American Lutheranism Volume II Part 4

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 subst.i.tuting 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 Radical Franckean Synod Admitted.--The Franckean Synod was organized 1837 by four members who had withdrawn from the Hartwick Synod for these reasons: "1.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 cla.s.sically 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 const.i.tuting the G.o.dhead are equal in power and glory; or even that there are three Persons const.i.tuting the Deity. 2. It does not declare or admit the divinity of Jesus Christ, or His equality with G.o.d 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 inst.i.tuted 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 const.i.tution, 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 const.i.tution of the General Synod they were adopting its doctrinal position, _viz._, "that the fundamental truths of the Word of G.o.d 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 G.o.d." 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 const.i.tution 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 const.i.tution 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 h.e.l.l.

(_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 inst.i.tution and obligation of the Christian Sabbath, ministers who were in favor of subscribing to the Augustana as a test of members.h.i.+p, 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 G.o.d, all that is truly evangelical in the Augsburg Confession. This radical att.i.tude 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 att.i.tude, 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 pa.s.sed the resolution to receive the Franckean Synod, 28 delegates entered a protest against this action as being in violation of the const.i.tution, 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 const.i.tution 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 const.i.tuted Lutheran synods not now in connection with the General Synod, receiving and holding, with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of our fathers, the Word of G.o.d, 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 a.s.sociated with the General Synod by complying with the requisitions of this const.i.tution and sending delegates to its convention according to the ratio specified in Article II." (_Proceedings_ 1864, 39.) This amendment, const.i.tutionally adopted 1869 in Was.h.i.+ngton, 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. Pa.s.sed 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 a.s.sailants."

(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 const.i.tution 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 att.i.tude, 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 r.e.t.a.r.d 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 pa.s.sed 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 const.i.tutional 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 G.o.d 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 fellows.h.i.+p." (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, rea.s.sured 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 reestablis.h.i.+ng 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 const.i.tutional; 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 a.s.surance 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 const.i.tution. 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 const.i.tution and require of our synod a.s.sent 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 const.i.tution 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 rea.s.sured 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 a.s.sailants,"

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 G.o.d, 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 p.r.o.nounced 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 authors.h.i.+p. His first larger publication was a translation of Storr and Flatt's _Biblical Theology_. His _Popular Theology_ appeared 1834 and pa.s.sed through eight editions. Schmucker also was the author of most of the General Synod's organic doc.u.ments, as the const.i.tution and the formula of government and discipline for its synods and churches, the const.i.tution 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 inst.i.tutions, 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 a.s.sistant 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 coa.r.s.est fas.h.i.+on 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 G.o.d, 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 compa.s.s 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 n.o.ble 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 Inst.i.tute_, 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 a.s.surance 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 mult.i.tude of G.o.d's sacramental host, degrades the Lutheran Church, the Mother Church of the Reformation,"

Brown declared in his pamphlet against the a.s.sailants 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 G.o.d found in the Augsburg Confession to which the const.i.tution 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 a.s.sailants," 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 Was.h.i.+ngton, 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 G.o.d." 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 Const.i.tution of our country under their feet, in order to enforce their own despotism the more easily." In Dr. Neve's _Kurzgefa.s.ste 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 circ.u.mstance 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 G.o.d." (_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 G.o.d, which followed under the condition that man consents thereto; faith precedes regeneration and conversion; G.o.d 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; G.o.d 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-fellows.h.i.+p; 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 p.r.o.nounced 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 att.i.tude of the German Districts of the now defunct General Synod toward lodges, altar- and pulpit-fellows.h.i.+p, 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 p.r.o.nounced 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-fellows.h.i.+p 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 ill.u.s.trated 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 cla.s.sified 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.)