490 



LUTHERANS. 



nominations. The subject of reunion with the 

 Northern General Synod had a prominent 

 place in the deliberations of the meeting of 

 the Synod in 1882, but was finally postponed 

 on the ground that such union was not desir- 

 able. It was urged against the plan that the 

 Synod was now on terms of fellowship with 

 both the Northern General Synod and the 

 General Council, and that to unite with either 

 of those bodies would separate it from the 

 other, and put it in an antagonistic position as 

 toward it; would be, in effect, more a measure 

 of division than of union. 



The General Synod, South, met in its thir- 

 teenth convention at Charlotte, N. C., May 

 25th. The Kev. J. J. Scherer, of Marion, 

 Va., was chosen president. Resolutions were 

 adopted setting forth the kindly feelings of 

 love entertained by the Synod toward the 

 Lutheran bodies North, and expressing will- 

 ingness to co-operate with other Lutheran 

 bodies upon an unequivocal Lutheran basis. 

 A committee was appointed to consider meas- 

 ures for church work among the freedmen. 

 The committee on a common service-book 

 for all English-speaking Lutherans, made a 

 report agreeing with the conditions fixed by 

 the General Council, and was continued. 

 Steps were taken to inquire into the expedi- 

 ency of reviving the old Lutheran vesper ser- 

 vice as an evening service ; and the committee 

 appointed to prepare a Sunday-school book 

 was instructed to mold its service on the an- 

 cient matin and vesper service. Reports were 

 made concerning the missipns at Richmond, 

 Va., and Atlanta, Ga. An interesting feature 

 of the meeting of the Synod was the reception 

 of the delegates from the North Carolina Syn- 

 od, which, after a separation of several years, 

 had determined to resume its connection with 

 the General Synod. On the other hand, the 

 Mississippi Synod had withdrawn from the 

 body, but it was hoped that the separation 

 would not be final. 



The fifteenth convention of the General 

 Council met in Lancaster, Ohio, November 9th. 

 Representatives were present from nine synods, 

 or from all the bodies connected with the Gen- 

 eral Council, except the Holston Synod. The 

 Rev. A. Spaeth, D. D., was re-elected president 

 of the body. In the proceedings of this assem- 

 bly, discussions of doctrines, as means of ascer- 

 taining, establishing, and communicating reli- 

 gious truth, are considered equally important 

 with the transaction of the practical and ad- 

 ministrative business which usually engage the 

 attention of ecclesiastical judicatories ; and a 

 summary of theses on some subject of doc- 

 trine or government is usually prepared in 

 advance of the meeting, to be discussed by 

 it. The topic selected for discussion at the 

 present meeting was the "Relation of Synods 

 to Congregations, and of Congregations to 

 Synods." 



The theses set forth that all power in the Church 

 belongs primarily and exclusively to the Lord Jesus 



Christ, and that the Church has no right or authority 

 to ordain or teach except what is "taught by the very 

 letter of God's Word, or derived by just and neces- 

 sary inference from it, and her liberty conceives those 

 things only which are left free by the letter and spirit 

 of God's Word." The primary bodies, the theses con- 

 tinue, through which the power of the Church is nomi- 

 nally exercised, are the congregations. "The con- 

 gregation, in the normal state, is neither the people 

 without the pastor, nor the pastor without the people. 

 In congregations exists the right of representation. 

 In addition to the pastor, who, by their voluntary elec- 

 tion, is already ex-ojficio their representative, the peo- 

 ple have the right to choose representatives from their 

 own number to act for them, under such constitutional 

 limitations as the congregation approves. The repre- 

 sentatives of congregations thus convened in synod, 

 and acting in accordance with those conditions of mu- 

 tual congregational compact which are called a con- 

 stitution, are, for the ends, and with the limitations 

 defined in it, representatively the congregations them- 

 selves. A free, scriptural general council, or synod, 

 chosen by the Church, is, within the metes and bounds 

 fixed by the Church which chooses it, representatively 

 that Church itself." The congregations representa- 

 tively constituting the various district synods may, 

 through those synods, elect delegates to represent 

 them in a more general body, which may bind 

 them, so far as the terms of their mutual agreement 

 make its acts binding. If, however, "the final decis- 

 ion of any general body thus constituted shall seem to 

 any synod within it in conflict with the faith, involv- 

 ing violation of the rights of conscience, it is the duty 

 of that synod to take such steps as shall be needed to 

 prevent a compromise on its part with error. To this 

 end it may withdraw itself from relations which make 

 it responsible for departure from the faith of the Gos- 

 pel, or for an equivocal attitude toward it. Such steps 

 should not be taken on any but well-defined grounds 

 of conscience, not on mere suspicion, nor until pray- 

 erful, earnest, and repeated efforts to correct the wrong 

 have proved useless, and no remedy remains but with- 

 drawal. 



u The obligation under which congregations con- 

 sent to place themselves, to conform to the decisions 

 of synods, does not rest on any assumption that syn- 

 ods are infallible, but on the supposition that the decis- 

 ions have been so guarded by wise constitutional pro- 

 visions as to create a higher moral probability of their 

 being true and rightful than the decisions in conflict 

 with them, which may be made by single congrega- 

 tions or individuals. All final decisions should be 

 guarded with the utmost care, so that they shall in no 

 case claim without just grounds to be the judgment of 

 those congregations in whose name and by whose 

 authority they are madein the absence of which just 

 grounds they are null and void." 



In the formation of a general body, the syn- 

 ods may know and deal with each other only as 

 synods. In such case the official record is to be 

 accepted as evidence of the doctrinal position 

 of each synod, and of the principles for which 

 alone the other synods become responsible by 

 connection with it. The leading objects for 

 which synods should be organized are defined 

 to be the maintenance and diffusion of sound 

 doctrine ; the decision of controversies in regard 

 to articles of faith ; the proper regulation of the 

 human externals of worship ; the maintenance 

 of pure discipline ; and the devising and exe- 

 cuting of wise and scriptural counsels and plans 

 for carrying on the work of the Church, in 

 every department of beneficent labor for the 

 souls and bodies of men, at home and abroad ; 

 all in subordination to God's Word and the 

 standards and authority of the Church. 



