464 



LUTHERANS. 



sion, and discussed a number of questions per- 

 taining to the interests and management of 

 Sunday-schools. Resolutions were adopted 

 condemning the desecration of the Lord's Day 

 "by railway and steamboat and street-car 

 companies, by beer-saloons, by excursion-par- 

 ties, by Sunday newspapers, post-office clerks, 

 and government officials," and sanctioning the 

 efforts that were being made for its better 

 and more general observance ; and protesting 

 "against the use of money raised by public 

 taxation, or pertaining to the people in common, 

 whether by grant, loan, or subsidy, for the 

 furtherance of the interests of any institution 

 of education or charity controlled in whole or 

 in part by any sect or denomination." It was 

 decided that the convention should hereafter 

 be held every two years. The district synods 

 were invited to hold district conventions in the 

 alternate years. 



The annual meeting of the Synodical Con- 

 ference of North America was held at Cleve- 

 land, Ohio, beginning July 14th. The most 

 important business of the Conference was the 

 discussion and adoption of the sixth, seventh, 

 eighth, and ninth theses on church-fellowship, 

 the theses previously numbered having been 

 considered at former meetings of the Confer- 

 ence. The new theses are as follows : 



VI. " From the nature and character of this or- 

 thodox confession (the Lutheran confession) it fol- 

 lows necessarily that the Church practice must be 

 in harmony with it. For every ecclesiastical action 

 is either an immediate expression of the confession, 

 or it is one that dare not be in conflict with it." 



VII. " From this necessary connection between 

 the confession and the practice it logically follows 

 that a truly Lutheran synod dare not unite to form 

 one ecclesiastical body with another nominally Lu- 

 theran synod, in which the prevailing practice con- 

 tradicts the confession." 



VIII. " This contradiction may take place in vari- 

 ous ways. It takes place, first, when a Lutheran 

 ecclesiastical body, which expressly and emphatically 

 adopts the symbolical books, still tolerates, or even 

 sanctions and approves, exchange of pulpits with 

 ministers who are not Lutherans, and fellowships at 

 the altar with communicants who are not Lutherans, 

 and which does not decidedly oppose every form of 

 chiliasm." 



IX. " This contradiction takes place, furthermore, 

 when members of their congregations continue to be 

 members of secret societies, and the respective pas- 

 tors neither in a thorough manner bear public testi- 

 mony against these societies in their preaching, clear- 

 ly setting forth their antagonism to the Scriptures and 

 to the faith, nor give that instruction and attention 

 to the individual members of the lodge which aprop- 

 er care for their souls requires." 



The rest of the theses were laid over to the 

 next year. The publication of an English 

 primer, prepared by Pastor Lange, of Chicago, 

 was ordered. Measures were taken toward the 

 completion and publication of an English read- 

 er, by Prof. Selle, and toward the translation 

 of the Biblical history of Zahn, as published at 

 St. Louis. ^ A mission among the Chinese in St. 

 Louis, which had been partly supported by the 

 Conference, was given up to the superintend- 

 ence of its founders. The following reply was 



made to the invitation of the General Coun- 

 cil to take part in a colloquium of Lutheran 

 Churches : 

 To the General Council of the Evangelical Lutheran, 



Church of North America : 



KEV. BODY : Through your corresponding secre- 

 tary, Pastor G. A. Wenzel, six resolutions touching 

 the holding of a colloquium have been officially com- 

 municated to the Evangelical Lutheran Synodical 

 Conference of North America. After mature deliber- 

 ation, lasting through several sessions, the Synodical 

 Conference came to an agreement, on the four fol- 

 lowing resolutions, which are hereby officially trans- 

 mitted to you as a reply to your communication : 



1. The Synodical Conference cheerfully declares 

 its readiness to participate in the proposed free con- 

 ference of such Lutherans as unqualifiedly hold to the 

 Augustana, with the view of coming to an under- 

 standing. 



2. The Synodical Conference, however, at the same 

 time declares itself unable to acknowledge in advance 

 such bodies whose members may participate in such 

 a conference as bodies which unqualifiedly accept the 

 Augustana. 



3. The Synodical Conference leaves to the Kev- 

 erend General Council the necessary arrangements 

 as to the time and place of the proposed conference. 



4. The Synodical Conference suggests that those 

 individuals who may appear as participants in the 

 proposed conference shall themselves determine the 

 manner in which it is to be conducted. 



In the name of and by the authority of the Evan- 

 gelical Lutheran Synodical Conference : 



W. LEHMAN, President. 

 E. JOH. GROSSE, Secretary. 



A committee was appointed to draw up a 

 plan for the division of the synods according 

 to State boundaries. St. Paul, Minn., was cho- 

 sen as the place for the next meeting of the 

 Conference. 



The General Council of the Evangelical Lu- 

 theran Church met at Galesburg, 111., October 

 7th. The Rev. C. P. Krauth, D. D., LL. D., 

 was chosen president. The replies of the dif- 

 ferent Lutheran bodies in the United States to 

 the invitation of a previous General Council to 

 participate in the holding of a colloquium for 

 the comparison of views, and other papers re- 

 lating to the subject, were referred to a com- 

 mittee. The committee presented the follow- 

 ing report, and it was adopted : 



Your committee report the invitation issued by 

 the General Council at its meeting in Erie, 1873, has 

 been officially responded to by the following bodies, 

 viz. : The Southern General Synod, the Synod of 

 North Carolina, the Holstpn Synod, and the Synod 

 of Tennessee, which bodies have appointed com- 

 mittees of arrangements to act with the committee 

 appointed by the General Council ; also from the 

 Synodical Conference. . . . The above responses to 

 the invitation of the General Council make it 

 evident that it is the desire of a large portion of the 

 Church that the colloquium shall be held. Your 

 committee recommend that the Committee of Ar- 

 rangements appointed by the General Council, in 

 connection with the committees appointed by the 

 other bodies, proceed at once to make all the neces- 

 sary arrangements for holding the colloquium under 

 the resolution of their appointment, with the under- 

 standing that those who attend, or the participants 

 in the colloquium, shall themselves determine the 

 manner in which it shall be conducted. 



The following resolution on the subject of 

 communion and fellowship was adopted : 



