l.niiKRANS. 





\vith it, ivs -liitlon- 

 of tin' fidelity lit' tlio Mis- 



.IH tu tin- faith of the Clinrrli, :in<l . . 



-. :il -i M in- future mectingofthe 

 t tin-Hi in a free conference. 

 Tin- Iowa Syinul piv-:-nted a communication, 

 '\VS oil tll<- subjects introduce. I 

 liy tin- .luint Syinul of Oliio, on which ;i com- 

 initti-t- reported lint I he, Council was imt ready 

 as correct the logical deduction and 

 application of tin- negative part of the Confes- 

 sional Monks "made by the Iowa Synod, and 



i'nciulin.r that the matter be referred to 

 t!u- district Synods in the. hope that the Holy 

 Spirit will enable them to see eye to eye in all 



i ails of practice and usage." The resolu- 

 tion to publish the " Church Book," prepared 

 I iy a committee of the Synod of Pennsylvania, 

 was adopted. The book is to contain as much 

 of the Liturgy as will be needed for public wor- 

 ship, a collection of about six hundred hymns, 



naltered Augsburg Confession, Luther's 

 Small Catechism, and u collection of Family 

 Prayers. A committee was appointed, to cor- 

 iv-poml with Lutheran churches in the Danish 

 West India Islands, and the Russian Possessions, 

 when, after a vote of thanks to the people of 

 Fort Wayne for their hospitality, the Council 

 adjourned to meet in the English Lutheran 

 Church of Pittsburg, at such time as the officers 

 *!iall designate. 



Among those belonging to this new organiza- 

 tion of Lutherans, there is some difference of 

 opinion on the subject of Millenarianisin. The 

 Lutheran Synod of Missouri has expelled the 



Mr. Schieferdecker, one of their oldest 

 ministers, on the ground of his having become 

 entangled in the web of Millenarianism, wliich 

 is condemned by the seventeenth article of the 

 Augsburg Confession, and the Smaller Cate- 

 chism. The Pennsylvania Synod, on the other 

 hand, the first which last year withdrew from 

 the old General Synod, has tolerated and hon- 

 ored prominent Millenarians in its connection, 

 the Board of its Seminary electing one of them 

 i:s president. 



1 1. Krnoi'K. In a number of German states 



n-mer Lutheran State Church has been 



with the Reformed State Church into the 



1 Evangelical Church. This Church is 

 viewed by some as an entirely new denomina- 

 tion, which has superseded the former Luther- 

 an or Reformed Denominations, but others con- 

 sider it, merely as a confederation, wliich does 

 not interfere with the Lutheran or Reformed 

 character of individual congregations, and with 



ntinued existence of the Lutheran and 

 Reformed Churches. My far the larger portion 

 of the United Evangelical Church were former- 

 ly Lutherans, and many of these desire the re- 

 p.-ul ot the union and the reconstruction of a 

 >!rictly Lutheran Church. It is therefore im- 

 possible to ascertain the precise number of the 

 population which now belongs in Germany to 

 the Lutheran Church. (Statistics of the Lu- 

 theran, Reformed, and the United Evangelical 



Churches, are fully given in Schem'u Amtri- 



1',,',-1,-x'i.lnllf-ll Mllt'lll'lf In;- 



The Lutheran Church of (ic-rmatiy was, in 

 1866-'67, chiefly agitated by the i|t. 

 whether the Prussian Government would t-n- 

 <]i-a\or to bring about a union of the Lutheran 

 and Reformed Churches, in the annexed 

 inc.-, tothe Tinted Kvangelical Church in 

 sia. Decided opposition to all union -.-. 

 was i .y a large number of Lutl. 



especially in Hanover, where, at a conference 

 of 550 Lutheran clergymen la-Id in July, the 

 vast majority expressly approved :i resolution 

 declaring it wrong to admit members of tb 

 formed Church to the Lord's Table in Lutheran 

 churches. Among the Lutheran missionary so- 

 cieties the most important one is that of L. 

 From the report presented at the last anniversary 

 of this society it appears that the mission semi- 

 nary has at present 10 students. In India there 

 nrc 6 missionaries, and one is at present on a visit 

 to Germany. During the last year 741 heathen 

 were baptized by the missionaries, and there. 

 are now 8,303 converts, and 373 places. The re- 

 ceipts have increased, notwithstanding the war. 



The Lutheran Church is the State Church in 

 all the Scandinavian states Sweden, Norway, 

 and Denmark. In Sweden, the Church has 1 

 archbishop, 11 bishops, 3,200 pastors. The 

 population, which, in 1865, amounted to 4,114.- 

 141, was all Lutheran, with the exception of 

 about 10,060. Norway has 5 bishops. 336 pas- 

 tors; population, in 1865, 1,701,478; with a 

 still smaller number of non-Lutherans than 

 Sweden. Denmark has 10 bishops, 69 pro- 

 vosts, 1,100 parishes, and 1,200 pastors; the 

 population (1,608,095, and in the dependencies 

 124,020) are Lutherans, with the exception of 

 12,907 members of other creeds. 



Austria has 1,218,750 Lutherans. 



Franco has 44 consistories, 232 parishes, 199 

 annexes, 392 temples, 658 schools, 2G3 official 

 pastors, 40 vicars; and in Algeria the Reformed 

 and Lutheran (mixed) Consistory of Algiers has 

 12 parishes, 59 annexes, 71 places of worship, 

 12 schools, 16 official pastors. The Lutheran 

 population is about 500,000, mostly in the 

 Alsace. 



In Russia the Lutheran Church is the pre- 

 dominant church in the Baltic provinces and in 

 Finland. It has, in Russia Proper, 8 consisto- 

 ries, 431 churches, 566 ministers. The Luther- 

 an population of Poland is 382,000, and of Fin- 

 land 1,787,000. 



In Holland there arc two organizations of 

 Lutherans; the one, the "Evangelical Luther- 

 an," is supposed to be under the influence of 

 the Liberal (Rationalistic) party, and has a pop- 

 ulation of about 66,000 souls; the other, the 

 "Reformed Lutheran," adheres to the symboli- 

 cal books, and numbers about 10,000 souls. 



In the other countries of Europe there are 

 but few Lutherans. 



III. ASIA, AFRICA, AND AUSTRALIA. -The Lu- 

 therans sustain missions in India, China, and 

 several parts of Africa. There are about 10,000 



