444 



LUTHERANS. 



may work, as it has often worked, great mischief in 

 family, Church, State, and we earnestly beseech all 

 good men to ponder the question whether the bene- 

 nts they believe to be connected with secret societies 

 might not be equally reached in modes not liable to 

 the same abuse. 



2. Any and all societies for moral and religious 

 ends which do not rest on the supreme authority of 

 God's Holy Word, as contained in the Old and New 

 Testaments which do not recognize our Lord Jesus 

 Christ as the true God and the only mediator between 

 God and men which teach doctrines or have usages 

 or forms of worship condemned in God's Word and 

 in the Confessions of His Church which assume to 

 themselves what God has given to His Church and 

 its ministers which require undefined obligations to 

 be assumed by oath, are unchristian, and we solemnly 

 warn our members and ministers against all fellow- 

 ship with, or connivance at, associations which have 

 this character. 



3. All connection with infidel and immoral associ- 



off the persistent and obstinate offender from the 

 communion of the Chuch until he abandons them and 

 shows a true repentance. 



III. In regard, to Exchange of Pulpits, We hold, 1. 

 That the purity of the pulpit should be guarded with 

 the most conscientious care, and that no man shall be 

 admitted to our pulpits, whether of the Lutheran 

 name or of any other, of whom there is just reason 

 to doubt whether he will preach the pure truth of 

 God's Word as taught in the Confessions of our 

 Church. 



2. Lutheran ministers may properly preach wher- 

 ever there is an opening in the pulpit of other 

 churches, unless the circumstances imply, or seem to 

 imply, a fellowship with error or schism, or a restric- 

 tion on the unreserved expression of the whole coun- 

 sel of God. 



IV. As regards the " Communion with those not of 

 our Church\" 1. We hold that the principle of a 

 discriminating^ as over against an indiscriminating 

 Communion, is to be firmly maintained. Heretics 

 and fundamental errorists are to be excluded from 

 the Lord's Table. The responsibility of an unworthy 

 approach to the Lord's Table does not rest alone upon 

 him who makes that approach, but also upon him 

 who invites it. 



2. It is the right and duty of every pastor to make 

 such examination as is necessary to determine the 

 Scriptural fitness, in doctrine and life, of persons ap- 

 plying for admission to the Communion. This 

 should be done invariably when they are admitted 

 for the first time and whenever afterward it may 

 be necessary. So that it may be affirmed of our 

 Church now, as at the beginning: "None are ad- 

 mitted except they be proved." Augs. Conf., Art. 

 Abuses, iii. 6. 



3. The restoration of more frequent communion, 

 and of private conference, monition, and instruction 

 on the part of the pastor, especially for the young 

 and for the unstable, would, by God's blessing, do 

 much for the maintenance of a higher faith and of a 

 purer practice in the Church. 



4. . In the confession of her faith, the rejection of 

 errors in conflict with it, and the condemnation of 

 heretics, our Church, now as aforetime, testifies, to 

 use her own words, " that it is by no means her coun- 

 sel and purpose to condemn those who err from sim- 

 plicity, and who do not speak reproachfully of the 

 truth of the Divine Word, and still less to con- 

 demn entire Churches." Preface to Book of Concord, 

 p. 16. 



a 5. It is the judgment of our Church, now as afore- 

 time, that it is "beyond all doubt whatever, that 

 there are many pious and holy people in those Churches 

 which have not accorded, and: do not yet accord in all 

 respects with us, who walk in the simplicity of their 



heart, not thoroughly understanding the points in- 

 volved, but in no respect approving the blasphemies 

 which are uttered against the Holy Supper, as it is 

 dispensed and taught in our churches according to 

 the Institution and Testament of Christ." Id., 17. 



6. It is the hope of our Church, now as aforetime, 

 that "if such persons were rightly instructed con- 

 cerning all these points, they would, by the guid- 

 ance of the Holy Spirit, be led to a consent with us 

 and our churches in the immutable truths of God's 

 Word." Id., 17. 



7. Hence it is a duty which our Church now, as 

 aforetime, enjoins upon her theologians and all her 

 pastors, that "^fittingly and with moderation they 

 instruct, admonish, and warn out of God's Word, all 

 who, from simplicity or ignorance, have wandered 

 from the truth." Id., 17. 



8. Our Church confesses now, as aforetime, that 

 the Holy Church Universal is preeminently a fellow- 

 ship whose internal bond is faith and the Holy Ghost 

 in the heart, and whose outward token is " the pure 

 Word and the incorrupt sacraments. The Church is 

 a communion of saints, to wit ; the assembly of saints 

 who are in the fellowship of the same Gospel or doc- 

 trine, and of the same Holy Spirit who renews, 

 sanctifies, and governs their hearts; " and that "the 

 Catholic (Christian) Church consists of men scat- 

 tered throughout the whole world, from the rising 

 of the sun to the going down thereof." Apology, 

 Art. 4. 



9. Our Church now, as aforetime, amid the clamors 

 of rationalism and sectarianism, confesses that the 

 unchanging marks of the Church are " the pure doc- 

 trine ot the Gospel, and the sacraments that this 

 Church alone is properly the pillar of truth, because 

 it retains the pure Gospel, and, as St. Paul saith, the 

 foundation, that is, the true knowledge of Christ, and 

 true faith in Him." Yet we also, as aforetime, con- 

 fess " that among those who are upon the true foun- 

 dation, there are many_ weak ones who have built 

 upon the foundation perishing stubble, that is, empty 

 notions and opinions and yet, because they do not 

 overthrow the foundation, are still Christians, and 

 their faults may be forgiven them or even be amend- 

 ed." Id., 4. 



The minority presented a declaration ex- 

 pressing their views. The General Council 

 appointed a committee to open correspondence 

 with the General Conference of Lutheran 

 ministers in Germany. A committee was 

 appointed to prepare a plan under which the 

 foreign mission -work may be prosecuted. 

 Steps were taken to open correspondence be- 

 tween this body and the Lutheran Church of 

 Alaska, the Danish West India Islands, and 

 some other Lutheran bodies in America. 



II. EFKOPE. The Lutheran population in 

 Germany has been in part absorbed by the 

 " United Evangelical Church," which now em- 

 braces almost the entire Protestant population 

 of Germany, and of which a large majority of 

 the members were orginally Lutherans. There 

 are, however, 40,000 classified as "Indepen- 

 dent Lutherans" in old Prussia, 1,584,767 

 Lutherans in Hanover, 48,000 in Frankfort, 

 980,000 in Bavaria, 50,000 in Bremen, 285,934 

 in Brunswick, 220,000 in Hamburg, 8,000 in 

 Lippe-Ditmold, 49,000 in Lubeck, 548,459 in 

 Mecklenburg-Schwerin, 198,000 in Oldenburg, 

 2,279,882 in Saxony, 260,000 in Saxe- Weimar, 

 141,212 in Saxe-Altenburg, 145,000 in Saxe- 

 Coburg-Gotha, 26,000 in Schaumburg-Lippe, 

 73,457 in Schwarzburg - Eudolstadt, while 



