LUTHERANS. 



463 



periodicals are published in the interests or 

 under the auspices of the various branches of 

 the Lutheran Church. 



Fifteen orphans' houses, one deaf and dumb 

 institute, four hospitals, four immigrants' mis- 

 sions, one immigrants' home, and one sea- 

 men's mission, are cared for by Lutheran Sy- 

 nodical organizations or Lutheran pastors. 



The General Synod of the Evangelical 

 Lutheran Church in the United States met at 

 Baltimore, May 26th. The Rev. F. G-. Stal- 

 ling, D. D., of the East Pennsylvania Synod, 

 was chosen president. The Treasurer of the 

 Board of Foreign Missions reported that the 

 receipts of the board for the past two years 

 had been $29,167.09, and its disbursements 

 $28,208.43, of which $4,872.44 had gone tow- 

 ard the support of the African mission. The 

 liabilities of the board amounted to $1,800. 

 The amount of money necessary to carry 

 on the work of the board for the next two 

 years was estimated at $41,175. Five mission- 

 aries were employed in the missions at Guntur 

 and Paland, India, and one at Uhlemberg, Af- 

 rica. There were also connected with these 

 missions three female missionaries, thirteen 

 itinerant teachers, one Bible colporteur, one 

 evangelist, and twelve school-teachers. Dur- 

 ing 1873 there had been a decrease of nearly 

 seventy in the number of members in India. 

 Reports for 1874 had not been received. The 

 mission district of Guntur had been organized 

 thirty-three years, and now had 781 members, 

 one-half of whom were baptized children. The 

 establishment of a permanent missionary in 

 Japan was recommended by the board and 

 approved by the Synod. The Children's Mis- 

 sionary Society, which was first organized at 

 Baltimore, reported 21,136 members and 315 

 schools, and had collected $5,831.08 of funds. 

 The Board of Home Missions reported that 

 their receipts from the Synod had been $19,- 

 96.06, and their total receipts for two years 

 $26,227.01. They had had fifty-three missions 

 under their care, none of which had become 

 self-sustaining. The net gain of membership 

 was estimated at 1,041, and of catechumens 

 1,611. The amount expended in the salaries 

 of ministers had been $21,903.60; in church 

 property, $35,608.07; contributed to home 

 missions, $868.14; to foreign missions, $564.- 

 70 ; to church extension, $570.87 ; for educa- 

 tion, $308.26 ; and for other objects, $8,435.02. 

 The receipts for the German Home Missions 

 were reported to have amounted to $951.44, 

 and the expenditures to $677.04. The board 

 had been organized twenty-two months. The 

 board asked the appropriation of $17,000 a 

 a year, and the Synod determined to try to 

 raise $20,000 a year for each of the next two 

 years. The full receipts of the Board of 

 Church Extension for two years had been 

 $27,972, and the disbursements $27,512. the 

 Board of Publication reported its assets to be 

 $54,082.03, and its liabilities $12,603.16. A 

 proposition to change the character of the 



board from that of an independent body to 

 one dependent upon the General Synod was 

 not accepted. 



The General Synod of 1873 had, through its 

 Committee on Ecclesiastical Correspondence, 

 addressed communications to the other Evan- 

 gelical Lutheran bodies in the United States, 

 inviting an interchange of correspondence and 

 of fraternal greetings with it, by an interchange 

 of delegates. The General Council, which met 

 later in the same year, declined to accept the 

 plan of an interchange of delegates, as not 

 adapted to bring about the closer relations and 

 eventual union of the bodies which were sought, 

 but proposed instead of it a colloquium, to be 

 composed of commissioners appointed by the 

 different bodies, which unreservedly accepted 

 the unaltered Augsburg Confession, to meet 

 from time to time for a comparison of views. 

 To this proposition the following answer was 

 adopted by the General Synod : 



1. This General Synod appreciates the courtesies 

 and fraternal spirit and words in which, while de- 

 clining fraternal correspondence with this body, a 

 colloquium on the points of doctrinal difference is 

 proposed as a means by which a better understand- 

 ing and unity may be brought about between the 

 different parts of the Lutheran Church ; and desires 

 to assure the General Council of its readiness to co- 

 operate in any and every way proper and practicable, 

 affording promise of success in promoting that con- 

 cord and fellowship in the Church to which the con- 

 stitution and history of this body have committed it. 



2. Inasmuch, however, as the doctrinal positions 

 of the general bodies invited to concur in ar- 

 ranging for the colloquium are clearly defined and 

 set forth in their constitution and official acts, by 

 which alone they are willing to be judged, and that 

 this body, especially, is fully and unmistakably, set- 

 tled in its adoption of the unaltered Augsburg Con- 

 fession, a position which it entertained no idea of 

 changing; we cannot see, either, any need of such 

 colloquium between these different parts of our 

 Church, as a necessary preparation for the mutual 

 "recognition by each body of the position of the 

 other" as Lutheran, or any advantage from it in the 

 way of attaining a better understanding or interpreta- 

 tion of their doctrinal differences, since its members 

 cannot interpret authoritatively those official utter- 

 ances which state the relations of their respective 

 bodies to the Augsburg Confession. We do not re- 

 gard the proposed colloquium, in the present state 

 of the Church, suited to promote the cause of peace 

 and union, nor as an equivalent for the mutual recog- 

 nition and fellowship implied in regular inter-synod- 

 ical correspondence. 



3. While, therefore, we decline to take part in the 

 arrangements for the proposed colloquium, we reit- 

 erate our proposal for correspondence by accred- 

 ited delegates, as the most fitting thing, in this re- 

 spect, between these general bodies of our Lutheran 

 Zion, and as promising most for the future unity of 

 the Church. 



A constitution for district synods, and for 

 defining their relation to the General Synod, 

 was adopted. Applications were received from 

 the Synods of Nebraska and Maryland (Ger- 

 man), and the Ansgari (Swedish) Synod, for 

 admission to the General Synod, and were ac- 

 cepted. 



The National Lutheran Sunday-school Con- 

 vention (General Synod) met at Wooster, Ohio, 

 October 27th. It continued three days in ses- 



