MAINE. 



401 



(5) and, before entering into any loan-contract in the 

 improper sense, to see that every thing unjust and 

 oppressive is unequivocally removed. 



The Synod of Wisconsin, which was one of 

 the first synods originally to unite with the 

 General Council, resolved, at its last meeting, 

 to leave that body, and unite with the Missouri 

 Synod. They also voted at once to discontinue 

 their theological seminary at "Watertown, and 

 send their professor with all his theological 

 students to St. Louis, to the seminary of the 

 Missourians. But the college at Watertown, 

 Wis., will be continued, and the Missouri Synod 

 will send two professors to the college. 



Before the New York Ministerium was di- 

 vided at Albany, a number of ministers, under 

 the lead of the Rev. Mr. Steimle, of strong 

 symbolical tendencies, seceded and formed a 

 separate synod. Their views having been found 

 to accord in many respects with those of one 

 branch of the Buffalo Synod, the latter, under 

 the leadership of Eev. Mr. Yon Kohr, appointed 

 delegates to attend their next General Conven- 

 tion for the purpose of establishing a closer union 

 between the two bodies, and thus forming 

 another Lutheran General Synod. The eccle- 

 siastical strength of the two bodies are as 



folio ws : Steimle Synod, 10 ministers, 11 con- 

 gregations, and 1,800 communicants. Von 

 Rohr Synod, estimated at one-half of the frag- 

 ment left of the Buffalo Synod, Y ministers, 

 11 congregations, and 925 members. 



The General Synod of the Church, in Wur- 

 temberg, had a very harmonious session. The 

 question of preventing the growing secession 

 to Methodists and other dissenters, without 

 intrenching on religious liberty, was discussed. 

 It was agreed that it was only possible by 

 satisfying all the religious wants of the people 

 in their own Church. The question of inter- 

 communion between Lutherans and Reformed 

 is beginning to be agitated in Wurtemberg. 

 The exclusive Lutheran theory has heretofore 

 not been practically carried out, but its advo- 

 cates are now beginning to insist upon it. 



Reports from the Lutheran churches in Nor- 

 way represent a decided religious awakening 

 of "more real earnest spirituality" as taking 

 place. The people are seeking more freedom 

 and independence of governmental restraint in 

 the inner organization of their individual con- 

 gregations ; great activity is evinced in the Mis- 

 sionary, Bible, Tract, and other religious socie- 

 ties, whose agents and colporteurs are at work. 



M 



MAINE. The Legislature of Maine met on 

 the first Wednesday of January, and continued 

 in session for sixty-six days, during which pe- 

 riod 350 acts and 99 resolves were passed. 

 Many important measures occupied the at- 

 tention of this body at this session, among 

 which were the bill to repeal the death penalty, 

 the dissection bill, the bill to abolish the six 

 per cent, usury law, and the bill for the estab- 

 lishment of a State police. The dissection bill 

 as passed provides that no hinderance shall be 

 put in the way of physicians obtaining the 

 bodies of those who, before their death, con- 

 sented to have their bodies used for the pur- 

 pose of dissection. The principal change made 

 in the capital-punishment law was that requir- 

 ing the Governor, at the expiration of a year 

 after sentence, to execute the sentence of 

 death, commute, or pardon the criminal. The 

 consideration of the constabulary bill was re- 

 ferred to the next Legislature. At this session 

 of the Legislature, the fifteenth, amendment 

 to the Constitution of the United States was 

 ratified. In the Senate there were 25 votes 

 for and 1 against its ratification. In the House 

 there were 141 votes for its ratification. Han- 

 nibal Hamlin was chosen to represent the 

 State in the United States Senate for the full 

 term from the 4th of March, 1869. 



The advocates of the cause of temperance, 

 whose proceedings heretofore have attracted 

 such general attention, were unusually active 

 during the present year endeavoring to secure 

 a rigid execution of the prohibitory law. On 

 VOL. is. 26. A 



the 26th of January, the Maine State Temper- 

 ance Convention assembled at Augusta. The 

 meeting was large and enthusiastic, and the 

 principles of the cause were expressed in the 

 following resolutions which were adopted : 



Resolved, That with devout and heartfelt thanks- 

 giving to Almighty God for the guidance and success 

 by Him accorded to our cause in the past, the friends 

 of temperance in Maine, in mass convention assem- 

 bled, reaffirm the principles so often heretofore enun- 

 ciated, and by experience established, that all hope 

 of progress in the temperance reform rests in total 

 abstinence from intoxicating liquors by the individ- 

 ual, and the prohibition of the liquor traffic by tho 

 State. 



Resolved, That in the early history of the temper- 

 ance reformation its success was due more to the 

 Christian Church than to any other agency, and we do 

 now most sincerely and earnestly invoke tne renewed 

 activity of ministers and church-members in a cause 

 so calculated to remove the greatest obstacle to the 

 diffusion of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the pro- 

 motion of the temporal and spiritual welfare of our 

 fellow-men. 



Resolved, That while we place our main reliance on 

 the constant and faithful moral efforts which by the 

 intelligent and good are' exerted for the elevation of 

 the standard of public sentiment in relation to the 

 danger and the immorality of the use of intoxicating 

 liquors, and the criminality of their sale, yet the im- 

 pressive logic of facts and experience has demon- 

 strated that the legal prohibition of the traffic in al- 

 coholic drinks, coming in as an aid to moral effort, 

 by protecting the inexperienced and the weak against 

 temptation to vice, is essential to secure any perma- 

 nent progress in the cause of temperance. 



Resolved, That inasmuch as the value of a law pro- 

 hibiting drinking-houses and tippling-shops depends 

 upon the faithfulness with which it is executed, we 

 view with alarm the open, organized, and defiant 



