400 



LUTHERANS. 



errors of Komanism, written, not only in her own 

 literature and life, but in the history of the whole 

 civilized world for more than three centuries, is so 

 clear, before heaven, earth, and hell, that any new 

 official protest against those errors, on so slight an 

 occasion as the letter of the Pope, is more than need- 

 less, and might almost excite the suspicion, or prompt 

 the insinuation, that the body which made it was 

 hazarding its dignity by seeming to catch at an op- 

 portunity for cheap declamation, to swell the sensa- 

 tion of the hour, or to court popular applause. 



5. What is here true of all genuinely Lutheran 

 bodies is preeminently true of this General Council. 

 We have so recently and unreservedly accepted those 

 great Confessions of our Church, in the principles of 

 which alone Komanism can be successfully resisted, 

 and which have proved for ages the mightiest bul- 

 wark against it, that any official act on our part would 

 seem specially an act of supererogation. In view of 

 these and other weighty reasons your Committee 

 made no reply, and would recommend that none be 

 made, to the Pope's letter. 



A question, which was sent up from the 

 Minnesota Synod, concerning the declaration 

 of the General Council on " the Four Points," * 

 whether it is the right interpretation of them 

 that heretics and " fundamental errorists " can- 

 not be admitted to Lutheran altars as com- 

 municants, nor into the pulpit as teachers of 

 the congregation, and whether the principles 

 enunciated in them are intended to apply to 

 all who diifer upon the distinctive doctrines 

 of the Lutheran Church, was made the subject 

 of a report, which declared that there could be 

 no question with regard to the universal ad- 

 herence of the Council to the full and entire 

 faith of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, and 

 that the Council means to make a distinction 

 between "fundamental errorists" and "here- 

 tics," as between the greater and the less. All 

 "heretics" are fundamental errorists, but not 

 vice versa. "By heretics we mean those who 

 reject our common Catholic Christianity ; by 

 fundamental errorists we mean those who re- 

 ject any part of the pure Gospel, as set forth 

 in our Confessions." The report goes over 

 another year, for consideration. 



The Council decided to undertake the build- 

 ing of a theological seminary, and a committee 

 was appointed to select a location. The do- 

 mestic missionary work of the Council, partic- 

 ularly in the Northwest and West, and with 

 the immigrants arriving at New York, was re- 

 ported as prosecuted with as great energy as the 

 means of the society and the available mission- 

 ary force would permit. An Executive Com- 

 mittee of Foreign Missions was instituted, and 

 instructed to correspond with the missions of 

 Leipsic and Hermansburg, with the view to 

 secure their active cooperation, and with the 

 Finnish Lutheran Missionary Society, in refer- 

 ence to the establishment of a mission among 

 the Indians in Alaska, and to take the question 

 of the Chinese population in the United States 

 into consideration. 



The twenty-fourth Annual Convention of the 

 General Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran 



* See the text of the " Four Points " in the 

 CTCLOP.EDIA for 1888, p. 443. 



Church met in Washington, D. C., on the 13th 

 of May. A new synod, that of Kansas, applied 

 for admission, and was received. The new 

 constitution was reported as adopted by all the 

 District Synods, and the General Synod de- 

 clared to be acting under it. During the ses- 

 sion an address was delivered by the Eev. Dr. 

 Pohlman on "The History of the Lutheran 

 Church in the State of Maine," which detailed 

 the efforts of German immigrants in the last 

 century to found a church on the Broad Bay, 

 in New England, the establishment of a church 

 at Waldoborough, its history, and its final extinc- 

 tion, which was ascribed principally to the te- 

 nacious adherence of the German immigrants to 

 their own language, preventing the propagation 

 of their faith and their assimilation with the 

 English-speaking residents. A series of reso- 

 lutions on the reunion of the Lutheran churches 

 and a proposition to appoint a delegate to the 

 General Council were laid on the table, on the 

 representation that the latter body had closed 

 its doors against the reception of delegates from 

 any bodies not in full harmony with itself on 

 all theological points. A committee was ap- 

 pointed, however, to correspond with the 

 Southern synods, who have become separated 

 from the General Synod by political events, and 

 not upon doctrinal points, in behalf of the res- 

 toration of the former relations. The follow- 

 ing resolution was also adopted : 



Whereas, Our principles not merely allow, but ac- 

 tually demand, fraternal relations with all Evangelical 

 Christians, and especially with other Lutheran bodies 

 in this country : thereforej 



Resolved, That we cherish the spirit of Christian 

 fellowship, especially toward the brethren of Luther- 

 an Synods, not now in connection with us, and will 

 cheerfully enter into an interchange of delegates with 

 them, as soon as we have evidence that this can be 

 done in accordance with the wishes of these Synods. 



The Synod recommended a more strict regard 

 for the Sabbath, and approved of all movements 

 to arrest the ravages of intemperance, including 

 judicious legislation. Amendments to the lit- 

 urgy were agreed upon, to be recommended, 

 not commended, to the churches. Delegates 

 were appointed to corresponding bodies. The 

 Synod paid a visit to the President, and also to 

 Mount Yernon. The next meeting was ap- 

 pointed for 1871, two years from the present 

 one, and is to be held in Dayton, Ohio. 



The body which was formerly known as the 

 Missouri Synod has now assumed the official 

 name of the " General German Lutheran Syn- 

 od of the United States and Canada." The 

 organization embraces four particular synods. 

 At its recent convention, at Fort Wayne, Ind., 

 a series of resolutions was adopted, of "which 

 the following is the most important : 



The sum of the matter is this : love to our neighbor 

 requires the Christian (1) to give to the poor ; (2) to 

 lend money to those who find themselves under the 

 pressure of temporary need ; (8) also to make no con- 

 tract with those who have means, with a view to get 

 interest on loans ; (4) either to work with his own 

 money, or to join himself in partnership with others, 

 by which profits and losses shall be justly divided; 



