5C6 



LUTHERANS. 



The " Church Almanac " gives a list of fif- 

 teen orphans' homes, schools, and farm schools, 



eight immigrants' missions and homes, two ne- 

 gro missions (at New Orleans, La., and Little 

 Rock, Ark.), one institution for deaf mutes, 

 and four infirmaries, hospitals, etc. The Gen- 

 eral Synod has a Board of Home Missions at 

 York, Pa., a German Board of Home Missions 

 at Baltimore, Md., a Board of Foreign Missions 

 in New York City, and a Board of Church Ex- 

 tension at York, Pa. The General Council 

 has an Executive Committee of Home Missions 

 at Pittsburgh, Pa., an Executive Committee of 

 Foreign Missions at Reading, Pa., and a Board 

 of Church Extension at Philadelphia, Pa. The 

 list of periodicals comprises 6 English, 1 Nor- 

 wegian, and 3 German weekly newspapers ; 8 

 German, 3 Norwegian, and 2 Danish semi- 

 monthly publications ; 10 English, 15 German, 

 5 Swedish, 1 Danish, and 4 Norwegian month- 

 lies ; 1 (German) bi-monthly paper ; an Eng- 

 lish and a Norwegian quarterly ; and 3 English 

 and 3 German almanacs. The list of educa- 

 tional institutions includes 16 theological sem- 

 inaries and departments, 18 colleges, 12 classi- 

 cal schools, and 7 seminaries for young women. 

 Kurtz's " Almanac " gives 24 English publica- 

 tions of all kinds, 32 German, 9 Norwegian, 8 

 Swedish, 1 Icelandic, and 3 Danish periodicals ; 

 17 theological seminaries and departments, 17 

 colleges, 20 academies, 10 seminaries for young 

 women, 13 general benevolent associations 

 (which include, besides the Missionary and 

 Church Extension Boards named by the 

 u Church Almanac," the Education Society of 

 the General Synod at Gettysburg, Pa. ; a Swed- 

 ish Missionary Association for the Eastern 

 States; the Children's Foreign Missionary So- 

 ciety, Baltimore, Md. ; the German Publica- 

 tion House at Chicago, 111. ; the Board of Pub- 

 lication, Philadelphia, Pa. ; the Pastors' Fund 

 Trust, Germantown, Pa. ; the Ministers' Mu- 

 tual Insurance League, Baltimore, Md. ; and the 

 Historical Society, Philadelphia, Pa.) ; and 32 

 eleemosynary institutions. 



The Sy nodical Conference met at Fort "Wayne, 

 Ind., July 17th. All of the six synods belong- 

 ing to the body were represented, and many 

 pastors were present as advisory members. 

 Professor W. F. Lehmann was chosen Presi- 

 dent. The chief subject of discussion was a 

 series of theses on the question of the lawful- 

 ness of marriage with a deceased wife's sis- 

 ter. Upon this, the Conference decided that 

 the Mosaic prohibitory laws in Lev. xviii. 

 and xx. are not ceremonial or political, but 

 moral laws which are binding upon the con- 

 sciences of all men, and that they pertain not 

 only to the persons who are expressly men- 

 tioned, but to all who stand in the same degree 

 of relationship. Further, after references to 

 the specific texts which give light upon the 

 subject, they declare that, " as those who 

 would contract a marriage with a deceased 

 wife's sister certainly, in view of these proofs, 

 lack a clear word of- God to show that such 

 marriage does not yet belong to the forbidden 

 degrees, such as are not convinced that it is 



