filled with the +Spirit of God. This is Romanism in disguise." (_L. u. W._ 1901, 54.) + +49. Reports on Revivals.--To what an extent over a long period revivals +were indulged in by the congregations of the General Synod appears from +its minutes. The Committee on the State of the Church reported in 1857: +"Revivals have been enjoyed in every quarter, many souls have been added +to the Lord, and whilst the congregations have thus been largely +increased, there is every reason to anticipate that the addition thus +secured for the ranks of the ministry will not be a small one." (30.) In +1859: "The most extensive and powerful revivals of religion ever known +among us have been enjoyed by a very large number of our churches during +the past two years." (59.) In 1864: "Frequent and extensive revivals and +numerous additions to the Church are reported by the brethren." (55.) In +1866: "Many of our churches are rejoicing in special seasons of grace, +refreshings from on high, revivals of religion, in which sinners are +converted, whilst God's people are awakening to new life." (42.) In +1869: "Revivals of religion have been quite general during the year, and +many have been born into the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ." (59.) In +1875: "In most of the synods there have been seasons of special extended +quickening. Large numbers have professed conversion. In some instances +hundreds have been added to a single church in a twelvemonth." (23.) In +1848 the Synod of Western Virginia reported: "Almost all our churches +have been blessed with revivals of religion. In some upwards of one +hundred persons have professed to have passed from death unto life; in +others seventy-five, in others fifty, and in some not so many." (45.) In +1859: "The two institutions, Roanoke College and Wytheville Female +College, have also been blessed with gracious visitations from on high, +which resulted in the conversion of a number of students in both +institutions." (53.) The Virginia Synod, in 1859: "We have shared to +some extent the great revival blessings which God has poured out upon +the land." (51.) The New York Ministerium, in 1850: "The churches +generally are in a state of prosperity, and many of them have been +favored with special visitations of the Holy Spirit." (31.) In 1859: +"The great revival has had its influence upon our churches; many have +been added to our number, and the vital piety has increased." (61.) The +Synod of West Pennsylvania, in 1850: "Interesting revivals of religion +have occurred since the last General Synod in different places." (29.) +In 1853: "The influences of the Holy Spirit have descended as the dew +upon the labors of most of them, whilst there have been refreshing +showers in the case of many. Revivals are known to have been enjoyed by +eight of the pastoral districts within the last two years. This number +embraces nearly half of the charges of the Synod. Some of these gracious +seasons were of great power, resulting in the hopeful conversion of many +souls, and furnishing a number of students having the ministry in view." +(28.) In 1859: "Nearly all the churches have enjoyed revivals of +religion more or less extensive; conversions have been numerous." (49.) +In 1864: "In some pastorates there have been special awakenings, and +many have been added to the Church of Christ." (55.) In 1871: "Many of +the churches have been blessed with precious seasons of refreshing +grace." (44.) East Pennsylvania Synod, in 1850: "Many sections of the +Church have been blessed with special visitations of the Spirit of God." +(32.) In 1862 the Synod of Central Pennsylvania reported: "In mercy God +poured out His Spirit upon a number of the charges and congregations, +and many souls professed conversion; and although the sad effects of the +war are, in this Synod, clearly seen in her churches, still we are happy +to state that much good has been accomplished." (45.) In 1871: "There +have been extensive awakenings in several of our pastorates, and there +is a steady and commendable progress in spiritual attainments +generally." (47.) The Hartwick Synod, in 1853: "Precious seasons of +refreshing have been vouchsafed to its churches. The Lord is in the +midst of His people, making glad their hearts with the tokens of His +presence and His love." (30.) In 1862: "Although there have not been, +within the past three years, revivals so numerous and so extensive as in +the two years previous, yet seasons of refreshing have been enjoyed on +the part of many of the churches, and such progress made as to evince +the Lord's presence and blessing." (41.) In 1804: "In several of our +churches the Lord has graciously revived His work, believers have been +quickened into higher life, and sinners have been converted." (57.) In +1871: "Many of our congregations have enjoyed special seasons of grace, +and large accessions to the Church have been the result." (44.) In 1859 +the Alleghany Synod reported: "Extensive revivals have been enjoyed and +a large number of members added." (52.) In 1862: "The Synod has had some +precious revivals of religion in many of its congregations. In many +respects the Synod has prospered in vital piety." (42.) In 1869: "Some +of the charges have made large additions, as results of religious +awakenings, during the past winter." (58.) The Melanchthon Synod, in +1859: "Extensive revivals of religion have been enjoyed in many of the +congregations, and large additions have been made to the membership." +(58.) In 1862: "The churches within the bounds of this Synod enjoyed +extensive revivals during the first two years after the last meeting of +the General Synod, at which time the rebellion, so disastrous to both +State and Church, took place and blasted many of our most cherished +enterprises, and laid low many of our fondest hopes. During the past +year, accessions to the Church within our bounds have been comparatively +few, revivals of religion rare, whilst there has been a marked decline +in vital godliness." (46.) In 1869: "During the past year quite a number +of revivals of religion have occurred." (59.) The Synod of Kentucky, in +1859: "Some of our charges have enjoyed revivals of religion, which +greatly refreshed both ministers and people, and considerably increased +our numerical strength." (57.) The Maryland Synod, in 1859: "Extensive +revivals have been enjoyed by many of the churches." (49.) The Synod of +New Jersey, in 1862: "Our body has an existence of only one year. Yet we +have enjoyed revivals of religion." (42.) In 1869: "A number of revivals +of religion have been reported." (61.) In 1871: "Several of our churches +have enjoyed seasons of special religious interest and revival." (48.) +The Franckean Synod, in 1869: "Practical religion has been well +sustained. Several precious revivals have been enjoyed." (62.) In 1871: +"Synod is engaged with more or less success in establishing and +unfolding a true religious life in the membership of the Church of God +as the grand object of being, endeavoring to promote revivals of +religion." (48.) The Susquehanna Synod, in 1869: "This Synod is in a +prosperous condition. During the past year, and, more particularly, +during the past winter, extensive revivals of religion were enjoyed and +large numbers of souls hopefully converted to God and added to the +Church." (62.) In 1871: "There has been a large increase in the +membership, mostly through judiciously conducted protracted meetings and +catechization." (48.) + +50. Reports on Revivals (continued).--In 1869 the Synod of New York +reported: "Some of the congregations have been visited with special +showers of divine grace, and, as a consequence, large additions have +been made to its membership." (58.) The English Synod of Ohio, in 1853: +"There are but few congregations in connection with our Synod but what +have, during the past year, enjoyed greater or less manifestations of +the Spirit of God in the conversion of sinners." (34.) The East Ohio +Synod, in 1859: "In all of our churches most precious seasons of grace +were enjoyed. The Spirit of God 'came down like rain upon the mown +grass,' and righteousness flourished in all our borders." (52.) In 1862: +"The state of religion is healthy. The past few years have been marked +with the gifts of the Divine Spirit, and, while sinners have been +converted to God, the professed people of Christ have been stadily [sic] +growing in spirituality and church-love." (43.) In 1869: "We have had +many precious seasons of revival during the past year, and large +accessions to the number of those who shall be saved." (59.) In 1871: +"Many precious revivals of religion have been recorded, and large +accessions have been made to the churches." (45.) The Olive Branch +Synod, in 1853: "Almost all the churches connected with this Synod, +during the year, enjoyed precious revivals of religion." (37.) In 1859: +"Many of them have enjoyed refreshing seasons from the presence of the +Lord, by which they have become much strengthened and encouraged." +(54.) In 1862: "The churches are, with few exceptions, in a prosperous +condition. Some of them have enjoyed seasons of refreshing." (43.) In +1871: "A number of charges have had precious seasons of revival, +resulting in large additions to their membership. The state of religion +in our churches is more favorable than it had been in the few years +previous." (46.) The Miami Synod, in 1859: "Revivals have been enjoyed +in almost every charge, and large numbers have been brought to the +knowledge of the truth." (52.) In 1871: "Several of them have enjoyed +special seasons of grace." (45.) The Synod of Iowa, in 1859: "Some of +the churches have been visited by revivals of religion, and there a more +healthful state of piety is seen." (58.) In 1862: "The most extensive +revivals of religion ever known among us have been enjoyed during the +past winter. Our laity are becoming more of a praying as well as a +working people. A deeper tone of piety exists among us. There is more +heartfelt and prayerful longing for the gracious outpouring of the +blessing of God, and more earnest efforts are being put forth for the +conversion and salvation of souls. It is therefore our decided +conviction that at no former period of our brief history have we been so +fully and generally awakened to our great mission in this distant West +as at the present." (46.) The Synod of Northern Illinois, in 1859: "Our +Swedish and Norwegian brethren are very active, and a living practical +Christianity is making powerful progress among them. During the last two +years extensive and powerful revivals have been enjoyed by many of the +churches connected with this Synod." (54.) In 1871: "A number of +refreshing seasons of divine grace has been enjoyed during the past two +years." (47.) The Synod of Northern Indiana, in 1859: "In the last two +years many of its churches have enjoyed revivals of religion." (57.) In +1862: "Many precious revivals of religion have been enjoyed." (44.) The +Wittenberg Synod, in 1859: "During the past two years our churches have +enjoyed the special visitations of the Holy Spirit and the number of our +members has been greatly enlarged." (52.) The Synod of Illinois, in +1859: "Many of the churches have enjoyed refreshing seasons from the +presence of the Lord, and vital piety is advancing." (53.) The Synod of +Southern Illinois, in 1862; "Some of our congregations have enjoyed +refreshing showers from the presence of the Lord, during the last +winter, and are in prosperous condition." (46.) In 1864: "Amid all +these hindrances, some of the churches have been revived by gracious +outpourings of the Spirit." (59.) In 1869: "Although new elements of +wickedness, such as rationalism, pantheism, etc., are making their way +into our midst, yet Christians are awake to their baneful influences +and are setting themselves against them." (61.) + +51. Coming to Their Senses Gradually.--New-measurism was resorted to by +the General Synod in order to revive the dying Church. The true cause of +her apathy, atrophy, and decay, however, was not diagnosed correctly. It +was the prevailing confessional indifference, religious ignorance, and +the neglect of Lutheran indoctrination by catechization, especially of +the young. Dr. Hazelius, himself a revivalist, as early as 1845, pointed +out the real cause and cure. "The attachment of the Church"--said he-- +"has been weakened so much that the causes of this alarming fact have +frequently been made the subject of inquiry in our churchpaper +[_Observer_], and we are sorry to say that among all the causes +assigned, we have missed the one which is at the root of the evil, +_viz._, the remissness of many of our pastors in the religious +instruction of youths." (Wolf, _Lutherans in America_, p. 484.) If this +was the disease, it stands to reason that a cure could not be brought +about by the quack methods of New-measurism, by exciting the nerves and +emotions, but only by enlightening the mind and moving the will by the +Word of God. Pastor Loehe, presenting in _Kirchliche Mitteilungen_ of +1843 a description of revivals and camp-meetings in America, remarked: +"They intoxicate themselves with spiritual drinks which are worse than +whisky." (Nos. 2 and 5.) Indeed, Methodistic revivalism has been found +wanting, and worse than wanting, everywhere. In a Lutheran congregation +it must necessarily result in a total annihilation of whatever there +may be left of true Lutheranism.--The inoperativeness of revivalism was +occasionally admitted also by its friends within the General Synod. At +New York, 1848, regretting the decrease in the number of theological +students, the Executive Committee of the Parent Education Society +stated: "This subject becomes more painful when we consider that since +1842, when the Church at large was blessed with extensive revivals of +religion, the number of beneficiaries has diminished constantly until +the present time, whilst there has been no corresponding increase +perceptible in the number of theological students who sustain +themselves. During the same time there has been no corresponding +increase in the benevolence of the Church in any other direction; on the +contrary, the contributions of the whole Church for all benevolent +purposes may now be easily covered by the annual charities of a single +congregation in this city." (64.) But the ministers and congregations of +the General Synod were slow in coming to their senses. It was one of the +symptoms pointing in the right direction when, in 1864 at York, the +Committee on the State of the Church reported: "It is a hopeful sign of +substantial growth and prosperity in the Church that the time-honored +custom of catechization is coming more and more into favor with the +pastors. This means of preparing the baptized children of the Church for +an intelligent profession of faith in Christ and the privilege of +communicant membership, had, in many places, fallen into neglect on +account of the frequent abuse to which it had been subject in the hands +of those who employed it as a mere formal mode of introducing the young +to the communion without any evidence of piety; but we believe it is now +becoming more and more a means of conversion and salvation to our rising +membership." (1864,55.) At Altoona, 1881, the same committee presented +the following report, which Synod adopted: "Ministers, from every +quarter, report with delight that catechization is regularly practised +and grows in favor. We are foolish to throw away this noble heritage. It +affords, as nothing else, an opportunity for the children of the Church +to become professing Christians. The pastor can train, educate, and +indoctrinate them through it. By its help our churches, every year, can +have a healthful growth, and not depend alone upon special seasons, or +revivals of religion. We, therefore, may expect in the future still +larger accessions--accessions which, trained by a godly and devoted +ministry, should be, not nominal, but living Christians, understanding +the great truths and doctrines of the Word of God." (60.) In the +following decades, as related, revivals decreased rapidly within the +General Synod. A thorough and permanent cure of the Methodistic +infection, however, can be effected only by the doctrine of grace, the +Gospel of unconditional pardon and truly divine power, as taught by the +Lutheran Church. + + +"AMERICAN LUTHERANISM." + +52. A Misnomer.--Essentially Americanism signifies liberty of thought, +speech, press, and assemblage, based on democracy and national +independence, religious freedom and equality being its most precious +gem. Lutheranism, therefore, standing, as it does, for the complete +separation of State and Church, as well as liberty and equal religious +rights for all, is inherently American; while the Reformed confessions, +inasmuch as they advocate religious intolerance, civil legislation +favoring their own religious tenets, etc., are in conflict with the +principles of American freedom. A Reformedist, in order to become a true +American, must sacrifice some of his confessional teachings, while the +Lutheran symbols are in need of no purging to bring them into harmony +with American ideals. Indeed, in the atmosphere of American liberty the +Lutheran Church, for the first time in her history, on a large scale was +able to develop naturally and normally by consistent practical +application of her own innate principles, without any corrupting or +dwarfing coercion on the part of the State whatsoever. Yet the very man, +Dr. Walther, who did more than any other theologian in America towards +the building up of a Church at once truly Lutheran and truly American, +was stigmatized by S. S. Schmucker and his compeers as a "foreign +symbolist," neither Lutheran nor American. But the brand of American +Lutheranism proposed and propagated by the leaders of the General Synod +was, in reality, a counterfeit American Lutheranism. The new school +movement, headed by Schmucker, Kurtz, and Sprecher, and constantly +prating "American Lutheranism," was essentially Calvinistic, +Methodistic, Puritanic, indifferentistic, and unionistic, hence nothing +less than truly Lutheran. From his professor's chair and in the press +Schmucker denied and assailed every doctrine distinctive of Lutheranism. +In every issue of the _Observer_ B. Kurtz ridiculed and attacked what +was most sacred to Luther and most prominent in the Lutheran +Confessions. In this he was seconded by Weyl in _Lutherische +Hirtenstimme_ and other publications in the General Synod. Thus, while +professing and pretending to Americanize the Lutheran Church, the +leaders of the General Synod, in reality, were zealous in denaturing, +corrupting, and inoculating it with views and ways prevailing in the +Reformed churches ever since the days of Zwingli, Bucer, Calvin, and +Wesley. The coryphaei of the General Synod, in order to impart to the +Lutheran Church, as they put it, "the warmth of Methodism and the vigor +of Presbyterianism," disemboweled their own Church of heart and lungs, +and filled the empty skin with sectarian stuffings. American +Lutheranism, according to Schmucker, was not Lutheranism in sympathy +with American institutions and the English language, but abolition of +the Lutheran symbols and rejection of the Lutheran doctrines +(absolution, real presence, baptismal regeneration, etc.) in favor of +the corresponding Reformed tenets and the nine articles of the +Evangelical Alliance. Reynolds said in a letter of January 7, 1850: "The +fact is, there is a large body of men in our Church who have no +knowledge of her history, no sympathy with her doctrines, no idea of her +true character, and whose conception of the Church is that of a kind of +mongrel Methodistic Presbyterianism, and of this party Drs. S. S. +Schmucker and Kurtz are the coryphaei." (Spaeth 1,179.) In 1873 _Lehre +und Wehre_ wrote: "So-called American Lutheranism is but a new edition +of Zwinglianism, which, in a dishonest fashion, appropriates the +Lutheran name. The more one agrees with Zwingli and disagrees with the +16th century Lutheranism, the more genuine an American Lutheran he is." +(29.) + +53. Spirit of the Movement.--The true inwardness of the "American +Lutheranism" with which the General Synod was infected from its very +birth, and which reached its crisis in the Definite Platform of 1855, +was revealed in all its nakedness by the _American Lutheran,_ a paper +into which the _Lutherische Kirchenbote_ of Selinsgrove, Pa., had been +transformed in 1865. Its standpoint is characterized by _Lehre und +Wehre_ as being beneath that of the _Observer_ "the hollowest so-called +American Lutheranism, a concoction of rationalism and sentimentalism." +(1865,61.) When Prof. Sternberg, a fanatical anti-symbolist (opponent +of the Lutheran Confessions), had been removed from Hartwick Seminary, +the _American Lutheran_, June 22, 1865, wrote: "The days when +compromises with and concessions to symbolism were made are passed. If a +clash between symbolism and American Lutheranism is unavoidable within +the General Synod, the sooner it comes, the better it is." (_L. u, W._ +1865, 253.) In its issue of July 20, 1865, the _American Lutheran_ +published a number of letters in which the hope is expressed that the +day was near when the Lutheran Church in America would shake off the +yoke of symbolism and step forward, recognized by the great Protestant +world. "The attempt"--the correspondent continues--"to live in one and +the same house with the symbolists is useless. We thank God that we have +a paper which says in its first year: No compromise any longer with +symbolism! Hallelujah! May the whole Church hear it." (_L. u. W._ 1865, +277.) Revealing both its ignorance and animus, the _American Lutheran_, +Rev. Anstaedt then being the editor, said in its issue of January 24, +1867: "The difference between the symbolists [Lutherans true to their +Confessions] and American Lutherans is a radical one, going down to the +innermost heart of Christianity and involving eternal interests, the +salvation and hope of immortal souls. The _American Lutheran_ believes +that religion is a personal and individual matter, while the symbolist +believes that it is but a congregational matter. Their articles of faith +are: 1. All men are born in sin. 2. The Church must redeem us from sin. +3. The Church consists of the priests and the Sacraments. 4. The priests +have the power on earth to administer the Sacraments and to forgive +sins. 5. The Sacraments have in themselves the power to save. 6. Baptism +regenerates the child. 7. The Lord's Supper nourishes the seed implanted +in Baptism. 8. Hence man is not saved by the individual experience of +something, but in a mass. I know that our symbolists will say that this +is slander. But I affirm that it is a sincere and honest presentation of +the matter.... The advocates of symbolism probably have never been +converted, or they have backslidden again. This is a severe judgment. So +it is. But must we not judge them by their fruits? How many souls have +been converted by these symbolists? Go into their congregations and +speak to their members on religion; what do they know of it? In 19 out +of 20 cases their members, when awakened, seek Christ in other churches. +We have held back too long with our testimony. I fear that by our +negligence souls have gone to hell. And what have we won by our +pusillanimity? The advocates of symbolism have grown and become more +impudent by their success." (_L. u. W._ 1867, 88.) In a subsequent issue +the same paper, after boldly defending the baldest Zwinglianism, +remarked with respect to the symbolists that, in a way, their success +involved a certain blessing, inasmuch as they would serve as "an +ecclesiastical sewer into which sooner or later the dead formalism, the +cold, heartless ritualism, and the lager-beer Lutheranism of this +country would find its way." (_L. u. W._ 1867, 125.) Even the _Lutheran +Observer_ was censured by the _American Lutheran_ for becoming too +conservative. (_L. u. W._ 1875, 375.) But the difference was one of +degree only. In its issue of October 3, 1873, the _Observer_ charged the +Germans and Scandinavians, because of their adherence to the Lutheran +Confessions, with sectarian presumption, enmity against other +Christians, foreign bigotry, dead orthodoxy, cold dead faith, etc. "The +position," the _Observer_ continued, "which these bigots assume in our +enlightened land of churches, where the Lord Jesus is more universally +honored than in any other country of the world, is ridiculous.... For +while these short-sighted men set themselves against the liberal and +enlightened spirit of the General Synod and against the times and the +country in which they live, other churches annually lead away thousands +of their most intelligent members." (_L. u. W._ 1873, 375.) Enmity +against Lutheranism--such was the spirit of the counterfeit American +Lutheranism championed by Schmucker and his compeers. Nor is the +assumption warranted that this spirit died with its early protagonists. +In 1885 Dr. Butler characterized the Americanization of Lutherans in the +_Lutheran Observer_ as follows: "It is a great mission of the _Observer_ +to open the blind eyes and to convert our Teutonic people from the +fetters of its language and customs to the light and to the liberty of +this Bible-loving, Sabbath-keeping, water-drinking, church-going and +God-fearing country." (_L. u. W._ 1885, 120.) As late as 1906 the +_Observer_ wrote: The General Synod is in possession of the American +spirit in the greatest measure. It is her mission to inject this spirit +into the Lutheran Church in America. This spirit embraces: adoption of +the English language; acknowledgment and toleration of the lodges; +fellowship with the sects. "The American spirit is that of fellowship. +Failure to be American in this is sure to bring us into ridicule and +even disrepute with the mass of the best Christian people of the land." +(_L. u. W._ 1906, 229.) + + +DEFINITE PLATFORM. + +54. Now or Never!--Believing that the Lutheran Confessions, though not +an authority above, or alongside of, the Bible, are doctrinally in +perfect agreement with the Word of God, Walther, Wyneken, Sihler, +Craemer, and others, since 1840, boldly, aggressively, and victoriously +unfurled the banner of Lutheran confessionalism. Gradually, though +timidly and rather inconsistently, the same spirit began to enter, and +manifest itself in, some of the Eastern synods. A conservative tendency +was developing and increasing. Especially since the return of the +Pennsylvania Ministerium in 1853 the number of the so-called +conservatives in the General Synod, who refused to go all the lengths +with Schmucker and Kurtz, was materially strengthened. Among these New +School men the powerful growth of confessionalism in the West and the +silent increase of the conservatives in the larger Eastern synods +gradually began to cause alarm, fear, and consternation. They first +despised and ridiculed the movement as chimerical and utterly futile in +America, then feared, and finally hated and fanatically combated what +they termed "foreign symbolism." They felt the fateful crisis drawing +nearer and nearer. To be or not to be was the question. Nor was there +any time to be lost in protecting the General Synod against what they +regarded as the Western peril. "Now or never!" they whispered. Indeed, +Schmucker and his friends had long ago decided that a new confessional +standard was needed. As early as 1845, at Philadelphia, the General +Synod had appointed Schmucker, Kurtz, Morris, Schmidt, and Pohlman to +formulate and present to the next convention an abstract of the +doctrines and usages of the American Lutheran Church on the order of the +Abstract requested by the Maryland Synod, in 1844. And though, in 1850, +at Charleston, the report of this committee was laid on the table and +the committee discharged from further duty (27), Schmucker did not +abandon the idea of substituting a new "American Lutheran Creed" for the +Augsburg Confession. Moreover, the conviction of the dire need of an +American restatement of Lutheranism grew on him in the same proportion +as confessionalism swept the West and threatened the East. His +brother-in-law, S. Sprecher, was of the same opinion. In 1853 he wrote: +"I hope that this unhappy condition of the Church will not continue +long, and that the churches of the General Synod will do as the churches +of the Augsburg Confession did in 1580--exercise their right to declare +what they regard as doctrines of the sacred Scriptures in regard to all +the points in dispute in the Church. I do not believe that the present +position of the General Synod can long be maintained; it will either +result in the Old-Lutheran men and synods gaining the control of the +General Synod, and reintroducing those doctrines and practises of the +symbols which the churches in this country and everywhere ought to +abandon and condemn, _and say that they do;_ or the friends of the +American Lutheran Church must define what doctrines they do hold, and +what they do reject, and refuse to fraternize with, and to make +themselves responsible for, and to give their influence as a Church in +favor of, men and doctrines and practises which they hold to be +anti-Scriptural and injurious to the spiritual kingdom of Christ. I do +not see how we can do otherwise than adopt the Symbols of the Church, or +form a new symbol, which shall embrace all that is fundamental to +Christianity in them, rejecting what is unscriptural, and supplying what +is defective. _A creed we must have_, or we can have no real church +union, and we must have a catechism which shall be a standard in the +catechetical instruction of our children, in which there shall be no +doctrines which we do not want our children to believe, and which shall, +notwithstanding, be thoroughly orthodox, so that our children may be +made strong in the faith of the Gospel in these times of doctrinal +looseness and confusion. As long as the General Synod regards with equal +favor, and is ready to receive, the Old Lutheran as well as the American +Lutheran Synods, the symbolical men have a vast advantage, and they, no +doubt, regard it as a triumph when the General Synod, meeting after +meeting, continues to hold out its arms to every Lutheran synod, and +recommends as heartily the reviews and institutions which are laboring +to upturn its present foundations, as it does those which are known to +hold the sentiments which it has hitherto fostered." (Spaeth 1, 347.) +Five months before the readmission of the Pennsylvania Synod, Sprecher +declared: "I fear there will be divisions, no matter what course is +taken. As to the hope of gaining over the Symbolic Lutherans, I consider +it altogether delusive. If they ever join the General Synod, it will be +with the hope of controlling it eventually into their own views and for +their own purposes." (353.) Thus, realizing the giant strides which +Western confessionalism had already made, and the steady growth of the +conservative element in the East, and, at the same time, fully +understanding that Lutherans loyal to their Confessions would give no +quarters to a counterfeit substitute of Lutheranism, Schmucker, Kurtz, +Sprecher, and others decided on a _coup d'etat_ in order to force the +issue, to create a test-question, to separate the parties, to eliminate +the "symbolists," and thus forever to make the General Synod immune +against genuine Old School Lutheran confessionalism and safe for their +own mongrel Puritanic-Calvinistic-Methodistic-American Lutheranism. + +55. Casting Off the Mask.--In the early part of September, 1855, leading +ministers of the General Synod received a pamphlet: "Definite Platform, +doctrinal and disciplinarian, for Evangelical Lutheran District Synods; +constructed in accordance with the principles of the General Synod." +Spaeth: "The new Confession came without a confessor. It appeared as an +anonymous document, proving by that very fact that the men who concocted +it were not called by God to lead the Church on this Western Continent +to a better, fuller, purer conception and statement of the faith of the +Gospel than that of the Fathers." However, it was not long before +Schmucker was generally known to be its author. Soon after its +publication Krauth, Sr., wrote: "My colleague don't disclaim the +authorship, so that it has a daddy." Ten years later Schmucker wrote: +"Although my friend Dr. Kurtz and myself passed it in review together, +and changed a few words, every sentence of the work I acknowledge to +have been written by myself." (Spaeth 1, 357.) Besides a brief Preface +the Platform contains two parts: 1. "Preliminary Principles and the +Doctrinal Basis or Creed to be subscribed"; 2. "Synodical Disclaimer, or +List of Symbolic Errors, rejected by the Great Body of the Churches +belonging to the General Synod." Part II was not to be individually +subscribed to, but published by Synod as a Disclaimer of the symbolical +errors often imputed to her. (Second edition, 2. 6.) Its chief object, +as appears from the Platform itself, was to obviate the influences of +confessional Lutheranism coming from the West, notably from the Missouri +Synod. The Preface begins: "This Definite Synodical Platform was +prepared and published by consultation and cooperation of ministers of +different Eastern and Western synods, connected with the General Synod, +at the special request of some Western brethren, whose churches desire a +more specific expression of the General Synod's doctrinal basis, being +surrounded by German churches, which profess the entire mass of former +symbols." (2.) Part I expresses the same thought, stating that the +"American Recension of the Augsburg Confession," as Schmucker called the +Platform, had been prepared "at the special request of Western brethren, +whose churches particularly need it, being intermingled with German +churches, which avow the whole mass of the former symbols." (4.) +Furthermore, according to the Platform, Lutherans who believe in private +confession and absolution should not be admitted into the General Synod; +and Part II makes it a point to state: "By the old Lutheran Synod of +Missouri, consisting entirely of Europeans, this rite [private +confession, etc.] is still observed." (25.) Accordingly, in order to +check the progress of the Missouri Synod's Lutheranism, a more specific +declaration of the General Synod's basis was deemed indispensable. In +the interest of truth, they claimed, it was necessary to specify, +without hesitation and reservation, the doctrines of the Augsburg +Confession which were rejected, some by all, others by the great +majority of the General Synod. To satisfy this alleged need of the +Church, the Platform was offered to the District Synods with the +direction, for the sake of uniformity, to adopt it without further +alterations and with the resolution not to receive any minister who will +not subscribe to it. Thus, in publishing the Platform, Schmucker and his +compeers cast off the Lutheran mask and revealed the true inwardness of +their intolerant Reformed spirit--a blunder which served to frustrate +their own sinister objects. The reception which this document met was a +sore disappointment to its author. In the commotion which followed the +publication of the Platform the conservative element was strengthened, a +fact which, a decade later, led to the great secession of 1866, and +gradually also to the present ascendency of the conservatives within the +General Synod, and the subsequent revision of its doctrinal basis, +completed in 1913. H. J. Mann wrote in 1856: "The Platform controversy +will, in the end, prove a blessing. The conservative party will arrive +at a better understanding. In ten years Schmucker has not damaged +himself so much in the public opinion as in the one last year." (Spaeth, +178.) + +56. Viewed Historically.--In explanation and extenuation of the Platform +blunder Dr. Mann remarked in 1856: "The more thoroughly we investigate +the history of the Lutheran Church of this country, the better we will +comprehend why all happened just so. No one is particularly guilty; it +is a common misfortune of the times, of the conditions." (Spaeth, 175.) +H. E. Jacobs explains: "The ministers, in most cases, did not obtain +that thorough and many-sided liberal culture which a college course was +supposed to represent, and this was felt also in their theological +training. ... It may serve as a partial explanation of the confusion +that prevailed that there was not a single professor of theology in the +English seminaries in the North who had obtained the liberal training of +a full college course, except the professor of German theology at +Gettysburg. The controversy connected with the 'Definite Platform,' +prepared and published under a supervision characterized by the same +defects, may be more readily understood when this in remembered." +(History, 436.) The explanation offered by Dr. Jacobs might be +reenforced by the report of the Directors of the Seminary in 1839: "It +is to be regretted that the students generally spend so short a time in +theological studies. But few attend to the full course of studies as +laid down in the Constitution. The average time of the stay of the major +part is only about two years. Thus the theological education of those +who go out from the Seminary is necessarily defective." (23.) C. A. +Stork admitted with respect to the students at Gettysburg, notably the +scholars of Prof. J. A. Brown (since 1864): "It is true, our young men +did not know Lutheran theology thoroughly; on many minor points they +were cloudy." (Wolf, _Lutherans_, 371.) Howbeit, explanation does not +spell justification. Nor is it correct to view the Definite Platform as +a mere derailment, a mere incidental blunder, of the General Synod. It +was, on the contrary, the natural result and full development of the +indifferentistic and unionistic germs which the General Synod inherited +and zealously cultivated during the whole course of its history. Dr. +Neve: "If Schmucker and his friends had not made this mistake, now +condemned by history, others would surely try to do so now. These men +therefore have rendered our Church a service. We have learned much from +their mistake." "Sic non canitur"--such indeed is the lesson which +Lutherans may learn not only from the Platform movement, but also from +the greater part of the history of the General Synod. + +57. Platform Theology.--The Platform charges the Augsburg Confession +with the following alleged errors: Approval of the ceremonies of the +mass, private confession and absolution, denial of the divine +obligation of the Sunday, baptismal regeneration, the real presence of +the body and blood of the Savior in the Eucharist. Of the Augustana +eleven articles are mutilated and eight (the eleventh and the last +seven) entirely omitted. The following declaration takes the place of +the Eleventh Article: "As private confession and absolution, which are +inculcated in this Article, though in a modified form, have been +universally rejected by the American Lutheran Church, the omission of +this Article is demanded by the principle on which the American +Recension of the A. C. is constructed; namely, to omit the several +portions which are rejected by the great mass of our churches in this +country, and to add nothing in their stead." (11.) In all the articles +the condemnatory sections are omitted. Even the deniers of the Trinity +are not rejected. The Apostles' Creed is purged of "He descended into +hell." The Athanasian Creed is omitted. The rest of the Lutheran +symbols are rejected, on account of their length and alleged errors. +(5.) The Platform declares: "The extraordinary length of the other +former symbolic books as a whole is sufficient reason for their +rejection as a prescribed creed, even if all their contents were +believed to be true.... The exaction of such an extended creed is +subversive of all individual liberty of thought and freedom of +Scriptural investigation." (20.) Part II of the Platform, the +"Synodical Disclaimer," contains a list of the symbolic errors with +extracts from the Lutheran symbols, "which are rejected by the great +body of the American Lutheran Church," to wit: I. Ceremonies of the +mass (A. C., Art. 24; Apology, Art. 12). 2. Exorcism (Luther's +_Taufbuechlein_). 3. Private confession and absolution (A. C., Art. +11. 25. 28). 4. The denial of the divine institution and obligation of +the Christian Sabbath (A. C., Art. 28). 5. Baptismal regeneration (A. +C., Art. 2; Apology, Art. 9; Luther's Catechisms; Visitation Articles, +Art. 3). 6. The outward form of baptism (Large Catechism, Smalcald Art.) +7. Errors concerning the personal or hypostatic union of the two natures +in Christ (Form of Concord, Art. 8). 8. The supposed special +sin-forgiving power of the Lord's Supper (Apol., Art. 12; Catechisms). +9. The real presence of the body and blood of Christ in the Eucharist +(A. C., Art. 10; Apol., Art. 7. 8; Smalcald Art., Art. 6; Small +Catechism; Form of Concord, Art. 7). According to the Platform, +believers in exorcism, in private confession and absolution, and in the +ceremonies of the mass should not be tolerated in the General Synod. To +believers in the real presence, baptismal regeneration, etc., liberty +was to be granted, provided that they regard these doctrines as +nonessential, cooperate peacefully with members rejecting them, and +adopt the Platform. Dr. Mann was right when he characterized the +Platform as "the emasculated Augsburg Confession." (Spaeth, 178.) + +58. Spirit of "Synodical Disclaimer."--While the first part of the +Platform eliminates the distinctively Lutheran doctrines, the second +part emphatically condemns them and teaches the opposite tenets of the +Reformed Church. On exorcism the Platform remarks: "In the American +Lutheran Church it was never received, and is regarded as unscriptural, +and highly objectionable, under the most favorable explanation that can +be given it." (23.) On private confession and absolution: "How dangerous +the entire doctrine of absolution and forgiving power of the ministry is +to the spirituality of the Church and to the doctrine of justification +by grace alone through faith in Jesus Christ, is clearly evident." "John +20, 23: 'Whosesoever sins ...' either refers to a miraculous power +bestowed on the apostles to discern the condition of the heart, and to +announce pardon of God to truly penitent individuals; or it confers on +the ministry, in all ages, the power to announce, in general, the +conditions on which God will pardon sinners; but it contains no +authority for applying these promises to individuals, as is done in +private absolution." (26.) On baptismal regeneration: "If Baptism is not +a converting ordinance in adults, it cannot be in infants. ... Of +regeneration, in the proper sense of the term, infants are incapable; +for it consists in a radical change in our religious views of the divine +character, law, etc.; a change in our religious feelings, and in our +religious purposes and habits of action; of none of which are children +capable." Regeneration "must consist mainly in a change of that +_increased_ predisposition to sin arising from action, of that +preponderance of sinful habits formed by voluntary indulgence of our +natural depravity, after we have reached years of moral agency. But +infants have no such _increased_ predisposition, no _habits_ of sin +prior to moral agency, consequently there can be no change of them, no +regeneration in this meaning of the term." "Baptismal regeneration, +either in infants or adults, is therefore a doctrine not taught in the +Word of God, and fraught with much injury to the souls of men, although +inculcated in the former Symbolical Books." (30f.) On the hypostatic +union: "The chief error on this subject is the supposition that the +human and divine natures of Christ, to a certain extent, interchange +attributes. This, in common with all other Protestant churches, we +regard as contrary to the Holy Volume." "The supposition that humanity +in any case acquired some attributes of divinity tends to give +plausibility to the apotheosis of heroes and the pagan worship of the +Virgin Mary." The Platform emphatically condemns the doctrine of Article +8 of the Form of Concord: "Hence we believe, teach, and confess that the +Virgin Mary did not conceive and bring forth simply a mere man, but +_the true Son of God_; for which reason she is also rightly called, and +_she is truly, the mother of God_. ... He consequently now, not only as +God, but _as man_, knows all things, is able to do all things. ... His +flesh is a true, vivifying food, and His blood is a true, vivifying +drink." (35f.) The Platform furthermore rejects the doctrine that the +Lord's Supper "offers forgiveness of sins," and "that the real body and +blood of the Savior are present at the Eucharist, in some mysterious +way, and are received by the mouth of every communicant, worthy or +unworthy." (38f.) The Platform declares: "During the first quarter of +this century the conviction that our Reformers did not purge away the +whole of the Romish error from this doctrine gained ground universally, +until the great mass of the whole Lutheran Church, before the year 1817, +had rejected the doctrine of the real presence." (40.) With respect to +the doctrine that the proper and natural body and blood of Christ are +received in the Lord's Supper, the Platform remarks: "Now we cannot +persuade ourselves that this is the view of a single minister of the +General Synod or of many out of it." (42.) + + +PLATFORM CONTROVERSY. + +59. Champions of the Platform.--"The principal effect of the Definite +Platform," says Dr. Spaeth, "was to open the eyes even of the +indifferent and undecided ones, and to cause them to reflect and to +realize the ultimate designs of the men at the helm of the General +Synod. A storm of indignation burst against the perpetrators of this +attack on the venerable Augustana. Many men who were before numbered +with 'American Lutheranism,' and whose full sympathy with the movement +was confidently expected, had nothing but stern rebuke for it." (1, +360.) Howbeit, the Platform was not in lack of ardent defenders. To some +of the ministers it was not radical enough. Dr. Morris remarks: +"Extremely un-Lutheran, un-churchly, and even rationalistic positions +were assumed by some who defended the Platform." (Wolf, _Lutherans_, +364.) In the _Observer_, December 7, 1855, a correspondent maintained +that it was incorrect to speak of the Augustana as "our confession," +since of Lutheran theologians not one in twenty was governed in doctrine +and practise by this Symbol. (_L. u. W._ 1856, 28.) In the following +year the _Observer_ published a protest of Rev. Kitz, censuring the +Platform for granting toleration to believers in baptismal regeneration +and the real presence. (_L. u. W._ 1857, 27.) At Gettysburg Seminary, +self-evidently, Schmucker zealously propagated his Reformed theology, +while his brother-in-law, C. F. Schaeffer, who had entered 1856, was the +exponent of a mild confessionalism. E. J. Wolf: "At Gettysburg, in the +same building, one professor in almost every lecture disparaged and +discredited the Confessions, while another one constantly inspired his +students with the highest [?] veneration for them." (_Lutherans_, 441.) +Jacobs: "The students were soon divided, but the gain was constantly +upon the conservative side." (_History_, 427.) But while thus at +Gettysburg conservative influences, in a measure, were counteracting the +Platform theology, Wittenberg Seminary, at Springfield, 0., the +theological center of the Western synods, was unanimous, decided, and +most advanced in its advocacy. Sprecher, the leader of "American +Lutheranism" in the West, wrote concerning the Platform: "It is the very +thing we have long needed in our Church; it will require every man to +declare that he is for or against us, and will secure our American +Lutheran Church against the insidious efforts of the Old Lutherans to +remodel her." "If the New School brethren do not soon decide whether +they will give the Church the positive form which it must take in this +country ere long, the Old School will decide it for them by making all +their synods stand on the Unaltered Augsburg Confession. I do not see +what difficulty can be in the way. If those five dogmas rejected [by the +Platform] are errors at all, they are very serious errors, and I do not +see why there should be so great a desire to be associated with those +who teach them. The difference between the Old School and the New School +party is of such a nature that they cannot agree except by being silent +or separate. If we did not intend to push this matter through, we should +never have agitated it at all." (Spaeth, 1, 359.) It goes without saying +that B. Kurtz acted the champion of the new confession. When, in 1855, +prior to the publication of the Platform, the Synod of Northern +Illinois, in its constitution, declared the Augustana and Luther's Small +Catechism a "correct" exhibition of the divine truth, Kurtz wrote in the +_Observer_: "This is certainly a tremendous leap backward to the +patriarchs of the American Lutheran Church. In this enlightened country +of free thought and action such high-churchism cannot long maintain +itself; its most peculiar fruit is bigotry, ostracism, strife, and +separation." (_Lutheraner_, Feb. 13, 1855:) In the same spirit Kurtz +edited the _Observer_ after the appearance of the Platform. In an issue +of January, 1856, he maintained that the Platform offered nothing new; +in the past every member of the General Synod had practised according to +its principles; now one merely was to do openly and honestly what +heretofore he had been doing with a _reservatio mentalis_. (_L. u. W._ +1856, 64.) Several months later Kurtz published the list of rejected +errors of the Symbolical Books, and in a number of subsequent articles +supported the Platform, and, at the same time, attacked the distinctive +doctrines of Lutheranism, misrepresenting them in Calvinistic fashion. +(_L. u. W._ 1856, 140 ff.; 1857,61; 1862,152; 1917,375.) Nor did Kurtz +in the following years repent of, or change, his attitude. In the +_Observer_ of June 29, 1860, he declared: "We are qualified to formulate +a confession of faith not only just as well, but better than those who +lived three hundred years ago. We now have men in our Church who +understand just as much of the Bible and of theology as our fathers. If +this were not the case, we must be stupid scholars, a degenerated +generation." (_L. u. W_. 6, 252.) In the same year: "May those, then, +who are opposed to the progress backwards, to liturgies, to priestly +gowns, to bands, candles, crucifixes, baptismal regeneration, the real +presence, priestly confession and absolution, and all other phases of +the half-papists, stand firmly by the old _Observer_." (_L. u. W._ 1860, +318.) In the _Observer_, December 26, 1862, Kurtz said: Wisdom did not +die with the Reformers; nor would it die with the present generation. +Giant strides had been made in science, history, chemistry, philology. +The progress in astronomy enabled us to understand the Bible better than +our fathers. Geology taught us to explain the first chapter of Genesis +more correctly than a hundred years ago. Even if we were dwarfs compared +with the Reformers, with our increased advantages we ought to understand +the Bible better than they. A dwarf, standing on the shoulders of a +giant, can see farther than the giant himself. A confession of faith, +therefore, ought not to be like the laws of the Medes and Persians, but +subject to improvement and growing perfection. Luther and his colaborers +explained the Bible more correctly than any like number of their +contemporaries. But we do not believe that they understood it as well as +God's enlightened people of the present. Indeed, an intelligent +Sunday-school child has a clearer insight into the plan of salvation, +etc., than John the Baptist, the greatest of prophets. Is it, then, to +be assumed that since the middle of the sixteenth century no progress +was made in Biblical learning? (_L. u. W._ 1863, 92.) However, always +guided by expediency, and hence able also "to do otherwise," the +_Observer_, April 13, 1866, wrote: "We have all agreed that the +Unaltered Augsburg Confession is the only general platform upon which +all of us can stand. There are some among us, to the number of whom the +writer belongs, who have always believed and still think that an +American Recension of this venerable document, as presented in the +Definite Platform, would give us a faith more in harmony with the +Scripture. But where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty, the +greatest liberty compatible with the unity of true Evangelical +Protestantism. To make concessions within reasonable limitations we have +accordingly deemed our religious duty." (_L. u. W._ 1866, 185.) In its +issue of January 17, 1908, the _Observer_ again claims the liberty of +revising the confessions. (_L. u. W._ 1908, 90.) Self-evidently, the +_American Lutheran_ was in sympathy with the Platform. In 1873 it +declared its standpoint as follows: "We American Lutherans adopt the +Augsburg Confession only in a qualified sense, _viz_., as teaching the +fundamental truths of religion in a manner substantially correct, but +containing also some inaccuracies with respect to the Sacraments, +private confession, absolution, and the Christian Sabbath." (_L. u. +W._ 1873, 29.) + +60. Opponents of the Platform.--S. S. Schmucker boasted with respect to +the Platform that all intelligent Americans were on his side. However, +his opponents proved to be much stronger and more numerous than he had +anticipated, though most of them were in essential agreement with his +un-Lutheran theology, merely resenting his intolerant spirit and public +assault on the "venerable Augustana." Among the men who fiercely +denounced the new confession was J. A. Brown, who also followed up his +attack with charges for Schmucker's impeachment at Gettysburg, and in +1857, with a book, _The New Theology_. Yet Dr. Brown's theological views +and the views of the Platform were not nearly so far apart as his +assaults on Schmucker seemed to warrant. Brown was a Reformed theologian +and just as determined an opponent of genuine Lutheranism as Schmucker +and Kurtz. Dr. Wolf: "Brown contended with might and main against what +he considered the revival of the Old Lutheran Theology." (370.) And +Brown's case was also that of F. W. Conrad (professor of Homiletics in +Wittenberg College from 1850 to 1855, and part owner and editor of the +_Observer_ from 1863 to 1898), who in 1855, when required by the +Wittenberg Synod to defend the Platform, resigned as professor and as +editor of the _Evangelical Lutheran_, stating that he, too, considered +the "errors" enumerated in the Platform as real errors, but was able +neither to find all of them in the Augustana nor to identify himself +with the intolerance of the Platform men. (_L. u. W._ 1856, 94.) +Occupying a unionistic position similar to that of Dr. Conrad, H. W. +Harkey, in his _Olive Branch_, published at Springfield, Ill., also +opposed the fanaticism of Kurtz, Schmucker, Sprecher, etc., but not +their Reformed theology, which, indeed, he shared essentially. (_L. u. +W._ 1857, 313; 1858, 28.) The man who disappointed Schmucker perhaps +more than any one else was his colleague Charles Philip Krauth, who made +no secret of his aversion to the Platform. In a letter to his son he +wrote: "The American Recension of the Augsburg Confession doesn't seem +to go down well. It has received many hard blows. ... A more stupid +thing could hardly have been originated. _Quem Deus vult perdere prius +dementat._ How will it end? I have thought, in smoke. But I have all +along had fears, and they are strengthened of late, that it will divide +the General Synod. It is said that my colleague is determined to press +the matter to the utmost. ... I regret exceedingly the injury which the +Church is sure to sustain. Mr. Passavant's idea of a paper in opposition +to the _Observer_ I approve. There ought to be an antidote to the +_Observer_ somewhere." In the _Observer_ of February 15, 1856, Krauth, +Sr., published nine reasons why he opposed the Platform; the chief +grievance, however, its Reformed theology, was hardly hinted at. +Krauth's plea was for peace and mutual toleration. "I feel deeply +solicitous that our prospering Church may not be divided," said he. "I +shall do all that I can to hold it together. I will pray for the peace +of our Zion," etc. His main argument against the Platform was that it +proscribed brethren who were received with the understanding that they +were to occupy a position coordinate with that of others, and asked +every symbolical Lutheran to withdraw or dishonor himself. (Spaeth, 1, +372f.) Pacification of the Church by mutual toleration--such was the +solution of the Platform controversy offered and advocated by his son, +Charles Porterfield. To this Krauth, Sr., agreed. April 2, 1857, he +wrote to his son: "I am decidedly of opinion that the General Synod +ought to do something effectual for the pacification of the Church. I +concur in the views you express, and believe, unless such views prevail, +the Church must ere long be rent into fragments. Whilst I am anxious for +such an agreement in regard to a doctrinal basis as will embrace all the +wings of Lutheranism in our country, I very much wish we could agree on +forms of worship in accordance with the liturgical character of our +Church, and erect a barrier against the fanaticism and Methodism which +so powerfully control some of our ministers and people." (380.) W. M. +Reynolds, in the _Evangelical Review_ which he had established 1849 +(1870 succeeded by the _Lutheran Quarterly_), denounced the Platform as +a declaration of "separation from the whole Lutheran Church of the +past." "We trust," said he, "that no Lutheran synod will be beguiled +into the awful movement here so abruptly, yet so confidently proposed to +them--to revolutionize their whole previous history, and declare +separation from the whole Lutheran Church of the past, and all their +brethren in the present who hold to the faith of their fathers, 'the +faith once delivered to the saints.'" (360.) Reynolds, who publicly +renounced his former un-Lutheran views and withdrew his endorsement of +Kurtz, was hailed by many as the leader of the conservatives in the +General Synod. But, his confessional endeavors being vitiated and +neutralized by his fundamental unionistic attitude, he, too, +disappointed and failed the friends of true Lutheranism. He opened the +pages of the _Evangelical Review_ to both, liberals as well as +conservatives, to the advocates as well as the opponents of the Platform +and its theology. Reynolds stood for mutual toleration, and in +1864--turned Episcopalian. (_L. u. W._ 1857, 314; 1870, 156.) J. N. +Hoffmann entered the controversy with his "Broken Platform," and W. J. +Mann with his pamphlet "A Plea for the Augsburg Confession," according +to Spaeth "the strongest refutation of the Definite Platform." (_L. u. +W._ 1856, 75; 1857, 283.) Dr. Mann wrote, May 7, 1856: "If Schmucker had +not the _Observer_ as an ally, he would accomplish absolutely nothing. +As it is, however, the two gentlemen fabricate a public opinion, +supported by a multitude of uninformed members of the Lutheran Church. +The mass of all influential, well-meaning members, preachers as well as +laymen, whatever their views may otherwise be, are indignant at +Schmucker, Kurtz, _Observer_, and the whole Platform affair. I would not +be astonished if the matter should lead to a breach between us and the +General Synod. The consequence will be that involuntarily we shall be +brought closer to the strict Lutheranism, all the more so as the +Missourians of late seem to become milder." But Dr. Mann was rudely +awakened from his optimism when, in the following year, his "Lutheranism +in America: an essay on the present condition of the Lutheran Church in +the United States," was severely criticized even by Charles Philip +Krauth, in the _Evangelical Review_. And the result? "I have no desire +at all to make any further concessions to Old Lutheranism," Mann meekly +declared in a letter of April 15, 1857, in which he referred to the cold +reception and stern rebuke which his book had received by the press +within the General Synod. (Spaeth, 179 f.) Thus even the most +conservative men within the General Synod rendered the cause of true +Lutheranism but little service in the Platform emergency. Being in the +minority and without a clear insight into the nature of Lutheranism, +also without an organ, except, in part, the _Evangelical Review_, they +lacked the courage and seriousness to take a determined and open stand +against the corrupters and assailants of Lutheranism. They favored a +policy of silent, watchful waiting. H. I. Schmidt, who, in the +_Evangelical Review_, had defended the Lutheran doctrine of the Lord's +Supper, wrote in a letter dated February 4, 1853: "We Lutherans had +better keep perfectly quiet at the next General Synod, and say nothing +at all about 'Doctrinal Basis.' ... If all open conflict is avoided, our +cause will continue silently and surely to gain ground, and thus the +character of the General Synod will gradually be changed and righted." +(Spaeth, 1, 349.) + +61. "Pacific Overture."--The storm caused by the Platform was hardly +brewing, when Old and New School men united in pouring oil on the +troubled waters. Instead of holding Schmucker to strict accountability, +41 prominent ministers and laymen published in the _Observer_ of +February 15, 1856, a "Pacific Overture," in which they "deprecate the +further prosecution of this controversy, and hereby agree to unite and +abide on the doctrinal basis of the General Synod, of absolute assent to +the "Word of God, as the only infallible rule of faith and practise, and +fundamental agreement with the Augsburg Confession." This document was +signed by such men as H.L. Baugher, M. Jacobs, M.L. Stoever, S.S. +Schmucker, Krauth, Sr., E.W. Hutter, T. Stork, C.A. Hay, W.H. Lochman, +M. Valentine, B. Sadtler, and J.A. Brown. The pledge of the "Overture" +involved the obligation of abstinence from newspaper controversy. Kurtz +did not sign the document, and Schmucker reserved for himself the right +of replying to Mann's "Plea," which he did in _American Lutheranism +Vindicated_. This book, according to the _Observer_, proves that the +Augustana does teach baptismal regeneration, the bodily presence of +Christ in the Eucharist, private confession and absolution, and denial +of the divine institution of the Lord's Day, and that all of these +doctrines are errors conflicting with the Scriptures. (_L. u. W._ 1856, +320.) Thus Kurtz and Schmucker, who had kindled the conflagration, +persisted in pouring oil into the flames, while the rest were shouting, +"Extinguish the fire!" H.I. Schmidt wrote from New York: "I can see no +use in signing that 'Overture'; the compromise which it proposes cannot +preserve the peace of the Church or prevent a disruption. Schmucker has +got up that 'Overture' simply because he was utterly disappointed in the +effect produced by his proposed Platform; because he saw that he had +raised a conflagration that was very likely to burn him up. And now, +after doing all he could to disrupt the Church, after getting up a +platform, the adoption of which would have expelled all of us +confessional Lutherans from the Lutheran Church; after laboring with all +his might to fasten the charge of serious errors upon our venerable +Confession, he very coolly comes forward and asks us to sign a +compromise, in which, forsooth, we are to declare the points of +difference between us to be non-essential.... No, indeed. Those points +are not non-essential: the Lutheran doctrine of the Sacraments is so +completely interwoven with our whole view of the scheme of redemption +and salvation, that concerning the Eucharist grows so directly and +necessarily out of the great doctrine of Christ's Person, that for me to +give up those doctrinal points alleged to be non-essential is to give up +all, to give up the whole Gospel. And what good would come of patching +up such a hollow peace? At the first favorable opportunity Schmucker +would break it, and even if he seemed to keep quiet, he would be +secretly and incessantly working and machinating against our side of the +house. And, what is more, the editor of the _Observer_ refuses to sign +the 'Overture'; he will keep his hands unfettered, to knock us on the +head right and left, as soon and as often as he pleases." Schmidt added: +"Not a soul here in New York is willing to touch the 'Overture.'" +(Spaeth, 1, 363.) But no determined action followed on the part of +Schmidt and the conservatives in New York who agreed with him. + +62. Krauth, Jr., and Schmucker.--The fact that the conservatives failed +to take a decided stand against Schmucker and his Platform theology was +due, apart from their general policy of silent waiting, chiefly to +Charles Porterfield Krauth, who was in complete agreement with the +unionistic "Overture," and whose influence soon became paramount in the +General Synod. Krauth counseled mutual toleration. On January 1, 1856, +he had written to his father: "I have written down a few thoughts on the +'Platform,' but I do not know that I will ever prepare anything for the +press on that subject. My thoughts all have an irenical direction." +(376.) In the following year Krauth prepared a series of articles for +the _Missionary_ (published by W. A. Passavant in Pittsburgh), in which +he pleaded the cause of the General Synod, and defended and justified +its doctrinal basis, requiring subscription only to the "fundamentals" +of the Augustana as "substantially correct." Krauth insisted that, while +the Augustana must remain unmutilated and unchanged, liberty should be +granted to such as, _e. g._, deny the real presence in the Lord's +Supper. The Lutheran and the other churches of the Reformation, he +argued, agree as to the divine institution and perpetual obligation of +the Eucharist, the administration in both kinds, the necessity of a +living faith for enjoying its blessings, and the rejection of +transubstantiation and the mass. And securing these points of the Tenth +Article of the Augsburg Confession, Krauth continued: "Let the General +Synod allow perfect freedom, as she has hitherto done, to reject or +receive the rest of the article." (Jacobs, 431.) Spaeth remarks with +respect to the articles published by Krauth in defense of the General +Synod: "In looking over the articles, we do not wonder that the leader +in the Platform movement was willing to have, and actually proposed and +drew up, a compromise on the basis laid down there. For while the +articles kept the Confession intact in form, they abandoned it in fact. +They absolutely coordinated truth and error on the disputed points and +said: 'Tolerate us in holding the truth[?], and we will tolerate you in +holding the error.'" "There was evidently," Dr. Spaeth continues, "in +those days a singular approach between the leader of American +Lutheranism and Charles Porterfield Krauth, which even inspired the New +School men with a hope of ultimately 'seeing Charles right,' for whom +they personally had nothing but the kindest feelings. 'I think,' wrote +his father after the Reading Convention of the General Synod, 'you have +become pretty much of a favorite with Dr. S. S. Schmucker. He does not +think you so hard a Lutheran, and your zeal for the General Synod was +quite to his taste. I hope you will continue, as you have heretofore +done, to treat him with respect.'" (1, 409.) What Dr. Krauth objected to +was not so much the theology of the Platform as, on the one hand, the +intolerance which it demanded, and, on the other hand, the mutilation of +the venerable Augustana, the Magna Charta of Lutheranism. Also in the +controversy between J. A. Brown and Schmucker, in which the latter's +teaching on natural depravity, regeneration, and justification was +declared unsound, Krauth, Jr., defended his former teacher with the +result that the impeachment proceedings, contemplated at Gettysburg +against Schmucker, were arrested. (411.) Thus, as far as the leading +theologians were concerned, the commotion caused by the Platform ended +in an agreement to disagree. + + +POSITION OF DISTRICT SYNODS. + +63. For and Against the Platform.--Dr. E. J. Wolf, 1889: "The Platform +was indignantly and universally rejected by the Eastern synods." (365.) +Dr. Jacobs, 1893: "It was endorsed by one of the smaller synods in Ohio, +but everywhere else it aroused intense indignation, as a +misrepresentation and detraction of the Lutheran Church." (426.) Dr. +Neve, 1915: "Only three smaller District Synods in Ohio adopted the +Platform temporarily, the East Ohio, the Olive Branch, and the +Wittenberg Synods. At all other places it was most decidedly rejected, +not only by men of the synods under whose leadership, soon after, the +General Council was organized, but just as decidedly by such as remained +in the General Synod."--Among the facts in the case are the following. +The Wittenberg Synod (organized 1847 in Ohio and led by Ezra Keller and +S. Sprecher, professors of Wittenberg College), claiming to be "wholly +loyal to the doctrines and interests of the General Synod," adopted the +Platform in September, 1855, stating that the General Synod in the past +had given the Augustana only a limited recognition without specifying +the doctrines which were to be omitted, and that now the Platform, in +the interest of truth, had pointed out the five errors of the Augustana +which the great majority of the General Synod had long ago viewed as +unscriptural and Roman. Synod resolved not to receive any pastor who +would not accept the Platform as his own confession. (_L. u. W._ 1855, +319. 336.) In September, 1855, the Olive Branch Synod of Indiana adopted +the Platform unanimously, and, in October of the same year, the East +Ohio Synod, with but one dissenting vote. (350. 381.) In June, 1856, the +Miami Synod declared its allegiance to the Augustana, with the +limitation that they reject as errors contained in this Confession the +approval of certain ceremonies of the mass, private confession and +absolution, the denial of the divine obligation of the Sabbath, the +doctrines of baptismal regeneration and of the real presence in the +Eucharist. (1856, 349.) In September, 1856, the Wittenberg Synod +recommended the Platform for adoption to its congregations, and at the +same time expressed satisfaction and joy that the Platform had been +adopted by the English Synod of Ohio, the Olive Branch Synod of Indiana, +the Northern Synod of the same State, and by the Kentucky Synod; that +the Miami Synod had accepted the Augsburg Confession in the sense of the +Platform; and that the Pittsburgh Synod, through influence of the +Platform, was now immune against "symbolism." (1856, 380.) The Synod of +Southern Illinois (organized 1856, and in 1897 united with the Synod of +Central Illinois under the name of Synod of Central and Southern +Illinois), in October, 1857, unanimously approved of the Platform as a +measure against the insidious tendencies of symbolism. (1857,352.) It +was a sore disappointment to the Platform men when the Synod of East +Pennsylvania, in 1855, at the motion of J. A. Brown (who was in +essential agreement with Schmucker, doctrinally), unanimously condemned, +and "most solemnly warned" against, the Platform as a "most dangerous +attempt to change the doctrinal basis and revolutionize the existing +character of the Lutheran churches now united in the General Synod." +(1855, 337.) The Synod of West Pennsylvania, urged by the Synod of East +Pennsylvania to endorse its resolutions, refused to enter the +controversy or pass on the Platform, declaring that they were satisfied +with their present constitution and unwilling to add new test-questions. +(1855, 320.) It came as a relief to Kurtz and the Platform men when the +Synod of Central Pennsylvania, in May, 1856, unanimously and solemnly, +by a rising vote, adopted the Platform. (1856, 223.) In October, 1856, +the Synod of Maryland declared that every member was at liberty to +accept or reject the alleged errors of the Augsburg Confession, +enumerated by the Platform, provided that thereby the divine institution +of the Sabbath was not rejected, nor the doctrinal basis of the General +Synod subverted. (1856, 382.) In October, 1856, the Allegheny Synod +declared its adherence to the doctrinal basis of the General Synod, but, +at the same time, rejected the doctrines enumerated by the Platform as +errors contained in the Augsburg Confession. (1856, 27; 1857, 156.) A +similar compromise was adopted by the Pittsburgh Synod. The knock-out +blow to the Platform came from the older, larger, and conservative +synods. In May, 1856, the Ministerium of Pennsylvania, then numbering +98 pastors, condemned the Platform and reaffirmed its own basis of +faith. (1856, 224; 1857, 252.) The New York Ministerium instructed its +delegates for the convention of the General Synod in 1857 to vote +against the Platform. Whence the wind was blowing was apparent also from +the fact that representative men of both the New York and Pennsylvania +synods participated in the Free Evangelical Lutheran Conferences +(1856-1859), advocated and led by Walther (1856, 348). + +64. Pittsburgh and Hartwick Synods.--In the _Observer_, February 15, +1856, Kurtz suggested with respect to the Platform controversy that a +District Synod adopt a resolution to the effect that the Augustana did +not contain the errors charged with by the Platform, and that respecting +these doctrines every member of Synod was at liberty to follow his own +judgment. In accordance with this advice the Pittsburgh Synod, in the +same year, compromised the differences of the Old and New School men in +a number of resolutions framed by Charles Porterfield Krauth, who then +was still spending his efforts in trying to mediate between the +adherents and opponents of the Definite Platform. Among these +resolutions are the following: "II. Resolved, That while the basis of +our General Synod has allowed of diversity in regard to some parts of +the Augsburg Confession, that basis never was designed to imply the +right to alter, amend, or curtail the Confession itself." "III. +Resolved, That while this Synod, resting on the Word of God as the sole +authority in matters of faith, on its infallible warrant rejects the +Romish doctrine of the real presence of transubstantiation, and with it +the doctrine of consubstantiation; rejects the Mass, and all ceremonies +distinctive of the Mass; denies any power in the Sacraments as an _opus +operatum_, or that the blessings of Baptism and the Lord's Supper can +be received without faith; rejects auricular confession and priestly +absolution; holds that there is no priesthood on earth except that of +all believers, and that God only can forgive sins; and maintains the +sacred obligation of the Lord's Day; and while we would with our whole +heart reject any part of any confession which taught doctrines in +conflict with this our testimony, nevertheless, before God and His +Church, we declare that in our judgment the Augsburg Confession, +properly interpreted, is in perfect consistence with this our testimony +and with Holy Scripture as regards the errors specified." "IV. Resolved, +That while we do not wish to conceal the fact that some parts of the +doctrine of our Confession in regard to the Sacraments are received in +different degrees by different brethren, yet that even in these points, +wherein we as brethren in Christ agree to differ, till the Holy Ghost +shall make us see eye to eye, the differences are not such as to destroy +the foundation of faith, our unity in labor, our mutual confidence, and +our tender love." "VI. Resolved, That if we have indulged harsh thoughts +and groundless suspicions, if we have without reason criminated and +recriminated, we here humbly confess our fault before our adorable +Redeemer, beseeching pardon of Him and of each other," etc. "VII. +Resolved, That we will resist all efforts to sow dissensions among us on +the ground of minor differences, all efforts, on the one hand, to +restrict the liberty which Christ has given us, or, on the other, to +impair the purity of the 'faith once delivered to the saints,' and that +with new ardor we will devote ourselves to the work of the Gospel," etc. +(Spaeth, 1, 378.) A stand similar to the one of the Pittsburgh Synod was +taken in the same year, 1856, by the Hartwick Synod, in declaring, on +the one hand, that they adopt the fundamental doctrines of the Augsburg +Confession, other articles of this Confession, however, only when +rightly understood and interpreted, and in rejecting, on the other hand, +the doctrines enumerated in the third of the Pittsburgh resolutions. +(_L. u. W._ 1856, 349.) On the part of the Franckean Synod this caused a +declaration to the effect that they would not have withdrawn (1837) if +Hartwick had taken this stand earlier. Hartwick answered, 1857, that +they had not adopted a new platform, but merely the General Synod's +"interpretation of the Augustana." (_L. u. W._ 1857, 352; 1864, 314; +1866, 119.) + +65. The Pittsburgh Compromise.--The Pittsburgh resolutions, notably the +third (adopted also in 1864 at York by the General Synod, and since +known as the York Resolution), breathe a unionistic and, in part, a +Reformed spirit. Conspicuous among their un-Lutheran features are the +following. With respect to the Lutheran doctrines rejected by Schmucker +and his compeers, the Pittsburgh compromise declares in general: "We as +brethren in Christ agree to differ." The theological attitude of the +notorious union letter of 1845 was thus practically reaffirmed and the +doctrines distinctive of Lutheranism declared irrelevant. Every Lutheran +synod, according to the Pittsburgh agreement, was, indeed, to recognize +the Augustana unmutilated, but, on the other hand, grant complete +liberty to deviate from its doctrines in the manner of the supporters of +the Platform. In addition to this unionistic feature the Pittsburgh +compromise, at least in three important points, makes concessions to the +Reformed tenets of the Platform theology. It does not only fail to +confess the Lutheran doctrines of the Lord's Supper, absolution, and the +Sunday, at a time when these doctrines were universally denied and +assailed also within the General Synod, and when, accordingly, a failure +to confess them was tantamount to an open denial, but itself rejects +them. Concerning the Sunday, Article 28 of the Augsburg Confession +declares: "For those who judge that by the authority of the Church the +observance of the Lord's Day instead of the Sabbath-day was ordained as +a thing necessary, do greatly err. Scripture has abrogated the +Sabbath-day." Over against this plain teaching the General Synod always +held that "the observance of the Sunday is binding on all by divine +requirement." (_Lutheran Observer_, Oct. 1, 1915.) Siding with this +un-Lutheran position, the third of the Pittsburgh resolutions declares: +"We adhere to the divine authority of the Sabbath as the Lord's Day." +Again, absolution by Christians, and especially the minister of a +Christian congregation, was one of the doctrines abhorred by the +Platform men. As late as 1864 even C.P. Krauth regarded the Eleventh +Article of the Augustana as excluded from the confessional subscription +of the General Synod. The Pittsburgh compromise rejects "priestly +absolution" and maintains "that God only can forgive sins" on earth, +thus openly disavowing a specific Lutheran doctrine and coinciding with +Schmucker and Kurtz, Zwingli, and Calvin. Furthermore, the Lutheran +Church most emphatically teaches "the real presence" of the body and +blood of Christ in the Lord's Supper. And in the days of Schmucker, and +later, this doctrine, openly assailed and denied by the leaders of the +General Synod, was generally, though erroneously, identified with, and +termed, "consubstantiation," without as well as within the General +Synod. The _Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge_, of 1854, edited by J. +Newton Brown, describes "consubstantiation" as "a tenet of the Lutheran +Church respecting the presence of Christ in the Lord's Supper. Luther +denied that the elements were changed after consecration, and therefore +taught that the bread and wine indeed remain, but that, together with +them, there is present the substance of the body and blood of Christ, +which is literally received by communicants." As late as 1899 Philip +Schaff wrote in his _Creeds of Christendom_: "The Lutheran Church, as +represented in Luther's writings and in the Form of Concord, rejects +transubstantiation, and also the doctrine of impanation, _i. e._, a +local inclusion of Christ's body and blood in the elements (_localis +inclusio in pane_), or a permanent and extrasacramental conjunction of +the two substances (_durabilis aliqua conjunctio extra usum sacramenti_); +_but it teaches consubstantiation_ in the sense of a sacramental +conjunction of the two substances effected by the consecration, or a +real presence of Christ's very body and blood in, with, and under (_in, +cum, et sub_) bread and wine. The word consubstantiation, however, is +not found in the Lutheran symbols, and is rejected by Lutheran +theologians if used in the sense of impanation." (1, 232.) Down to the +present day the Lutheran doctrine of the real presence has been +universally designated by its opponents as "consubstantiation." (_L. u. +W._ 1856, 33. 115. 255.) Respecting this use of the term outside of the +Lutheran Church, compare also Worcester's Dictionary; _Cyclopedia_, +Harper and Brothers, 1894; Century Dictionary, 1906; Heyse, +_Fremdwoerterbuch_; etc. And as to the use made of the term within the +General Synod, S. S. Schmucker, B. Kurtz, B. Sprecher, and the rest of +the Platform theologians always designated the Lutheran doctrine of the +real presence as consubstantiation. As late as 1880 Dr. Helwig wrote in +the _Lutheran Evangelist_: "The Missouri Lutherans adhere as closely as +possible to the doctrines of Martin Luther, even his consubstantiation +theory with respect to the Holy Eucharist according to the words: in, +with, and under the bread." (_L. u. W._ 1880, 246.) Viewed, then, in +its historical context, the third of the Pittsburgh resolutions, +instead of plainly stating and boldly confessing the Lutheran doctrine +of the real presence, disavows it, at least indirectly, declaring: This +Synod "rejects the Romish doctrine of the real presence or +transubstantiation, and with it the doctrine of consubstantiation." To +cap the climax, the compromise proceeds: "Before God and His Church we +declare that in our judgment the Augsburg Confession, properly +interpreted, is in perfect consistence with this our testimony and with +Holy Scripture as regards the errors specified." How Charles Porterfield +Krauth was able thinkingly to write as he did is a problem which still +awaits a satisfactory explanation. Thus, then, though formally +acknowledging the Augustana and denying the right "to alter, amend, or +curtail the Confession itself," the Pittsburgh compromise cannot but be +viewed as a distinctly unionistic and anti-Lutheran document. It was a +surrender, if not to the Platform as such, at least to its theology. + + +GENERAL SYNOD'S ATTITUDE. + +66. Ignoring Platform, But Endorsing Its Theology.--No formal action was +taken by the conventions of the General Synod with respect either to the +Definite Platform itself or its authors, abettors, and endorsers. Apart +from the doctrinal indifference prevailing within the General Synod also +among the conservatives, this was chiefly due to the articles published +by Krauth, Jr., in defense of the General Synod in the _Missionary_. +"Silently," says Dr. Spaeth, "yet no less surely, the brethren gave the +most unmistakable evidence that the views therein expressed met their +concurrence." (1, 409.) However, Krauth himself, in advocating mutual +toleration, merely acted on the old principles of the General Synod. His +policy was in keeping with its unionistic traditions of "agreeing to +disagree and not to settle disputed points, but to omit them and declare +them free--_quieta non movere et mota quiescere!_" Well satisfied with +the course of the General Synod at its conventions in 1857 and 1859, the +_Observer_ wrote: "The convention at Pittsburgh has strengthened the +bond of our union and shown that no question of doctrine or discipline +can disrupt us. We are one and inseparable. Our union is based on +mutual concession. We have learned a lesson which our fathers could not +learn: to give and to take." (_L. u. W._ 1859, 285.) Officially and +directly, then, the General Synod neither approved nor condemned the +Platform. Nor could she consistently have taken a different course, as +Schmucker had but acted on previous suggestions of Synod herself. In +1844 the Maryland Synod had appointed a committee to prepare an +"Abstract," which, in a way, was to serve as a substitute for the +Augsburg Confession. This "Abstract," though not adopted by the Maryland +Synod, was a forerunner of the Definite Platform. Schmucker, says Dr. +Spaeth, "was so much pleased with the 'Abstract' that he referred to it +again and again in his lectures and articles, and even made his students +commit to memory its principal statements. In an article on the +'Vocation of the American Lutheran Church' (_Ev. Review_ II, 510) +Schmucker said: 'With the exception of several minor shades of doctrine, +in which we are more symbolic than Dr. Baugher, we could not ourselves, +in so few words, give a better description of the views taught in the +seminary [Gettysburg] than that contained in his 'Abstract of the +Doctrines and Practises.'" (1, 114.) Also the General Synod, in 1845, at +Philadelphia, following in the steps of the Maryland Synod, authorized a +committee to formulate the doctrines and usages of the American Lutheran +Church. Schmucker, then, in preparing and publishing the Definite +Platform, was certainly not so very much out of tune with the sentiments +then prevailing in, and encouraged by, the General and some of the +District Synods. Consistently they could not rebuke Schmucker without +condemning themselves. Accordingly, the convention of the General Synod +in 1857, at Reading, took formal action neither with respect to +Schmucker, nor the Platform, nor the synods which had endorsed the +Platform. And while the motion of Schmucker that the Board (which had +published Mann's "Plea") should not publish any writings on the existing +controversies was adopted, the motion of Kurtz for a "liberal platform" +found no support. (_L. u. W._ 1857, 218.) But, while painfully avoiding +any reference to the Platform as such, the General Synod more than +tolerated its theology. The convention of 1859 cordially admitted the +Melanchthon Synod, which charged the Augustana with teaching the alleged +errors of regeneration by Baptism, of the real presence, private +confession and absolution, and the denial of the divine institution of +the Sunday. At Lancaster, 1862, Synod evaded a deliverance on the +question whether the Augsburg Confession contains the errors with which +it was generally charged; indirectly, however, it affirmed the question +by electing B. Kurtz as President. (_L. u. W._ 1862, 217.) In 1864 the +Franckean Synod was admitted with a confession of her own making, from +which the distinctive Lutheran doctrines were eliminated. And in order +to conciliate the protesting conservatives, the General Synod in the +same year passed the resolution, adopted 1856 by the Pittsburgh Synod, +which served the contradictory purposes of condemning Lutheran doctrines +plainly taught in the Augustana, and, at the same time, acquitting the +Confession of harboring these doctrines. Thus the General Synod, though +unwilling to commit herself to the Platform as such, directly and +indirectly approved of its theology. + +67. Admitting Melanchthon Synod.--In 1857, on the principle of +"elective affinity," and for the purpose of resisting the confessional +trend in the General Synod, and encouraging and strengthening the +Platform men, the Melanchthon Synod was organized in the territory of +the Maryland Synod, under the leadership of B. Kurtz. In its +"Declaration of Faith" this Synod stated: "II. We believe that the +fundamental doctrines of the Word of God are taught in a manner +substantially correct in the doctrinal articles of the Augsburg +Confession: 1. The divine inspiration, authority, and sufficiency of the +Holy Scriptures. 2. The unity of the Godhead and the trinity of Persons +therein. 3. The deity of our Lord Jesus Christ. 4. The utter depravity +of human nature in consequence of the Fall. 5. The incarnation of the +Son of God and His work of atonement for sinners of mankind. 6. The +necessity of repentance and faith. 7. The justification of a sinner by +faith alone. 8. The work of the Holy Spirit in the conversion and +sanctification of the sinner. 9. The right and duty of private judgment +in the interpretation of the Holy Scriptures. 10. The immortality of the +soul, the resurrection of the body, the judgment of the world by Jesus +Christ, with the eternal blessedness of the righteous and the eternal +punishment of the wicked. 11. The divine institution and perpetuity of +the Christian ministry, and the ordinances of Baptism and the Lord's +Supper. But while we thus publicly avow and declare our convictions in +the substantial correctness of the fundamental doctrines of the Augsburg +Confession, we owe it to ourselves and to the cause of evangelical truth +to disavow and repudiate certain errors which are said by some to be +contained in said Confession: 1. The approval of the ceremonies of the +mass; 2. private confession and absolution; 3. denial of the divine +obligation of the Christian Sabbath; 4. baptismal regeneration; and 5. +the real presence of the body and blood of the Savior in the Eucharist. +With these exceptions, whether found in the Confession or not, we +believe and retain the entire Augsburg Confession, with all the great +doctrines of the Reformation." (_L. u. W._ 1858, 28.) In spite of this +attitude toward the Augustana the General Synod, in 1859, on motion of +Krauth, Jr., passed the resolution: "Resolved, That we cordially admit +the Melanchthon Synod, and ... we would fraternally solicit them to +consider whether a change, in their doctrinal basis, of the paragraph in +regard to certain alleged errors would not tend to the promotion of +mutual love, and the furtherance of the great objects for which we are +laboring together." (_Proceedings_ 1859, 11.) The vote for the admission +of the un-Lutheran Synod, registering the victory of the liberals and +the defeat of the conservatives, stood 98 to 26, the entire delegation +of the Pennsylvania Ministerium and the three Scandinavian delegates +being recorded in the negative. Without further protest on the part of +the conservatives "the credentials of the [Melanchthon Synod] delegates +were then presented and their names entered upon the roll of Synod." +(12.) Confirming their doctrinal position, the Melanchthon Synod, in +1860, by formal resolution, approved of a sermon delivered by B. Kurtz +in which he denounced baptismal regeneration as "a part of papistical +superstition" and the real presence of the body and blood of Christ in, +with, and under the bread and wine as "consubstantiation," and "just as +untenable and absurd as transubstantiation." (_L. u. W._ 1860, 384.) +Considering the Constitution of the General Synod together with the fact +that the Platform synods had not been molested, the admission of the +Melanchthon Synod, advocated by Krauth, cannot be construed as +inconsistent. It must, however, be regarded as an indirect approval, on +the part of the General Synod, of the Platform theology. Dr. Mann +remarked, "he doubted not that there was much good in the constitution +of the Melanchthon Synod; but he would not eat poisoned bread, though +there was much good flour in it." (_L. u. W._ 1859, 196.) + +68. Synod's Position Explained.--In 1859 the General Synod resolved that +S. W. Harkey publish, in German as well as in English, the sermon +delivered by him as President of Synod at the opening of the convention. +(_Proceedings_, 48.) Harkey was an opponent of the Platform on the order +of Brown and Conrad. In 1852, in his inaugural address as professor of +theology at the Illinois State University in Springfield, he had +declared that we must take a firm foothold in the Augsburg Confession as +a whole without binding the consciences of men to its unessential +individual determinations; and that the doctrine of the symbols on the +Sacraments belongs to the points concerning which they had agreed to +differ. (_Lutheraner_ 9, 99.) Reaffirming this position in the sermon, +endorsed by the General Synod in 1859, Harkey said: "We want love as +much as orthodoxy, yes, a thousand times more than what some men call +orthodoxy." (6.) "The General Synod cannot and does not require perfect +unity or uniformity in all points of doctrine." (10.) "The General Synod +adopted it [Augustana] as to fundamentals, and to these she requires +unqualified subscription." (12.) "Objections have been urged against the +expression 'fundamental doctrines,' as meaning one thing in the mouth of +one man and a different thing in that of another--that to some +everything is fundamental and to others only a few points. Now I cannot +reply to this at length, at present, but have only to say in few words +that there are fundamental doctrines in Christianity, and everybody not +spoiled by his theory or philosophy knows what they are [the doctrines +held in common by all evangelical denominations]. Indeed, I feel like +sternly rebuking the infidelity which lies concealed beneath this +objection, as if Christians had not been able to determine, in eighteen +hundred years, what are the fundamental, chief, or great doctrines of +their holy religion. Down on all such quibbling! Others have objected to +the words 'substantially correct,' as meaning anything or nothing, at +pleasure. This, like the other objection, is a quibble. None can err +here, unless it be wilfully.... The amount of the whole is, '_In +necessariis unitas, in dubiis libertas, in omnibus caritas_.' This is as +far as the General Synod has gone or could go; but it does not interfere +with the liberty of the District Synods. Any District Synod may go +beyond this, and adopt the Augsburg Confession in an unqualified manner; +or it may state the points in which it dissents from it, and if not +'fundamental,' no objection can be made to its admission into the +General Synod; but no body adopting a different Confession, or the +Augsburg Confession less fully than as containing 'the fundamental +doctrines of the Word of God in a manner substantially correct,' could +be admitted into the union of the General Synod." (13.) "Does any one +say doctrinal 'tares' are found in it, growing among the pure wheat of +God's truth, and that he is anxious only 'to pluck up the tares'? I +answer, 'Nay; lest while you gather up the tares, you root up also the +wheat with them.' Let the venerable Confession stand just as it is, +especially since you are bound only to receive it as containing the +fundamental truths of God's Word." (14.) "Cease, O! cease from your +controversies and disputes about non-essential points of doctrine and +practise, and labor with all your might for the conversion and +salvation of immortal souls!" (27.) In agreement with Harkey, Dr. +Reynolds had declared in the _Evangelical Review_, July, 1858, that +within the General Synod every one was privileged either to reject or to +accept the doctrines enumerated as errors by the Platform. (_L. u. W._ +1858, 274.) And prior to, and in agreement with, both, Krauth, Jr., had +maintained in the _Missionary_, April 30, 1857, that such men as +Schmucker and Kurtz formed a legitimate variety in the General Synod. +(Spaeth, 1, 397.) "The Church in the United States," said Krauth, "wants +neither Symbololatry nor Schism, neither a German Lutheranism, in an +exclusive sense, nor an American Lutheranism, in a separatistic one, but +an Evangelical Lutheranism broad enough to embrace both, and to make +each vitalize and bless the other, and supply the mutual defects of +each. She will abide by the essentials of her Scripture-doctrine and of +her Christian life, but she will use her liberty to adapt herself to her +new position on this continent. She will neither be juggled out of her +faith by one set of operators, nor out of her freedom by another. She +will hold fast that which she has, and those who strive to take her +crown from her will be remembered only by their utter and ignominious +failure. The General Synod cannot take a higher position as to doctrine +than her present one; she cannot take a lower one; therefore she must +remain where she is." (401.) "That Church, then, is not Evangelical +Lutheran which officially rejects the Augsburg Confession, or officially +rejects, or requires, directly or indirectly, on the part of its members, +a rejection of the Augsburg Confession, or a connivance at such official +rejection." (407.) Doctrinally, then, the General Synod, as such, had +not advanced beyond the union letter of November, 1845. The scheme and +dream of the New School men, however, of officially substituting a new +confession for the Augustana was doomed to oblivion. + + +YORK CONVENTION. + +69. Radical Franckean Synod Admitted.--The Franckean Synod was organized +1837 by four members who had withdrawn from the Hartwick Synod for these +reasons: "1. To license pious, intelligent men, sound in faith, although +they may not be classically educated, or have pursued a regular +theological course; 2. to license or admit none to the ministry who are +unacquainted with experimental religion." The synod pressed "new +measures" and advocated abstinence. In a civil suit, in 1844, +Vice-Chancellor Sandford decided that the Franckean Synod was not +Lutheran, and awarded the property involved in the suit to the two +congregations in Schoharie County, which had refused to follow their +pastor in joining the new synod. ( _L. u. W._ 1864, 187. 283.) The +Franckeans had abandoned the Augsburg Confession and adopted a +"Declaration of Faith," of which Sandford says: "1. It does not maintain +and declare the doctrine of the Trinity, or that the three Persons +constituting the Godhead are equal in power and glory; or even that +there are three Persons constituting the Deity. 2. It does not declare +or admit the divinity of Jesus Christ, or His equality with God the +Father. 3. It does not teach or declare that man will be condemned to +punishment in a future state because of original or inherited sin, +unless it be repented of; or that it condemneth all who are not born +again of water and the Holy Ghost." (Jacobs, 385.) The paragraph of the +"Declaration" on Baptism and the Lord's Supper reads: "9. That Christ +has instituted the ordinances of Baptism and the Lord's Supper for the +perpetual observance and edification of the Church. Baptism is the +initiatory ordinance, and signifies the necessity of holiness of heart; +and the Lord's Supper is frequently to be celebrated as a token of faith +in the atonement of Christ and of brotherly love." In 1839, at +Chambersburg, the General Synod had censured both the Franckean and +Tennessee Synods as the two extremes "causing disturbances and divisions +in our churches," and standing in the way of the union advocated by the +General Synod. (_Proceedings_, 17.) In 1857, however, in order to pave +the way for a union with the Franckean Synod, Synod rescinded its action +of 1839 as "not in accordance with the spirit of our constitution, and +not the sentiment of this convention," thus indirectly declaring its +willingness to receive both, the most radical and the most orthodox of +Lutheran synods. (25.) And in 1864, at York, after protracted debates +and subsequent to the declaration on the part of the Franckean delegates +that they fully understood that in adopting the constitution of the +General Synod they were adopting its doctrinal position, _viz._, "that +the fundamental truths of the Word of God are taught in a manner +substantially correct in the Augsburg Confession," the following +resolution was carried, with 97 against 40 votes: "Resolved, That the +Franckean Synod is hereby received into connection with the General +Synod, with the understanding that said Synod, at its next meeting, +declare, in an official manner, its adoption of the doctrinal articles +of the Augsburg Confession as a substantially correct exhibition of the +fundamental doctrines of the Word of God." The credentials of the +delegates were then presented and their names entered upon the roll of +Synod. (12. 17. 18. 19. 23. 41.) Abolition of the "Declaration" was not +demanded. (_L. u. W._ 1864, 283.) Majority men argued: Recognition of +the Augsburg Confession was not required in order to unite with the +General Synod; the principle excluding the Franckean Synod necessitated +the expulsion also of the Platform synods; it was destructive of the +General Synod itself, because its original constitution did not refer to +the Augsburg Confession. (_L. u. W._ 1864, 187.) The minority, among +whom the delegates of the Pennsylvania Synod were prominent, protested +against the admission of the Franckean Synod, declaring "that by this +action of the General Synod its constitution has been sadly, lamentably +violated." And when Synod refused to reconsider her action, the +Pennsylvania delegates, appealing to the conditions upon which they had +reentered the General Synod in 1853, publicly declared their withdrawal. +At Fort Wayne, 1866, the General Synod "resolved, That, inasmuch as the +Franckean Synod has complied with the condition of admission laid down +by the last General Synod, its delegation be received." (17.) In the +same year, however, the Western Conference of the Franckean Synod had +organized as "Mission Synod of the West" in order to "Americanize" +Lutherans in Iowa, Minnesota, etc. Rev. Fair, a member of this synod, +wrote: For what is it (the Augsburg Confession) but a bit of paper and +ink, containing, indeed, some good truths, but likewise also virulent +errors; therefore let it go where finally all error must go--to hell. +(_L. u. W._ 1866, 380f.) The fifth article of the Incorporation Charter +of the "Mission Synod of the West" provided that, since the Augsburg +Confession taught regeneration by Baptism, the bodily presence of Christ +in the Lord's Supper, private confession and absolution, and rejected +the divine institution and obligation of the Christian Sabbath, +ministers who were in favor of subscribing to the Augustana as a test of +membership, etc., should not be received into Synod, nor employed as +teachers in its colleges or as ministers in its congregations. As its +doctrinal basis the Mission Synod adopted the "Declaration of Faith" of +the Franckean Synod as containing all fundamental doctrines of the Word +of God, all that is truly evangelical in the Augsburg Confession. This +radical attitude was criticized by the _Observer_, not, however, as +false, but as too open, unguarded, and unwise. (_L. u. W._ 1866, 199f.) +At Fort Wayne, 1866, the General Synod advised the Franckean Synod "to +dissolve the distant Mission Synod of the West, and direct the ministers +now composing it to apply for admission to those synods within whose +bounds they may reside"; its radical confessional attitude, however, was +not criticized. (35.) As late as 1899 A.S. Hardy wrote concerning the +Franckean Synod: "Both her 'Declaration of Faith' and practise +[revivalism] discloses naught but a firm Lutheran position, though of +Pietistic type." (_Luth. Cycl._, 480.) Self-evidently, the admission of +the Franckean Synod was generally regarded as a further victory of the +liberal element of the General Synod over the conservatives. + +70. York Amendment.--After the General Synod, at York, had passed the +resolution to receive the Franckean Synod, 28 delegates entered a +protest against this action as being in violation of the constitution, +and the delegates of the Pennsylvania Synod declared their withdrawal. +Yet the admission of the Franckean Synod was not reconsidered. But in +order to satisfy the conservatives, and to obviate further +disintegration, the victorious liberals, realizing the seriousness of +the crisis, consented to amend the constitution and to adopt the +Pittsburgh resolution of 1856 on the alleged errors in the Augustana. +Accordingly, Art. III, Sec. 3, adopted 1835, was amended as follows: +"All regularly constituted Lutheran synods not now in connection with +the General Synod, receiving and holding, with the Evangelical Lutheran +Church of our fathers, the Word of God, as contained in the canonical +Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, as the only infallible rule +of faith and practise, and the Augsburg Confession as a correct +exhibition of the fundamental doctrines of the Divine Word and of the +faith of our Church, founded upon that Word, may at any time become +associated with the General Synod by complying with the requisitions of +this constitution and sending delegates to its convention according to +the ratio specified in Article II." (_Proceedings_ 1864, 39.) This +amendment, constitutionally adopted 1869 in Washington, D. C., remained +the confessional formula till 1913, when, at Atchison, Kans., it was +supplanted by the present doctrinal basis. Inasmuch as it canceled both +the former limitation to the twenty-one doctrinal articles and the +phrase "in a manner substantially correct," the York Amendment was an +improvement on the General Synod's basis. Yet the formula was left +ambiguous, because the question was not decided whether all of the +articles of the Augsburg Confession were to be regarded as fundamental +doctrines of the Bible. The facts are: 1. While, indeed, all doctrines +of the Augsburg Confession are Scriptural, not all of them, _e.g._, the +doctrine of the Sunday, are fundamental doctrines of the Bible. 2. The +leading men of the General Synod, after as well as before 1864, declined +to accept even all of the twenty-one doctrinal articles as Scriptural +and fundamental. 3. After as well as before 1864 they justified their +deviations by referring to, and interpreting, the phrase "fundamental +doctrines" as a limitation of their subscription to the Augsburg +Confession. Dr. Spaeth: "Again and again it was openly declared that a +strict and faithful adherence to the Confession, as fundamental in all +its doctrinal statements, was 'irrational, unscriptural, and +un-Lutheran.' (_Luth. Observer_, Nov. 17, 1865.) The demand was made +that Lutherans should no longer insist upon such points as fundamental +'about which the ablest theologians and most devout Christians have not +been entirely agreed.... Sooner than yield on this point we would see +the Church perish.' (_Lutheran Observer_, Dec. 1, 1865.)" (2, 113.) + +71. York Resolution.--Granting that the York Amendment, in a measure, +marked a step forward, the so-called York Resolution, quoted above, was +more than a step backward. It neutralized the Amendment, and practically +identified Synod with the theology of the Platform. Indirectly it +rejected the Lutheran doctrines of the real presence, absolution, and +the Sabbath. In brief, the York convention had betrayed the cause of +Lutheran confessionalism--a fact which only very gradually dawned on the +conservatives. Dr. Spaeth, quoting Krauth of September 10, 1868, who in +the _Lutheran and Missionary_, April 14, 1864, a month prior to the +convention of the General Synod in York, had declared that the Eleventh +Article of the Augsburg Confession "is not fundamental, and never has +been so regarded by the Lutheran Church, in any part of the world," +says: "The Pennsylvania Synod, with that charity [blindness] which +believeth all things, regarded the subsequent resolutions of the General +Synod [at York] professedly in vindication of the Augsburg Confession as +earnest and the token of a better mind. Taken in the meaning of those +who offered them, they would have been[?] such a token. The after-events +showed that they were designed by the majority as an adroit piece of +thimble-rig. Passed in their earliest form in the Pittsburgh Synod to +counteract the Definite Platform [but not its theology], these +resolutions were so modified [the changes are of no theological import] +by the General Synod as to be, in the sense it put into them +[historically no other sense was possible], the Definite Platform itself +in a new form. Their representative men had made a 'Recension' of the +Augsburg Confession, which made it mean everything it did not mean; and +now the General Synod, moved largely by the lobby influence which was +the power behind the throne, mightier than the throne itself, made a +recension of the Pittsburgh resolutions, which commuted [?] them into +the poison to which they had originally been [?] the antidote." (2,138.) +While the Amendment apparently gratified and conciliated the +conservatives, also those of the Pennsylvania Synod, the York Resolution +more than satisfied the liberals. Dr. Spaeth: "The _Lutheran Observer_ +greeted the action of the General Synod on the last day of its +convention in an enthusiastic editorial: 'Now we know where we stand, +and there is no longer room for controversy and the personal abuse of +intolerant exclusionists. We all stand on the Augsburg Confession, with +the qualifications and moral restrictions defined in the accompanying +resolutions, so that we are true Lutherans ... without hyperorthodoxy +and exclusivism on the one hand or radicalism on the other.' And even +the Pennsylvania Synod looked upon the action of the General Synod as +the indication 'of an earnest desire to stand firmly and faithfully upon +the true basis of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, and to prevent +forever the reception of any synod which could not and would not stand +upon this basis.'" (134.) Even such out-and-out Reformed theologians as +Schmucker, Kurtz, Brown, Butler, etc., did not find the York Amendment +and Resolution too narrow. (_L. u. W._ 1909, 91.) The General Synod, +they maintained, adopted the Augsburg Confession "as to fundamentals," +the doctrines held in common by all Evangelical denominations. "We +repeat, this received the unanimous sanction of the General Synod," Dr. +Brown declared in his pamphlet "The General Synod and Her Assailants." +(13.) Rejecting the position adopted 1865 by the Pennsylvania Synod that +"all the doctrinal articles of the Augsburg Confession do set forth +fundamental doctrines of Holy Scripture," J.A. Brown continues: "The +General Synod does not now seek, nor has she ever sought, to magnify +non-essential doctrines, or to make of chief importance those matters in +which she differs from other orthodox" (non-Unitarian) "denominations; +but has aimed at a catholic Lutheranism that might embrace the various +portions of the Lutheran Church in the land, willing to unite on such a +basis, and also bring her into cordial and active cooperation with other +evangelical churches in the great work of extending the Redeemer's +kingdom. To this her constitution binds her, and she can only become +narrow and exclusive by disregarding the very law of her own existence." +(21.) In order to prepare the General Synod for its indifferentistic +attitude, the _Lutheran Observer_ had suggested, prior to the convention +at York, that an unconditional armistice be declared for fifteen years, +or that the questions be discussed on the basis of Scripture only, to +the exclusion of the symbols. "We are all sufficiently Lutheran," +declared the _Observer_. Not a word, said he, should be spoken, +calculated to offend any brother. In lecture-rooms and periodicals +doctrinal questions might be ventilated. "But," the _Observer_ +continued, "keep controversies out of the General Synod! Let this synod +in truth be a bond of unity on its old liberal basis, which is broad +enough, Scriptural enough, and Lutheran enough for the whole Church of +this country to rest upon. We need no better one than the good old +basis. We need brotherly love and harmony, and brotherly comity, and the +Spirit of the Lord in our approaching convention at York. The +sacramental questions are sufficiently discussed in printed books." +(_L. u. W._ 1864, 124.) Thus the General Synod, at the conventions +subsequent to the publication of the Definite Platform, notably the +convention at York, 1864, had once again, by applying its old principle +of agreeing to disagree and unionistically reconciling contradictories, +apparently succeeded in keeping them all in the fold, conservatives as +well as liberals. + + +SECESSIONS AND SEPARATIONS. + +72. Southern Synods Withdrawing.--One of the arguments advanced against +confessionalism was that synods subscribing to all of the Lutheran +symbols neither agreed in doctrine, nor succeeded in effecting a union. +But did her unionistic principle enable the General Synod to steer clear +of dissensions? In 1860 the General Synod embraced two-thirds of the +Lutheran Church in America: 864 out of 1,313 pastors, and 164,000 out of +235,000 communicants. But the following decade completely shattered her +dream of a Pan-Lutheran union. In 1868 the General Synod reported 590 +ministers and 86,198 communicants--hardly one-fourth of the Lutherans +then in America. At a convention in Chicago, May 7, 1860, the Swedes and +Norwegians severed their connections with the District Synod of Northern +Illinois. The rupture was the direct result of the admittance of the +Melanchthon Synod in 1859, which the Scandinavians regarded as a fateful +victory of the Platform men. In the preambles of their resolution of +withdrawal the seceders state: "Whereas we are fully convinced that +there is a decided doctrinal difference in our synod; and whereas there +in reality already exists a disunion, instead of union, in the synod; +and whereas strife and contention tend to destroy confidence, and to +weaken our hands and retard our progress; and whereas we are liable at +any time, by an accidental majority of votes against our doctrinal +position, to have a change forced upon us; and whereas it is our highest +duty to maintain and preserve unmutilated our confession of faith, both +in our congregations and in the theological instruction imparted to, and +the influence brought to bear upon, our students, who are to be the +future ministers and pastors of our congregations; and whereas our +experience clearly demonstrates to us that we cannot be sure of this, in +the relations we have heretofore sustained." (Jacobs, 449.) The +Scandinavians were followed by the Synods of the South. At Lancaster, +May, 1862, the General Synod passed and, by a committee, presented to +President Lincoln resolutions respecting the Rebellion. Among them were +the following: "Resolved, That it is the deliberate judgment of this +Synod that the rebellion against the constitutional Government of this +land is most wicked in its inception, unjustifiable in its cause, +unnatural in its character, inhuman in its prosecution, oppressive in +its aims, and destructive in its results to the highest interests of +morality and religion." "Resolved, That we deeply sympathize with all +loyal citizens and Christian patriots in the rebellious portions of our +country, and we cordially invite their cooperation, in offering united +supplications at a Throne of Grace, that God would restore peace to our +distracted country, reestablish fraternal relations between all the +States, and make our land, in all time to come, the asylum of the +oppressed and the permanent abode of liberty and religion." (30.) Two +further resolutions were added with special reference to the Southern +Lutherans: "Resolved, That this Synod cannot but express its most +decided disapprobation of the course of these synods and ministers, +heretofore connected with this body, in the open sympathy and active +cooperation which they have given to the cause of treason and +insurrection." "Resolved, That we deeply sympathize with our people in +the Southern States, who, maintaining their proper Christian loyalty, +have in consequence been compelled to suffer persecution and wrong, +and we hail with pleasure the near approach of their deliverance and +restoration to our Christian and ecclesiastical fellowship." (31.) As +these resolutions practically amounted to an expulsion, the five +Southern synods felt justified in withdrawing and organizing, at +Concord, N.C., May 20, 1863, "The General Synod of the Evangelical +Lutheran Church in the Confederate States of America." In 1869 the +General Synod appointed a committee to correspond with the Southern +synods on the propriety of returning to their former connection. (64.) +And in 1877 Synod declared: "The action of former General Synods was not +intended to compromise the Christian character of the ministers and +churches of the General Synod South, and is not so interpreted by us; +and if there be anything found therein that can rightfully be so +construed (_i.e._, as compromising the Christian character of said +ministers and churches), we hereby place upon record our belief that +such is not the sentiment of this body." (27.) The result was mutual +acknowledgment and an exchange of fraternal delegates. + +73. The Fort Wayne Rupture.--The last and, by far, severest blow, the +separation of the synods which afterwards organized as the General +Council, came as an aftermath of the admission of the Franckean Synod +and the consequent withdrawal of the Pennsylvania delegation, in 1864, +which the General Synod construed as the act of the Ministerium of +Pennsylvania. However, since the Ministerium, reassured by the adoption +of the York Amendment and Resolution, had already resolved to maintain +its connection and to send a delegation to the next convention of the +General Synod, the Fort Wayne schism could have been averted. And +probably the break would have been avoided if the hasty establishment of +the Philadelphia Seminary (as such, an act altogether justified, +especially in the interest of the growing German element) had not caused +suspicion and chagrin within the General Synod. As it was, the +resolution of the Pennsylvania Synod, May 25, 1864, at Pottstown, to +establish a new seminary at Philadelphia, and the subsequent election, +on July 27, of Drs. C.F. Schaeffer of Gettysburg, W.J. Mann, and C.P. +Krauth as the first faculty, was generally viewed as the first actual +step toward a breach. According to Dr. Jacobs both the establishment of +the Philadelphia Seminary and the subsequent disruption of the General +Synod would probably have been avoided, "if the chair at Gettysburg, +vacated by the resignation of Dr. S.S. Schmucker, had been filled by his +[Charles Porterfield Krauth's instead of J.A. Brown's] election." (462.) +Howbeit, at its convention in Fort Wayne, May, 1866, President S. +Sprecher ruled that Synod could recognize the Pennsylvania delegation +only after receiving the report of an act on the part of the +Pennsylvania Synod reestablishing its relation to the General Synod. In +spite of vigorous protests on the part of the Pennsylvania and other +delegates, the chair in its ruling was supported by the majority of the +convention. After a good deal of parliamentary fencing and quibbling, +Synod adopted, with a vote of 77 to 32, as the "ultimate resolution": +"Resolved, That after hearing the response of the delegates of the +Pennsylvania Synod, we cannot conscientiously recede from the action +adopted by this body, believing, after full and careful deliberation, +said action to have been regular and constitutional; but that we +reaffirm our readiness to receive the delegates of said Synod as soon as +they present their credentials in due form." (_Proceedings_ 1866, 3. 5. +9. 12. 25 ff.) Of the alternatives, either practically applying for +readmission or withdrawing from the convention, the Pennsylvania +delegation chose the latter course. At the same time they stated "that +in retiring, as they now do, they distinctly declare that this their act +in no sense or degree affects the relations of the Pennsylvania Synod to +the General Synod." (28.) President A.J. Brown replied in behalf of the +General Synod: "This body has not decided at any time that the +Pennsylvania Synod was out of the General Synod. But having by its +delegation openly withdrawn from the sessions of the General Synod, at +York, Pa., the former President [Sprecher] ruled that the practical +relation of the Synod of Pennsylvania to the General Synod was such that +no report could be heard from that Synod until the General Synod was +organized.... The General Synod hereby extend to the delegation from the +Synod of Pennsylvania the assurance of its kindest regard." (28.) "The +die was cast," says E.J. Wolf. "The prospect of a general Evangelical +Lutheran organization in this country was dispelled." (369.) A few weeks +afterward the Ministerium of Pennsylvania declared its connection with +the General Synod dissolved. The New York Ministerium, the Pittsburgh +Synod, the English Synod of Ohio, and the synods of Illinois, Minnesota, +and Texas followed suit. In 1873 the General Synod, on motion of Dr. +Morris, proposed an interchange of delegates to the General Council. The +Council proposed, instead, a colloquium--a proposition which was +accepted by the General Synod South, but declined by the General Synod +in 1875. The Lutheran Diets held in 1877 and 1878 at Philadelphia, +though temporarily barren of results, helped to pave the way for the +General Synod's revision of its doctrinal basis and the subsequent +establishment of fraternal relations and interchange of delegates +between the two general bodies. + +74. Subsequent Separations.--Within the seceding synods the Fort Wayne +rupture also led to various internal separations. A number of English +pastors and congregations, in 1867, severed their connection with the +New York Ministerium (leaving it an almost exclusively German body) and +formed the New York Synod which, in turn, joined the General Synod. In +the same year ten ministers and seven laymen withdrew from the +Pittsburgh Synod, on the ground that, in adopting the Principles of the +General Council, Synod had violated its constitution. The receding party +claimed the name of the Synod, and as such was recognized by the General +Synod. A minority of the Illinois Synod organized the Central Illinois +Synod, which also united with the General Synod. The Pennsylvania +Ministerium, too, lost some of its pastors and congregations, which +united with the East Pennsylvania Synod, a member of the General Synod. +The Central Pennsylvania Synod received a few Pennsylvania Ministerium +congregations. On the other hand, pastors and congregations in +Philadelphia and the neighborhood, hitherto belonging to the East +Pennsylvania Synod, united with the Ministerium of Pennsylvania. The +English Church at Fort Wayne, in which the battle of 1866 had been +fought, entered the Pittsburgh Synod of the General Council. Other +congregations in various parts of the country united with other synods +of the Council. Some congregations were divided, one portion remaining +with the Council, the other entering the General Synod and _vice versa_, +while law suits were carried on by rival claimants for the property. +(Ochsenford, _Doc. History_, 166.) + +75. Causes of Disruption.--Though not publicly advanced and pressed at +Fort Wayne, the ultimate reason of the separation was the growing +confessional trend within the Pennsylvania and New York Ministeriums +and other synods over against the confessional and doctrinal laxism of +the leaders and the majority of the General Synod. In 1853, when the +Pennsylvania Synod reunited with the General Synod, the former body +resolved that, "should the General Synod violate its constitution and +require of our synod assent to anything conflicting with the old and +long-established faith of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, then our +delegates are hereby required to protest against such action, to +withdraw from its sessions, and to report to this body." (_Minutes of +Penn. Synod_ 1853, 18.) For confessional reasons the entire Pennsylvania +delegation in 1859 voted against the admission of the liberal +Melanchthon Synod which succored the Platform men. After the admission, +at York, 1864, of the un-Lutheran Franckean Synod in spite of the +protest of 28 representatives of various synods, the Pennsylvania +delegation, referring to the resolution of 1853, submitted a paper in +which they declared that, since the terms upon which the Franckean +Synod was admitted were in direct violation of the constitution of the +General Synod, they would withdraw in order to report to their synod. +(_Proceedings_ 1864, 25.) In the same year the Pennsylvania Synod +approved of the action of their delegates. In 1865 she resolved, "That, +in our judgment, all the doctrinal articles of the Augsburg Confession +do set forth fundamental doctrines of Holy Scripture." At the same time +she reaffirmed her resolution of 1853, but, being reassured by the +adoption of the York Amendment and Resolution, decided to maintain her +connection and wend a delegation to the convention of the General Synod +at Fort Wayne. Accordingly, at Fort Wayne, the Pennsylvania delegates +advanced no further scruples respecting the admittance of the Franckean +Synod, and declared themselves satisfied with the doctrinal basis of the +General Synod. In his pamphlet "The General Synod and Her Assailants," +J.A. Brown says: "At Fort Wayne and on the floor of the General Synod it +was repeated, again and again, that there were no doctrinal difficulties +between the Synod of Pennsylvania and the General Synod, that all were +now satisfied with the doctrinal position of the General Synod. It was +declared to be entirely a question of order." (11.) Yet back of the +diplomatic technicalities and parliamentary fencing were the conflicting +principles of governmental centralization _versus_ independence of the +District Synods, and especially of liberalism _versus_ confessionalism. +And although the subsequent separation did not proceed on purely +confessional and doctrinal lines, the bulk of the conservatives, +including practically all truly Lutheran conservatives, went with the +seceders, while the great majority of the liberals remained in the +General Synod. (_L. u. W._ 1868, 95.) In its issue of January 30, 1868, +the _American Lutheran_ commented: "Now that the symbolistic element has +been eliminated from the General Synod, for which we may thank God, we +are enabled to speak and write our peculiarly American Lutheran thoughts +without having to fear that we offend those who never were in agreement +with us. Our unfortunate York Compromise with our symbolistic brethren +failed, like all compromises." (_L. U. W._ 1868, 95.) + + +INFLUENTIAL THEOLOGIANS. + +76. Dr. Samuel Simon Schmucker.--That the actual doctrinal position of +the General Synod, especially during the first half of its history, was +much lower than its official confessional formulas would lead one to +believe, appears from a glance at some of the most prominent men of this +period. S.S. Schmucker (1799-1873), the author of 44 books and +pamphlets, and perhaps the most influential man of the General Synod, +was not merely a unionistic, but a pronounced Reformed theologian, +rejecting and denouncing all doctrines distinctive of Lutheranism, as +shown in the preceding pages of this history. He was a scholar of +Helmuth, and finished his theological studies at Princeton, 1818-1820. +From 1820 to 1826 he was active in pastoral work at New Market, Va.; and +from 1826 to 1864 he filled the chair of Didactic Theology at +Gettysburg, training about 400 men. After his resignation in 1864 till +the end of his life, in 1873, he devoted himself to authorship. His +first larger publication was a translation of Storr and Flatt's +_Biblical Theology_. His _Popular Theology_ appeared 1834 and passed +through eight editions. Schmucker also was the author of most of the +General Synod's organic documents, as the constitution and the formula +of government and discipline for its synods and churches, the +constitution of the theological seminary, etc. In London, 1846, at the +organization of the Evangelical Alliance by Dr. Chalmers, Schmucker, +because of his "Appeal" written in 1831, was lauded by Dr. King of +Ireland as the "Father" of the Evangelical Alliance. The nine articles +adopted by the Alliance were regarded by Schmucker as a sufficient basis +for a union of Evangelical Christendom. They formed the standard +according to which he revised the Augsburg Confession in the Definite +Platform of 1855, which "alienated from him many former friends and +clouded the evening of his days." (_Luth. Cycl._, 433.) According to the +Memorial of the convention of the General Synod in 1875, Schmucker is to +be remembered as "the first professor of theology in the Theological +Seminary of the General Synod, a chair filled by him with distinguished +ability for nearly forty years; a man most successful in the work of +organization, whose wisdom, energy, and devotion to the Church +contributed most largely to the development of the General Synod, to the +founding of her literary and theological institutions, and the +organization of her benevolent societies." (41.) + +77. Dr. Benjamin Kurtz.--Shoulder to shoulder with Schmucker stood B. +Kurtz (1795-1865). He studied theology under G. Lochman; was assistant +pastor to his uncle, J. Daniel Kurtz, at Baltimore in 1815; pastor at +Hagerstown, Md., from 1815 to 1831; at Chambersburg, Pa., from 1831 to +1833; editor of the _Lutheran Observer_ from 1833 to 1861. His book _Why +You Are a Lutheran_ had a wide circulation. In 1841, at Baltimore, Kurtz +was appointed by the General Synod to write a "judiciously written life +of Luther," which, however, though later committed to Reynolds, never +appeared. In most enthusiastic manner Kurtz pleaded the cause of the +General Synod, not only in America, but also in Europe, where he +succeeded in collecting $12,000 for the Gettysburg Seminary. +(_Proceedings_ 1827, 29.) In the _Observer_ of July 3, 1857, Kurtz made +the following confession: Originally he, too, had endeavored to teach +"on the benefit of the Sacrament" in complete accordance with the +symbolical books; later, when such was no longer possible to him, he had +explained his own faith into the Catechism; this becoming a burden to +his conscience, he had been on the point of joining the Presbyterians or +Methodists; his older colleagues, however, had held him back from taking +this step; they had advised him not to be troubled about such matters, +as the Lutheran Church was far too liberal mid generous to insist on +agreement with the symbols on minor matters, and that without +compunction they themselves deviated in various points from the +Confessions farther than he did, it being sufficient to adhere to the +great fundamental doctrines; this advice had suddenly given comfort to +his heart and made the Lutheran Church dearer to him than before; and +ever since he had boldly told his catechumens that he did not believe +what the Catechism teaches of Baptism and the Lord's Supper, etc. Thus +Kurtz's Lutheranism, like that of Schmucker's, deteriorated as the years +rolled on. Kurtz was a fiery advocate of "new measures," revivals, +protracted meetings, Sabbath- and temperance-reform, etc., and an ardent +champion of "American Lutheranism" and the Definite Platform. He +violently opposed every effort at Lutheranizing and confessionalizing +the General Synod. Through the _Lutheran Observer_ he wielded a +tremendous influence, weekly filling it with ferocious attacks on the +Lutheran symbols and the "symbolists" who opposed the Reformed theology +of Schmucker and his compeers, and ridiculing in the coarsest fashion +everything distinctive of true and historic Lutheranism. In its issue of +November 23, 1849, Kurtz wrote, revealing the spirit that moved him: +"The Fathers--who are the 'Fathers'? They are the children; they lived +in the infancy of the Church, in the early dawn of the Gospel-day. John +was the greatest among the prophets, and yet he that was the least in +the kingdom of God, in the Christian Church, was greater than he. He +probably knew less, and that little less distinctly, than a +Sunday-school child, ten years of age, in the present day. Even the +Apostle Peter, after all the personal instruction of Christ, could not +expand his views sufficiently to learn that the Gospel was to be +preached to the Gentiles, and that the Church of Christ was to compass +the whole world. A special miracle was wrought to remove his prejudice +and convince him of his folly. Every well-instructed Sunday-school child +understands this thing, without a miracle, better than Peter did. Who, +then, are the 'Fathers'? They have become the Children; they were the +Fathers compared with those who lived in the infancy of the Jewish +dispensation; but, compared with the present and advanced age, they are +the Children, and the learned and pious of the nineteenth century are +the Fathers. We are three hundred years older than Luther and his noble +coadjutors, and eighteen hundred years older than the primitives; theirs +was the age of infancy and adolescence, and ours that of full-grown, +adult manhood. They were the Children; we are the Fathers; the tables +are turned." Down to its merger in 1915 with the _Lutheran Church Work_, +the _Observer_ has always borne the stamp of Kurtz's Reformed and +Methodistic theology, as well as of his fanatical and Puritanic spirit. +In 1858 Kurtz founded _The Mission Institute_, which was declared to be +non-sectarian. (_L. u. W._ 1858, 351.) In 1862 he wrote: "With the +editor of the _Lutheran_ I am an admirer of the Augsburg Confession, but +he must allow me to interpret it for myself, as I allow him." (_L. u. +W._ 1862, 152.) Kurtz and the _Observer_ were never censured by the +General Synod. Moreover, in 1866, at Fort Wayne, Synod resolved, in +memory of B. Kurtz, "that by this afflicting dispensation the Lutheran +Church has lost one of her oldest, most faithful, and successful +ministers; the General Synod, one of her earliest, ablest, and most +constant defenders; and the cause of Protestantism and Evangelical piety +in our country, one of its most enlightened and fearless advocates." +(37.) + +78. Dr. Samuel Sprecher (1810-1905) was the brother-in-law and most +devoted and enthusiastic supporter of Schmucker. From 1849 to 1884 he +was president of Wittenberg College in Springfield, O., which was most +advanced in the advocacy and development of Schmucker's brand of +American Lutheranism. Again and again Sprecher urged the necessity of +making a bold and honest statement setting forth the exact tenets of +American Lutheranism. "I do not see," he said, "how we can do otherwise +than adopt the symbols of the Church, or form a new symbol, which shall +embrace all that is fundamental to Christianity in them, rejecting what +is un-scriptural, and supplying what is defective." (Spaeth, 1, 347.) +Determined in his blind opposition to "symbolism," Sprecher insisted +that the General Synod refuse admission to such as adhered to the +Lutheran symbols and their doctrines, and declined to subscribe to the +Platform. In 1858 the _Religious Telescope_ said in praise of Sprecher: +"He is a Bible-Lutheran and does not cram the heads of his students with +baptismal regeneration nonsense and similar semipapal imbecilities." +(_Observer_, Feb. 25, 1858; _L. u. W._ 1858, 126.) Toward the end of his +life Sprecher receded from his former position. In the _Lutheran +Evangelist_, January 15, 1892, he wrote: "I can now say, as I could not +formerly, that, like Spener, I can for myself accept the symbols of the +Church without reserve.... It is true that I did once think 'The +Definite Synodical Platform' (that modification of Lutheranism which +perhaps has been properly called 'the culmination of Melanchthonianism') +desirable and practicable, and that I now regard all such modifications +of our creed as hopeless. In the mean time an increased knowledge of the +spirit, methods, and literature of the Missouri Synod has convinced me +that such alterations are undesirable, that the elements of true +Pietism, that a sense of the necessity of personal religion, and the +importance of personal assurance of salvation, can be maintained in +connection with a Lutheranism modified 'by the Puritan element.'" +(Jacobs, 369; Neve, 113.) In 1906 the _Observer_ remarked: "It was +Sprecher's fear that true evangelical piety and the certainty of faith +could not be maintained so well under a strict orthodoxy that made him +hesitate to embrace all of the symbolical books of the Lutheran Church +in his system of faith.... This was one of the effects upon him of the +New England theology with which he came in contact largely in his early +life." (_L. u. W._ 1906, 277.) But even after his manly retraction +Sprecher was not completely cured of the virus of Reformed subjectivism. +Sprecher was among the first who, within the General Synod, declared +that "inspiration does not make a book free of ... grammatical errors, +rhetorical faults, and historical inaccuracies in minor and secondary +matters." (_L. u. W._ 1871, 126.) + +79. Dr. James Allen Brown.--Brown, born 1821, was licensed in 1845 by the +Maryland Synod; served as pastor in various congregations; as professor +of theology in Newberry College, S.C., from 1859 to 1860; as chaplain in +the U.S. Army; as professor of Systematic Theology at Gettysburg from +1864 to 1879; as editor of the _Lutheran Quarterly_ from 1871; insane +since 1880, he died June 19, 1882. During the Platform controversy Brown +was a zealous opponent of Schmucker and regarded as a conservative. In +the _Evangelical Review_ he charged Schmucker with teaching false +doctrines concerning regeneration, justification, and inherited sin. +Articles against Brown appeared in the _Observer_ and in the _Evangelical +Review_. (_L. u. W._ 1858, 65.) Though an opponent of Schmucker, Brown +shared practically all of his peculiarly Reformed and unionistic views. +"To separate her from the great multitude of God's sacramental host, +degrades the Lutheran Church, the Mother Church of the Reformation," +Brown declared in his pamphlet against the assailants of the General +Synod. (22.) And when asked, in 1868, in the lawsuit of Hebron +Evangelical Lutheran Church in Leechburg: "Do you believe as Professor +of Didactic Theology at the Seminary of the General Synod that the +doctrines of the Augsburg Confession agree with Holy Scripture?" Brown +answered under oath, "I hold the Augsburg Confession to be a correct +exhibition of the fundamental doctrines of the divine Word." Asked +again, "Do you believe as such Professor that the Augsburg Confession +teaches some things which are not in harmony with the Bible?" he +answered, "In certain points there are, according to what appears to be +its true and original sense, some things taught in the Augsburg +Confession which I do not consider as taught in the Bible or in +agreement therewith." Requested to enumerate fundamental doctrines of +the Word of God found in the Augsburg Confession to which the +constitution of the General Synod referred, he mentioned seven of the +twenty-one articles as fundamental, one as not fundamental, and all the +others as containing doctrines of fundamental character, but not +fundamental in their exact expression. In his pamphlet, "The General +Synod and Her Assailants," Brown wrote: The Lutheran Church has its +confessions, liturgies, etc., "but she enforces none of them upon her +members in the form of rigorous and compulsatory law; ... it does not +lie in the genius of our Church to enforce her utterances, in all their +details, as if they were indispensable, either to Christianity or +herself." (12.) + +80. Dr. J.G. Butler and the "Lutheran Evangelist."--Dr. Butler, pastor +of the Lutheran Memorial Church in Washington, D.C., and editor of the +_Lutheran Evangelist_, was among the most liberal of the General Synod +pastors and in every respect a unionistic-Reformed-Methodistic +theologian, who rejected every doctrine distinctive of Lutheranism. (_L. +u. W._ 1908, 321.) In 1895 he wrote: "I have become almost entirely +indifferent to theological and even to denominational differences of +practise and belief." (1895, 251.) In 1899: "The things which separate +us [evangelical denominations] are of a speculative nature and have +nothing to do with the substance of that faith which saves souls and is +the only hope of a lost world." (1899, 124.) At his fiftieth jubilee, in +1899, addresses were delivered by four pastors of the General Synod and +seven representatives of other denominations; 250 men "of every creed, +denomination, shade of religious faith, and political opinion" were +invited to the banquet. (1900, 26.) In 1909 Butler gave the following +advice to the Lutheran Church: "Adopt the name American Lutheran, and we +may make it one of the stepping-stones toward the union of the entire +Church.... The ideal is not uniformity in doctrine and life, but +uniformity in love for Christ and the Kingdom." (1909, 228.) In 1909, +after the death of Dr. Butler, the _Lutheran Evangelist_ was merged with +the _Lutheran Observer_. The last number of the _Evangelist_ spoke of +Butler as "that true prophet of God." And the _Lutheran Observer_ said +in praise of the _Evangelist_: "It has been a power for good in their +[its readers'] lives. Of its records they may well be proud. Founded in +1876, its career of thirty-three years has been one of achievement and +honor. It has made a solid and enduring contribution to the developing +history of the Lutheran Church in this country." (1909, 562.) Dr. Butler +served twice as chaplain in the United States Congress. + +81. Dr. J.D. Severinghaus (1834-1905) graduated 1861 in the Seminary at +Springfield, O.; from 1873 to 1905 he was active in Chicago; in 1869 he +founded _Lutherischer Kirchenfreund_ (temporarily called _Lutherischer +Hausfreund_); in 1875 he published _Denkschrift der Generalsynode_; he +established connections with Chrischona, and in 1878 with Pastor C. +Jensen in Breklum, to prepare candidates for the Wartburg Synod; in 1883 +he founded the Chicago Seminary. Severinghaus was one of the most +fanatical opponents of Lutheran confessionalism. "The _Kirchenfreund_," +he declared, "intends to be genuinely Lutheran, hence not in the sense +in which the name after the Reformation was so frequently abused in the +interest of a quarrelsome exclusive faction (_Rotte_). In the Lutheran +Church there have not only been, and have been tolerated, different +opinions on non-essential articles, but it is of the very essence of the +true liberty of the Lutheran Church that such differences must be +tolerated." (_L. u. W._ 1869, 58.) Severinghaus was an implacable enemy +and unscrupulous detractor of Walther and the Missouri Synod. Of his +numerous aspersions in the _Kirchenfreund_ the following has attracted +special attention: "Well, the Missourians are not Quakerish. They +believe in fighting, even against their own Government. For during the +time of war they had raised a rebel flag on their Preachers' College in +St. Louis, a proof that they intended to tread the Constitution of our +country under their feet, in order to enforce their own despotism the +more easily." In Dr. Neve's _Kurzgefasste Geschichte_ of 1915 Geo. +Fritschel writes: "Walther sympathized with the South, and even had the +Rebellion flag hoisted over the Seminary." (247.) However, the +_Lutheraner_ of February 1, 1870, brands "the scribble" of the +_Kirchenfreund_ as an "infamous slander" and Severinghaus as "a +mendacious slanderer." "The truth is"--the _Lutheraner_ continues--"that +during the time of war never a Rebellion Flag, but repeatedly a Union +flag was hoisted over our College in St. Louis." (26, 84. 150. 159; 25, +114. 190.) The General Synod approved of, and repeatedly endorsed, the +_Kirchenfreund_. In 1871, at Dayton, 0.: "The _Kirchenfreund_ has also +proved that our principles are favorably received by a large portion of +our brethren. Outside of our Church the paper is doing a good work in +removing prejudices against the General Synod and in defending our +principles." (21.) In 1873, at Canton, 0., the Committee on German +Church paper reported: "The influence of the paper is seen in many +things, but especially in the growing interest in the German work. There +no longer can be any doubt that our type of Lutheranism commends itself +to the Germans, and that it need but be understood to gain their favor. +It is so clear that it needs no proof that the German and English work +must go hand in hand in the General Synod. The _Kirchenfreund_ is doing +this twofold work of bringing us into closer sympathy with the Germans, +and bringing them into closer union with ourselves." (40 f.; cf. 1875, +50.) In 1879, at Wooster, 0.: "The _Kirchenfreund_ has been published +regularly in 24 numbers per year, since the last convention, and our +report covers volumes IX and X. This has not been the most prosperous +period of its history; on the contrary, we are obliged to report a very +material loss of subscribers and proportionate diminution of receipts. +We believe, however, that this loss is not attributable to any defects +of the paper itself, nor to any circumstance whatsoever under our +control, but rather to general causes, such as the continued and +exhausting depression of the business interests of the country, change +in the habits of our people, increase of good secular papers, and Sunday +editions of local papers, westward removal of our people, etc." (37.) In +the same year, 1879, Severinghaus declared that Missouri showed "all +marks of the antichrist described in the Word of God." (_L. u. W._ 1879, +55.) + +82. Dr. Milton Valentine (1825-1906), for nineteen years professor of +Dogmatic Theology in Gettysburg, opposed the confessional trend within +the General Synod, and, in important distinctive doctrines, occupied a +Reformed position. In his _Christian Theology_ of 1906, Dr. Valentine +sacrifices the inerrancy of the Scriptures in making concessions to +modern geology, astronomy, and Evolution. He denies the total depravity +of man; charges the Formula of Concord with Flacianism; teaches the +humiliation of Christ's divine nature; denies that the divine majesty +was communicated to His human nature; and questions the penal suffering +of Christ. He teaches that Christ did not pay the full penalty for all +sins, for then forgiveness of sin could not be spoken of; Christ's +atonement merely made forgiveness possible for God, which followed under +the condition that man consents thereto; faith precedes regeneration and +conversion; God does not produce the act of faith, but only the ability +to believe; the Holy Ghost merely enables man to fulfil the conditions +of justification and to convert himself; God restores free choice, but +man himself must make the choice and decide in favor of grace; the will +of man is the third cause of conversion; children cannot believe, and are +saved without faith of their own; Baptism does not work regeneration; +heathen are saved if they follow their natural light; in the Eucharist +Christ's body and blood are not received orally nor by unbelievers; close +communion militates against the unity of the Church; a Church is orthodox +so long as it adheres to the fundamental doctrines held in common by all +Evangelical communions; deviation in other doctrines is no hindrance to +church-fellowship; the government and officers of the State must +acknowledge Jesus as Lord and His will as the highest law; legislation +must be guided by the Bible; divorces not sanctioned in Scripture may not +be granted by the State; the State must enforce the "divine Sabbath"; the +Bible teaches a millennium in which the Gospel shall rule supreme, etc. +(_L. u. W._ 1908, 128.) + +83. Dr. J.W. Richard (1843-1909), professor at Gettysburg since 1889, and +editor of the _Lutheran Quarterly_ since 1808, occupied practically the +same position as Valentine, whose _Christian Theology_ he endorsed. In the +_Lutheran Quarterly_ and the _Lutheran Observer_, as well as in his +_Confessional History_, Dr. Richard, following Heppe and similar German +theologians, defended Melanchthonianism, and criticized the Form of +Concord, the Second Article of which he branded as Calvinistic. He +resisted the efforts on the part of the conservatives and the _Lutheran +World_ at revising the doctrinal basis of the General Synod, and ignored +the confessional resolutions of 1901 and 1905. (_L. u. W._ 1908, 84 ff.; +1909, 179.) Following such German theologians as Dr. Hauck and others, +Richard distinguished between "form and substance" of the Confessions, in +a manner invalidating the subscription to the Augustana, and practically +amounting to the old formula: "fundamentals substantially correct." As +to the Lord's Supper Richard regarded the declaration, "that Christ is +present in the Eucharist," as sufficient. (_Confessional History_, +610-618.) In 1909 Richard identified himself with Schleiermacher's +definition of religion, and pronounced this father of modern +subjectivism and rationalism "the renewer of theology and the greatest +theologian since the Reformation." (_L. u. W._ 1909, 421.) + + +CONSERVATIVES. + +84. Confessional Tendencies.--Apart from a number of minor causes the +conservative movement within the General Synod is chiefly due to the +awakening of confessional Lutheranism in Germany, the increase of +Lutheran immigrants, and the powerful influence of the Lutherans in the +West, especially the Missouri Synod. The rapidly multiplying German +elements which entered the Pennsylvania and New York Ministeriums and +other Lutheran synods during the second half of the nineteenth century +were always farthest advanced in taking a confessional stand with +respect to Lutheran doctrine and practise. Down to the present day the +attitude of the German Districts of the now defunct General Synod toward +lodges, altar- and pulpit-fellowship, and the Lutheran symbols has been +much more conservative than that of the English District Synods. +However, the early conservatives of the General Synod, besides being in +the minority and having no organ in the English language to cope with +the _Lutheran Observer_, lacked the clearness, consistency, boldness, +initiative, determination, and aggressiveness of their liberal +opponents. And even later, when both their number and courage had +increased materially, it was not in every respect the old genuine, but a +modified Lutheranism which also their most pronounced representatives +advocated--not whole-hearted, undivided loyalty to Lutheran doctrines +and practises, but a Lutheranism tainted, more or less, with +indifferentism and unionism, nor absolutely free even from elements of +Pietism and Reformedism. For the cry of the conservative leaders who +later organized the General Council was not, "Back to Luther!" but, +"Back to Muhlenberg!" And the prominent conservatives that remained in +the General Synod after the Fort Wayne rupture, they all, without +exception, were outspoken unionists, ready to tolerate un-Lutheran +doctrines in their own midst and pulpit-fellowship with the sects, some +of them being disloyal even to doctrines distinctive of Lutheranism. +During the Platform controversy some of the most influential +conservatives differed from Schmucker not so much in theology as in +their policy of mutual toleration and the refusal to mutilate and +abandon the venerable Augsburg Confession. The lack of bold +aggressiveness on the part of the most Lutheran of these conservatives +is illustrated by the letter of H.J. Schmidt, already referred to: "If +all open conflict is avoided, our cause, I mean the cause of truth and +of the Church, will continue silently and surely to gain ground." +(Spaeth, 1, 349; _Lutheraner_, April 12, 1852.) Their lack of Lutheran +seriousness is exemplified by the cordial relation existing at +Gettysburg between C.F. Schaeffer, who in his lectures in Catechetics +endeavored to create an interest in, and respect for, the Lutheran +symbols, and his brother-in-law S.S. Schmucker, who did everything in +his power to discredit and misrepresent them. (_L. u. W._ 1884, 357.) + +85. Conservatives Unionistic.--In their reports in the _Lutheraner_ and +in _Kirchliche Mitteilungen_ on the confessional awakening within the +General Synod, Walther and Sihler joyfully mention Drs. Morris and +Reynolds as the promising leaders of the movement. (_Lutheraner_ 6, 37.) +"An opposition has arisen against Kurtz and Schmucker such as no one +would have dared to hope for ten years ago," Loehe wrote in 1850. +"Reynolds," he continued, "placed the Confession into the light again. +Ministers ask for the wisdom of old. Students at Gettysburg purchase the +Book of Concord." The _Evangelical Review_ would contribute "to deliver +the children of the Church and her teachers out of the +Kurtz-Schmuckerian captivity." Similar progress was made in other +synods. (_Kirchl. Mitt_. 1850, 57.) In a letter of October, 1847, Philip +Schaff refers to Drs. Morris, Reynolds, Demme, and the two Krauths as +prominent among the conservatives of the General Synod. (Spaeth, _W. J. +Mann_, 38.) But what these men who at the middle of the nineteenth +century thrilled many a Lutheran heart with joy and hope abandoned, was, +at best, not unionism, but Reformedism. The most that can he said of Dr. +C.R. Demme (1795-1863; studied in Halle and Goettingen; came to America +in 1818), who was pastor in Philadelphia and prominent in the +Pennsylvania Synod, is that he was a theologian of a mild confessional +tendency. As late as 1852 he stood for the union distribution formula in +the Lord's Supper. Dr. J.G. Morris (1803-1895; received his theological +training at Nazareth, Princeton, and Gettysburg; founded the _Lutheran +Observer_; wrote _Life Reminiscences of an Old Lutheran Minister_, etc.) +signed the notorious letter of 1845, which later he declared to be the +greatest blunder of the General Synod. Morris approved of the unionistic +practises of the General Synod. As late as 1885 he declared his position +as follows: "I preach the Lutheran doctrine of the real presence of our +glorified Lord in the blessed elements; but when a poor, penitent, +praying, confessing, believing sinner comes and asks for permission to +commune with us, I dare not ask him whether his views agree with mine," +etc. (_L. u. W._ 1885, 252.) Dr. Charles Philip Krauth (1797-1867; +professor in Gettysburg and editor of the _Evangelical Review_ from 1850 +to 1860), though having a strong aversion to the Platform and being more +in favor of a revision of the doctrinal basis of the General Synod than +his son, signed the Pacific Overture and, in the Platform controversy, +was an ardent advocate of mutual toleration. Dr. Charles Porterfield +Krauth (1823-1883), prior to his manly retraction in 1864, was an +out-and-out unionist, and, in more than one respect, infected also with +Reformed views. As late as 1866, at Fort Wayne, he was apparently +satisfied with the confessional basis of the General Synod as declared +in the York Amendment and Resolution. Dr. L.A. Gotwald (1833-1900; +professor in Wittenberg Seminary from 1888 to 1895) was, in 1893, +charged with, and tried upon, charges, among others, of holding "to the +type of Lutheranism characteristic of the General Council," _viz_., +"that all the doctrines of the Augsburg Confession are fundamental," and +"that the doctrinal position of the General Synod, when rightly +interpreted, is identical with that of the General Council." His +acquittal strengthened the conservative, but unionistic, tendency of +Wittenberg Seminary. (Jacobs, 510.) Dr. E.J. Wolf (1840-1905; since 1873 +professor in Gettysburg Seminary) was perhaps the most Lutheran of the +influential English members of the General Synod since the Fort Wayne +disruption of 1866. In the Preface to his _Lutherans in America_ of 1889 +he expresses the conviction with respect to our "glorious Church," "that +to know her is to love her, and that those knowing and loving her true +character will consecrate themselves to the maintenance of her purity in +faith and life, and the enlargement of her efficiency in extending the +Word and kingdom of Christ." Dr. D.H. Bauslin, who served the cause of +conservatism within the General Synod both as professor in Wittenberg +College and as editor of the _Lutheran World_ (from 1901 to 1912, when +it merged into the _Lutheran Church Work_), was a champion of the +unionistic practises of the General Synod. The same is true of other +conservatives who contributed to the revision and restatement of the +doctrinal basis of the General Synod as finally adopted in 1913--they +all must be classified as unionists, tolerating, on principle, +deviations from the doctrines and practises distinctive of Lutheranism. +Thus, in the course of years, the unionistic Lutherans multiplied, +while the Reformed radicals decreased within the General Synod. In 1896 +the _Herald_ of the General Council, itself a mildly unionistic paper, +wrote: "It is gradually getting better in the General Synod. True, with +respect to some old gentlemen the word of 1815 is applicable: 'The old +guard dies, but does not surrender.' And the younger lordings, who swear +by the Methodistic _Lutheran Evangelist_, exercise themselves in crying +against the dead orthodoxists. But these as well as the former are no +longer strong enough to stop the movement toward the right. 'Toward the +right'--that means the General Council, which, strange to say, is more +obnoxious to the radicals than Missouri." (_L. u. W._ 1896, 154.) + +86. Dr. William Morton Reynolds.--Reynolds (1812 to 1875) graduated at +Gettysburg Seminary; served as professor in Pennsylvania College from +1833 to 1850; with an interruption of the year 1835 to 1836, when he was +pastor at Deerfield, N.J.; was president of Capital University, +Columbus, 0., from 1850 to 1853, and of Illinois State University at +Springfield from 1857 to 1860; joined the Episcopalians in 1863; +translated and published Acrelius's _History of New Sweden_ in 1874. In +1842 Reynolds left the Ministerium of Pennsylvania and organized the +East Pennsylvania Synod. In the interest of conservative Lutheranism, +Reynolds, in 1849, founded the _Evangelical Review_, which B. Kurtz +promptly condemned as "the most sectarian periodical he ever read." In +1850, when asked whether he intended to adhere to the doctrinal basis +of the General Synod, Reynolds stated in the _Lutheran Observer_: "Well, +I frankly confess and rejoice in being able to say that within the last +two years I have changed my views with respect to several very important +points. But this change has not cast me out of the Lutheran Church, but, +moreover, led me into it," etc. Reynolds declared that he joyously +adopted "old Lutheranism," "as plainly taught in the Augsburg Confession +and Luther's Small Catechism." (_Lutheraner_, April 30, 1850.) In the +_Lutheran Observer_ of January 25, 1856, Reynolds retracted his former +endorsement of Kurtz's _Why You Are a Lutheran_, a booklet in which +Kurtz affirmed that the present Lutheran Church, with a few exceptions, +believed concerning the Lord's Supper what had been held by those whom +Luther termed "Sacramentarians." (_L. u. W._ 1870, 156.) Walther, in +1850, praised Reynolds as a man of substantial learning and a teacher +true to the Lutheran Church and her confessions. (_Lutheraner_ 6, 139.) +But Walther and other friends of true Lutheranism who staked great hopes +on Reynolds, were sorely disappointed in their expectations. In spite of +his retractions, Reynolds always was and remained a unionist. In 1857 +Harkey gave the assurance that Reynolds was not a symbolist, but stood +on the doctrinal basis of the General Synod. When Dr. G. Diehl, in the +_Observer_, designated Reynolds as a strict confessionalist, Reynolds, +in the _Observer_ of October 2, 1857, protested that he was a General +Synod man, whose primary object was not to divide, but to unite. (_L. u. +W._ 1857, 314.) In his Springfield inaugural address, 1858, Reynolds +coordinated the evangelical denominations, and advocated extensive +unionism, maintaining that they all base their doctrines on Holy +Scripture. In order to justify his apostasy, Reynolds, in 1863, +published the statement that, in part, he had been moved to unite with +the Episcopalians on account of the bitter "sectarianism" of the +Lutheran Church and the denunciations of the men of the _Observer_ party +by the _Lutheran and Missionary_. (_L. u. W._ 1864, 25.) Later Reynolds +was reported to have said that he left the Lutheran Church because he +was without employment, and believed every door in the General Synod +closed against himself. The _Observer_ of October 9, 1863, justified the +propriety of Reynold's action by referring to the constitution which +provides for the honorable dismissal from District Synods and the +admittance of ministers from other denominations. (_L. u. W._ 1863, +379.) In 1877 the _Observer_ published an article in which the writer +states: "When a pastor who depends for his support on his office does +not succeed in obtaining a position in our Church and must suffer on +account of this, he may accept a call from another denomination.... +Several of such cases have happened, and no liberal-minded man will +censure persons who have left us for such reasons." (_L. u. W._ 1877, +186.) + +87. Conservative Periodicals.--In 1849 the English Lutherans in New York +declared that the _Lutheran Observer_ was opposed to the spirit and +character of the Lutheran Church, and appointed a committee to bring +about a radical change in the editorship, or, in case this should fail, +to advocate the establishment of a new church-paper at the next General +Synod. "Thus one funeral song after the other is chanted to our friend +at Baltimore, and partly by his own former adherents," remarked the +_Lutheraner_. (6, 47.) It was but another of the numerous symptoms of +awakening confessionalism in the East, when, at New York, June 8, 1853, +a conference of the New York Ministerium, in a resolution, declared that +they were utterly dissatisfied with the unevangelical and unsymbolical +position of the _Lutheran Observer_ as a church-paper, dissatisfied also +with the miserable stuff which it contained, and that, in place of it, +they recommend the _Lutheran Standard_. (_Lutheraner_ 9, 175.)--The +first German paper within the General Synod which occasionally raised +its voice against the apostasy of the _Observer_ was the _Lutherische +Kirchenzeitung_ of Pittsburgh, published from 1838 to 1846 by Prof. +Schmidt of Lafayette College, Easton, Pa., at a great personal +sacrifice. (_Kirchl. Mitt._ 1843, No. 10.) At Chambersburg, 1839, the +General Synod resolved "that we continue to view the _Lutheran Observer_ +published by Dr. Kurtz, at Baltimore, Md., and the _Lutherische +Kirchenzeitung_, published by Prof. Schmidt, at Easton, Pa., as able +advocates of the cause of evangelical religion in our Church, and that +we recommend them to the cordial support of our people." (16.) But the +German paper soon proved a thorn in the flesh of the liberals. In 1841 +"a Lutheran of Ohio" wrote in the _Kirchenzeitung:_ "It is astounding +that the Lutheran Church should support a paper like the _Observer_ and +nurse an enemy in its midst; the editor [Kurtz] himself ought to be +honest enough to leave the Church whose doctrines and customs he does +not love, but regards as false." Because of this critical attitude the +Synod of the West, in the same year, declared that it was unable to +recommend the _Kirchenzeitung_ to its members. The charges were that the +_Kirchenzeitung_ was directly opposed to the _Lutheran Observer_; that +it revealed an improper spirit with respect to revivals and charitable +institutions; that it had declared the _Lutheran Observer_ to be +anti-Lutheran, and directed its influence against this excellent paper. +The Pennsylvania Synod, however, to which Pastor Schmidt submitted the +resolution of the Synod of the West, decided in favor of the +_Kirchenzeitung_. In 1849, the same year in which the _Mercersburg +Review_ appeared, the _Evangelical Review_ was published at Gettysburg +by W. M. Reynolds, whom Charles Philip Krauth succeeded as editor. Both +Reynolds and Krauth were prominent among the leaders of the +conservatives. What the _Evangelical Review_, however, really stood for +was not unqualified Lutheranism, but unionism. (_L. u. W._ 1858, 272 f.) +On principle the _Review_ opened its pages to both the advocates and the +opponents of the Lutheran symbols and its doctrines. (_Lutheraner_ 1852, +136.) Walther's report in the _Lutheraner_ on his trip to Germany in the +interest of an agreement with Loehe appeared English in the _Evangelical +Review_ of 1853. (_L._ 9, 134.) The career of the _Evangelical Review_ +was closed in 1870. It was succeeded by the _Lutheran Quarterly_, first +edited by Drs. Brown and Valentine, both of whom were not essentially +Lutheran, but unionistic and Reformed theologians.--In 1845, Dr. W. A. +Passavant began a small missionary periodical which grew into a large +family weekly, the _Missionary_. Though one of its objects was to oppose +the un-Lutheran tendency of the _Observer_, the _Missionary_ itself was +free neither of unionism nor even of Reformedism. According to its issue +of February 28, 1861, for instance, communicants at the Lord's Supper +partake of Christ's body and blood by faith. The _Missionary_ was a +champion also of the Reformed doctrine of the Sunday. (_L. u. W._ 1861, +123. 350.) In 1861 the _Missionary_ merged into the _Lutheran and +Missionary_, with Drs. Krauth and Passavant as editors--a paper which +took a decided stand in favor of a modified confessional Lutheranism. In +1861 the editors declared with respect to pulpit- and altar-fellowship: +"We do not want to refuse the sweet bond of Christian fellowship to +those who sincerely love our Lord Jesus Christ." (_L. u. W._ 1861, 379; +1862, 19 ff.) The _Lutheran World_, serving the cause of the +conservatives till 1912, when it was merged into the _Lutheran Church +Work_ (established 1911 as the official organ of the General Synod), +always defended the unionistic practises of the General Synod, and +violently attacked Missouri for disapproving of her fellowship with the +sects. (_L. u. W._ 1901, 54; 1904, 564.) In 1901 the _Lutheran World_ +wrote: "Perhaps we shall always have three great church bodies, lest +any truth concerning the Trinity be lost. Perhaps there will always be +Calvinists to emphasize the sovereignty of God, Arminians to emphasize +the freedom of man and the work of the Holy Spirit, and Lutherans who +place the emphasis on God in Christ and justification by faith in Him." +(_L. u. W._ 1901, 154.) In 1905 the _World_ defended the affiliation of +the General Synod with the Federal Council, and attacked the _Lutheran_ +for criticizing the Federal Council as unionistic. (_L. u. W._ 1906, +32.) Without a word of criticism the _World_, in 1903, published the +news: "Rev. Eli Miller, of St. Mark's church, Allegheny, Pa., recently +addressed the I. O. O. F. in his church on 'We be brethren'." (_L. u. +W._ 1903, 184.) In the same year the _World_ designated the doctrine +that every word of the Bible was inspired as an orthodox exaggeration +and an astonishing assertion, at the same time declaring that it was +time to formulate a theory of inspiration, and that, in this matter, all +eyes in America were directed on the Lutheran church. (_L. u. W._ 1904, +39; 1903, 307.) In 1901 the _Lutheran World_ wrote that one must not +imagine that man cannot do anything toward his own salvation; that grace +must not be viewed as such a supernatural operation which effects a +change in the moral nature of man while his own exertions contribute +nothing; that man must cooperate with God when the machinery is set into +motion. (_L. u. W._ 1901, 234.) The _Lutherische Zionsbote_, the organ +of the German Nebraska and the Wartburg Synods, as well as of the German +congregations in other District Synods, was much more moderate and +conservative than its predecessor, the _Lutherische Kirchenfreund_. + + +MISSOURI'S INFLUENCE. + +88. Light Coming from the West.--In 1845, at the convention of the +General Synod in Philadelphia, Wyneken, a delegate of the Synod of the +West, made a bold, determined, and consistent stand for genuine +Lutheranism against the prevailing unionistic and Reformed tendencies of +the leaders of the General Synod. Wyneken, who, in his pamphlet _The +Distress of the German Lutherans in North America_, had characterized +the General Synod as Reformed in doctrine, Methodistic in practise, and +Lutheran in name only, demanded at Philadelphia that Synod either +renounce the name Lutheran, or reject as utterly un-Lutheran Schmucker's +_Popular Theology, Appeal, Portraiture of Lutheranism_, etc., Kurtz's +_On Infant Baptism, Why You Are a Lutheran_, and the _Lutheran +Observer_, as well as the _Hirtenstimme_ of Weyl. But on floor of Synod +not a single voice was heard that understood him, and was in sympathy +with him. On the contrary, in _Lutherische Hirtenstimme_, July 1, 1845, +Rev. Weyl began to decry Wyneken as a masked Romanist, an enemy of +Lutheran doctrines, usages, books, and periodicals, and to ridicule his +zeal for true Lutheranism at Philadelphia as a "ludicrous motion +(_spasshafte Motion_)" which the General Synod had tabled +"good-naturedly." (_L._ 1845, 96; 3, 32; 7, 133. 153.) Wyneken was a +strange figure on the floor of the General Synod--without predecessors, +without successors. Down to the Merger in 1918 there was not found a +single prominent General Synodist walking in his steps. In an address +delivered March 10, 1846, Dr. Philip Schaff (Schaaf was his original +name) declared that it was impossible to build a confessional Lutheran +Church (not to speak of the exclusive Lutheranism of the Form of +Concord) on the Reformed English soil of America. It would be easier to +direct the course of the Mississippi to Bavaria and to convert the +Chinese through German sermons. The emissaries from Germany would soon +be convinced of the folly of their undertaking, etc.--This was the view +also of the leaders of the General Synod. But, though fully aware of the +difficulties ahead, nothing was able to daunt the courage of the men of +the West, or shake their faith in the truth and final success of their +cause. And their faith did not fail them. Throughout the United States +and far beyond its bounds the fact of Missouri's powerful rise was felt +as an encouragement and incentive to true Lutheranism everywhere. +Indeed, the confessional influence of the West on the East was much +greater than is usually acknowledged. As early as 1846 Dr. Walther felt +justified in stating in the _Lutheraner_ (Sept. 5): "No doubt but God +has arisen in order to remove the rubbish under which our precious +Evangelical Lutheran Church was buried for a long time, also here in +America." (3, 1.) The _Observer_, reporting on the organization of the +Missouri Synod in 1847, ridiculed: "This new Synod is composed of +genuine Old Lutherans, the true, spotless orthodox ones, whose theology +is as strong and straight as the symbolical books can make it, and whose +religious usages are as stiff as such thoroughbred old-school men can +wish them." (_L._ 4, 30.) But while B. Kurtz and his compeers indulged +in mockery and ridicule, the men of Missouri were clear-sighted, +serious, and determined. The consequence was that a decade later the +hearts of the General Synod's anti-confessionalists were filled with +fear and consternation. Schmucker's chief object in writing the Definite +Platform, as appears from this document itself, was to stem the tide of +the confessional wave coming from the West, and to make the General +Synod immune against Misouri. [tr. note: sic!] + +89. Cloud, like the Hand of a Man, in the West.--Admitting the +tremendous influence of the Lutherans in the West, the _Observer_, +February 19, 1864, wrote, in his usual subjective fashion: "There was a +time when our Church had peace. From 1830 to 1840 she enjoyed a +universal peace and flourished greatly. This flourishing condition +extended far into the following decade. In these days, and already +somewhat earlier, the transition from the German into English caused +some friction. Nevertheless, it was a time of revivals and of great +bloom. The number of our churches increased. Our seminary at Gettysburg +was filled with students.... Between 1845 and 1850 a change took place +with a part of our Church. A little cloud, like the hand of a man, +appeared in the West. The Germans came in ever greater multitudes and in +more rapid succession. They no longer joined the American Lutheran +congregations generally. An Old Lutheran in Bavaria [Loehe] turned his +eyes on this country, sending colonies of hyper-Lutherans. These opposed +the revivals. Some of them were pious men, but their religious type +differed from the American. They were surrounded by influences which +hindered their amalgamation with American Christians. They had been +imbued with mistrust against the General Synod. Their system was such as +not to encourage spiritual life and progress.... These children of a +foreign soil had been sent over with a bitter prejudice against the +liberal Lutheranism of America. In the year 1845 there were probably no +more than one or two dozen old-Lutheran congregations in this country. +Now there are perhaps no less than 700 symbol-Lutheran congregations of +the old school in the country, whose preachers--numbering almost 500-- +are all symbol- and hyper-Lutherans who profess to believe that the real +body and blood of Christ are orally received in the Lord's Supper, and +that the unbelieving communicant as well as the believing partakes of +the true body and blood of the Savior. They also believe in regeneration +by Baptism, and some of them also in private confession, in exorcism, in +beautifying the church with pictures and crucifixes; some of them also, +in bright daylight, light wax candles at Communion.... This German, +anti-Biblical, anti-American element could have been checked and +absorbed by the American Church if another element had not been added. +But during the rise of the great revivals of the fourth decade of this +century in our own Church unfortunately a class of people arose who are +far more dangerous and more powerful for mischief than the European +preachers. These American preachers became disloyal to the basis of the +General Synod, and began to raise a banner against the revivals and +against a spiritual Lutheranism.... They began a systematic persecution +of the most prominent men of the General Synod. In order to execute +their plans, they began to curry favor with the German symbolists. They +succeeded in adding tenfold bitterness to the prejudice and suspicion in +the hearts of the foreigners, until finally an almost unsurmountable +abyss seems to be fastened between the foreign high-church party and our +General Synod.... Every Lutheran of this country should have endeavored +to lead our foreign brethren to the General Synod, showing them that the +pure spiritual Lutheranism of this land is so much better than the +leather-bound symbolism of the Bavarian autocrat, as our political +institutions are better than those of the old Fatherland. But, instead +of this work of love, our benighted symbolists have strengthened the +prejudices of the foreigners in saying to them that the Lutheranism of +the General Synod is a pseudo-Lutheranism."--The origin, then, of the +confessional commotion within the Lutheran Church of America must be +traced chiefly to such men as Wyneken, Sihler, and especially to +Walther, who since 1839 had been zealous in unfurling the banner of true +Lutheranism, seriously, determinately, aggressively, victoriously. If +the confessional movement was wrong, Missouri, above all, must be +condemned as the great disturber of the peace, but Lutheranism itself +must go down with it. (_L. u. W._ 1864, 59.) The sincerity, seriousness, +and determination of the men of Missouri in applying the principles of +Lutheranism as they saw it, commanded the admiration even of an opponent +like S.S. Schmucker, who wrote in the _Observer_, September 21, 1860: +"Would it not reveal a lack of self-respect if the General Synod were to +receive men who seem to believe that she has departed so far from the +Lutheran doctrine that she could no further lay any just claim to the +name Lutheran? The opposite way of the Missourians is much more +honorable and has won the respect not only of the General Synod, but of +the Church everywhere."(_L. u. W._ 1860, p. 353.) + +90. Improved Conditions.--In the issue of the _Lutheraner_ dated August +31, 1852, Walther declared: "Since the last eight years, conditions have +really improved in many respects, and to this end, according to many +testimonies which have been made against us, God has used and blessed +also our humble testimony." (9, 1.) The enmity which Missouri met +everywhere was indeed a significant symptom of conditions changing for +the better. It proved that the leaven of "foreign symbolism," as +Schmucker pleased to style it, was doing its work. Foremost among the +men that witnessed to the powerful influence of Missouri by testifying +against her was B. Kurtz, who again and again denounced all +confessionalists, especially those of the West, as "resurrectionists of +elemental, undeveloped, halting, stumbling, and staggering humanity," as +priests ready "to immolate bright meridian splendor on the altar of +misty, musky dust," men bent on going backward, and consequently, of +necessity, going downward! (Spaeth, 1, 344.) In 1859 the _Observer_ +wrote: "It is true that there are some small factions who call +themselves Lutherans, but they are not of us, and there is no hope that +the Missourians, or Buffaloans, and other small communions will ever +become wiser in their generation. But it is to be expected that their +children and children's children will outgrow the prejudices of their +fathers, and become sensible and useful Christians. As said before, we +do not regard these factions as Lutherans; they have stolen a part of +Luther's livery, but they lack his spirit, and would be disowned by the +great Reformer if he were on earth now." (_L. u. W._ 1859, 227.) "The +symbolists have forgotten that Luther had a soul, and that they are only +quarreling over his old hat, coat, and boots," the _Observer_ declared +in its issue of April 1, 1864. It was a great shame for them that they +made the doctrine concerning the reception of the body and blood of +Christ in the Lord's Supper also by the wicked an essential part of the +Lutheran system. "The Lutheran Church of this country," the _Observer_ +continued, "moving forward gloriously on the basis of the General Synod, +had gradually forgotten everything pertaining to the old boots, coats, +and hats, until this extreme party [Missouri] rose, gathered the old +rags, tied them to a stick, and now calls upon all Lutherans to agree +with them on pain of excommunication." (_Kirchl. Mitt._ 1864, 56.) In +May of the following year Dr. Conrad wrote, in a similar strain: "The +extreme symbolical standpoint, adopted anew in America and Europe and +demanding an unconditional subscription to the whole [doctrinal] content +of the Symbolical Books, is historically hyper-Lutheran, essentially +schismatic, practically disastrous, and providentially condemned." (_L. +u. W._ 1865, 217.) Referring to Kurtz's tirade on "Luther's old boots," +etc., the _Lutheran_ remarked: "Is there no one in the General Synod who +will call to account such a blasphemous slanderer?" However, it was but +the language of a foe who began to realize that defeat was imminent. + + +EXPLANATORY STATEMENTS. + +91. Resolutions of 1895, 1901, and 1909.--Owing to the efforts of the +conservatives in the interest of bringing about a closer union with the +General Council and the United Synod in the South, the General Synod +passed a number of resolutions affecting its confessional basis: 1895 in +Hagerstown, Md.; 1901 in Des Moines, Iowa; 1909 in Richmond, Ind.; 1911 +in Washington, D.C.; and 1913 in Atchison, Kans. The resolution adopted +at Hagerstown, June 15, 1895, defines the "Unaltered Augsburg Confession +as throughout in perfect consistence" with the Word of God. It reads: +"Resolved, That in order to remove all fear and misapprehension, this +convention of the General Synod hereby expresses its entire satisfaction +with the present form of doctrinal basis and confessional subscription, +which is the Word of God, the infallible rule of faith and practise, and +the Unaltered Augsburg Confession as throughout in perfect consistence +with it--nothing more, nothing less." The resolution adopted June 6, +1901, at Des Moines objects to any distinction made between fundamental +and non-fundamental doctrines in the Augustana. It reads: "Resolved, +That, in these days of doctrinal unrest in many quarters, we rejoice to +find ourselves unshaken in our spiritual and historic faith, and +therefore reaffirm our unreserved allegiance to the present basis of +the General Synod; and we hold that to make any distinction between +fundamental and so-called non-fundamental doctrines in the Augsburg +Confession is contrary to that basis as set forth in our formula of +confessional subscription." Concerning the other symbols of the Book of +Concord the convention at Richmond declared, June 8, 1909: "Resolved, +That, inasmuch as the Augsburg Confession is the original, generic +confession of the Lutheran Church, accepted by Luther and his +coadjutors, and subscribed to by all Lutheran bodies the world over, we +therefore deem it an adequate and sufficient standard of Lutheran +doctrine. In making this statement, however, the General Synod in no +wise means to imply that she ignores, rejects, repudiates, or +antagonizes the Secondary Symbols of the Book of Concord, nor forbids +any of her members from accepting or teaching all of them, in strict +accordance with the Lutheran regulating principle of justifying faith. +On the contrary, she holds those Symbols in high esteem, regards them as +a most valuable body of Lutheran belief, explaining and unfolding the +doctrines of the Augsburg Confession, and she hereby recommends that +they be diligently and faithfully studied by our ministers and laymen." +With respect to the phrase in the Amendment of 1864, "the Word of God as +contained in the canonical Scriptures," the Richmond convention +resolved, "That we herewith declare our adherence to the satement, [tr. +note: sic!] 'The Bible is the Word of God,' and reject the error implied +in the statement, 'The Bible contains the Word of God.'" + +92. Objectionable Features of Resolutions.--Among the weak points of the +resolutions of 1895 and 1901 are the following. First: It implied a +contradiction when the General Synod in her new resolutions, which give +an unqualified assent to the Augsburg Confession, at the same time +declared herself fully satisfied with, reaffirmed and set its seal of +approval on, the qualified basis of 1864. From the very outset the +leaders of the new confessional movement dodged the open acknowledgment +that the doctrinal basis of the General Synod, also that of 1864, was +misleading and un-Lutheran. In the resolution of 1895, Synod expressed +her "entire satisfaction" with the doctrinal basis of 1864. In the +resolution of 1901 she reaffirmed her "unreserved allegiance" to this +basis. In 1909 Synod declared: "We reiterate our firm belief that our +confessional basis [of 1864] is adequate and satisfactory." (58.) Again: +"The confessional resolutions referred to [of 1895 and 1901] are not +alterations of the constitution, and contemplate no alterations; they +are simply explanations of the meaning of the General Synod's +confessional basis. Therefore, it is not necessary to submit them to the +District Synods of the General Synod" (for adoption). (58.) The Report +of Dr. L.S. Keyser, delegate to the General Council in 1907, which was +adopted by the Richmond convention, urged Synod to defend, vindicate, +and maintain her doctrinal basis of 1864. Also the _Lutheran World_, the +organ of the conservatives, maintained that the General Synod's +resolutions of 1895 to 1909 were but "a restatement of its confessional +basis in harmony with all its previous statements." (_L. u. W._ 1909, +370.) Secondly: When the resolution of 1901 declared it contrary to the +basis of 1864 to make any distinction between fundamental and so-called +non-fundamental doctrines in the Augsburg Confession, this, too, was an +unwarranted assertion. The Richmond convention stated: "When the General +Synod says, in her formula of confessional subscription, that she +accepts 'the Augsburg Confession as a correct exhibition of the +fundamental doctrines of the divine Word, and of the faith of our Church +founded upon the Word,' she means precisely what she says, namely, that +the fundamental doctrines of God's Word are correctly set forth in the +Confession. She does not mean that some of the doctrines set forth in +the Confession are non-fundamental, and, therefore, may be accepted or +rejected; she means that they are all fundamental, and their exhibition +in the Confession is to be accepted by those who subscribe to the +Confession." This interpretation placed on the York Amendment by the +resolution of 1901 was unknown to the General Synod and her theologians +before as well as after its adoption in 1864. As shown above, the phrase +"fundamental doctrines" of the York Amendment, historically interpreted, +has but one meaning, _viz._, that some of the doctrines of the Augsburg +Confession are fundamental, while others are not. Besides, while it is +certainly correct to regard all doctrines of the Augustana as Scriptural +and binding, it is theologically false to declare all of them, _e.g._, +the doctrine of the Sunday, fundamental doctrines.--Thirdly: The +convention at Richmond adopted the statement: "While the General Synod's +formula of confessional subscription mentions only the Augsburg +Confession, without specifying the terms 'altered' or 'unaltered,' yet +it is a historical fact that the General Synod has never subscribed to +any edition of the Confession save the 'unaltered' form, and does not +now subscribe to any other edition." (56.) If this means that the +General Synod ever subscribed, _e.g._, to the rejection in the Tenth +Article, an essential feature in the unaltered edition, but omitted in +the edition of 1540, the statement is not borne out by the facts. +--Fourthly: The resolution of 1909, by stating that every member may +accept the Secondary Symbols "in strict accordance with the Lutheran +regulating principle of justifying faith" (60), insinuates that these +symbols are in need of such an interpretation, thus placing them below +par. The self-evident fact that the Secondary Symbols should be tried +also according to the Augsburg Confession and the doctrine of +justification did not justify a limitation, which could be interpreted +as a justification, _e.g._, of the professors in Gettysburg Seminary, +who, from Schmucker down to Richard, maintained that the Secondary +Symbols were not in agreement with the Augsburg Confession. + + +RESTATEMENT OF BASIS. + +93. Atchison Amendments.--The resolutions of 1891 to 1909 were not +submitted to the District Synods for adoption, nor subsequently embodied +in the constitution of the General Synod. Instead, the convention at +Richmond, 1909, instructed the Common Service Committee "to codify the +several resolutions and statements explanatory of the Doctrinal Basis of +the General Synod, adopted at York, Pa., in 1864; at Hagerstown, Md., in +1895; at Des Moines, Iowa, in 1901; and at the present session of the +General Synod, and incorporate the substance of the same into one clear +and definite statement of our Doctrinal Basis, and to report the same at +the next meeting of the General Synod with a view to placing it in the +Constitution of the General Synod by amendment in the manner prescribed +by the Constitution itself, there being no intention in this action in +any way to change our present Doctrinal Basis" of 1864. (115.) +Accordingly, two new articles were presented to the assembly in +Washington, D.C., 1911, which were subsequently referred to the District +Synods for action. The articles submitted for approval read as follows: +"Article II. Doctrinal Basis. With the Evangelical Lutheran Church of +the Fathers, the General Synod receives and holds the canonical +Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as the Word of God and the only +infallible rule of faith and practise; and it receives and holds the +Unaltered Augsburg Confession as a correct exhibition of the faith and +doctrine of our Church as founded upon the Word. Article III. The +Secondary Symbols. While the General Synod regards the Augsburg +Confession as a sufficient and altogether adequate doctrinal basis for +the cooperation of Lutheran synods, it also recognizes the Apology of +the Augsburg Confession, the Smalcald Articles, the Small Catechism of +Luther, the Large Catechism of Luther, and the Formula of Concord as +expositions of Lutheran doctrine of great historical and interpretative +value, and especially commends the Small Catechism as a book of +instruction." (_Proceedings_ 1913, 126.) Two years later, all District +Synods having approved the articles, the convention at Atchison declared +"that the said amendments have been adopted, and are parts of the +Constitution of this body." (_L. u. W._ 1916, 6.) + +94. A Stride Forward Officially.--Considered by themselves, no criticism +will be offered by any Lutheran on the new articles embodied in the +General Synod's constitution. Even the blemishes still adhering to the +resolutions of 1891 and 1909 have disappeared. Specific reference to the +York basis of 1864 is omitted; likewise the limitation with reference to +the adoption of the Secondary Symbols, etc. True, the new articles +contain a confession of the Augustana only, while in our day, also in +our country, it is certainly of special import for Lutherans to +acknowledge all Lutheran symbols in order to show at the very outset +that they occupy a correct position also with respect to the +controversies after Luther's death, which, in part, have been revived in +our own country. Indeed, the second of the new articles has been +interpreted by some as involving a confession also of the Secondary +Articles. But Dr. Singmaster is right in declaring with reference to the +new formula: "The General Synod does not require subscription to the +Secondary Symbols as a condition to membership in that body. Their +formal acceptance is a matter of liberty with the individual synod." +However, since the confessional formula of 1913 contains neither a +limitation as to the adoption of the Augustana, nor any criticism of the +other Lutheran symbols, the present doctrinal basis of the General +Synod, as stated in the new articles, must be viewed as satisfactory-- +_caeteris paribus_. By adopting the Atchison Amendments, the General +Synod in reality, at least formally and officially, did not merely +reaffirm and reiterate, but corrected and changed its former qualified +confessional basis. As it reads, the formula of 1913 is tantamount to a +rejection of all former doctrinal deliverances of the General Synod, the +resolutions of Synod and asseverations of her theologians to the +contrary notwithstanding. Dr. Neve admits as much when he says: "Thus +the General Synod took a great stride forward in the direction of +confessional correctness. The express mention of the 'Unaltered' +Augsburg Confession constitutes an outspoken confession against +Melanchthonianism, that is, against the Definite Platform theology, or +American Lutheranism. And the removal of the old formula concerning the +fundamental doctrines means the removal of an expression which has done +much harm in the General Synod." (158.) In part, this progress was a +result of the testimony of Walther and the Missouri Synod, whose +fidelity to the Lutheran Confessions had been stigmatized for decades by +the theologians of the General Synod, even such men as Charles +Porterfield Krauth (in 1857), as "rigid symbolism," "German +Lutheranism," "deformities of a Pharisaic exclusiveness," etc. Dr. Neve +remarks: "The close unity coupled with its size (for Missouri soon +became by far the largest synod) exercised a powerful influence on those +without, strengthening, especially in the Eastern synods, the already +awakened confessional consciousness." + +95. Remaining Contradictions.--Even apart from the actual conditions +prevailing in the General Synod as to Lutheran doctrine and practise, +one cannot maintain successfully that the General Synod, in adopting the +new articles, fully and satisfactorily cleared the situation as to its +doctrinal attitude. For in more than one respect also the official +confessional movement inaugurated in 1891 was contradictory of itself. +First: In a previous paragraph we have already referred to the +contradiction contained in the fact that the General Synod, while +adopting the new resolutions, at the same time reaffirmed and endorsed +the York Amendment of 1864. This endorsement, which practically +invalidates the adoption of the new articles, was not withdrawn at the +subsequent conventions in 1911 and 1913. The York Amendment still bears +the official seal of the General Synod. Dr. Singmaster says in +_Distinctive Doctrines_ of 1914: "The doctrinal basis, as amended in +1866 [1864], remained unchanged for nearly fifty years. Various +deliverances made at the convention of the General Synod during this +period repudiate false charges, and affirm the Lutheran character and +confessional fidelity of the body.... The doctrinal basis as it now +exists, means to the members of the General Synod exactly what it meant +before its verbal amendment. For a generation it has been interpreted to +mean an unequivocal subscription to the Augsburg Confession." (57.) +Secondly: The so-called York Resolution, which, as shown above (No. 71), +rejects the Lutheran doctrines of the real presence, absolution, and the +Sunday, thus openly conflicting with the Atchison Amendments of 1913, +which give an unqualified assent to the Augsburg Confession, was not +rescinded by the General Synod. The report of the delegate to the +General Council, adopted by the General Synod in 1909, states: "In our +address before the General Council [1907] as your representative, we +defended, with all the courtesy, clearness, and positiveness we could +command, the confessional position of the General Synod. This we did by +referring to our official declarations, namely, the York Resolution of +1864, our revised formula of confessional subscription of 1869 [1864], +in which this body planted itself unequivocally on the Augustana, and +our confessional resolutions of 1895 and 1901." (54.) At the same +convention the General Synod declared: "Those official resolutions [of +1895 and 1901], together with the well-known York Resolution, adopted in +1864, bind the General Synod to the Augsburg Confession in its +entirety." (57.) In keeping herewith the General Synod provided that, in +all future editions of the Augsburg Confession published by the General +Synod, the confessional declarations of the General Synod (the York +Amendment and the resolutions of 1895, 1901, and 1909) "be inserted +immediately after the York Resolution." (59.) Nor was the York +Resolution disavowed at the convention at Washington, 1911, as appears +from the following recommendation of the Common Service Committee +adopted by Synod: "With these amendments [finally adopted at Atchison] +there remains only the York Resolution of 1864, concerning alleged +errors, to be disposed of. As this is simply of an explanatory and +apologetic character, it cannot well be incorporated in the +constitution. It seems to your committee that this resolution has served +its purpose, and needs no further repetition, _especially as it remains +on record for reference_. We believe that both the constitution and the +confession will appear more dignified, and will inspire greater +confidence, unbuttressed by subsidiary statements." Accordingly, the +York Resolution "remained on record for reference." (24.) Thirdly: The +amendments of 1913 are in a hopeless conflict also with Art. IV, Sec. 8, +of the General Synod's constitution, reading as follows: "They [Synod] +shall, however, be extremely careful that the consciences of ministers +of the Gospel be not burdened with human inventions, laws, or devices, +and that no one be oppressed by reason of differences of opinion on +non-fundamental doctrines." Accordingly, while the Atchison formula +calls for an unqualified subscription to all doctrines of the Augustana, +Art. IV, Sec. 8, of the same constitution grants liberty in +"non-fundamental doctrines," _i.e._, interpreted historically, liberty +in the articles which distinguish the Lutheran Church from the Reformed +and other Evangelical Churches.--The convention at Richmond, 1909, +maintained: "It is only by her [General Synod's] official declarations +that her doctrinal position is to be tested and judged." (58.) If this +contention, though facts frequently speak louder and much more +convincingly than formulas, be granted--according to which set of +contradictory "official declarations" was one to test and judge the true +attitude of the General Synod? + +ACTUAL CONDITIONS. + +96. Long Stride from Formula to Fact.--Formal adoption of a correct +Lutheran basis does not necessarily imply actual agreement with such +basis. To pass a good resolution is easy. All Christian sects protest +that they accept the Bible. But they say, and do not. "What you _are_," +said Emerson, "speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you _say_." In a +measure this also applies when the actual conditions prevailing in the +General Synod before and after 1913 are compared with the doctrinal +basis adopted in that year. In 1866, in a letter to Pastor Brunn, +Walther wrote with reference to the synods then uniting to form the +General Council: "As far as the latter are concerned, it is true that +our testimony extending over a period of twenty years has by the grace +of God cooperated in causing some synods to speak again of the +Confession, and to base and pledge themselves upon it, at least +formally; but it is a long stride from the formal acknowledgment of the +symbols to a true knowledge of them, and a truly Lutheran spirit, and +the consequent discipline of doctrine and life." (_Letters_, 2, 36.) +Now, the General Synod did not adopt its present basis as a result of +any doctrinal discussions of, and subsequent agreements in, the Lutheran +doctrines. The confessional movement was a formal affair, without any +special effort to arrive at a thorough understanding of, and true unity +in, the doctrinal content of the Augustana. But what value is there in +adopting a confession without a correct knowledge of, and agreement in, +its doctrines? Furthermore, the Atchison Amendments were submitted to +the District Synods for approval by majority vote, not to the individual +ministers and congregations. Adoption, accordingly, did not mean +unanimous acknowledgment. Moreover, the liberal party of the General +Synod, as represented by the _Lutheran Observer_, openly denounced the +new confessional resolutions. (_L. u. W._ 1916, 58.) Others who +submitted to the new formula, no doubt felt justified, in accordance +with the repeated approvals on the part of the General Synod of the +basis of 1864, to interpret the former according to the latter. + +97. Doctrinal Confusion.--The General Synod has always been a babel of +doctrinal confusion. In it unity did not even prevail as to the +doctrines which distinguish the Lutheran Church from the Reformed. From +1820 down to 1918 the General Synod, in its periodicals and by its +representative men, and in part also as such and officially, defended +and supported indifferentism, unionism, synergism, chiliasm, abstinence, +the divine obligation of the Sabbath, and other un-Lutheran and +distinctively Reformed doctrines. (_L. u. W._ 1917, 471; 1918, 43.) +Doctrinal discipline never has had as much as a shadow of an existence +within the General Synod. Nor did the Atchison Amendments effect any +apparent and marked change in the spirit and attitude of doctrinal +indifferentism. Reformed errorists were tolerated after as well as +before 1913. In its issue of September 12, 1918, the _Lutheran Church +Work and Observer_ declared: "Our body breathes the free atmosphere of +America, and is not so legalistic and Puritanical as to think that every +person who offends must be brought before the judgment-bar of the church +for discipline." After as well as before 1913 some of the General +Synodists continued to indulge in dreams of a millennium and union of +all Evangelical denominations in America. (_L. u. W._ 1918, 87; _Luth. +Wit._ 1918, 373.) The Sabbath-day was declared to be "of perpetual +authority," and its observance as "binding on all by divine +requirement." In 1918 the _Lutheran Church Work_ asked for state +legislation to enforce the Sabbath, because the "Almighty Jehovah is +'the Lord of the Sabbath,' and has given us an indication of the +importance which He places on His holy day by having put it even before +the commandment in the Decalog which says: 'Honor thy father and thy +mother.'" (_L. u. W._ 1918, 336; cf. 1915, 397; 1911, 510.) The same old +Puritanical attitude was maintained by the General Synod also with +respect to the prohibition movement. (_Proceedings_ 1917, 140 ff.) + +98. Tolerating Modern Liberalism.--The General Synod never did, nor +intended to, exercise church-discipline with respect to Reformed +aberrations. Nor is there a single case of church-discipline against any +form of liberalism recorded. Yet practically from its very beginning the +General Synod declared herself against Socinianism. And in 1909 the +_Lutheran Quarterly_ stated that the General Synod, though not +exercising church-discipline with respect to Reformed errors, does +exclude Unitarians, Universalists, and Christian Scientists. (15.) In +1917 the _Lutheran_ asserted: The Lutheran Church in America "stands as +a unit in protest against the creed of Reason, known as the +ever-variable 'New Theology,' and presents an unbroken front in loyalty +to the Gospel." (_L. u. W._ 1917, 562.) But is this claim really borne +out by the facts? The theory of evolution, which vitiates every +Christian doctrine when applied to theology, has been defended again and +again in the _Lutheran Observer_, the _Lutheran Quarterly_, the +_Lutheran Church Work_, and other publications of the General Synod. +Endorsing the evolution doctrine, the _Observer_ wrote in 1909: "That a +law of development runs through all nature, life, and history, is one of +the ruling postulates in present-day investigations. That the continuity +of nature, life, and history which this implies is not inconsistent with +theistic and Christian belief is also clearly recognized, and +consequently the impression of a panicky feeling which pervaded so much +of the discussion of evolution which immediately followed the +publication of the _Origin of Species_ [of Darwin], is to-day +conspicuous by its absence." (_L. u. W._ 1909, 279.) In 1901: +"Originally, all was soft and plastic. The granite foundations were +mortar and ashes or cinders and water. Cosmic forces have since been +crystallizing rocks out of the same elements which exist in the soil, or +float in the streams and exhale in the atmosphere." (_L. u. W._ 1901, +185.) In 1917 the _Lutheran Quarterly_ declared that the doctrine of +evolution can be accepted "in so far as it is descriptive of God's +method with the world." (96.) Dr. L.S. Keyser, of Wittenberg Seminary, +philosophizes: "God created the primordial material. Without losing His +transcendence, He became immanent in His creation, developing it through +secondary causes for, doubtless, long eras; at certain crucial steps, as +was necessary, He added new creations and injected new forces; such +epochs were the introduction of life, sentiency, and man. This +world-view should be called 'creation and evolution,' with as marked an +emphasis on the former as on the latter." (_Syst. of Nat. Theol._, 114.) +Furthermore, in 1891 the _Lutheran Observer_ editorially defended Dr. +Briggs, whom the Presbyterians expelled because of his liberalism, as an +innocently persecuted man. (_L. u. W._ 1901, 214.) In 1901 the _Lutheran +Quarterly_ said of Harnack that in his _Essence of Christianity_ he +assigns a position to Christ "which must have made a deep impression on +his hearers." (_L. u. W._ 1901, 370.) In 1909: "Even if we should in the +end have to acknowledge that Jesus had a human father as well as a human +mother, that would simply teach us what we are confessing and believing +even now: Jesus is not alone true God, but likewise true man. His +divinity would not be affected thereby." (_L. u. W._ 1909, 228.) In 1918 +the _Lutheran Church Work and Observer_ recommended Dr. James Denney's +book, _The Atonement and the Modern Mind_, in which Denney practically +rejects the authority of the Scriptures and departs from the Christian +doctrine of satisfaction made by Christ. (_L. u. W._ 1918, 482.) In the +_Lutheran Church Work and Observer_, April 4, 1918, Rev. W.R. Goff +maintained: "The writer cannot find one passage in Scripture that +definitely and positively asserts a visible return of the Lord." (_L. u. +W._ 1918, 423.) + +99. A Second Edition of Quitman.--For quite a number of years Dr. E.H. +Delk, a prominent member of the General Synod, has been an ardent +advocate of modern rationalism and evolutionism. He denies the verbal +inspiration and inerrancy of the Bible, rejects the Lutheran doctrine of +the union of the divine and human natures in Christ, attacks the dogma +that the death of Christ was a ransom and a substitutional sacrifice for +the sins of the world, corrupts every Christian doctrine, and demands +that all of them be restated in order to bring them into harmony with +modern evolutionistic science and philosophy. "The Bible and our +Confession do not ask man to throw away his reason in the reception of +truth and in the _judgment_ of the theological problems," Delk declared +in 1903. (_L. u. W._ 1903, 185.) A number of years ago, Dr. Delk was +permitted to present his radical views to the students of Gettysburg +Seminary; and the _Lutheran Quarterly_ published the lecture without a +word of criticism. At Atchison, 1913, when resolutions were offered +rejecting the doctrines of Delk, the General Synod refused to take +definite action. The _Lutheran Observer_ boasted that Synod was not +ready to sacrifice liberty of thought and speech. (_L. u. W._ 1901, 370; +1902, 136; 1903, 185; 1913, 145; 1916, 67.) In 1916 the _Lutheran Church +Work and Observer_, the official organ of the General Synod, opened its +columns to Delk and his theology. In 1917 Delk continued his propaganda +by publishing his views in a booklet, _The Need of a Restatement of +Theology_. In 1918 the _Lutheran Church Work and Observer_ endorsed and +advertised the book. Identifying himself with some of the views of +modern German liberalism on Luther and his theology, Delk wrote in the +_Lutheran Church Work and Observer_ of November 1, 1917: "We see now in +the light of a fuller history of the man [Luther] that he was a child of +his age and carried over into his Protestant thinking traits of medieval +thinking.... Luther was not the end, but the beginning of new advances +in the political and religious ideals of the world.... We are separated +by a millennium of thought from the critical thought-standpoint of +Luther." (_L. u. W._ 1918, 43.) Also by Drs. Keyser and Voigt, Delk has +been charged with substituting the teachings of philosophy and science +for Christianity, and with propagating heretical doctrine concerning the +inspiration of the Bible and the deity and atonement of Christ. The +advocacy of evolutionistic theology, as tolerated by the General Synod, +however, cannot but be regarded as a return to the rationalism of +Quitman and Velthusen. + + +UNLUTHERAN PRACTISE. + +100. Unionism Unabated.--In 1917 Dr. Neve wrote in the _Lutheran Church +Review_: "The different Protestant Churches, that is, the leading ones, +are not arbitrary developments with no right to exist, but they +represent the historical endeavors to bring to an expression within the +Church of Christ the truth of Scripture." (167.) This view was at the +bottom of the pulpit, altar, and church-work fellowship indulged in by +the General Synod throughout the course of its history from 1820 down +to its exit in 1918. This attitude of indifferentism naturally led to +the exchange of fraternal delegates with the Reformed and other +Churches. It resulted in a cooperation of the General Synod with the +Federal Council, the Home Missions Council, the Foreign Mission +Conference, the International Sunday-school Association, the +Sunday-school Council of Evangelical Denominations, the Inter-Church +Federation, the Y.M.C.A., the Y.W.C.A., the W.C.T.U., The Anti-Saloon +League, etc. And the new confessional resolutions brought no change in +this practise. With respect to the action of the Wartburg Synod, +excluding other than Lutheran ministers from its pulpits and other than +Lutherans from its altars, Dr. J.A. Singmaster, at the convention in +Richmond, 1909, offered the resolution "that the General Synod, while +allowing all congregations and individuals connected with it the fullest +Christian liberty, does not approve of synodical enactments which in any +way narrow its confessional basis or abridge intersynodical fellowship +and transfers." (_Proceedings_ 1909, 128; Neve, _Gesch._, 73.) The +_Lutheran Observer_ remained the same enthusiast for +"interdenominational fraternal cooperation and work in the Federation of +Churches," etc. (_L. u. W._ 1916, 63.) The ministers of the General +Synod continued to exchange pulpits and to arrange for joint +celebrations with sectarian preachers. (_Witness_ 1918, 404; 1919, 14.) +Despite the new basis of 1913, the General Synod remained a member of +the Federal Council, which Dr. Delk in 1912 extolled as the "Twentieth +Century Ecumenical Council." In 1909 the report of the delegates to the +Federal Council was adopted, stating: "We heartily endorse the work of +the Council, and we welcome the opportunity of cooperating with all who +love our Lord Jesus Christ in promoting the work of His kingdom.... We +recommend that nine delegates be sent, and that an annual contribution +of $450 be paid out of the treasury of the General Synod for the support +of the Federal Council." (115.) Again, in 1917, a report of the +delegates to the Third Quadrennial Meeting of the Federal Council was +adopted, which said, in part: "The Federal Council is mobilizing the +forces of Protestantism against any and every foe of evangelical +principles and practises. A committee has been appointed to arrange a +Pan-Protestant Reformation celebration for 1917.... It was a great +privilege to have participated in this historic council. As the +federation idea originated in the United States in the mind and heart of +a learned and devout Lutheran, Dr. Samuel S. Schmucker, it was a great +joy and satisfaction to see and participate in this consummation of Dr. +Schmucker's hope of all Protestant bodies in council and cooperation in +the one common task of propagating the kingdom of God in society and +throughout the world." (27.) Dr. MacFarland, the General Secretary of +the Federal Council, was introduced, and addressed the General Synod. +(131.) In the same year the General Synod appointed Dr. Delk, Dr. +Wolford, Rev. Russell, and three laymen as "delegates to the Federal +Council," and Dr. Bell as "representative to General Assembly of +Presbyterian Church." (372.) + +101. Fellowshiping [tr. note: sic] Jews and Unitarians.--Universally +General Synodists, down to the Merger in 1918, have defended and +practised church-fellowship with the Evangelical denominations. Regarding +religious communion with Jews and Unitarians, however, Dr. Neve wrote in +1909: "Such is a rare occurrence and always would meet with the +disapproval of nearly all members of the General Synod." (_Lutheran +Quarterly_ 1909, 12. 19.) According to Neve, then, there are members of +the General Synod who do approve of church-fellowship even with Jews and +Unitarians. Commenting in the _Lutheran Church Work and Observer_, of +October 31, 1918, on a Communion service in which Episcopalians, +Presbyterians, Reformed, Unitarians, etc., united, Dr. L.E. Keyser +declared: "Such a conglomeration of beliefs and creeds would be +impossible in the Lutheran Church. To stand or kneel at the altar with +people who even deny the deity of Christ, the doctrine of the Trinity, +and the need of atonement for sin, is impossible with Lutherans who are +serious in their convictions." But what of the facts? In 1903 the +_Lutheran Observer_ declared: "When, at the great Parliament of +Religions in Chicago, men of all beliefs united in the Lord's Prayer, +who shall say that they had no right to do it, even though it was not +with full understanding of its meaning? God is the All-Father. All men +are His children." (_L. u. W._ 1903, 184.) At the World's Fair in St. +Louis, 1904, Dr. Rhodes of the General Synod celebrated a union +Thanksgiving Service in Festival Hall with Archbishop Glennon, Rabbi +Harrison, etc. (_L. u. W._ 1904, 565.) In 1909 Dr. Delk indulged in +religious fellowship with the Reformed Jews in a Jewish temple. (_L. u. +W._ 1909, 558 f.) On November 28, 1918, Rev. A. Homrighaus united in a +Thanksgiving service, in which a Jewish rabbi and a Unitarian +participated, etc. (_Luth. Witness_ 1919, 14.) + +102. Encouraging Lodgery.--The General Synod has never taken a stand +against Freemasonry or any other secret society. To join a lodge was +always viewed as a purely private affair and of no concern to the +Church. Neither laymen nor ministers were forbidden to unite with +lodges. Indeed, for a minister to attain a higher degree in a lodge was +occasionally referred to as a special honor and regarded as a +recommendation. In 1902 the _Pennsylvania Freemason_ said of Dr. Stock, +a pastor of the General Synod: "The Doctor is in possession of the +highest honors of Freemasonry, and enjoys the love and respect of all +his brothers. As indicating his good influence for Freemasonry we +mention of his writings: _What Freemasonry Owes to Luther, The Knight +Templar and the Holy Week_." Copying this, the _Lutheran Evangelist_ +commented that everybody has a right to join a lodge as long as he gives +the first place in his heart to the Church. (L. u. W. 1902, 115.) The +_Observer_, March 14, 1902, reported with satisfaction that the +prominent Lutheran Mr. Dewey had become Grand Master of the Freemasons +in Kansas, and appointed his pastor, the Rev. Fuller Bergstresser, Grand +Chaplain of the lodge. (_L. u. W._ 1902, 115.) Lodge-membership, said +the _Observer_ of January 17, 1913, is a non-essential, permitted by the +Augsburg Confession. Reviewing a sermon of Rev. Bowers in which he +defended and recommended the lodges, the _Lutheran Observer_, in 1909, +remarked: "It is a fair and unprejudiced presentation." (_L. u. W._ +1909, 227.) In the same year a committee of the General Synod declared +with respect to a resolution of the Wartburg and Nebraska synods, +forbidding their ministers to hold membership in lodges: "The General +Synod as a body has never taken any action, so far as we know, upon the +so-called lodge-question. We deem its position sound and wise, and +especially in view of the fact that the Lutheran bodies in this country +which have indulged in such legislation have by no means escaped +trouble.... We deem it their [Wartburg and Nebraska synods'] synodical +right so to judge and affirm so long as they do not ask other synods of +this body to accept their judgment and affirm their action.... A synod +has a right to voluntarily restrict itself if it so chooses, and impose +upon itself such limitations as it may elect." (_Proceedings_ 1909, 126 +f.) Also with respect to this attitude of the General Synod toward the +lodges the Atchison Amendments brought about no marked change whatever. +After as well as before 1913 prominent lodge-men, without protest, were +elected to, or continued to hold, some of the most important offices of +Synod. In 1917 Dr. George Tressler, a 32d degree Scotch Rite Mason and a +Knight Templar, was chosen president of the General Synod. Prof. C.G. +Heckert, president of the Theological Seminary at Springfield, 0., is a +Freemason. Mr. J.L. Zimmerman, president of the Lutheran Brotherhood of +the General Synod, who took a leading part in the Lutheran Merger +movement, also is, and was publicly declared to be, a Mason. Nor did the +practise cease of arranging for special lodge-services and +entertainments of lodges. September 17, 1918, the Masonic Lodge of Camp +Hill, N.J., held its anniversary dinner at the General Synod church, the +women of the church serving the dinner, etc. (_Luth. Witness_ 1918, +386.) + +103. New Formula Dead Letter.--Though one will readily admit that the +Atchison Amendments signified a stride forward officially and formally, +the actual conditions prevailing within the General Synod till the +Merger in 1918 (the official indifferentistic and unionistic attitude of +the General Synod as such, as well as the teaching and practise of +District Synods, ministers, and congregations) were not in agreement, +but in open conflict with the formula of 1913. In its issue of June 18, +1915, the _Observer_ stated: "The acceptance of this basis, they [the +opponents of the new basis] further maintain, involves certain +corollaries, such as the rule of 'Lutheran pulpits for Lutheran +ministers only, and Lutheran altars for Lutheran communicants only'; the +withdrawal of fellowship with other Christian bodies in general +religious and moral movements, such as the Federation of the Churches, +the International Sunday-school Lesson Series, and evangelistic +campaigns, in which the congregations of a community unite their efforts +to reach the multitudes of the unchurched and the unsaved. It includes +also condemnation of secret orders, such as Masonry and Odd-Fellowship." +(_L. u. W._ 1916, 58.) Such, indeed, was the price of the new doctrinal +basis. The General Synod as a whole, however, was evidently neither +possessed of the power nor even of the earnest will to draw the +consequences of her new articles practically. The fact certainly is, as +shown in the preceding paragraphs, that neither the General Synod as +such nor its constituency did make any serious effort at paying the +price required by an unqualified subscription to the Augustana as +professed at Atchison. However, as long as a religious body contents +itself with having a correct Lutheran basis merely incorporated in the +constitution; as long as it shows no determination in reducing the +principles of such basis to actual practise; as long as it objects to +the discipline which this basis calls for; as long as it declines +responsibility for contrary teaching and practise on the part of its +ministers and congregations; as long as it adheres to the principle of +agreeing to disagree on doctrines plainly taught in the Lutheran +Confessions, and never to settle disputed points, but to omit them and +declare them free,--just so long even the very best Lutheran basis +embodied in a constitution will remain, in more than one respect, a +scrap of paper and its formal recognition "a solemn farce and empty +show." + + +The General Council + +SYNODS COMPOSING THE COUNCIL. + +104. Organization of New General Body.--After severing its connection +with the General Synod at its convention at Lancaster in 1866, the +Ministerium of Pennsylvania appointed a committee (Drs. Krotel, Krauth, +Mann, C.W. Schaeffer, Seiss, B.M. Schmucker, Welden, Brobst, Laird, +etc.) to issue a fraternal address to all Lutheran synods, ministers, +and congregations in the United States and Canada which confess the +Unaltered Augsburg Confession, inviting them to a conference for the +purpose of forming a general body of Lutheran synods, in the interest, +especially, of maintaining "the unity in the true faith of the Gospel +and in the uncorrupted Sacraments." Accordingly, in December of the same +year, representatives from thirteen synods met in Reading, Pa. The +synods represented were the Pennsylvania Synod, the New York +Ministerium, the Pittsburgh Synod, the Minnesota Synod, the English +Synod of Ohio, the Joint Synod of Ohio, the English District Synod of +Ohio, the Wisconsin Synod, the Michigan Synod, the Iowa Synod, the +Canada Synod, the Norwegian Synod, and the Missouri Synod. After the +Fundamental Principles of Faith and Church Polity and Articles on +Ecclesiastical Power and Church Government, prepared and submitted by +Dr. C.P. Krauth, and discussed from the 12th to the 14th of December, +had been approved, the resolution was passed that the first regular +session of the new body, "The General Council of the Evangelical +Lutheran Church of North America," should be held, if the Fundamental +Principles had been adopted by ten synods. At the first regular meeting +in Fort Wayne, November 20, 1867, again representatives of thirteen +synods were present, the Augustana and Illinois synods taking the place +of the Missourians and Norwegians, who had withdrawn from the movement. + +105. Synods Remaining with the Council.--Of the synods represented at +Fort Wayne the following retained their connection with the General +Council throughout its history: 1. The Ministerium of Pennsylvania, the +so-called "Mother Synod" of the Lutheran Church in America. It was +organized 1748 by Muhlenberg. In 1778, numbering 18 ministers, it +adopted a constitution which formally acknowledged all of the Lutheran +symbols. The new constitution of 1792 admitted lay delegates, but +eliminated the confessional basis. In 1820 it was represented at the +organization of the General Synod at Hagerstown. At the same time it +planned a union seminary and organic union with the German Reformed +Church. In 1823 it severed its connection with the General Synod, which +was followed by a long period of indifferentism. In 1850 the Ministerium +established official relations with the Gettysburg Seminary. In 1853 it +returned officially to a confessional position, adopting "the +fundamental doctrines of the Gospel as these are expressed in the +confessional writings of our Evangelical Lutheran Church and especially +in the Unaltered Augsburg Confession." In the same year, urging all +other Lutheran bodies to follow the example, the Ministerium, by a vote +of 52 against 28, resolved to reunite with the General Synod. In 1864 +its delegates withdrew from the sessions of the General Synod at York +because of the admission of the un-Lutheran Franckean Synod. In the same +year the Seminary at Philadelphia was founded. In the organization of +the General Council the Ministerium of Pennsylvania was the prime mover. +At present it numbers about 400 pastors and 580 congregations with a +communicant membership of 160,000, more than one-fifth of them being +German. 2. The New York Ministerium. This body, when organized in 1786, +confessed the Lutheran symbols. In 1794 it adopted the new constitution +of the Pennsylvania Synod, containing no reference to the symbols. Under +Quitman a period of rationalism and Socinianism followed, and under +Hazelius (since 1815 professor in Hartwick Seminary) a period of +Methodistic revivalism. In 1859 the Ministerium acknowledged the +Augsburg Confession "as a correct exhibition of the fundamental +doctrines of the divine Word," and in 1867, having severed its +connection with the General Synod, extended its confession to embrace +all the Lutheran symbols. The New York Ministerium has repeatedly passed +through a change of language. It numbers about 57,000 communicants, 160 +congregations, and as many pastors. 3. The Pittsburgh Synod. It was +organized in 1845 and admitted by the General Synod in 1853. Under W.A. +Passavant it became the "Missionary Synod," to which the Canada, Texas, +Minnesota, and Nova Scotia synods owe their origin. It reports 155 +pastors and 190 congregations with a communicant membership of 24,000. +4. The English District Synod of Ohio, organized in 1857 and, in 1869, +because of its connection with the Council, stricken from the roster of +the Joint Synod of Ohio, embraces 55 pastors, 86 congregations, and +14,000 communicants. 5. The Canada Synod, founded in 1861, went on +record as opposed to exceptions in the rule regarding pulpit- and +altar-fellowship. Most of its present pastors come from Kropp, Germany. +It reports 42 ministers, 74 congregations, and 14,000 communicants. 6. +The Augustana Synod, which maintained its connections with the Council +till 1918, when it refused to enter the Lutheran Merger. It numbers +about 700 pastors and 1,200 congregations with a confirmed membership +of 190,000. + +106. Defections and Accessions.--The following seven synods partly +declined to consummate the union, partly were temporarily only connected +with the General Council: 1. The Iowa Synod, whose representatives +declared before the close of the session at Fort Wayne, 1867, that they, +though their Synod had adopted the constitution, could not unite with +the Council on account of its equivocal attitude toward pulpit-, altar-, +and lodge-fellowship. The privilege of the floor granted by the General +Council to the delegates of the Iowa Synod was accepted and freely +exercised till the Lutheran Merger in 1918. The Iowa Synod thus remained +in church fellowship with the General Council and took part also in its +missionary and other works. In 1875, the so-called Galesburg Rule having +been adopted by the Council, the Iowa Synod declared that confessional +scruples no longer prevented her from an organic union with the Council. +The union was not consummated because the anti-unionistic construction +which Iowa put on the Galesburg Rule was disavowed within the General +Council and never acknowledged and approved of by this body as such. In +1904, Prof. Proehl, delegate of the Iowa Synod, gloried in the Council +as _optima repraesentatio nominis Lutherani_, the best representation of +the Lutheran name, a tribute, however, which President Deindoerfer of +the Iowa Synod refused to endorse. (_L. u. W._ 1904, 38. 516.) 2. The +Joint Synod of Ohio had not adopted the constitution of the General +Council; and at Fort Wayne, 1867, her delegates finally declined to +enter the union because of the non-committal attitude of the Council +with respect to chiliasm, pulpit- and altar-fellowship and the lodges-- +the so-called Four Points. 3. The Wisconsin Synod separated in 1868 +because of the "Four Points." 4. The Michigan Synod, organized in 1860, +united with the Council in 1867, withdrew in 1887, and joined the +Synodical Conference in 1892. 5. The Minnesota Synod, founded in 1860, +united with the General Synod; in 1867 it joined the Council; in 1871 it +severed this connection and became a member of the Synodical Conference. +6. The Texas Synod joined the Council in 1868, and left it in 1895, +entering the Iowa Synod as Texas District.--The following synods, most +of them founded by the General Council, affiliated with this body after +its organization in 1867: 1. The Chicago Synod, a name adopted later, +organized and joined the Council in 1871 as Indiana Synod. It numbers +about 40 pastors and 70 congregations with a communicant membership of +8,300. Its center is the Theological Seminary located near Chicago +(Maywood). 2. The English Synod of the Northwest was founded by the +Council in 1891 which led to various frictions with the Swedish +Augustana Synod. Pastors, 37; congregations, 40; communicants, 11,000. +3. The Synod of Manitoba, founded 1897, numbers 35 pastors, 62 +congregations, and 5,000 communicants. 4. The Pacific Synod, organized +by the Council in 1901, numbers 21 pastors, 18 congregations, and 1,906 +communicants. 5. The Synod of New York and New England, organized in +1902, embraces 65 pastors, 67 congregations, and 19,000 communicants. +6. The Nova Scotia Synod, organized in 1903, reports 6 pastors, 27 +congregations, and 2,900 communicants. 7. The Synod of Central Canada, +organized 1909, numbers 12 pastors, 16 congregations, and 1,800 +communicants. + +107. Statistical and Other Data.--In 1917, a year before the Merger, the +General Council reported 13 district synods with about 1,700 pastors, +2,600 congregations, and a confirmed membership of 530,000. Among the +higher institutions then within the Council were the following: 1. The +Philadelphia Seminary, now located in Mount Airy, Pa., and belonging to +the Pennsylvania Synod. Since its founding in 1864 this seminary has +educated almost 875 pastors under the Professors Drs. C.F. and L.W. +Schaeffer, Mann, Krauth, Krotel, Spaeth, H.E. and C.M. Jacobs, +Hilprecht, Spieker, Frey, Offermann (appointed by the New York +Ministerium), Schmauk, Reed, Benze. 2. The Chicago Seminary, located in +Maywood, Ill., was founded by Passavant and opened 1891. Here about 260 +pastors were trained by the Drs. Weidner, Krauss, Gerberding, Ramsey, +and Stump. 3. The Swedish Seminary in Rock Island, Ill. (founded in +Chicago in 1860 and removed to Rock Island in 1875), has graduated more +than 700 pastors. 4. The Seminary at Kropp, Schleswig, Germany, founded +1882 by Paulsen, for years received support from the General Council. 5. +Muhlenberg College, at Allentown, Pa., founded 1867 by the Pennsylvania +Synod, now directed by Dr. Haas. 6. Wagner College, at Rochester, N.Y., +founded 1883 by the New York Ministerium, Dr. Nicum being one of its +professors and benefactors. 7. Thiel College, at Greenville, Pa., +founded 1870 by the Pittsburgh Synod. 8. The Swedish Bethany College, +founded in 1881 at Lindsborg, Kans. 9. The Swedish Gustavus Adolphus +College, at St. Peter, Minn. 10. The Swedish Luther Academy, at Wahoo, +Nebr.--Apart from the Augustana Synod, about 160 parochial schools, +mostly Saturday and vacation schools, have been conducted within the +General Council. Judging from Dr. Gerberding's _Problems and +Possibilities_ (115) and similar utterances, the English element in the +General Council, like that of the General Synod, was opposed to parish +schools. Foremost among the numerous benevolent institutions are the +Wartburg Orphan Asylum and the Drexel Deaconess Home. In 1869 the +General Council assumed the support of that part of the India mission +which the General Synod, after the breach in 1866, was about to +surrender to the Episcopalians. In 1841 "Father Heyer had been sent as +the first American Lutheran missionary to India. He returned in 1857 and +began home missionary work in Minnesota. In 1869, seventy-six years old, +he offered his services to the Pennsylvania Synod for the Lutheran +Mission in India, where he labored till 1871." + + +CHARLES PORTERFIELD KRAUTH. + +108. A Star of the First Magnitude.--Charles Porterfield Krauth +(1823--1883), son of Charles Philip Krauth, was educated at Pennsylvania +College and the Seminary in Gettysburg. He was licensed in 1841 and +ordained 1842. He served as pastor in Baltimore from 1842; in +Shepherdstown and Martinsburg 1847; in Winchester 1848; in St. Thomas, +West Indies, 1852 (a Dutch Reformed congregation during the absence of +its pastor); in Pittsburgh, Pa., from 1855; in Philadelphia from 1859. +In 1861 he resigned his pastorate in order to devote his whole strength +to the editorship of the _Lutheran and Missionary_, which in his hands +became a weapon against the excrescences of the American Lutheranism +then ruling the English Lutheran Church of our country. In 1864, when +the Theological Seminary at Philadelphia was founded, Krauth was +appointed professor of Dogmatic Theology. He was the prime mover in the +establishment of the General Council; wrote the Fraternal Address of +1866, inviting the Lutheran synods to unite in the organization of a new +general truly Lutheran body; and was the author of the Fundamental +Articles of Faith and Church Polity adopted at the convention at +Reading, 1866. Krauth presented the theses on pulpit- and +altar-fellowship in 1877, framed the constitution for congregations of +1880, and assisted in the liturgical work which resulted in the +publication of the Church Book, completed in 1891. From 1870 to 1880 +Krauth was president of the General Council. In 1868 he was appointed +professor of Mental and Moral Philosophy at the University of +Pennsylvania. In 1880 he made a journey to Europe for his own +recuperation and in the interest of a Luther biography, which, however, +did not make its appearance. In 1882, a year before his death, he became +editor-in-chief of the _Lutheran Church Review._ He died January 2, +1883. Besides contributing many articles to the _Lutheran_ and to +various reviews and encyclopedias, Krauth translated Tholuck's +_Commentary on the Gospel of John,_ 1859; edited Fleming's _Vocabulary +of Philosophy_, 1860; wrote the _Conservative Reformation and Its +Theology_, 1872; and published a number of other books of a +philosophical and theological character. The most important of Krauth's +numerous publications is _The Conservative Reformation and Its +Theology_. The _Lutheran Church Review_, 1917: "It is doubtful whether +any other single book ever published in America by any theologian more +profoundly impressed a large [English] church constituency, or did more +to mold its character. As theologian and confessor Dr. Krauth stands +preeminent in the [English] Lutheran Church." (144.) For twenty years +Charles Porterfield Krauth was one of the prominent theologians of the +General Synod, and since 1866 the leader and most conservative, +competent, and influential theologian of the General Council. Krauth was +a star of the first magnitude in the Lutheran Church of America, or as +Walther put it, "the most eminent man in the English Lutheran Church of +this country, a man of rare learning, at home no less in the old than in +modern theology, and, what is of greatest import, whole-heartedly +devoted to the pure doctrine of our Church, as he had learned to +understand it, a noble man and without guile." (_L. u. W._ 1883, 32.) + +109. Krauth's Manly Recantation.--During the first half of his +ecclesiastical activity C.P. Krauth was a pronounced unionistic +theologian. He fully endorsed the indifferentistic principles of the +General Synod, whose champion he was till 1864. During the Platform +controversy Krauth was zealous to settle the difficulties on the +accustomed unionistic lines of the General Synod. He framed the +compromise resolutions of the Pittsburgh Synod in 1856 on the Definite +Platform. In the following year he wrote a series of articles for the +_Missionary_ in defense of the General Synod and its doctrinal basis. In +1858 he defended S.S. Schmucker against the charges of unsound doctrine, +preferred by J.A. Brown. In 1859 he offered the motion for the admission +of the liberal Melanchthon Synod. As late as 1864 he continued to defend +the distinction between fundamental and non-fundamental articles in the +Augsburg Confession, and declared that the pledge referred to the +fundamental articles only, specifically excluding Article XI of the +Augsburg Confession from this pledge. In the _Lutheran and Missionary_, +April 7, 1864, Krauth declared: "Let the old formula stand, and let it +be defined." As late as 1868, three years after his public retraction of +former errors, and later, Krauth held that, exceptionally, non-Lutherans +might be admitted to Lutheran pulpits and altars. Dr. Singmaster writes: +"That the Definite Platform caused the secession of the Ministerium [of +Pennsylvania] some years later seems quite improbable, for the chief +promoter of the General Council, the Rev. C.P. Krauth, Jr., was at this +time an ardent defender of the General Synod. He made apologies for his +old teacher [S.S. Schmucker], and probably prevented his impeachment by +the Seminary Board when it was urged by the Rev. J.A. Brown." (_Dist. +Doctr_., 1914, 53.) In the _Lutheran and Missionary_, July 13, 1865, +Krauth published that remarkable declaration in which he, defining his +position as to fundamentals, retracted, as he put it, his former +"crudities and inconsistencies" on this point. Among his statements are +the following: "We do not feel ashamed to confess that time and +experience have modified our earlier views, or led us to abandon them, +if we have so modified or so forsaken them." "In Church and State the +last years have wrought changes, deep and thorough, in every thinking +man, and on no point more than this, that compromise of principle, +however specious, is immoral, and that, however guarded it may be, it is +perilous; and that there is no guarantee of peace in words where men do +not agree in things." "To true unity of the Church is necessary an +agreement in fundamentals, and a vital part of the necessity is an +agreement as to what are fundamentals. The doctrinal articles of the +Augsburg Confession are all articles of faith, and all articles of faith +are fundamental. Our Church can never have a genuine internal harmony, +except in the confession, without reservation or ambiguity of these +articles, one and all. This is our deep conviction, and we hereby +retract, before God and His Church, formally, as we have already +earnestly and repeatedly done indirectly, everything we have written or +said in conflict with this our present conviction. This we are not +ashamed to do. We thank God, who has led us to see the truth, and we +thank Him for freeing us from the temptation of embarrassing ourselves +with the pretense of a present absolute consistency with our earlier, +very sincere, yet relatively very immature views." (Spaeth, 2, 114 f.) +Walther, who had rounded out almost a quarter century of faithful +Lutheran work when Krauth was still a champion of the original basis of +the General Synod, gloried in this frank and manly retraction of Krauth +as "an imperishable monument of the sincerity of his convictions." + +110. Endorsing Walther's Views on Christian Union.--In opposition to the +unionistic tendencies of the Lutheran synods in the United States, +especially those affiliated with the General Synod, Walther had +maintained that church union dare not be advocated and effected at the +expense of any doctrine clearly revealed in the Scripture. It was in +complete agreement with this view that Krauth, in his address before the +Pittsburgh Synod, October 1866, declared: "With her eternal principles, +what shall be the future of our beloved Zion in this land? Shall it be +conflict, division, weakness, or shall it be peace, unity, zeal, +unfolding all her energies? It is unity. Every difficulty in her way, +every barrier to her progress, proceeds from the lack of unity. But what +is the unity of the Church? That question was answered three centuries +ago by the Reformers, and fifteen centuries before that in the New +Testament. True unity is oneness in faith, as taught in the Gospel of +our Lord Jesus Christ. We are one with the Church of the apostles +because we hold its faith; one with the Church of the Reformers, alone +because we hold its faith. Outward human forms are nothing; +ecclesiastical government, so far as it is of man, is nothing; all +things are nothing, if there be not this oneness of faith. With it +begins, in its life continues, in its death ends, all true unity. There +can be, there is, no true unity but in the faith.... The one token of +this unity, that by which this internal thing is made visible, is one +expression of faith, one 'form of sound words,' used in simple +earnestness, and meaning the same to all who employ it.... You may agree +to differ; but when men become earnest, difference in faith will lead +first to fervent pleadings for the truth, and, if these be hopelessly +unheeded, will lead to separation. All kinds of beliefs and unbeliefs +may exist under the plea of toleration; but when the greatest love is +thus professed, there is the least. Love resulting from faith is God's +best gift. Love that grows out of opposition or indifference to faith, +God abhors. There can be no true love where there is not also true +hatred,--no love to truth without abhorrence of error.... In Christ we +can alone find unity. Only when we meet in this center of all true unity +will we have peace. And we can be in Christ only in a faith which +accepts His every word in His own divine meaning, and shrinks with honor +from the thought that, in the prostituted name of peace and love, we +shall put upon one level the pure and heavenly sense of His Word and the +artful corruption of that sense by the tradition of Rome or the vanity +of carnal reason." (Spaeth, 2, 162 f.) With respect to the Missouri +Synod Krauth wrote, April 7, 1876: "I have been saddened beyond +expression by the bitterness displayed towards the Missourians. So far +as they have helped us to see the great principles involved in this +disputation [concerning the Four Points], they have been our +benefactors, and although I know they have misunderstood some of us, +that was perhaps inevitable. They are men of God, and their work has +been of inestimable value." (2, 236.) + +111. Krauth on Predestination.--In a letter dated February 13, 1880, Dr. +Krauth said: "I have not read Dr. Walther's exposition of the doctrine +of election, but I purpose, as soon as I can command leisure, to write +something whose object shall be to show that the New Testament doctrine, +confessed by our Church, in regard to election, as fully as the most +extreme Calvinism, gives all the glory to God and ascribes to Him the +total merit of our salvation, both as secured and applied, and yet +clearly and properly makes man responsible for his own destruction.... +Luther is constantly claimed by the Calvinists, and I have known +intelligent Calvinists who are entirely satisfied with the Formula of +Concord on the 'Five Points.' Yet, the claim and the satisfaction are +both groundless. The truth in the Formula so strictly follows the line +of Scripture thinking that it is hard to get a spear's point under the +scales of its armor. My own conviction about Luther is, that he was +never a Calvinist on the 'Five Points,' but Augustinian, with some +aspects of coincidence and _many_ of divergence, even where he was +nearest Calvinism." In an article found among his papers after his +death, Krauth says: "Why do men in completely parallel relations to this +election move in opposite directions? The one believes, the other +disbelieves. Is the election of God in any sense the cause of the +difference? The answer of the Calvinist is: Yes. The answer of the +Lutheran is: No. The election of God is indeed the cause of the faith of +the one, but it is neither positively nor negatively, neither by act nor +by failure to act, the cause of the unbelief of the other. Hence it is +not the cause of the difference. I choose (or elect) to offer bread to +two beggars. The election of bread for his food and the election to +offer it to him are the proper cause of the reception of the bread on +the part of the one, but they are not the cause of the rejection on the +part of the other. The first concurs in my election, but his concurrence +is the effect, not the cause, of my election. The second refuses, but +his refusal is not the effect of my election, but an effect in spite of +it. As between me and the men the decision must be, that the acceptance +of one is no more than the refusal of the other, the cause of my +election. But between the one and the other the difference is made by +the willingness to receive, wrought by me through the offer, and the +unwillingness to receive, wrought by the man himself in spite of the +offer. Faith is not the cause of our general election. That must be +admitted by all. But neither can it be the cause of our particular +election, for the particular is only possible, and indeed only +thinkable, as the result of the general. But it is the cause of the +difference between the man who receives the benefits of this election, +and the man who refuses them. This faith is foreseen indeed, but it does +not become by that the cause of the election--it is foreseen as an +effect of the election and therefore cannot be considered as the cause; +it is a finality in the work of God in the restoration of fellowship. It +is, as a condition, part of the election, and cannot therefore be the +cause of the whole." (2, 327 ff.) Evidently, then, Krauth was not ready +to solve the mystery of election by assuming that, in the last analysis, +a difference in their respective guilt is the final cause why some are +saved while others are lost. + + +OTHER REPRESENTATIVE THEOLOGIANS. + +112. Dr. Wm. Julius Mann (1819--1892) was born at Stuttgart, +Wuerttemberg; graduated at Tuebingen, 1841; active as teacher till 1844; +came to America in 1845, influenced by his intimate friend Ph. Schaff at +Mercersburg, who had left Germany in 1844; 1846 assistant pastor of a +German Reformed congregation in Philadelphia; 1850 assistant to Dr. +Demme, pastor of Zion Ev. Luth. Congregation, Philadelphia, to which H.M. +Muhlenberg had been called in 1742; in 1851 he was received into the +Ministerium of Pennsylvania; served as president of this body from 1860 +to 1862 and 1880; from 1864 to 1892 he was professor in Philadelphia +Seminary. From 1848 to 1859 Dr. Mann cooperated in editing the _Deutsche +Kirchenzeitung_, established by Schaff as "an organ for the common +interests of the American German [Reformed and Lutheran] churches." The +_Kirchenzeitung_, of which Mann in 1854 became editor-in-chief, was a +paper for theologians, not for laymen. It bore the motto: "In +necessariis unitas, in dubiis libertas, in omnibus caritas." Its object +was "to prepare the way for the Lord, and add a few stones to the dome +of the Church of the future." It served the Lutheran and Reformed +churches by antagonizing revivalism. From 1863 to 1866 Dr. Mann was +editorially responsible for _Evangelische Zeugnisse_, a German homiletic +monthly, also established by his friend Ph. Schaff. In 1856 Mann opposed +the Definite Platform in his _Plea for the Augsburg Confession_, and +1857 in his _Lutheranism in America_. In 1864 he translated the _New +Testament Commentary_ of the American Tract Society into German for this +society. In 1886 he edited _Hallesche Nachrichten_ (Vol. I); 1887 he +published the _Life and Times of H.M. Muhlenberg_; 1891 the same in +German. Apart from quite a number of other books, Dr. Mann wrote +articles for various German and English periodicals. "I always prepare +myself closely," said Mann in a letter of February 14, 1866, "for the +recitations in the seminary, write every week for the _Lutheran_, more +for the _Lutherische Zeitschrift_ of Brobst, continue the translation +of the Tract Society's Commentary on the New Testament, keep up some +correspondence, and at the same time perform my various and burdensome +duties as a pastor and, find yet a little, a very little, time for light +reading." Mann, for many years a bosom friend of the arch-unionist Ph. +Schaff, whom he admired as "the presiding genius of international +theology," gradually became a conservative confessional Lutheran +theologian, opposed also to the unionism as practised by the General +Synod. On April 7, 1892, Schaff wrote to his friend: "What right had the +sixteenth and seventeenth century to prescribe to future generations all +theological thinking? We are as near to Christ and to the Bible as the +framers of the confessions of faith." Dr. Mann answered: "In the air in +which this letter breathes I cannot live.... What right had the framers +of the American Constitution to lay down a basis for the administrative +side of the life of this nation?" As to the General Synod, Dr. Mann's +love for it gradually turned into aversion, because of its utterly +un-Lutheran features. He charged the General Synod with living "in a +concubinage with the Presbyterians and Methodists." In 1853 he wrote: "I +have rejoiced over the union of our Pennsylvania Synod with the General +Synod, and now I rejoice still more." (173.) Mann still failed to see +that no one can truly love the Lutheran Church who despises, ignores, +and denies her doctrines and usages. In 1855 he said of Missouri: "They +have no patience with their weaker sister," meaning the General Synod. +(176.) But in the immediately following years Mann himself began to +attack the Definite Platform and its American Lutheranism. With respect +to the doctrines controverted within the Lutheran Church of America, +however, Dr. Mann never occupied a clear, firm, and determined Lutheran +position. He revealed no interest in the discussions on the Four Points. +Of the Missouri Synod Dr. Mann wrote in 1866: "These theological +scratchbrushes (_Kratzbuersten_) of the West do an important work. They +discipline thousands of Germans ecclesiastically, as otherwise only +Catholic priests are able to do. Most of them lead a rough, self-denying +life. They defy effeminate, sentimental, hazy ecclesiastical +Americanism. There is a firm character here. They will not always remain +as rugged as they are now. The coming generation will be English and +milder in many respects. The Missourians are a power in the West, where +the Germans generally are becoming a power, the longer the more. They +will obtain an ever stronger elementary influence. The German [?] blood +will make its influence felt for a long time." (Spaeth, _W.J. Mann_.) + +113. Passavant, Schmucker, Seiss, etc.--Other names well known beyond +the General Council are Drs. Passavant, B.M. Schmucker, Krotel, Seiss, +Spaeth, Weidner, etc. _Dr. W.A. Passavant_ (1821--1894) was born of +Huguenot ancestry at Zelienople, Pa.; graduated in Gettysburg Seminary; +was pastor in Baltimore till 1844 and in Pittsburgh till 1855; published +the _Missionary_ in 1845, which in 1861 was merged with _The Lutheran_, +Passavant remaining coeditor. He established _The Workman_ in 1880, +which he edited in a conservative, confessional spirit, while in the +_Missionary_ he had been a fiery advocate of New-measurism. Cooperating +with Pastor Fliedner of Kaiserswerth, Passavant introduced the first +deaconesses in America; founded hospitals, orphanages, and academies; +presented, in 1868, the ground for the Theological Seminary at Chicago; +organized the home missionary work of the Pittsburgh Synod (whose +founder he was) and of the General Council. Passavant was preeminently a +missionary and philanthropist--the "American Fliedner." Dr. G.W. Sandt, +in _Lutheran Church Review_ 1918: "Passavant was educated in a +Presbyterian college, where revivals were a fixed part of the +curriculum. He prepared for the ministry in a Lutheran seminary at a +time when Lutherans were more 'anxious' about the 'bench' than they were +about the faith. It is not to be wondered at that his early ministry +reflected the fitful and unstable emotionalism of the 'Anxious Bench' +religionism, which he later outgrew and disowned." (442.)--_Dr. Beale +Melanchthon Schmucker_ (1827--1888), though a son of S.S. Schmucker, did +not agree with the Definite Platform. He was secretary of the English +Church Book Committee, a member of the German Kirchenbuch and +Sonntagsschulbuch Committee, and of the Joint Committee on Common +Service. He was regarded as the greatest liturgical scholar of the +Lutheran Church in America and admired as a parliamentarian. He was a +passionate lover of the Reformation and its literature. The _Church +Book_ of the General Council has been said to be "his lasting monument." +Through it he laid the foundation also for the Common Service. "Next to +Dr. C.P. Krauth," said the _Kirchenblatt_ of the Iowa Synod (1918), +"there is no man to whom the General Council owes so much as to Dr. B.M. +Schmucker." B.M. Schmucker published articles on liturgical, +hymnological, biographical, and other themes, and wrote the preface to +the Common Service, first published by the United Synod of the South, +1888.--_Dr. G.F. Krotel_ (1826--1907) studied theology under Dr. Demme; +was renowned as pulpit orator; succeeded Krauth in the editorship of +the _Lutheran_; repeatedly served the Pennsylvania Synod and the General +Council as president.--_Dr. J.A. Seiss_ was pastor in Philadelphia from +1858 till his death in 1904; he also served as president of the +Pennsylvania Synod and the General Council. Seiss was one of the most +prolific Lutheran authors in America. "There was a strength, a +stateliness, a dignity, and an artistic finish to all his greatest +pulpit efforts that compelled a hearing." (_Luth. Church Review_ 1918, +90.) His style is oratorical rather than churchly. His _Lectures on the +Gospels and Epistles_ are the fruit of many years of careful sermonizing +and study. In his lectures on the _Last Times_, 1856, and on the _The +Apocalypse_, 1866, Seiss championed the cause of a chiliasm which the +General Council refused to reject.--_Dr. Adolph Spaeth_ (1839--1910) +graduated at Tuebingen; active in Wuerttemberg, Italy, France, and +Scotland till he accepted a call as Dr. Mann's assistant in Philadelphia +in 1864; served as professor at the Seminary from 1867 till his death; +was president of the General Council from 1880 to 1888, and of the +Pennsylvania Synod from 1892 to 1895. He wrote the biographies of W.J. +Mann, 1895, and of C.P. Krauth, Vol. I, 1898; Vol. II, 1909.--_Dr. R.F. +Weidner_ (1851--1915), president of the Seminary of the General Council +at Chicago since its opening in 1891, reproduced in the English language +a number of modern German theological works. + + +CONSTITUTION. + +114. Fundamental Articles of Faith.--At the preliminary meeting at +Reading, 1866, "Fundamental Principles," embracing nine Articles of +Faith and Church Polity and eleven Articles of Ecclesiastical Power and +Church Government, were adopted as a necessary condition of the +contemplated union. The first Article of Faith states that, "to the true +unity of the Church, it is sufficient that there be agreement touching +the doctrine of the Gospel," etc. The second declares: "The true unity +of a particular church, in virtue of which men are truly members of one +and the same church, and by which any church abides in real identity, +and is entitled to a continuation of her name, is unity in doctrine and +faith and in the Sacraments, to wit, that she continues to teach and to +set forth, and that her true members embrace from the heart, and use, +the articles of faith and the Sacraments as they were held and +administered when the Church came into distinctive being and received a +distinctive name." The third article distinguishes general and +particular symbols. The fourth emphasizes that these confessions are a +testimony of unity and a bond of union only when "accepted in their own +true, native, original, and only sense." Those who "subscribe them must +not only agree to use the same words, but must use and understand those +words in one and the same sense." According to the fifth article the +unity of the Lutheran Church "depends upon her abiding in one and the +same faith." Article six reads: "The Unaltered Augsburg Confession is by +preeminence the Confession of that faith. The acceptance of its +doctrines and the avowal of them without equivocation or mental +reservation make, mark, and identify that Church, which alone, in the +true, original, historical, and honest sense of the term, is the +Evangelical Lutheran Church." According to the seventh article the only +churches "entitled to the name Evangelical Lutheran are those which +sincerely hold and truthfully confess the doctrines of the Unaltered +Augsburg Confession." The next article reads: "We accept and acknowledge +the doctrines of the Unaltered Augsburg Confession in its original sense +as throughout in conformity with the pure truth of which God's Word is +the only rule. We accept its statements of truth as in perfect +accordance with the canonical Scriptures: We reject the errors it +condemns, and believe that all which it commits to the liberty of the +Church of right belongs to that liberty." The ninth article declares +"that the other Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, inasmuch +as they set forth none other than its system of doctrine and articles of +faith, are of necessity pure and Scriptural," and that all of them "are, +with the Unaltered Augsburg Confession, in the perfect harmony of one +and the same Scriptural faith." (Ochsenford, _Documentary History_, 178 +f.) According to the By-laws of the Constitution "the first two morning +sessions after the opening of the convention shall be devoted to the +discussion of doctrinal points and important practical questions." + +115. Articles on Church Polity.--According to the second of the eleven +articles of Ecclesiastical Power and Church Government, the church "has +no power to bind the conscience, except as she truly teaches what her +Lord teaches, and faithfully commands what He has charged her to +command." The third reads: "The absolute directory of the will of Christ +is the Word of God, the canonical Scriptures, interpreted in accordance +with the 'mind of the Spirit,' by which Scriptures the Church is to be +guided in every decision. She may set forth no article of faith which is +not taught by the very letter of God's Word, or derived by just and +necessary inference from it, and her liberty concerns those things only +which are left free by the letter and spirit of God's Word." The fourth +continues: "The primary bodies through which the power is normally +exercised, which Christ commits derivatively and ministerially to His +Church on earth, are the congregations. The congregation, in the normal +state, is neither the pastor without the people, nor the people without +the pastor." This paragraph permits of an interpretation that opens a +loophole for Romanism. According to the sixth article "a free, +Scriptural General Council, or Synod, chosen by the Church, is, within +the metes and bounds fixed by the Church which chooses it, +representatively that Church itself; and in this case is applicable the +language of the Appendix to the Smalcald Articles: 'The judgments of +synods are the judgments of the Church.'" This seems to imply that the +judgments of synods are as such correct and binding. The tenth article +reads: "In the formation of a General Body the synods may know, and deal +with, each other only as synods. In such case the official record is to +be accepted as evidence of the doctrinal position of each synod, and of +the principles for which alone the other synods become responsible by +connection with it." This paragraph, which was embodied also in the +constitution of the United Lutheran Church, opened the door to +indifferentism inasmuch as it made the General Council responsible, not +for the actual conditions within, but only for the official attitude and +deliverances of its district synods. + +116. A Legislative Body.--The seventh article of "Ecclesiastical Power +and Church Government" reads: "The congregations representatively +constituting the various district synods may elect delegates through +these synods to represent themselves in a more general body, all +decisions of which, when made in conformity with the solemn compact of +the constitution, _bind_ so far as the terms of mutual agreement make +them binding on those congregations which consent, and continue to +consent, to be represented in that General Body." According to the ninth +article, "the obligation under which congregations consent to place +themselves, to conform to the decisions of synods, does not rest on any +assumption that synods are infallible, but on the supposition that the +decisions have been so guarded by wise constitutional provisions as to +create a higher moral probability of their being true and rightful than +the decisions in conflict with them, which may be made by single +congregations or individuals." In keeping herewith Article I, Section 4 +of the General Council's constitution provides: "No liturgy or hymn-book +should be used in public worship except by its [the General Council's] +advice or consent, which consent shall be presumed in regard to all such +books now used, until the General Council shall have formally acted upon +them." That the General Council was not a mere advisory, but a +legislative body, was brought out in the Lima Church Case in which the +judge decided that, according to the constitution and the expert +testimony of members of the General Council, Synod had jurisdiction over +its pastors and congregations, and that hence he could not adjudge the +property to that part of the congregation which had refused to submit to +Synod. Dr. Seiss testified (April 6, 1876) that, according to the +constitution of the General Council, congregations are obliged and bound +to respect and obey all constitutional resolutions of Synod. In its +issue of September 26, 1901, the _Lutheran_ maintained that Christian +liberty did not prohibit the Church from making prescriptions to +individual congregations in the adiaphora; that pastors and +congregations, by joining the Pennsylvania Ministerium, yielded the +right to decide and act for themselves, and agreed to submit to the +regulations of Synod in the points enumerated; that it was not an +infringement of the rights of a congregation to make this a condition of +synodical membership. (_L. u. W._ 1901, 305.) In 1915 the Augustana +Synod adopted a resolution recommending a change in the constitution of +the General Council in order to make the body "both in principle and +practise a deliberative and advisory body only." + +117. Conforming to Decisions a Moral Obligation.--In 1866 Dr. Krauth, +defending the polity of the General Council, wrote in the _Lutheran and +Missionary_: "We entirely agree with our friend in the _Lutheraner_ that +the strength of the Church does not depend upon a '_strong government,_' +but on the unity of faith, doctrine, and confession. But 'strong' and +'weak' are relative terms. We want a _real_ government; something which +shall hold in a genuine outward bond, however mild, the true confessors +of our Church's faith, and enable them to work in harmony, and if we +understand the principles which control the government of the Synod of +Missouri, we are sure that we desire nothing stronger nor better in the +government of our whole Church in this country than these principles +would give us. We only ask a church government which shall bind us by +the gentle laws of love and peace, which shall take offenses out of the +way, which shall be an aid in causing all things to be done decently and +in order in the Church--which shall be a safeguard to conscience, and +shall not lay, nor attempt to lay, burdens on it. The decisions of a +synod which shall be such a government representatively will indeed be +merely human, as the decisions of all earthly governments are merely +human--nay, often manifestly wrong; nevertheless, we hold that the +generic governmental principles and the right of representation are as +really of God in the Church as in the State. The obligation to conform +to the decisions of such a [representative] synod is the obligation of +peace, love, and order; and where violation of them (except on the +ground of conscience) creates scandal and offense, there is a moral +obligation to conform to them." (Spaeth, 2, 172 f.) However, the +constitution of the General Council does not contain the limitation: +"where violation creates scandal and offense"; and Missouri holds that a +congregation may ignore a resolution of synod, not only on the ground of +conscience, but also whenever it finds a resolution unsuitable for her +conditions. + + +SUBTILE UNIONISM. + +118. Missouri's Attitude toward the General Council.--Originally Dr. +Walther and Dr. Sihler were optimistic with respect to the movements +which resulted in the organization of the new general body. Walther +wrote: "Scarcely any event within the bounds of the Lutheran Church of +North America has ever afforded us greater joy than the withdrawal of +the Synod of Pennsylvania from the unionistic so-called General Synod. +This is a step which will undoubtedly lead to consequences of the utmost +importance and of the most salutary character. The plan to give +prominence and supremacy in this land, by means of the 'General Synod,' +to a so-called American Lutheranism which ignores the distinctive +doctrines of the Lutheran Church, and to compel the truly Lutheran +synods to occupy a separatistic, isolated, and powerless position, is +completely frustrated by this step." (Spaeth, 2, 162.) But the hopes of +Walther and his friends were doomed to disappointment, at least in part. +In spite of its irreproachable confessional basis the General Council +was imbued with a spirit of indifferentism and unionism, though of a +finer grade and quality than that prevailing in the General Synod. In +accordance with its principle that fraternal cooperation and union of +necessity presupposes unity in doctrine and practise, Missouri, instead +of participating in the hasty organization of the General Council, +insisted on Free Conferences in order first to bring about real +doctrinal agreement, the prerequisite of every God-pleasing external +union. In Reading, 1866, however, this request was disregarded, union +being the paramount, true and real unity a secondary consideration. Nor +was there a change effected in this attitude by the subsequent +correspondence between the General Council and the Missouri Synod. At +Reading the delegates passed the resolution: "That the synods +represented in this convention which prefer a Free Conference to an +immediate organization be and hereby are invited to send representatives +to the next meeting, with the understanding that they have in it all the +privileges of debate and a fraternal comparison of views." To this +Missouri responded at its convention in Chicago, in May, 1867: "In view +of the relations we sustain toward different members of the Church +Council, in reference to doctrine and churchly practise, we must be +apprehensive that the consideration and discussion of differences still +existing in the convention of the Church Council might give rise to the +reflection that we intended to interrupt the bringing about of a unity, +and are therefore fearful lest our participation, instead of leading to +an agreement, might be productive of greater alienation. Even at the +risk of appearing capricious in the eyes of the Reverend Body, and less +diligent in our efforts for churchly unity, we beg leave to declare it +again as our conviction that Free Conferences, such as are separated +from officially organized conventions of ecclesiastical bodies, on the +basis of the symbols of our Church, as contained in the Book of Concord +of 1580, are the only proper means for an exchange of such convictions +as are still divergent, and which, by the grace of God, may lead to a +unity on the basis of our beloved Confession." At Fort Wayne, in +November, 1867, the General Council renewed the resolution "that we +sincerely respect the honest preferences of our brethren [Missouri] in +regard to the best means of uniting our Church, and that we are willing +to set apart a time, during the future sessions of this body, when it +will meet them simply as a Free Conference." And, no answer having been +received, the Council, at Pittsburgh, 1868, instructed its secretaries +to bring the Fort Wayne action again to the attention of the Missouri +Synod. In the following year Missouri answered that it was not its +desire to deal with the General Council as such and during the sessions +of the same; that by such a side-dealing justice could not be done the +matter; that they desired and regarded Free Conferences as the proper +means to reach the end contemplated. (Ochsenford, _Doc. History_, 152 +ff.) Thus, from the very beginning, Missouri, in the interest of real +unity as a prerequisite of union, urged free conferences and doctrinal +discussions, while the General Council offered discussions "in regard to +the best means of uniting our Church," at the same time insisting on a +mode which involved a recognition of the unionistic procedure adopted in +organizing the General Council. Considering the facts that some of the +synods, uniting in 1866 and 1867 with the General Council, had several +months before belonged to the General Synod; that ostensibly they had +severed their connection on technical grounds; that all along they had +been committed, more or less, not only to a false confessional basis, +but also to Reformed doctrines and un-Lutheran practise, etc., the +Missouri Synod, without sacrificing its anti-unionistic principles, +could hardly have taken a different course of action than it did. +Moreover, the subsequent history of the General Council, down to the +Merger in 1918, has proved conclusively that Missouri's original +evaluation of the General Council's confessionalism was certainly not +very far from the mark. It was, then, the persistent refusal, on the +part of the General Council, of free conferences, such as Missouri could +have attended without an _a priori_ violation of her convictions, that +brought about and prolonged the deadlock obtaining between the two +bodies. As late as 1904, at the time of the Inter-synodical Conferences, +Dr. Jacobs declared that he would not meet Missouri in a free conference +without a preceding joint service of prayer; and to this the _Lutheran_ +assented. (_L. u. W._ 1904, 224. 370.) + +119. The Primary Difference.--In 1885 Dr. Spaeth wrote: "In no other +Lutheran body of the Old or New World has the question on the great +principles of true church unity received such attention and been treated +in such a thorough and comprehensive manner as within the General +Council." There is certainly a good deal of truth in this assertion. For +the General Council did make repeated efforts at grasping and applying +the principles of true church unity. But it lacked consistency, and in +formulating the rules and theories, their theologians were influenced by +conditions inherited from the General Synod. They lacked the courage or +ability of completely breaking with their unionistic past. This was +essentially the charge of Missouri against the General Council--the +correctness of which was vindicated also by the action taken by the +representatives of the synods of Ohio and Iowa at the first convention +of the General Council, 1867, at Fort Wayne. While Walther and the +Missouri Synod demanded a real, material unity, unity as to the actual +content, that is to say, the individual doctrines of the Lutheran +symbols, the General Council was satisfied with a mere correct formal +acknowledgment of the Confessions. It was the difference between the +form and substance of unity. In the _Lutheran_ of August 22, 1907, Dr. +Krotel declared with respect to the doctrinal attitude of the Council: +It "firmly refuses to occupy the unionistic position of doctrinal +vacillation and tolerance. Contrary to the theological temper of the +age, it maintains that there are articles of faith so definite and +fixed and clear as to demand unqualified endorsement and defense." +(_Doc. Hist_., 138.) But Dr. Krotel's assertions are not supported by +the facts. Judged by the real conditions, the General Council has +always been a unionistic body. + + +THE FOUR POINTS. + +120. Altar- and Pulpit-Fellowship, Lodges and Chiliasm.--Immediately at +its first convention at Fort Wayne, 1867, it became apparent that the +General Council was unwilling to take an unequivocal and decided stand +with respect to Lutheran doctrine and practise. At Fort Wayne the Joint +Synod of Ohio, through its delegates (G. Cronenwett, F.A. Herzberger, +G. Baughman), after stating that, despite the reception of the Doctrinal +Basis, "un-Lutheran doctrine and practise" were still found in some of +the synods connected with the Council, requested an answer to the +following questions: "1. What relation will this venerable body in +future sustain to Chiliasm? 2. Mixed communions? 3. The exchanging of +pulpits with sectarians? 4. Secret or unchurchly societies?" +"Especially," they declared, "would we earnestly desire a decided answer +with regard to the last item, inasmuch as the Joint Synod, for years +already, in view of certain relations in one of its district synods, has +had difficulties in consequence of four pastors belonging to secret +societies, and would not, therefore, again burden its conscience." The +answer was: "That this Council is aware of nothing in its 'Fundamental +Principles of Faith and Church Polity' and Constitution, nor in the +relation it sustains in the four questions raised, which justifies a +doubt whether its decision on them all, when they are brought up in the +manner prescribed in the Constitution, will be in harmony with Holy +Scripture and the Confession of the Church. That so soon as official +evidence shall be presented to this body, in the manner prescribed by +the constitution, that un-Lutheran doctrines or practises are authorized +by the action of any of its synods, or by their refusal to act, it will +weigh that evidence, and, if it finds they exist, use all its +constitutional power to convince the minds of men in regard to them, and +as speedily as possible to remove them." (_Doc. Hist_., 156.) In other +words: Unite with us, and then we shall see what can be done, according +to the "educational methods," with reference to the Four Points. A +similar evasive answer was given to the following petition of the Iowa +Synod: "In order to effect a union of the Church, and that we may all +truly agree in the principles of practise as well as of faith, without +conditions, the delegates [G. Grossman, S. and G. Fritschel] of the +Synod of Iowa propose, in accordance with the instructions of their +Synod, that the General Council shall expressly acknowledge what, +according to the understanding of the delegates of said Synod, is +virtually acknowledged in the 'Fundamental Principles of Faith and +Church Polity' adopted by this body, _viz._: 1. that according to the +Confession of the Evangelical Lutheran Church there must be, and is, +condemned all church-fellowship with such as are not Lutherans; for +example, ministers serving congregations such as are mixed and not +purely Lutheran, receiving such congregations and their pastors into +synodical connection, the admittance of those of a different faith to +the privilege of Communion, the permission of those not Lutheran to +occupy our pulpits, etc.; 2. according to the Word of God, +church-discipline be exercised, especially at the celebration of the +Holy Communion, and be likewise exercised towards those who are members +of secret societies." The answer was: "That the General Council is not +prepared to endorse the declaration of the Synod of Iowa as a correct +logical deduction and application of the negative part of our +Confessional Books, and that we refer the matter to the District Synods, +until such time as, by the blessings of God's Holy Spirit and the +leadings of His Providence, we shall be enabled throughout the whole +General Council and all its churches to see eye to eye in all the +details of practise and usage, towards the consummation of which we will +direct our unceasing prayers." (161.) In other words: Unite with us, and +we shall see what can be done in the future, and whether your position +really is in harmony with the Lutheran Confessions. Hereupon the Iowa +men declared that their Synod could not unite with the Council, because +"in accordance with our deep and sincere conviction, which is at the +same time that of the Synod we represent, we must declare it to be a +necessary precedent condition of an official ecclesiastical connection +between synodical bodies that there should be a complete and hearty +agreement not only in the principles of faith and confession, but also +in an ecclesiastical practise accordant with such faith and confession, +as set forth especially in the first of the propositions presented by +us." (162.) Among the pastors who, at Fort Wayne, also declared their +dissent with respect to the dubious attitude of the Council regarding +the Four Points were the Revs. J. Bading, A. Hoenecke, A. Martin, C.F. +Welden, and C. F. Heyer. (155 ff.) + +121. Side-lights on "Four Points" Difficulties.--Dr. S.E. Ochsenford +explains in _Documentary History of the General Council_: "The +difficulty lay in the fact that some synods demanded that that should be +done at once[?], regardless of consequences, which others felt could be +done with much better results by following an educational method, +leading in the process of time all the synods and congregations, among +many of which in certain portions of the Church there existed peculiar +difficulties, to the same lofty eminence of purity in doctrine and in +practise, and so true unity in both. The older synods had difficulties +in this respect, of which the more recently formed synods had no true +conception. These difficulties could not be eradicated at once and by +the fiat of any organization; but as they had grown up gradually, so +they must be removed by a process of education." (164.) Dr. Spaeth gives +the following explanation of the situation, and apology for the attitude +of the General Council at Fort Wayne: "There appeared at this point a +wide difference, especially between the Eastern and Western synods, +which was in the first place the natural result of the historical +development, through which those various sections of the Church had +passed which now endeavored to form an organic union. The Lutheran +Church in the Eastern part of our country, having been founded about one +hundred and fifty years ago, had passed through all the different stages +of church-life, suffering, and death, by which the history of the Church +and theology of the German Fatherland was characterized in that period. +We need not be surprised to find that during this time many things crept +in which were in conflict with the spirit and Confession of our Church. +Over against those things the renewed appreciation of the Lutheran +Confession and the honest return to the same was of comparatively recent +date. It was therefore not to be expected that there should have been on +all sides at the very outset a thorough insight into all the +consequences and obligations of a decided and consistent adoption of the +Lutheran Confession. On the other hand, most of the Lutheran synods of +the West had been founded at a much more favorable season. Out of the +very fulness and freshness of the revived Confession, partly even in the +martyr-spirit of a persecuted Church, have their foundations been laid +and their structures raised. Accordingly, their whole congregational +life could much more easily and more consistently be organized on the +principles established in the Confession, and many evils could be +excluded which in other places had taken root and had been growing for +nearly a century." (164.) However, both Spaeth and Ochsenford fail to +see the real issue; for the grievance at Fort Wayne was not the +inability to abolish immediately all abuses referred to in the Four +Points, but rather the persistent refusal on the part of the General +Council to take, as such, a definite and unequivocal Lutheran attitude +with respect to these questions. Nor was the charge, at least on the +part of Missouri, with respect to the "educational method," as advocated +and applied from 1867 to 1918 by the Council, directed against this +method as such, but against the mutilation of this method by practically +eliminating its eventual natural termination, expulsion according to +Matt. 18, and against the apparent insincerity in the advocacy, and the +lack of seriousness in the application of this method. Indeed, the real +grievance was not that weak members of the General Council were lagging +behind in Lutheran doctrine and practise, but that many of her prominent +leaders and her periodicals occupied an un-Lutheran position and +championed un-Lutheran doctrine and practise. + + +AKRON-GALESBURG RULE. + +122. Non-Lutherans Admitted Exceptionally.--Regarding the Four Points, +especially the question of altar- and pulpit-fellowship, the General +Council during its subsequent history never really rose above the Fort +Wayne level. In 1868, at Pittsburgh, the Council declared "that no man +shall be admitted to our pulpits, whether of the Lutheran name or any +other, of whom there is just reason to doubt whether he will preach the +pure truth of God's Word as taught in the Confessions of our Church." +(208.) As though a sectarian minister could preach in accordance with +the Lutheran symbols; or offense and unionism were fully eliminated when +the sectarian minister, preaching in a Lutheran pulpit, proclaims none +of his errors! The same convention held: "Lutheran ministers may +properly preach wherever there is an opening in the pulpit of other +churches, unless the circumstances imply, or seem to imply, a fellowship +with error or schism, or a restriction on the unreserved expression of +the whole counsel of God." (209.) But, apart from other considerations, +the fact is that, as a rule, these conditions were not and could not be +complied with. Furthermore, the same convention declared: "Heretics and +fundamentally false teachers are to be excluded from the Lord's Table." +(209.) But the convention at Chicago, in 1870, explained: "Although the +General Council holds the distinctive doctrines of our Evangelical +Lutheran Church as in such sense fundamental that those who err in them +err in fundamental doctrines, nevertheless, in employing the terms +'_fundamental errorists_,' in the declaration made at Pittsburgh, it +understands not those who are the victims of involuntary mistake, but +those who wilfully, wickedly, and persistently desert, in whole or in +part, the Christian faith, especially as embodied in the Confessions of +the Church Catholic, in the purest form in which it now exists on earth, +to wit, the Evangelical Lutheran Church, and thus overturn or destroy +the _foundation_ in them confessed; and who hold, defend, and extend +these errors in the face of the admonitions of the Church, and to the +leading away of men from the path of life." (215 f.) Accordingly, the +fact that a Christian held the Reformed view on the Lord's Supper did +not _per se_ exclude him from the altars of the General Council. + +123. "The Rule Is."--At Akron, O., 1872, in answer to a question of the +Iowa Synod referring to the declaration of 1870, Dr. Krauth, then +President of the General Council, submitted the following: "1. The rule +is: Lutheran pulpits are for Lutheran ministers only. Lutheran altars +are for Lutheran communicants only. 2. The exceptions to the rule belong +to the sphere of privilege, not of right. 3. The determination of the +exceptions is to be made in consonance with these principles, by the +conscientious judgment of pastors, as the cases arise." (216.) At +Galesburg, 1875, the General Council declared: "The rule which accords +with the Word of God and with the Confessions of our Church is: +'Lutheran pulpits for Lutheran ministers only--Lutheran altars for +Lutheran communicants only.'" (217.) However, this declaration, which, +for the time being, satisfied the Iowa Synod, admits of the +interpretation: The exceptions are: Lutheran pulpits for non-Lutheran +ministers, and Lutheran altars for non-Lutheran communicants, as was +virtually admitted also by the General Council in her answer of 1877 to +an appeal from the Ministerium of New York against violation of the +Galesburg Rule. (217.) Returning--if indeed a return was required--to +the Akron Declaration, the General Council, in 1889, stated "that at the +time of the passage of the Galesburg Rule, by the General Council, the +distinct statement was made that all preceding action of the General +Council on pulpit- and altar-fellowship was unchanged.... Inasmuch as +the General Council has never annulled, rescinded, or reconsidered the +declarations made at Akron, 0., in the year 1872, they still remain, in +all their parts and provisions, the action and rule of the General +Council. All subsequent action of the General Council is to be +understood and interpreted according to the principles there determined +and settled.... The present position of the General Council is to be +understood and interpreted in such manner that neither the amendment and +further explanation at Galesburg nor the original action at Akron be +overlooked or ignored, both of which remain in full force and mutually +interpret and supplement one another." (219.) Exceptionally, +non-Lutherans may be admitted to Lutheran pulpits and altars--such, +then, was the final official decision of the General Council as to the +question of pulpit- and altar-fellowship. In the _Lutheran_ of May 3, +1917, Rev. J.E. Whitteker, president of the General Council Home +Mission Board, said that it was his custom not to refuse the Lord's +Supper to non-Lutherans. (_L. u. W._ 1917, 463.) Dr. J. Fry, _The +Pastor's Guide_, says: "It is not considered proper to give a general +invitation to persons belonging to other congregations to participate in +the Communion at the time when it is administered. If any public +invitation is given, it should be at the time when the Communion and +preparatory services are announced, and such persons be requested to +make personal application to the pastor, so he may know who they are, +and judge of their fitness to join in the Communion. The door should not +be opened wider to strangers than to children of the household." (54.) +In 1904 Dr. Deindoerfer of the Iowa Synod declared: "We do not see that +in the circles of the General Council, as a whole, the churchly practise +has improved and become less offensive, and that earnest proceedings are +instituted against members who are guilty of offensive practise--a state +of affairs which our Synod never can and will sanction." (_L. u. W._ +1904, 516.) + + +INTERDENOMINATIONAL FELLOWSHIP. + +124. Sound Principles.--The doctrinal basis of the General Council as +well as a number also of its later declarations and resolutions as to +church-fellowship and cooperation with non-Lutherans are sound. They +breathe the Lutheran spirit revealed in the manly words of C.P. Krauth: +"The Lutheran Church can never have real moral dignity, real +self-respect, a real claim on the reverence and loyalty of her children +while she allows the fear of denominations around her, or the desire of +their approval, in any respect to shape her principles or control her +actions. It is a fatal thing to ask, not, What is right? What is +consistent? but, What will be thought of us? How will our neighbors of +the different communions regard this or that course? Better to die than +to prolong a miserable life by such a compromise of all that gives life +its value." (_L. u. W._ 1917, 468.) In 1909 Dr. T.E. Schmauk, then +president of the General Council, declared in regard to the World's +Missionary Conference: "We regret our inability, on account of our sound +fundamental principle of unity as a prerequisite to cooperation, to +enter in as one of the active elements in such a meeting." The committee +reported: "We approve of the President's position as to the World +Conference and the Federal Council." In 1913 the General Council +resolved with respect to participation in "The World Conference on Faith +and Order": "While regretting that it is unable to unite with the +Communion of the Episcopal Church in arranging for, and conducting, a +Conference on Faith and Order, yet, nevertheless, it hereby resolves to +appoint a Committee on the Unity of Faith, which shall be authorized, +without participating in organization or arrangement of any conference, +to present and set forth the Lutheran faith touching particular +doctrines, either independently, or when they are under discussion in +any conference or gathering, without, however, granting the committee +any power of association, arrangement, fellowship, or practical +direction, but confining it to the one specific function of witness and +testimony to the faith that is in us, and which we rejoice to confess, +and to have tested, before all the world." In 1915 the General Council +made the statement: "Regarding general movements in the Christian world +which have arisen in the last few years looking to the drawing together +of the whole Christian Church on earth, such as the movement of a free +Protestantism toward a united foreign mission objective, the Federation +of Churches, and other movements of a similar character, we recommend +that, while we cannot at this time [sic!] organically participate, it is +well, nevertheless, to keep fully informed as to their trend, direction, +and development." (467.) In 1917 Schmauk said in the _Lutheran_: "The +Lutheran faith has suffered terribly in the past by attempts of union +and cooperation with various Christian denominations and tendencies. +Usually they have penetrated insidiously into our spirit, and poisoned +our own life-roots, and taken possession of our palaces. But these +damages have been wrought through an attempted unity with men who are +not at one with us in the profession of a _common faith_. As Luther +said: 'They have a different spirit.'" (468.) + +125. Facts Discounting Declarations.--Although the General Council as +such has always confined its fraternal intercourse and cooperation to +Lutheran synods (General Synod, United Synod South, etc.), its members +and official boards have not. In 1916 several representatives of the +General Council attended the Latin-America Missionary Conference, its +Mission Board was connected with the "Foreign Mission Conference," a +body composed of Adventists, Baptists, Quakers, Universalists, Reformed, +etc. (461.) In his pamphlet, _Dangerous Alliances_, 1917, Rev. W. +Brenner, a member of the General Council, wrote: "The _Woman's Mission +Worker_, the _Foreign Missionary_, and the _Home Missionary_ +[periodicals of the General Council] have published letters and articles +defending Lutheran participation in 'union movements.' In the _Lutheran_ +of September 14, 1916, Rev. C.F. Fry lauds federation in 'mission-work' +and 'Reformation celebrations.' 'On Tuesday evening pastors of +non-Lutheran churches presented their greetings,' so the _Lutheran_ of +November 18, 1915, describes in part the 175th anniversary celebration +of St. John's Ev. Lutheran Church at Easton, Pa. Rev. E.S. Bromer, D.D., +of the Reformed Church, addressed the congregation of the First Lutheran +Church of Greensburg, Pa., on the occasion of its hundredth anniversary. +(_Lutheran_, Nov. 18, 1915.) Emmanuel Lutheran Church of the Augustana +Synod laid the corner-stone of a new church edifice, November 12, 1916, +at Butte, Mont. 'Brief congratulatory speeches were made by Hon. C.H. +Lane, mayor of Butte, and the Rev. J.H. Mitchell, chairman of Butte's +Ministerial Association.' (_Lutheran_, Nov. 30, 1916.) We have also read +of Anti-Saloon League representatives, and Women's Christian Temperance +lecturers, male and female, who delivered speeches in the Lutheran +churches." (463.) In 1915, when the General Council met in Rock Island, +Dr. Gerberding occupied the pulpit of the Presbyterian church. At Port +Colborne, Can., on November 11, 1918, Rev. Knauff of the General Council +fellowshiped with Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians, and Anglicans in +a united Thanksgiving service. (_Luth. Witness_ 1919, 14.) Dr. J. Fry in +his _Pastor's Guide_: "A Lutheran pastor may officiate on any occasion, +or perform a ministerial act in which ministers of other creeds take +part, provided the occasion and circumstances are such as will not +violate synodical order, nor compromise his confessional position." +(84.) Again: "Y.M.C.A.'s, W.C.T.U.'s, Christian Endeavor, etc., are +rarely [sic!] to be recommended to our people, as they are generally +conducted on 'new-measure' lines, and their influence is to make our +members dissatisfied with Lutheran or churchly ideas and usages." (97.) +It may be safely said that without the sanction of this species of +unionism openly practised within the General Council, the Lutheran +Merger of 1918 would have been an impossibility. And yet, this practise +admits of but one construction: mutual acknowledgment. "When teachers +and preachers exchange pulpits and chairs, it is an emphatic way of +declaring, not their personal friendship, but their endorsement of each +other's teachings; it is all the same as to infer that they are in +accord in their essential teachings." (Editor of the _Presbyterian_.) + + +ATTITUDE TOWARD LODGES. + +126. Sound Lutheran Principles.--At its convention at Pittsburgh, 1868, +the General Council made the following declarations with respect to +secret societies: "1. Though mere secrecy in association be not in +itself immoral, yet as it is so easily susceptible of abuse, and in its +abuse may work, as it has often worked, great mischief in family, Church +and State, we earnestly beseech all good men to ponder the question +whether the benefits they believe to be connected with secret societies +might not be equally reached in modes not liable to the same abuse. 2. +Any and all societies for moral and religious ends which do not rest on +the supreme authority of God's holy Word as contained in the Old and New +Testaments; which do not recognize our Lord Jesus Christ as the true God +and the only Mediator between God and man; which teach doctrines or have +usages or forms of worship condemned in God's Word and in the +Confessions of His Church; which assume to themselves what God has given +to His Church and its ministers; which require undefined obligations to +be assumed by oath, are unchristian, and we solemnly warn our members +and ministers against all fellowship with, or connivance at, +associations which have this character. 3. All connection with infidel +and immoral associations we consider as requiring the exercise of prompt +and decisive discipline, and after faithful and patient monition and +teaching from God's Word, the cutting off the persistent and obstinate +offender from communion of the Church until he abandons them and shows a +true repentance." (_Doc. Hist._,208.) + +127. Practise out of Tune with Principles.--From the very beginning the +official declarations of 1868 were and remained a dead letter. With the +exception of the Augustana Synod, lodges were generally tolerated and, +in part, practically encouraged within the General Council throughout +its history--resolutions to the contrary notwithstanding. Lodge-men were +received with open arms, and no questions were asked. In 1873 the +English District Synod of Ohio, affiliated with the Council, deposed +Rev. Bartholomew because, for one reason, he, in a sermon, had testified +against the lodgism prevailing in Synod. (Report 1874, 45. 47 ff.) The +_Pilger_, a German paper published within the General Council, wrote in +1875: "Testimony against secret societies will bring little result so +long as the Church [General Council] looks on in silence while pastors +of the Christian Church are members of antichristian lodges. Indeed, +many resolutions have been passed against pastors being members of +secret orders; but paper is patient, and those who are rebuked laugh at +Synod's resolutions." _Herold und Zeitschrift_, August 2, 1884, related +of a pastor connected with the Council: "He is a Freemason. He does not +refrain from showing his attitude toward the lodge. Recently, after +delivering the funeral address for a Freemason, he put on his Masonic +uniform before the congregation, and marched out to the grave. Some time +ago he announced a lecture on Masonry in his church. Appearing before a +large audience which had gathered, in the white leathern apron and other +paraphernalia of his order, he, in eloquent fashion, set forth the +advantages of Masonry, etc., making special mention of its great +antiquity and marvelous liberality." In 1886, the _Lutheran_ declared +that excommunication because of membership in a secret society had never +been an official demand of the General Council. The _Lutherisches +Kirchenblatt_, edited by pastors connected with the Council, reported a +meeting of the Pennsylvania Ministerium, held in January, 1887, as +follows: "Pastor Hinterleiter made a motion that pastors ought not +belong to secret societies. Pastor Struntz vehemently opposed this +motion, declaring that it had no place in a constitution, but was part +of a pastor's private life. Dr. Fry expressed it as his opinion that +such a resolution would give offense." In the _Lutheran Church Review_, +April, 1903, Carl Swensson wrote: "I believe the entire stand taken by, +for instance, our Augustana Synod on the secret society question has +been a mistake and a misfortune. Society members, inside or outside of +the Church, should be treated just as any other people." (_L. u. W._ +1903, 184.) In the same year a number of General Council ministers +publicly joined the Mystic Shriners. On May 6, 1917, the pastor of the +First English Lutheran Church in Kitchener (Berlin), Ont., held a +lodge-service for the Freemasons and Odd-Fellows. At the convention of +the Ministerium of Pennsylvania in 1917 a petition signed by thirteen +members was presented to amend the constitution _by striking out_ +section 51 in Art. 10, according to which "any minister belonging to the +Ministerium who shall, after due admonition, persist in fellowship and +cooperation with any such antichristian society or order [lodges], +whether secret or not, shall be subject to discipline." (_Proceedings_ +1917, 182.) No action was taken by Synod. + +128. Educational Method a Pretense.--In dealing with offenders also +against the Lutheran principles pertaining to lodge-membership, the +General Council advocated the "educational method." But the fact is that +during the whole course of its history no serious and persevering +efforts whatever were made to enlighten the congregations as to the +utter incompatibility of Lodgism and Lutheranism. Geo. Fritschel: "It +cannot be denied that the General Council as such has done nothing to +bring about a progress in this question" (concerning lodge-membership). +The same, he says, was true of its chief synods. Partly they did not +want any discussions on this question. The officers of the Pennsylvania +Synod remained unconcerned even when ministers joined the lodges. +(_Geschichte_, 2, 322.) The Iowa _Kirchenblatt_, November 24, 1917, +declared that the policy of education as advocated by the Council had +utterly and finally failed. (_Luth. Witness_ 1918, 387.) In the same +year Rev. W. Brenner wrote: "There is an official General Council +declaration which solemnly warns its pastors and people against all +fellowship with, or connivance at, secret societies (_Doc. Hist._, 208); +but from the attitude of some General Council ministers and their +practise no one would ever suspect that they had ever read, or were +aware of the fact, that such a document existed. During their seminary +days little was heard on the subject, and so they are surprised when +they see how other pastors who studied in other seminaries take a firm +stand and refuse absolutely to officiate at any funeral where +lodge-chaplains are permitted to take any part in the service." (_L. u. +W._ 1917, 462.) Dr. J. Fry, professor in the Seminary of the General +Council at Mount Airy, advises in his _Pastor's Guide_: "Ministers +should not refuse to officiate at the funerals of persons who were not +members of the Church, or who died impenitent.... Neither should a +minister refuse to officiate because some lodge or other society may be +present and have its service at the grave.... He should finish his +service, and quietly step back." (64.) Again: "Pastors are sometimes +asked to preach special sermons before lodges.... If there should be any +good reason for their coming as a body, the service should be at an hour +which interferes with no other service." (75.) + + +CHILIASM. + +129. Official Attitude.--At the convention in Pittsburgh, in 1868, the +following declaration regarding Chiliasm was adopted by the General +Council: "2. The General Council has neither had, nor would consent to +have, fellowship with any synod which tolerates the 'Jewish opinions' or +'chiliastic opinions' condemned in the Seventeenth Article of the +Augsburg Confession. 3. The points on which our Confession has not been +explicit, or on which its testimony is not at present interpreted in +precisely the same way by persons equally intelligent and honest, and +equally unreserved and worthy of belief in the profession of adherence +to the Confessions, should continue to be the subject of calm, thorough, +Scriptural, and prayerful investigation, until we shall see perfectly +eye to eye both as regards the teaching of God's Word and the testimony +of our Church." (_Doc. Hist._, 207.) According to the General Council, +then, while the gross and carnal millennialism of the Jews must be +rejected, there is a chiliasm which should be tolerated and continue to +be the subject of further prayerful research. Pastors Bading, Adelbert, +and Klingmann of the Wisconsin Synod, however, immediately, protested +that they "rejected every form of chiliasm as against the Scriptures and +the Confessions." + +130. Kind of Chiliasm Tolerated.--The chiliasm which had always been +advocated by members of the General Synod, and which the General Council +refused to reject, was of a kind with the one entertained by Dr. John +Geo. Schmucker (1771--1854), the father of S.S. Schmucker, and by the +Drs. Helmuth, Lochman, Daniel Kurtz (died 1856), by Loehe and leaders of +the Iowa Synod, and especially by Dr. J.A. Seiss of the Pennsylvania +Synod. According to J.G. Schmucker, the Second Petition of the Lord's +Prayer and, among others, also the following passages of the New +Testament: Matt. 5, 35; 8, 11. 26. 29; Acts 3, 20. 21; Rom. 8, 20. 21; +11, 25. 26, treat of a coming millennium, in which Christ will reveal +Himself in a visible pavilion, take possession also of the civil power, +govern the world according to the principles of the New Testament, bring +about a great temporal happiness, prolong the life of the saints, etc. +These and similar views were endorsed and advocated also by the +_Lutheran_, the organ of the conservatives within the General Synod. +(_L. u. W._ 1861, 282.) In his _Last Times_ and _Lectures on the +Apocalypse_, Dr. Seiss taught: "There is a first resurrection at the +beginning of the Millennium, and a second resurrection at the end of the +Millennium. The one embraces the martyrs and saints,--who are 'blessed +and holy,' 'who have fallen asleep through Jesus,'--the other is the +resurrection of the remaining dead." Seiss also denied that the Papacy +is the true Antichrist. In the _Lutheran Cyclopedia_, published by +Jacobs and Haas, Dr. Seiss states: "That there have been teachings and +beliefs put forth, and usually called chiliasm, which are heretical and +subversive of the true Gospel, there can be no question. That Jesus and +His apostles, as well as the great body of primitive Christians, held +and taught what some call chiliasm, or millenarianism, can as readily be +substantiated. And that there are various open questions touching these +eschatological particulars on which the final word has not yet been +spoken, and which may be considered chiliasm, must likewise be +admitted." (87.) A chiliasm, then, which expects a time of universal +prosperity and glory for the Church on this side of the resurrection, a +time when the whole world will be converted to Christ, a time when peace +and righteousness will be established from the rivers to the ends of the +earth; a chiliasm which believes in a future twofold coming of Christ, a +double resurrection, a conversion and restoration of Israel, a future +personal Antichrist, embodying all antichristian elements,--such a +chiliasm, according to Seiss, the _Lutheran Cyclopedia_, and the General +Council, conflicts neither with the Bible, nor the Confessions, nor +Lutheran orthodoxy. (87 f.) + + +OTHER ABBERRATIONS. + +131. Reformed Tendencies.--In the _Lutheran and Missionary_, April 13, +1876, Dr. Seiss declared that it was an arrogance to make the doctrine +that unbelievers as well as believers receive the true body and blood of +Christ at the Lord's Table an article of faith. Nor was the Puritanic +doctrine concerning the divine obligation of the Sunday, universally +held in the General Synod, discarded by the synods and congregations +constituting the General Council. The Reading _Kirchenblatt_, December +19, 1903, wrote: "On the second Sunday in Advent the Philadelphia +Sabbath-Association celebrated its anniversary in the Evangelical +Lutheran Church (Rev. C.L. Fry) in Philadelphia. Addresses were made by +prominent Sabbath-workers. The leading speakers were the well-known John +Wanamaker (Presbyterian) and the Methodist Rev. Dr. Mutchler.... Pastors +of our own Synod foster un-Lutheran doctrine, and our superiors remain +silent. Do they know of it? Certainly! All the dailies brought the news: +first the invitations, then long reports. And what do our professors say +to it? They keep silence.... But why do so many of our pastors hold a +false, Puritan doctrine of the Sabbath? Because they have learned no +better. If the students in our institutions would learn Luther's true +doctrine concerning Sunday and sanctifying the holy-day, they could not, +after becoming pastors of Lutheran congregations, take part in the +fanatical doings of the sects. But, as it is, they go hand in hand with +the sects, invite them to their churches, and permit them to present a +false doctrine of the Sabbath to their Lutheran church-members." (_L. u. +W._ 1904, 38; 1901, 85.) In his _Catechist_ Dr. Gerberding teaches: "The +law of one holy day of rest: its purpose is rest for the body and +refreshment for the soul. All works of mercy and real necessity are +allowed." In 1816 the District Synod of Ohio refused to discipline a +pastor who did not believe that a child becomes a Christian, and is +endowed with faith, in Baptism. (_Luth. Witness_ 1918, 341. 356.) Rev. +Brenner: "How long ago has it been considered a good policy in the +General Council for its Mission Boards to agitate 'working together with +the denominations about us for the best interest of our fellow-men,' and +to 'agree on a program to lift the world to a higher level' by +'petitioning, demanding, and insisting upon special legislation for +abolishing the saloon,' and doing a thousand other things which is the +business, not of the Church, but of the State.... Individual synods have +passed prohibition resolutions. Individual pastors have gone entirely +too far in this matter. They are fanatical on the subject. Some have +almost gone daft over the liquor problem." (_L. u. W._ 1917, 465.) The +_Home Missionary_, December, 1916, declared that what the Lutheran +Church teaches in reference to the separation of Church and State is +"rot" and "fool" theology. (464.) + +132. Qualified Confessional Subscription.--It was an ultrasymbolism, not +countenanced by the Lutheran Church, when the _Lutheran and Missionary_ +maintained in its issue of September 27, 1867, that it was false, +dangerous, and inconsistent to declare it the duty of Lutherans to +compare for themselves the confessions received from the fathers with +the Scriptures, and if found erring, to correct them; that this +unbridled and radical theory, resting on the false assumption that +private investigation of the Scriptures is the foundation of our faith, +could not be proved by the Scriptures, and, reduced to practise, would +endanger all purity of doctrine, and finally destroy all ecclesiastical +communion. (_L. u. W._ 1867, 371.) In the _Lutheran_, March 5, 1908, +however, Dr. H.E. Jacobs, defending the other extreme, wrote: "Some of +the difficulties that men whom we esteem have urged against the +acceptance of all our Confessions are due to a misunderstanding of what +is involved in a confessional subscription. They conceive of the +Confessions as an external law that binds the conscience to a mechanical +acceptance of all [doctrinal matter] that may be found in these +documents. What is properly confessional in these documents is their +answers to the questions that rendered the framing of a confessional +statement necessary.... We must study our Confessions as an organism, +and appreciate the relation of each part to the other parts and to the +whole Confession. Where the heart of each confession and of each +doctrine confessed lies, must be the object of our search. To tear +passages from their connection, or to represent isolated passages and +merely incidental statements as having confessional authority is as +unfair to the Confessions as it is to the Holy Scriptures." (Jacobs +denies that all of the astronomical, geological, historical, and similar +statements of the Bible are true.) The _Lutheran World_, commenting on +Dr. Jacobs's statements, remarked: "But do not Dr. Jacobs's declarations +sound very much like a _quatenus_ rather than a _quia_ mode of +confessional subscription? For a long time we have not seen a +theological statement that reminds us so much of the 'substantially +correct' mode of subscription formerly in vogue in the General Synod. It +certainly does not sound as stalwart as the General Synod's resolution +in 1895, when she declared 'the Unaltered Augsburg Confession as +throughout in perfect consistence with that Word'--namely, the Word of +God." (_L. u. W._ 1908, 233.) In his _Book of Concord_, 1893, Dr. Jacobs +declared that only the primary, not the secondary, arguments of the +Confessions are involved in the subscription. "'The primary,' says +Jacobs, 'are the dogmas set forth with the purpose of showing they are +believed and taught by the Lutheran Church, the confutations of errors +whereby it wished to declare that it contradicted them, and formulas of +speech either expressly prescribed or proscribed.' The secondary are +'all those particulars introduced to confirm or illustrate the former,'" +etc. (2, 13.) + + +ROMANISM. + +133. Jacobs and Haas on Ordination, etc.--With respect to the doctrine +that the public office of the ministry originates in, and is transferred +by, the local congregation, Dr. Jacobs declared: "Nothing can be clearer +than the antagonism of our great Lutheran divines to this position, nor +anything be more convincing than their arguments against it." +(Gerberding, _The Lutheran Pastor_, 73.) Luther's language on this +question, Jacobs maintains, is "not guarded with the same care as that +of the later dogmaticians." (74.) According to Jacobs the right to call +a minister "belongs neither to the minister alone nor to the laity +alone, but to both in due order." (_Summary of Christian Faith_, 427. +424.) Dr. J.A.W. Haas: "The transference theory has been developed in +antithesis to Rome, and in it Lutherans have agreed with the Reformed." +It "makes the ministry an organ growing out of the congregation, which +ill befits the divine origin of the ministry." "In it the main accent is +placed on the vocation, of which ordination is the attestation." +(Gerberding, _l.c._, 77.) Ordination, Dr. Haas declares, is "the +prerogative of the whole Church." It includes "the separation for the +ministry with invocation of blessing and consecration under divine +approval." For this reason "ordination is not repeated." (112.) "This +realism of a divine gift [in ordination] was apparently not held by +Luther.... He declares the right of all believers to the office, because +of the spiritual priesthood, and sees the consecration (_Weihe_) in the +call. 'Ordo est ministerium et vocatio ministrorum ecclesiae.'" (116.) + +134. Gerberding and Fry on the Ministry.--In his _Lutheran Pastor_ Dr. +G.H. Gerberding, professor at the seminary of the General Council at +Maywood (Chicago), declares: It is clear "that this transference theory +is not held by our older theologians. Neither have we been able to find +any ground for it in Holy Scripture. Where is there a single proof that +the congregation, made up of believing priests, does on that account +possess the right to exercise the ordinary functions of the ministry? +Where is the proof that the ministry is created by the congregation? +Where is it written that the minister is amenable to the congregation? +If the congregation of laymen alone makes the minister, then it can also +unmake, or depose, him from his office. The whole theory is unscriptural +and unhistoric. Only the fanatical sects, which have a low view of the +means of grace, can, with any consistency, hold such a view." (82.) +Again: "This [the outward call] does not come from the ministry alone. +Neither does it come from the laity alone. It must come from the Church. +But the Church is neither the ministry without the people nor the +people without the ministry.... Christ, then, exercises His power to +call men into the ministry through the Church [ministers and laymen]. +The Church may exist either in the congregation or in the representative +Church [synod], made up of ministers and lay representatives of +congregations. Either the congregation, as defined above, not without a +pastor, or the representative body, made up also of pastors and people, +has a right to extend the outward call." (86.) "The transference theory +is unscriptural and not consistent with the Lutheran doctrine of the +means of grace." (110.) "It is unscriptural and un-Lutheran to hold that +the meaning and use of ordination consists essentially in this that it +publicly attests and satisfies the validity of the call." (110.) +Ordination "conveys the special grace needed for the special work of the +ministry." (120.) In his _Pastor's Guide_, 1915, Dr. J. Fry, professor +at the seminary of the General Council in Mount Airy, Philadelphia, +teaches: The call to the ministry "must come from God, from the Church +[synod] and from a particular place or congregation." (5.) "Of all these +qualifications [required for the ministry] the Church [synod] must be +the judge, and in her synodical organization and authority must extend +the call to the ministry." (6.) "A pastor serving a parish of more than +one congregation has no right to resign one congregation and retain the +others without the consent of the president of the synod to which the +parish belongs." (14.) "The call should also specify that either party +desiring to withdraw from the agreement [between the pastor and +congregation] must give three months' notice to that effect to the other +party. This provision will do away with the very objectionable custom in +some congregations of holding annual elections for a pastor." (9.) "The +power to decide and impose penalties belongs to the pastor and church +council." (92.) Dr. Fry regards "the pastor and church council as the +highest authority in all congregational matters." (98.) All of these +tenets are corruptions of the Scriptural and evangelical doctrines as +proclaimed again by Luther. Consistently developed, their terminus is +Rome. However, in the atmosphere of American liberty, where State and +Church are separated and the will of the former is not foisted on the +latter, Romanistic tendencies cannot thrive, nor did they ever to any +extent succeed in practise in the Lutheran Church, a Church whose +fundamental articles are the doctrines of justification by faith alone +and absolute spiritual freedom from every human authority. + + +SYNERGISM. + +135. Synergistic Teaching on Conversion.--In his _Confessional +Principle_, 1911, Dr. T.B. Schmauk rejects Melanchthon's _aliqua causa +discriminis in homine_, some kind of discriminating cause in man. +Schmauk writes: "Several qualities and motives in Melanchthon's nature, +including his humanist outlook on free will, and his tendency to +emphasize the necessity of good works, contributed to inspire him with +erroneous views, when the evangelical doctrine began to be wrought out +more expansively, and led him to find the cause for the actual variation +in the working of God's grace in man, its object. This subtle +synergistic spirit attacks the very foundation of Lutheranism, flows out +into almost every doctrine, and weakens the Church at every point. And +it was practically this weakness which the great multitude of +Melanchthon's scholars, who become the leaders of the generation of +which we are speaking, absorbed, and which rendered it difficult to +return, finally, and after years of struggle, to the solid ground once +more recovered in the Formula of Concord." (611; _L. u. W._ 1912, 33.) +Evidently, this is sound Lutheranism; and similar testimonies were +occasionally heard within the General Council throughout its history. +(_L. u. W._ 1904, 273: Rev. Rembe; 1917, 473: Rev. G.H. Schnur.) But it +was the song of rare birds. The synergistic note was struck much more +frequently and emphatically. For making his anti-synergistic utterances +Schmauk was called to order by Dr. Gerberding. And in 1916 Schmauk +himself opened the _Lutheran Church Review_ to L.S. Keyser, the zealous +exponent of synergism within the General Synod, who wrote: "Faith's +experience always includes the fact that, while the ability of faith is +divinely conferred, the exercise of that ability is never coerced, but +belongs to the domain of liberty.... The same is true of all volitions: +the ability to will is divinely implanted; the act itself belongs to the +sphere of freedom. The ability to repent is from God; the use of that +ability belongs to man's liberty." "The Scriptures never command men to +regenerate; they always put that category in the passive voice, 'Except +any one be born again'; but the Bible again and again commands men to +repent and believe, putting the verbs in the active voice, imperative +mood. What inconsistent commands these would be if man possessed no +freedom in the exercise of repentance and faith!" "God's fiat of the +individual's election unto salvation must have been decided upon in +foresight and foreknowledge of the whole content of faith, including +both its divine enablement and its human element of freedom." (65.) +Similar views on man's freedom and responsibility were expressed by Dr. +Haas in _Trends of Thought_, 1915. In his book, _The Way of Life_, 1917, +Dr. Gerberding explains: "After prevenient grace, however, begins to +make itself felt, then the will begins to take part. It must now assume +an attitude, and meet the question: Shall I yield to these holy +influences or not? One or the other of the two courses must be pursued. +There must be a yielding to the heavenly strivings or a resistance. To +resist at this point requires a positive act of the will. This act man +can put forth by his own strength. On the other hand, with the help of +that grace already at work in his heart, he can refuse to put forth that +act of his will, and thus remain non-resistant." According to Gerberding +man "may be said, negatively, to help towards his conversion." (167 ff.; +_L. u. W._ 1917, 214.) Prior to 1901 Rev. C. Blecher, by order of the +pastoral conference of Connecticut, belonging to the Council, published +a pamphlet which was recommended for the widest possible distribution by +the _Lutherische Herold_. In it Blecher, in direct opposition to the +Formula of Concord, Art. 11, section 60 ff., maintains: Two persons are +never in equal guilt when the one resists the grace of God from +inherited blindness and weakness, like Peter, while the other resists +contumaciously and purposely, like Judas." (_L. u. W._ 1901, 65; 1902, +144.) In 1900 Dr. Seiss had maintained in the _Lutheran_: "Conversion is +largely one's own act. God first makes it possible; but then the +responsibility rests upon ourselves to determine whether or not we will +comply with the truth brought to our understanding." (_L. u. W._ 1900, +243. 246.) Misstating historical facts and revealing his own synergistic +attitude, Dr. G.W. Sandt wrote editorially in the _Lutheran_ of March +27, 1919, concerning Dr. Stellhorn's polemics against the Missouri +Synod: "When the controversy with Missouri was at its height, he +[Stellhorn] could do no other but cast his soul into it and stand for +the defense of the universal call to grace and salvation as over against +the special call as Calvin and others teach it. He resented the charge +of synergism which came from his opponents, and renounced it as strongly +as any Missourian could." + +136. Synergistic Predestination.--Synergism in the doctrine of +conversion naturally leads to synergistic teaching on predestination. +Moreover, the doctrine of predestination is, as it were, the +bacteriological test whether one's Lutheran blood is really and +absolutely free from synergistic infection also in the doctrines of +conversion and justification. However, also in these tests as to the +doctrinal purity of the General Council the results, as a rule, were +negative. In his _Summary of Christian Faith_, 1905, Dr. H.E. Jacobs +gives the following presentation of the doctrine of predestination: +"Since God has not predestinated all that He has foreknown ('for all +that the perverse, wicked will of the devil and of men purposes and +desires to do and will do, God sees and knows before,' _ib._), but, in +His inexplicable will, has allowed a certain measure of freedom and +contingency in His creatures, and afforded them a degree of moral +responsibility, knowing from all eternity what will be the result of +their use of this trust, He also has determined how in every case their +decision and activity will be treated." "When, therefore, God has willed +that He will be determined in a certain decision by the free decision of +a creature, that freedom of the creature will certainly be guaranteed in +the result; but what in the exercise of this freedom the decision of the +creature will be, as well as the determination of His will concerning +it, He knows from all eternity, and makes His plans accordingly." "The +fulfilment or non-fulfilment of the proviso or condition is contained in +the foreknowledge which determined the free destination." (556 f.) +According to Jacobs, then, Predestination depends on the divine +foreknowledge of the use that man will make of the freedom with which +God has entrusted him. Plainly synergistic doctrine! + + +LIBERALISTIC TRENDS. + +137. Rejecting Verbal Inspiration.--Even the doctrines of the verbal +inspiration and the complete inerrancy of the Holy Scriptures have been +assailed by prominent representatives of the General Council and the +_Lutheran Church Review_. Dr. H.E. Jacobs, in his introduction to +_Biblical Criticism_ (1903) by Dr. J.A.W. Haas, states: "It is, +therefore, the Word and not the words; the divine substance and not the +particular human form in which that substance is clothed; the divine +truth and not the human language, with all its limitations, which, in +accommodation to human finiteness, the Holy Spirit employs, that is +'the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth.'" (18.) +"Nevertheless, the subordination of the words of Holy Scripture to the +Word in no way diminishes the need of the most reverent handling and the +most careful judgment of the words themselves when considered in the +place which they are intended to serve." (19.) "A text from Genesis and +one from John, one from the Psalms, and another from Romans, cannot +stand upon the same footing.... Many a precious passage in the Old +Testament can no longer be used as the sincere expression of Christian +faith in the light of the clearer revelation of the Gospel." (21.) +"There are few theorists who would assign the same degree of inspiration +to the statistics and rolls in Ezra or Chronicles as to those parts of +the New Testament for whose reading the dying ask when all other earthly +words have lost their interest. Even the distinction between the Petrine +and the Pauline theology, which the Tuebingen school so greatly +exaggerated, contains within it an element of truth, when the difference +is found to be one of degree, but not one of kind." (21.) "The time has +come when, in antagonism to such [radical] criticism, the Church must +offer a restatement of its doctrine of the Holy Scriptures. The theories +of our dogmaticians are not the confessional declarations of our Church. +The Augsburg Confession contains no statement on this topic." (26.) "It +is only the Formula of Concord that gives an official utterance.... But +it formulates no definition either of revelation or inspiration. It +simply presents to us in the Scriptures an inerrant and infallible judge +concerning all religious truth.... Religious truth, it declares, 'is to +be received only as revealed in God's Word," and for this Word we turn +to the Scriptures." (27.) "For the truths made known by such revelation +we are referred to a record. But that such a certain and indubitable +record should be made, another supernatural act is necessary, and this +is inspiration. This includes everything that is necessary to render the +record an infallible standard of all religious truth." (27.) "If the +verbal theory of inspiration mean that every word and letter are +inspired, so that the writer was purely passive and performed a merely +mechanical office, as 'the pen of the Holy Ghost,' this, we hold, is an +assumption for which we have no warrant.... All we need to know is that +in the Holy Scriptures we have a complete, clear, and unerring record of +revealed truth, that is made the standard, for all time, of religious +teaching." (28.) Evidently, then, Drs. Jacobs and Haas do not believe +that the Holy Scriptures everywhere are inspired and free from error. + +138. Bible Fallible in Scientific Matters.--Dr. J. Stump, professor in +the seminary of the General Council in Chicago, supporting Dr. Jacobs, +maintained in the _Lutheran Church Review_ of January, 1904: One cannot +speak of a confessional Lutheran doctrine of inspiration. Quenstedt's +doctrine of verbal inspiration is mechanical and in conflict with all +that we know of the Holy Ghost's activity; it cannot be proven from the +Scriptures, nor indeed is it necessary. Stump considers the Bible free +from error in its religious teachings, but not in its astronomical, +geological, physical, and similar statements. To quote literally: "The +holy writers were not inspired, however, to be 'teachers of astronomy, +or geology, or physics,' and no number of contradictions in this sphere +would shake our confidence in the absolute authority of Holy Scripture +as the infallible test of theological truth, and inerrant guide in all +matters of faith and practise." "The dogmaticians were led to maintain +it [the verbal inspiration] by the exigency of the times and the stress +of their severe dialectics. [The interest of the dogmaticians was to +present the clear doctrine of the Scriptures on inspiration.] And as a +result of their doctrines, they were logically obliged to claim the +absolute impossibility of any kind of error or inaccuracy whatsoever in +the Scriptures, even in unimportant externals; and further more to claim +that the Scriptures are not only the sole and infallible guide in +matters of religion, but also an infallible guide in matters of human +science so far as they touched upon any part of science's domain, +--claims which a careful examination of the Scriptures and the purpose +for which they were written do not bear out." (_L. u. W._ 1904, 85.) It +was in agreement with these views when the _Lutheran_, prior to 1904, +maintained that the Bible must be explained according to the modern +sciences. + +139. Other Symptoms of Liberalism.--As a rule, the inerrancy of the Holy +Scriptures is denied in the interest of the theory of evolution, a +doctrine absolutely incompatible with, and, consistently developed, +destructive of, the very fundamentals of Lutheranism. The evolutionary +doctrine, however, this antipode of Christian thought, which, wherever +digested, has proved to be the beginning of the end of Christianity, was +adopted also and publicly defended within the General Council. Rev. +Brenner says: "I have heard General Council ministers say that they did +not believe everything that is written in the Bible, and as they +continued to explain their views, it became very evident that they were +evolutionists." (_L. u. W._ 1917, 465.) Dr. T.E. Schmauk, the president +of the General Council, declared in the _Lutheran_, April, 1912: +"Evolution is the most wide-embracing, suggestive, and fascinating +theory of things and life that ever has been offered. In innumerable +cases it has been found to be in accord with nature and with history. In +itself it is not a cause, but a process. Evolution as a partial process +may be within Christianity." In 1915, in his book, _Trends of Thought_, +Dr. J.A.W. Haas wrote: "If evolution as a biological theory remains +within its limits and knows its sphere, it will not contradict the + claims of Christianity. If we avoid a materialistic philosophy in +biology, and if we do not make nature all-controlling, we can accept +evolution as not in disagreement with Christianity." "But, on the other +hand, Christianity must be careful not to demand as Biblical facts old +hypotheses of species. It must differentiate between statement in +popular religious language and the interpretation which tradition has +put upon Biblical statement. In this tradition there are elements of +past science which have unconsciously colored the Biblical account. +Christianity must also treat its document historically, and not be +disturbed if the temporal vessels of its religious truths are not shaped +scientifically. Were they thus shaped, they would fail in their very +purpose. It is general, popular, descriptive, childlike language, which +is universal and lasting. But Christianity must make certain great +reservations over against any theory of evolution. It must demand that +the doctrines of a personal God, of the final spiritual character of +life and its origin, and of the divine nature of man's spirit be not +violated." "Christianity can allow an evolution as the continuation of +creation." (_L. u. W._ 1915, 514.) The _Lutheran_, June 21, 1917, +published an article of L.S. Keyser in which he maintains: "Evolution is +God's method of developing that which He has previously created. The +evolutionary process may have continued for millenniums upon millenniums +until the introduction of life. Whether man's body was evolved or not, +surely his soul must have been created. We should use two terms: +creation and evolution. Together they afford an adequate explanation of +the universe as it is to-day." (_Lutheran Witness_ 1918, 372.) According +to _Lutherischer Herald_, October 15, 1904, Dr. Pick, of the General +Council, declared: "Harnack is all right." (_L. u. W._ 1904, 517. 564.) +"Keeping company with liberals, we are not surprised that some of our +ministers are liberals in both doctrine and practise," says Brenner in +_Dangerous Alliances_, 1917. "What is to be thought of the orthodoxy of +a General Council minister who says: 'God spoke to the Christians of +that day through their experience no less clearly than through the words +of St. Paul'? _Lutheran_, March 29, 1917, p. 7. What about the soundness +of the faith of a D.D. who can recommend _Hastings's Bible Dictionary_ +as a reliable work of reference? Rev. M.S. Waters recommends a book that +is full of the worst heresies; but the president of the New York and New +England Synod, Rev. W.M. Horn, when his attention is called to the +matter, bluntly declares: 'I will do nothing in the case referred to.' +On request of the District Synod of Ohio, the president of the General +Council appoints a committee, with Dr. Joseph Stump of the Chicago +Seminary as chairman. The committee investigates. It reports that 'The +General Council at this stage has no jurisdiction in the case.' The +charges were not denied. This question has not been settled, and so far +as we know, no effort has been made since the General Council met in +Rock Island, two years ago, to settle it. On the evidence submitted to +him, Dr. T.E. Schmauk, president of the General Council, stated in his +report: 'I am convinced that the man's views are unevangelical and +thoroughly subversive of the principles on which the General Council is +founded.' Gen. Council Minutes, 1915, p. 23." (_L. u. W._ 1917, 465.) + + +EQUIVOCAL ATTITUDE. + +140. Maintaining a "Wise" Neutrality.--In the controversies of the +Lutheran Church in America the General Council has persistently and on +principle refused to take a definite stand. "The General Synod," says +Dr. Singmaster, "has wisely refrained from making minute [!] theological +distinctions, and has thus obviated much useless discussion. Apart from +the special activities already alluded to, it has made few [quite a +number of false] special doctrinal deliverances." (_Dist. Doctr._, 60 +f.) Doctrinal neutrality was the policy also of the United Synod in the +South and of the General Council. The _Lutheran_, April 24, 1902, stated +that, over against the General Synod, the fathers of the Council +insisted on an unequivocal doctrinal and confessional basis, while, over +against Missouri and other synods, they left room for divergence in the +application of certain principles. "Kiss and make up," was the advice +Carl Swensson, writing in the _Lutheran Church Review_, gave to the +disrupted synods of the Lutheran Church in America. (_L. u. W._ 1903, +146.) With respect to the doctrinal differences between Ohio and +Missouri the _Lutheran Church Review_ wrote in 1917: "There are less +clear doctrines which despite the honest, sincere, and persistent +efforts of men to state them in harmony with the divine Word admit of an +honest difference of opinion." (450.) "There has been," says Dr. Jacobs, +"no controversy within the General Council on the subject of election, +and, therefore, no official declaration by the Council on the subject +that has so largely occupied the attention of a number of synods." +(_Dist. Doctr._, 1914, 116.) That applies to practically all of the +doctrines controverted within the Lutheran Church of our country. In +reference to them it has always been the policy of the General Council +to maintain a wise neutrality. In _Lutherisches Kirchenblatt_, December +29, 1900, Rev. Wischan of the General Council hit the nail on the head +when he said: "As to our doctrinal position, we find ourselves in a +peculiar situation. When questioned concerning our attitude toward those +doctrines which have been discussed in the most spirited manner, and +partly have become the occasion for ecclesiastical separations, we are +embarrassed for want of an answer. We know exactly what the position of +Missouri is in the doctrines of conversion and predestination. We know +also what Ohio teaches in opposition to Missouri. But who can tell us +what the General Council teaches on these points? Possibly, many among +us agree entirely neither with Missouri nor with Ohio. Possibly some +incline to the views of Ohio, while others prefer the Missourian +doctrine. But at present there is no clarity in these matters in our +midst, everybody apparently having the privilege of choosing his own +position without fearing that the Church might call him to account. Very +convenient indeed; but surely it is not the ideal. Or do those questions +lie on the periphery to such an extent that an answer is a matter of +absolute irrelevancy to a Lutheran Christian?" (_L. u. W._ 1901, 53.) + +141. Not in Sympathy with Missouri.--The unionistic and indifferentistic +position of the General Council with respect to the differences in +doctrine and practise prevailing within the Lutheran synods of the +United States naturally led to a high degree of animosity and unfriendly +charges against the Missouri Synod. Her attitude of certainty and +conviction in the doctrines which she championed was branded and +denounced as "intolerance," "bigotry," "narrow-mindedness," +"exclusiveness," "aloofness," "pride," "Pharisaism," etc. In his +_Problems and Possibilities_ Dr. Gerberding wrote: "We have often said +that this body of Lutherans, more than all others, has saved the Germans +of the Middle West from being swamped in materialism and rationalism. +Honor to whom honor is due. But the very prosperity of these Lutherans +has made them haughty, self-sufficient, self-righteous. A tone of +Pharisaism and of infallibility seems to run through their utterances. +They seem not only to believe in an infallible revelation from God, but +in themselves as infallible interpreters of that revelation. Every one +who does not accept their interpretation is branded as a heretic of the +same kind and quality as those against whom the apostles warn, and whom +believers are not to receive into their houses nor bid Godspeed. All who +do not accept their interpretation in every jot and tittle are anathema +in the apostolic sense. Their interpretations, glosses, and theses, and +resolutions as to what the Confessions mean also seem to be infallible. +Woe be to the Lutheran who dares even to question their conclusions!" +(162.) Revealing the same animus, Dr. G.W. Sandt published in the +_Lutheran_ of December 12, 1918: "The new and powerful stream of +immigration, which was headed by Dr. Walther, and out of which has grown +the Synodical Conference, with its more than 800,000 communicants and +the largest theological seminary in the land, represents the reaction +against the unionism of the State Church in Saxony. A man of deep piety, +strong convictions, and sound theological learning, he became the +apostle of a sturdy confessionalism, as orthodox as that of +Hengstenberg, as vital and spiritual as that of Spener, and as fruitful +in good works as that of Francke. He and his followers nursed that +orthodoxy so faithfully and fenced it in so securely as to make +Missourianism the synonym for the straitest sect of Lutheranism in the +world. A doctrine of rigid aloofness and separatism was developed as a +wall of defense, as binding upon a Missourian's conscience as almost any +article in the Augsburg Confession could possibly be. It was inevitable +that he and his followers should come into conflict with such leaders as +Loehe and the Fritschels (founders of the Iowa Synod), with Loy and +Stellhorn and Allwardt in the Joint Synod of Ohio, and with Schmidt in +the United Norwegian Church as it then existed. The controversies on the +ministry, on predestination, on conversion and synergism, while +expressive of deep conviction and loyalty to the Truth, do not form a +chapter in our history of which Lutherans can feel proud. When orthodoxy +becomes so strict and strait-laced and legalistic, when it stands up so +erect as to lean backward, both the interests of the Truth and of the +Church are bound to suffer. The cause of unity is harmed, and union or +cooperation is rendered impossible." However, if the paramount object of +the Lutheran Church always was, is now, and ever must be, to maintain +the truth and the unity in the Spirit, then, whatever in other respects +may justly be said in praise of the General Council, her neutral +attitude toward the doctrinal differences of the Lutheran synods in +America, though temporarily it may have proved expedient in the interest +of external union, was in reality neither Christian, nor Lutheran, nor +conducive to the unity or any other real and abiding blessing of our +beloved Church. For while indeed forbearance also with the weak in +knowledge and faith is a mark peculiar to the Christian spirit, +indifferentistic silence as to what is true or false, right or wrong, is +neither a virtue, nor, in the long run, will ever prove to be of true +advantage anywhere, least of all in the Lutheran Church. + + + +THE UNITED SYNOD IN THE SOUTH. + + +ORGANIZATION. + +142. Synods Participating in the Union.--The United Synod of the +Evangelical Lutheran Church in the South was organized June 23, 1886, in +Roanoke, Va., after a doctrinal basis had been agreed upon at a +preliminary meeting in Salisbury, N.C., 1884. The following synods +participated in the union: 1. The North Carolina Synod, organized in +1803, and since 1820 prominent in the General Synod. 2. The South +Carolina Synod, organized in 1824, of which Dr. J. Bachman, who opposed +the confessionalism of the Tennessee Synod, was a member. Bachman +(1790-1874) served the same congregation in Charleston for sixty years, +and became renowned also as a scientist. E.J. Wolf: "Bachman was in the +first rank of ornithologists in his day. With Audubon, whose two sons +married his two daughters, he prepared _The Birds of America_ and _The +Quadrupeds of America_. He was a member of numerous scientific societies +and numbered among his correspondents such men as Humboldt and Agassiz." +(_Lutherans in America_, 475.) 3. The Virginia Synod, organized 1829, in +which S.S. Schmucker, J.G. Morris, C.P. Krauth, J.A. Seiss, and B.M. +Schmucker were active for a time. 4. The Southwest Virginia Synod, +organized in 1841 and adhering to its loose doctrinal basis till 1881. +5. The Georgia Synod, organized in 1860, of which the _Lutheran +Cyclopedia_ remarked: "Half of the pastors are compelled to engage in +secular pursuits for a support." At present the Georgia Synod is one of +the most prosperous in the Southern group. There is no pastor of a +regular parish of the Synod who is not supported by his parishioners. +The members of the Georgia Synod are for the greater part descendants of +the Salzburgers, who, in 1734, founded Ebenezer, twenty-five miles from +Savannah. 6. The Mississippi Synod, organized in 1860. 7. The Tennessee +Synod, founded 1820. 8. The Holston Synod, which branched off from the +Tennessee Synod in 1860.--These synods are almost entirely English. Very +few of its congregations have regular German services beside the +English. The synodical Publishing House and Theological Seminary are +located in Columbia, S.C. Other schools are: Newberry College in +Newberry, S.C.; Roanoke College in Salem, Va.; Lenoir College in +Hickory, N.C. The official paper of the United Synod, the _Lutheran +Church Visitor_, has appeared for fourteen years with the motto, "God's +Word, Our Rule; Christ, Our Pattern; A Pure Faith, Our Watchword." Dr. +W.H. Greever, editor of the _Visitor_ from 1904 to 1914, now edits the +_American Lutheran Survey_. In addition to several benevolent +institutions, the Southern Synods support a heathen mission in Japan +since 1892. In 1886 the United Synod numbered 32,000 communicants, +14,000 belonging to the Tennessee and Holston Synods. The figures prior +to the Merger in 1918 show 257 pastors, 484 congregations, 53,226 +communicant, and 73,510 baptized members. + +143. Origin of General Body South.--In 1863 the North Carolina, South +Carolina, Virginia, and Southwest Virginia Synods withdrew from the +General Synod because of the Civil War and offensive resolutions adopted +by the General Synod with respect to Southern Lutherans and their +attitude toward the war. In the same year the four synods, uniting with +the Georgia Synod, organized the "General Synod of the Evangelical +Lutheran Church in the Confederate States of America." After the war +(1866) this name was changed to "Evangelical Lutheran General Synod in +North America," and subsequently to "General Synod of the Evangelical +Lutheran Church in the South." In the interest of union, the Tennessee +Synod, which occupied a truly Lutheran position and stood for an +unqualified adoption of the Lutheran symbols, sent a delegate to the +General Synod South in 1867. Seventeen years later, 1884, at Salisbury, +N.C., a doctrinal basis was adopted, which in 1886 resulted in the +organization of the United Synod in the South, now merged into the +United Lutheran Church in America. + +DOCTRINAL BASIS. + +144. From Laxism to Confessionalism.--The secession of the four Southern +synods in 1863 was not caused by any doctrinal differences or +dissatisfaction with, and opposition to, the un-Lutheran confessional +basis and unionistic practise of the General Synod. Nor was it of any +immediate consequence as to the doctrinal and confessional attitude of +the General Synod South, organized in the same year. Moreover, at its +first convention in 1863, the General Synod in the Confederate States, +the liberal-minded Bachman presiding, after animated discussions, +declared in favor of a qualified subscription to the Augsburg +Confession. Unanimously and solemnly the following doctrinal basis was +adopted: 1. That the Holy Scriptures are the sole infallible rule of +faith and practise; 2. that the Apostles' Creed, the Nicene Creed, and +the Augustana "contain the fundamental doctrines of the Holy +Scriptures"; 3. that, whereas different views concerning some doctrines +of the Augustana have ever obtained and still obtain among the members, +Synod permits "the full and free exercise of personal judgment with +reference to these articles." (_Dist. Doctr._, 1893, 171.) Doctrines in +question were those of the Lord's Supper, absolution, baptismal +regeneration, Sunday, etc., as set forth by Schmucker and Kurtz. +However, already in the revised constitution, printed in the _Book of +Worship_, 1864, the third, the most offensive point of this basis, was +omitted. And soon after contact with the Tennessee Synod and the desire +to draw her into the union of the general body, led to a movement in the +confessional direction. In 1867 the General Synod South resolved to deny +approval to publications supporting principles in conflict with the +Augustana, and to refuse appointment of theological professors holding +doctrines in conflict with this Confession. According to the _Book of +Worship_ of 1868 the candidates for ordination were required to take an +oath of fidelity to the Word of God and the Lutheran Confessions based +thereon. The Form of Confirmation contained a pledge of lifelong +fidelity to the Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. In 1872 +Synod adopted an essay of Dr. Dorsch, in which he declares that the +General Synod South unequivocally confesses the Augsburg Confession in +its true, real, and original sense. According to the Constitution of the +Theological Seminary (1873) the professors acknowledged, and subscribed +to, "the Augsburg Confession, as in all its parts in harmony with the +Rule of Faith and a correct exhibition of the doctrines of the Word of +God." In 1880 the General Synod South informed the Tennessee and Holston +Synods that she adopts the secondary Lutheran symbols "as in accord +with, and an unfolding of, the teaching of the Unaltered Augsburg +Confession." In 1882 the General Synod declared itself ready to enter +into organic union with other Lutheran bodies "on an unequivocal +Lutheran basis." Several years later, as stated, the union was effected. + +145. Sound Lutheran Basis.--The confessional basis agreed upon 1884 and +adopted at the organization in 1886 embraces the following articles: "1. +The Holy Scriptures, the inspired writings of the Old and New +Testaments, the only standard of doctrine and church discipline. 2. As +a true and faithful exhibition of the doctrines of the Holy Scriptures +in regard to matters of faith and practise, the three ancient symbols, +the Apostolic, the Nicene, and the Athanasian Creeds, and the Unaltered +Augsburg Confession of Faith. Also the other Symbolical Books of the Ev. +Lutheran Church, _viz.:_ the Apology, the Smalcald Articles, the Smaller +and Larger Catechisms of Luther, and the Formula of Concord, as true and +Scriptural developments of the doctrines taught in the Augsburg +Confession, and in the perfect harmony of one and the same faith." +Substantially this was the basis of the Tennessee Synod; its adoption at +Salisbury must be regarded as a triumph of the confessional fidelity of +this body. "The strength of the Tennessee Synod," says Dr. E.T. Horn, +"was given to the maintenance of orthodoxy; nor are we able to deny that +their championship was needed and has been effectual." Among the other +factors contributing to this result the testimony of Walther and the +Missouri Synod must not be overlooked and underrated. Dr. A.G. Voigt, +professor in the Seminary at Columbia, S.C., admits: "Lutherans in the +South could not remain untouched by the influences that were at work in +other parts of the country. The increasing appreciation of confessional +Lutheranism which in the middle half of the nineteenth century passed +over from Germany into and through this country also gradually permeated +the South. It served to deepen the devotion of the Tennessee Synod to +the historic Lutheran Confessions, and to awaken in the other synods a +growing esteem and affection for the same Confessions." (_Dist. Doctr._, +1914, 181.) + + +INDIFFERENTISM + +146. Actual Conditions.--All sectarian churches formally acknowledge the +Bible, yet they reject many of its doctrines. So a Lutheran synod may, +in a formal and official way, accept the Lutheran symbols, and at the +same time ignore or reject its material content. Witness the Lutheran +state churches in Europe and the General Synod in America. In a measure, +the actual conditions also within the congregations and district synods +of the United Synod in the South have always been in conflict with their +truly Lutheran basis. False doctrines, especially pertaining to the +Puritanic observance of the Sabbath, were held and taught within the +Synod. Without a word of criticism, for example, the _Lutheran Church +Visitor_, July 13, 1911, published the following from the _Sunday-school +Times_: "Don't use a public vehicle on Sunday unless you are prayerfully +convinced that it would be sinning against God and man not to do so. Is +not that a reasonable and safe principle? Is any other principle a safe +one? A very limited amount of Sunday travel seems to be necessary. +Probably more than ninety-nine one-hundredths of it is unnecessary and +therefore wrong. To use a trolley car or train to go to church on Sunday +may or may not be right; it is simply a question of God's expressed will +for the individual at that particular time. To walk, or to attend +another church would sometimes be the solution. To make a mere +convenience of Sunday travel, under any circumstances, would seem to be +a violation of the spirit of the day. But God will make each case clear +to each surrendered seeker after the light of God's will, if the doing +of God's will and the avoiding of sin by the widest possible margin are +the only impelling motives." + +147. Ignoring Intersynodical Differences.--With respect to the doctrines +controverted within the Lutheran Church of America the United Synod has +always maintained a neutral and indifferentistic attitude. Dr. Horn +writes: "It can be said of the doctrinal basis of the Southern Synods +that it is the sincere and intelligent confession of the churches. By +this I do not mean that the Lutheran churches in the South have pondered +all the controversies in which the symbols originated, and to which they +gave the answer; nor that they have accepted all the inferences which +sincere Lutherans now draw from the Confessions, and even may be +justified in urging." (_Dist. Doctr._, 1893, 183.) Dr. Voigt: "The +United Synod has no distinctive doctrines apart from the distinctive +doctrines of common confessional Lutheranism." (_Dist. Doctr._, 1914, +179.) In other words, the United Synod accepts only those doctrines in +which all agree who claim to be confessional Lutherans. The _Lutheran +Church Visitor_, March 15, 1917, wrote: "The United Synod has the +fundamental doctrines, rests on them, and is satisfied with them. Not, +perhaps, the doctrines fundamental to Missouri, but fundamental to +Christian faith and life." Ridiculing the doctrines of conversion and +election as taught by the Missouri Synod, the _Visitor_ continues: +"These doctrines are the simon-pure, unadulterated, unalloyed Lutheran +doctrines! Missourianism and Lutheranism are convertible terms!"-- +Regarding the fact that the United Synod has refused to take a definite +stand with respect to the doctrinal differences within the Lutheran +Church, the _Visitor_, March 15, 1917, remarked: "Still, husband and +wife may live together in peace and happiness although they do not agree +on every point. It may even be understood that some subjects are +altogether taboo." This, evidently, is the spirit of indifferentism, +inherited from the General Synod, with whom, in accordance with the law +of spiritual affinity, the United Synod exchanged fraternal delegates, +and is now organically united in the United Lutheran Church in America. + +148. Old Spirit of Indifferentism.--To what extent the leaven of +indifferentism was active also within the United Synod in the South +appears from the following utterances of a layman in the _Lutheran +Church Visitor_: "The spirit that developed this country, and that which +has animated the clergy of the Lutheran Church, are antipodal. This +unprogressive spirit, together with their aversion to innovations of all +kinds, their refusal to deal with present-day problems, their mania for +ramming doctrine wholesale down the throats of their communicants, their +spirit of aloofness from ministers of other denominations, and their +refusal to cooperate with them, has been the chief cause of this lack of +progress in our Church. They have, in their strict and even painful +adherence to dogma and form, taken the spirit and life out of the Church +and its worship. The enthusiasm and warmth of natural religion have +given way to a religion of form and ceremony. They have taken the life +and beauty out of the Bible, and made it a code of dry and inspired +theology. Instead of preaching, they have almost invariably talked +theology, and theology alone. Our Church has never been in need of +would-be theologians, but we have been and are now sorely in need of +pastors and preachers. They have discouraged honest investigation, if +that investigation has the least taint of rationalism. In their supreme +disgust for innovations they have made our Church as inflexible and +unfit for the various conditions of modern life as the customs and +practises of the Middle Ages would be out of place now. They have been +completely oblivious of the fact that there are necessarily change and +progress in theology and religion as well as in everything else. True, +there are certain fundamentals that never grow old; equally true is it +that there are some non-essentials that change with the varying hours. +The non-essential has been made essential, and so strongly insisted upon +that it is almost a sacrilege even to insinuate against its authority." +The _Visitor_, March 15, 1917, referring to this publication, remarks: +"Well, we admit the excerpt from the article is pretty raw. But the +_Visitor_ believes in allowing some freedom even to the religious +press.... Unanimity ere long becomes monotony. _Varietas sine unitate +diversitas. Unitas sine varietate mors_." + + +UNLUTHERAN PRACTISE. + +149. Lodge-, Pulpit-, and Altar-Fellowship.--Forbearance with all manner +of weakness in doctrine and practise does not _per se_ conflict with +confessional Lutheranism. But a refusal on principle to take the correct +position, also as to Lutheran practise, is indeed incompatible with true +Lutheranism. The attitude of the United Synod, however, toward lodge-, +pulpit-, altar-, and church-fellowship has always been of a kind which +practically amounted to a denial of its confessional basis. Dr. Voigt +confesses: "As a matter of fact and actual practise, Lutheran ministers +in the United Synod do not invite others to occupy their pulpits +indiscriminately; and although in some churches the custom of extending +a general invitation at Communion still continues from earlier times, +the practise is diminishing, and in most churches has passed away with +the introduction of the Common Service. As to secret societies, there is +not much agitation against them except in the Tennessee Synod, and a +number of United Synod ministers are known to be members of such orders; +but the sentiment of most ministers is unfavorable to them." (_Dist. +Doctr._, 1914, 188.) "Discussions in regard to stricter or more lax +practises have never led to divisions nor issued in official +pronouncements of distinctive developments of confessional position." +"Firm as they are in their convictions, Southern Lutherans are +generally adverse to controversy. This is probably the true explanation +of the conservative attitude of the United Synod towards the questions +connected with pulpit- and altar-fellowship and secret societies. There +are differences of view on these questions existing in the United Synod. +But the disposition has always been not to fight the differences out, +but to wait for time to bring about unanimity in regard to them. In the +formation of the United Synod peculiar circumstances thrust these +questions upon the notice of the body; but it declined to legislate in +regard to them because it was unwilling to go through the throes of +controversy which a decision upon them involved. Combined with this +aversion to controversy, there exists an evangelical [?] impatience of +legal constraint, which impels men to act upon principle rather than by +rule." "It has already been stated that the Tennessee Synod is unique +among the synods constituting the United Synod in having rules against +pulpit- and altar-fellowship and secret societies; and the United Synod +has pledged itself not to employ in its general work, in its theological +seminary, in its mission operations, in the editing of its official +organ, any person who would foster secretism or unionistic fellowship." +(_Dist. Doctr._, 1914, 147 f.; 1893, 182.) + +150. Attitude toward Non-Lutheran Denominations.--The United Synod as +such did not establish an exchange of delegates with any of the +non-Lutheran churches. However, invitations to preach in their pulpits +on the occasion of synodical conventions were not refused. The _Lutheran +Church Visitor_, March 15, 1917: "Our United Synod ministers are not +ashamed to speak of our Evangelical Lutheran testimony before +Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians, _et al., et id genus omne._" But +the fact is that at such occasions the distinctive features of +Lutheranism are, as a rule, passed over in silence; that full fellowship +of prayer and service is indulged in; and that the spirit of +indifferentism as well as the desire, on the part of the Lutheran synods +and congregations, for returning the comity and kindness received at the +hands of Methodists, etc., is encouraged and strengthened. As such, +furthermore, the United Synod did not take an active part in +interdenominational organizations, but, on the other hand, did not +consider it a denial of the truth when its pastors openly and heartily +participated in local ministerial unions, or when its congregations +occasionally joined in union religious meetings. Thus Drs. Horn and +Drach took part in the Interdenominational Conference at Edinburgh in +1910. The _Lutheran Church Visitor_ encouraged participation in +interdenominational meetings; _e.g._, in its issue of April 6, 1916, the +Men's National Missionary Congress in Washington, D.C. "So it has done, +does, and shall continue to do, and not be ashamed," declared the +_Visitor_, March 15, 1917, and explained in defense of this attitude +toward non-Lutheran bodies: "The United Synod believes that the lump +[non-Lutheran churches] cannot receive 'absent treatment,' and that the +Lutheran leaven cannot be placed in the lump from a prohibitive +distance." However, according to the history of the Lutheran Church in +America, in practically all of the interdenominational movements and +meetings participated in by Lutherans, the rule has been not to confess, +but, directly or indirectly, to deny the distinctive truths of +Lutheranism. Speaking of the United Synod, Dr. Voigt remarked: "Rigid +exclusiveness is quite foreign to its spirit." + + +TENNESSEE AND HOLSTON SYNODS. + +151. Tennessee Lowering Her Standard.--The Tennessee Synod, whose early +history is dealt with extensively in _American Lutheranism, Part I_, was +the main factor in bringing about the change in the confessional +attitude of the Southern synods. The _Lutheran Church Visitor_, March 8, +1917: "The Tennessee Synod helped the other synods to rise and regain +their Lutheran feet. Since then she has helped them to keep their feet +and to win stronger foothold." "The ministers of the Tennessee Synod," +says Dr. Horn, "trained as they have been for the most part in the homes +and companionship of older ministers, have not a wide and varied +culture, but possess a profound acquaintance with the writings of Luther +and a ready and genial knowledge of the Holy Scriptures." (_Dist. +Doctr._, 1893, 178.) In the revised constitution of 1866 the original +confessional statement of the Tennessee Synod, adopting the Augsburg +Confession without limitation or qualification, was enlarged to include +also the Apology, the Smalcald Articles, the Smaller and Larger +Catechisms of Luther, and the Formula of Concord "as true Scriptural +developments of the doctrines taught in the Augsburg Confession." In +the same year the Tennessee Synod, following the example of her +daughter, the Holston Synod, eliminated from her constitution the +objectionable features respecting incorporation, theological seminaries, +synodical treasuries, etc. Among the Southern synods the Tennessee Synod +alone adopted rules against pulpit- and altar-fellowship and against +holding membership in secret societies. Her endeavors to induce the +United Synod to take a similar position failed. Indeed, the original +constitution, submitted in 1884 at Salisbury, contained a paragraph +against pulpit- and altar-fellowship, membership in lodges, and +chiliasm. And when this paragraph was rejected, Polycarp Henkel, +representing the Tennessee Synod, refused to vote for the constitution. +In 1886 the Tennessee Synod adopted the Salisbury basis, but added a +declaration which condemned chiliasm, lodge-services, pulpit- and +altar-fellowship, and all church union and cooperation conflicting with +pure Lutheran doctrine, and recommended that the United Synod embody in +its by-laws a paragraph pledging theological professors to teach nothing +contrary to these principles or the doctrines of the Lutheran Church. At +the meeting of the United Synod in Savannah, 1887, Socrates Henkel +proposed a corresponding by-law, which, however, was tabled till the +next meeting. The Tennessee Synod reaffirmed its resolution with the +threat that they would not cooperate with the United Synod until a +by-law embodying the four points had been adopted. However, when the +North Carolina Synod, with equal determination, took the opposite stand, +Tennessee yielded, compromising on, and contending herself with, the +resolution adopted in 1900 in which the United Synod assured the +Tennessee Synod that, in their common work, they would earnestly +endeavor to avoid everything that might tend to burden the consciences +of brethren in any synod, and that all synods were equally bound to +direct their practise and fulfil their duties according to their honest +and conscientious conviction of the true and real sense of God's Word +and the Confessions. Thus the Tennessee Synod, untrue to her noble +traditions, finally did waive her demand for a correct Lutheran position +on the part of the United Synod with reference to the four points. +Tennessee closed her eyes to the fact that she remained responsible not +only for what was done conjointly with the other synods in the United +Synod, but also for the practise of these synods as such. Unionism, once +again, had gained the victory. And now, after decades of fraternal +intercourse with the General Synod, the Tennessee Synod is organically +united with the synods in opposition to which she organized in 1820. + +152. Holston Synod.--The Ev. Luth. Holston Synod was organized January +2, 1861, by 11 ministers and 16 congregations (with a communicant +membership of 1,000) residing in East Tennessee and neighboring counties +of Virginia, after having received their honorable dismission for this +purpose from the Tennessee Synod, which by this action was left without +a single congregation or minister in the State whose name she bears. The +step was taken not because of any dissatisfaction with the doctrinal +position of the Tennessee Synod, but on account of the inconvenience and +expensiveness of attending her conventions. However, the peculiar +attitude of the Tennessee Synod toward theological seminaries, +incorporation, synodical treasuries, etc., contributed to the +separation. (_Holston Minutes_, 1861 ff.) In his Quartocentennial +Address, 1886, Dr. A.J. Brown, for more than twenty-five years president +of the Holston Synod, stated: "There was at the time of her formation, +and had been for some time prior to this, considerable dissatisfaction +with the constitution of the Tennessee Synod, and strong efforts were +being made to have it amended. It was contended by the advocates of +reform that that instrument contained features and prohibitions which +cramped and crippled the energies of the Church in the prosecution of +her sublime mission, and that it no longer reflected the views of the +whole Synod." The Holston Synod, then, did not model her polity after +that of the mother synod. (_Minutes_, 1886.) But, while this was +undoubtedly a progress in the right direction, the strict Lutheranism of +the Holston Synod did not prove to be as pronounced and consistent as +that of the Tennessee Synod had been. In 1886 the Holston Synod numbered +15 pastors and 27 congregations, with a communicant membership of 2,000, +compared with 1,800 communicant members at present. The minutes of the +Holston Synod record numerous reports and resolutions with respect to +Mosheim Institute, which, however, proved to be a failure. + +153. Sound Doctrinal Position.--As a preliminary basis the Holston +Synod, in 1861, adopted the Augsburg Confession and Luther's Smaller +Catechism, at the same time declaring that "we do not intend to +repudiate the rest of the Symbolical Books so called, and unlutheranize +those who adopt them in connection with the Symbols which we have +adopted, because we are satisfied that they, rightly understood and +explained, contain nothing contrary to our doctrinal basis, and that we +will, therefore, not refuse to fellowship those who adopt the collective +body of the Symbolical Books as their Confessional Basis." (_Minutes_, +1861, 6.) Owing to the unsettled state of affairs in consequence of the +Civil War, the constitution was not ratified till 1865. Its second +article, "Of the Confessional Basis," reads as follows: "1. We +acknowledge the canonical books of the Old and New Testaments as the +only infallible rule of faith and practise. 2. We acknowledge the +Augsburg Confession of Faith and Luther's Smaller Catechism as a correct +statement of the doctrines of the Christian system of which they treat, +and no minister connected with this Synod shall hold or preach, nor +shall any church connected with this Synod, or any private member of any +Church so connected, hold or propagate, any doctrine which may be +repugnant to these universally acknowledged symbols of the Evangelical +Lutheran Church." (_Minutes_, 1865, 11.) In its revised constitution of +1895 the Holston Synod adopted all the Lutheran symbols. + +154. Entering Various Unions.--In 1867 the Holston Synod resolved to +unite with the General Synod South. In the following year A.J. Brown +reported that he had been present at the last session of the General +Synod, and that he was highly pleased with the action of that Synod, and +felt assured that "it would be instrumental in bringing about much good +in our Lutheran Zion." (_Minutes_, 1868, 4.) In 1872, however, a +resolution was adopted to withdraw from the General Synod because "there +is much that is un-Lutheran in doctrine and practise in individual +members" of that Synod. (7.) Two years later a union was effected with +the General Council. (_Minutes_, 1874, 13.) In 1880 the delegate to the +General Council "presented in glowing words the intellect, the breadth +of view, the depth and elegance of culture, the sincere love and burning +zeal for the soul and God's holy truth, of those composing that body." +(19.) In 1885 the Holston Synod endorsed the action of the Diet held at +Salisbury (1884), and declared its readiness to join the remainder of +the Southern Lutheran synods, on that basis, to form a General Union. +(11.) In his Presidential Report, 1886, A.J. Brown stated with respect +to the Salisbury agreement: "I will barely add that the union was +effected without any compromise of principle or proper feeling of +self-respect on either side, and on a basis strictly Lutheran, and with +a unanimity unprecedented in the history of similar movements." (7.) In +1890 the delegate to the United Synod reported: "While united in +doctrine, it is to be regretted that we are not so fully united in +practise, as was made apparent by the action of the United Synod on the +'By-laws, Rules of Order, and Regulations,' and particularly in regard +to work. This section, which is the bone of contention, embraces +substantially the celebrated 'Four Points.' And even here the difference +is not so much in principle as in the practical application of +principles. There are extremes on both sides. An attempt to embody the +Four Points' in our basis of union would have defeated the organic union +of our Southern Church in one general body; the adoption of the +regulation in question would now disrupt it. We advise moderation. The +union of our Church in the South is of too much importance to be broken +up, or even hazarded by the adoption of any measures not clearly +required by our doctrinal standards, or of doubtful expediency." (15.) +Thus also with the Holston Synod union had become the primary, unity a +secondary consideration. + + +COMMON SERVICE. + +155. A Chief Bond of Union.--The relations of the United Synod with the +General Council and the General Synod were of a most cordial nature, +manifesting themselves in the exchange of fraternal delegates +(established by Southern General Synod in 1878) and in various +cooperations, especially in the preparation and use of the Common +Service. Concerning the exchange of delegates the sentiment was voiced +again and again: "It was the joy of the members of the United Synod to +have present the brethren of those bodies, to dwell together in goodly +fellowship for a little season. Every heart was glad to feel that we +were one in the faith and usage of the Evangelical Lutheran Church." +Also with respect to the United Synod the Merger in 1918 came as a ripe +fruit of the cordial relations which had been cultivated for decades. +One of the chief bonds of union during this period was the Common +Service, for which the United Synod justly claimed to be entitled to +special credit. The first impulse for such a unity in service came from +H.M. Muhlenberg. In a letter of November 5, 1783, four years before his +death, he expressed the desire "that it would be a most delightful and +advantageous thing if all the Evangelical Lutheran congregations in +North America were united with one another by using the same order of +service." Among others who later entertained the same wish was Charles +Philip Krauth. In a letter to his son, April 2, 1857, he said: "Whilst +I am anxious for such an agreement in regard to a doctrinal basis as +will embrace all the wings of Lutheranism in our country, I very much +wish we could agree on forms of worship in accordance with the +liturgical character of our Church, and erect a barrier against the +Fanaticism and Methodism which so powerfully control some of our +ministers and people." (Spaeth, _C.P. Krauth_, 1, 380.) _The English +Liturgy_ (1860), the _Church Book_ (1868), and the _Kirchenbuch_ (1877) +of the Pennsylvania Synod and the _Book of Worship_ of the General +Synod, South, may be regarded as preliminary steps toward the +realization of this wish. + +156. Cooperation of General Bodies.--In a letter to the convention of +the General Synod South, at Winchester, Va., 1870, Dr. Bachman of +Charleston, four years before his death, expressed it as the strongest +desire of his heart that all English-speaking Lutherans should have a +common service. Pursuant to, and in accordance with, this request the +General Synod South in 1874 elected a committee to prepare "The Common +Service for the Use of Evangelical Lutheran Congregations." In 1876 +Synod proposed negotiations on this matter with the General Synod and +the General Council. The General Council, in 1879, resolved to +cooperate, "provided the rule which shall decide all questions in its +[Common Service] preparation shall be: The common consent of the pure +Lutheran liturgies of the sixteenth century, and, when there is not an +entire agreement among them, the consent of the largest number of those +of greatest weight." In 1883 the General Synod declared her readiness to +cooperate in accordance with the rule proposed by the General Council. +The work was completed by a Joint Committee appointed by the three +general bodies, B.M. Schmucker serving as chairman. In 1888 the _Common +Service_ appeared in two editions, one published at Columbia, S.C., by +the United Synod South, the other at Philadelphia by the General Synod. +In his preface to the Southern edition B.M. Schmucker said: "The Common +Service here presented is intended to reproduce in English the consensus +of these pure Lutheran Liturgies. It is therefore no new Service, such +as the personal tastes of those who have prepared it would have selected +and arranged; but it is the old Lutheran Service, prepared by men whom +God raised up to reform the Service, as well as the life and doctrine of +the Church, and whom He plenteously endowed with the gifts of the Holy +Ghost.... This Common Service is in its newest parts as old as the time +of the Reformation," etc. The work of the committee was approved by the +three cooperating general bodies. The General Synod ratified it in 1885 +and adopted the Manuscript in 1887. The efforts made at the conventions +in 1880, 1891, and 1893 to rescind this action failed. The Common +Service was adopted also by the Iowa Synod, the Joint Synod of Ohio, and +the English District of the Missouri Synod. But, while every Lutheran +will rejoice at this success, it must not be overlooked that liturgical +similarity dare never take the place of doctrinal unity. In 1873, in a +public letter, the secretary of the East Pennsylvania Synod declared +that similarity of ceremonies in the whole synod was of greater import +than unity in confession (_L. u. W._ 1873, 153.) Perhaps, this was +exceptional. However, it does not appear that the bodies cooperating in +preparing the Common Service developed a corresponding energy and +determination in bringing about a true Lutheran unity in doctrine and +practise. Yet, unity in doctrine is of divine obligation and of the very +essence of the Lutheran Church, while similarity in ceremonies, +desirable and advantageous as it may be, is, and always must remain, a +matter of expediency and Christian liberty. + + +THE END OF VOLUME II. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of American Lutheranism, by Friedrich Bente + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AMERICAN LUTHERANISM *** + +***** This file should be named 24304.txt or 24304.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/3/0/24304/ + +Produced by one of Myra Eve Bodling's grandfathers. Readers +should note that, despite remarks in the Preface, the +planned vols. 3 and 4 never appeared in print. 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