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.)