40. Championing Reformed Doctrines.—Wherever Lutherans unite with the Reformed, the former gradually sink to the level of the latter. Already by declaring the differences between the two Churches irrelevant, the Lutheran truths are actually sacrificed and denied. Unionism always breaks the backbone, and outrages the conscience, of true Lutheranism. And naturally enough, the refusal to confess the Lutheran truth is but too frequently followed by eager endorsement and fanatical defense of the opposite errors. This is fully borne out by the history of the General Synod. As the years rolled on, the Reformed lineaments, at first manifesting themselves in unionism, came out in ever bolder relief. The distinctive Lutheran doctrines of the Lord's Supper, the person of Christ, Baptism, absolution, infant faith, the means of grace, the Sabbath, abstinence, separation of State and Church, etc., were all rejected and assailed by the most prominent leaders of the General Synod. And the unionistic spirit, with which also the most conservative within the General Synod were infected, paralyzed the courage of the men who, in a measure, saw and loved the light, and should have been bold in confessing the truth and uncompromising in defending it against the opposite errors. In 1831, in deference to sectarianism, the publication of theLutheran Observerwas transferred to Baltimore, with Dr. Morris as editor, because it was feared that the Presbyterians might take offense at the title "Lutheran" if, as was originally planned, it was published at Gettysburg with the professors as editors! It was in the interest of eliminating the specific Lutheran doctrines that, in 1845, at Philadelphia, a committee (Schmucker, Morris, Schmidt, Pohlman, Kurtz) was appointed to formulate and present to the next convention an abstract of the doctrines and usages of the American Lutheran Church, on the order of the Abstract requested in 1844 by the Maryland Synod, in which the Lutheran doctrine of the Real Presence was rejected. The report was made at Charleston, S. C., 1850, but "laid on the table, and the committee discharged from further duty." (27.) In 1855 a bold effort was made to abandon the Augsburg Confession in favor of the notorious Definite Platform, from which all specifically Lutheran doctrines had been eliminated in order to open the way officially for the tenets peculiar to Reformed theology. Some of the fanatics were not even willing to tolerate Lutheran doctrine in the General Synod. When in 1852 the Pennsylvania Synod resolved to reunite with the General Synod, and called upon all Lutherans in America to follow her example, theObserver, December 21, 1852, published a declaration stating that the Augsburg Confession taught the real presence of the body and blood of Christ in the Lord's Supper and several other things, which were rejected by almost all of the friends and promoters of the General Synod, and that it was sinful to unite with Lutherans who adhered to such doctrines. (Lutheraner, Dec. 21, 1852.) Former members of the North Illinois Synod declared in theObserverof January 20, 1860: "We do not believe in the bodily presence, baptismal regeneration, the ceremonies of the mass, and in similar nonsense." (L. u. W.1860, 93.) As late as 1896 the Allegheny Synod refused to ordain a candidate because he did not hold that the Sunday was of divine institution. (L. u. W.1896, 281.)
41. Sailing under False Colors.—Foremost and boldest among the Reformed theologians within the General Synod were S. S. Schmucker and B. Kurtz, who nevertheless insisted on sailing under the Lutheran flag. Brazenly claiming to be the true representatives of Lutheranism, they at the same time assailed the Lutheran and defended the Reformed doctrines with ultra Calvinistic zeal and bigotry. They opposed the adoption of all the Lutheran symbols (especially of the Formula of Concord), as well as the unqualified subscription to the Augsburg Confession, because they were imbued with the Reformed spirit and absolute strangers to, and enemies of, everything distinctive of, and essential to, true Lutheranism. (L. u. W.1866, 21.) In hisPopular Theology, published for the first time in 1834, Schmucker says: "But whilst the Reformers [Luther and Zwingli] agreed in rejecting this papal error [transubstantiation], it is much to be regretted that they could neither harmonize among themselves as to what should be substituted in its stead, nor consent to walk together in love, when they could not entirely accord in opinion…. Alas! that men, distinguished so highly for intellect, and chosen of God to accomplish so great a work, should betray such a glaring want of liberality toward each other; that, having gloriously cooperated in vanquishing the papal beast, they should turn their weapons against each other, for a point not decided in Scripture, and therefore of minor importance!" (Edition 1848, p. 297.) With respect to the presence of Christ in the Lord's Supper, Schmucker, in hisPopular Theology, distinguishes between the substantial, the influential, and the symbolical presence and the bald symbolical representation. Then he continues: "After a protracted and unprofitable struggle, the Lutheran Church has long since settled down in the happy conviction that on this, as on all other subjects not clearly determined by the inspired Volume, her sons shall be left to follow the dictates of their own conscience, having none to molest them or make them afraid. In the Lutheran Church in this country each of the above views has some advocates, though the great body of our divines, if we mistake not, embraces either the second or third." (305.) Also in hisPortraiture of Lutheranism(1840) Schmucker maintained that the Lutheran Church no longer demands the acknowledgment of the real presence in the Eucharist, Luther himself, toward the end of his life, having admitted that he had gone too far in this matter.
42. Moses Stuart's Declaration.—Referring to the statements quoted from Schmucker'sPopular Theology, Prof. Moses Stuart of Andover said in theBibliotheca Sacraof 1844: "I should not do justice to the Lutheran Church of recent times if I did not say that many within its precincts have loudly called in question the old doctrine of Luther and his compeers and successors in respect to consubstantiation [real presence]. The battle has been fought of late with great power; and scarcely a doubt remains that the more enlightened of the Lutherans are either renouncing his views, or coming to the position that they are not worth contending for. In this country such is clearly the case. Dr. S. S. Schmucker, the able and excellent exponent of the Lutheran theology in this country, in his work, calledPopular Theology, has told us that they are 'settled down in the happy conviction that on this, and on all other subjects not clearly determined by the inspired Volume, her sons shall be left to follow the dictates of their own conscience, having none to molest or make them afraid.' The great body of Lutheran divines among us, according to the same writer, doubt or deny the corporeal or physical presence of Christ in the elements of the Eucharist. It is not difficult to predict that ere long the great mass of well-informed Lutherans, at least in this country, will be substantially united, in regard to this subject, with the other Reformed Churches." (Spaeth,C. P. Krauth, 1, 115.)
43. Reformed Attitude of the "Observer."—Commenting on B. Kurtz, editor of theLutheran, Observer, Dr. Spaeth says: "For years and years he was indefatigable in his coarse and irreverential, yea, blasphemous attacks upon what was set forth as most sacred in the Confessions of the Lutheran Church. The loyal adherents of the historical faith of the Augsburg Confession were denounced as 'resurrectionists of elemental, undeveloped, halting, stumbling, and staggering humanity,' as priests ready 'to immolate bright meridian splendor on the altar of misty, musky dust,' men bent on going backward, and consequently, of necessity, going downward!" Every distinctive doctrine and usage of Lutheranism was ridiculed and assailed, in theLutheran Observer, by Kurtz and his theological affinities. In its issue of June 29, 1849, C.P. Krauth, in an article on the question of Christ's presence in the Eucharist, wrote: "From this high position [of the Lutheran confessions, held by some Lutherans in America] there are almost all shades of dissent and descent, not only to that which is popularly called the Zwinglian, and of which theLutheran Observermay be considered the exponent, but yet lower to that which we may call, for want of a better name, Socinian." (Spaeth I, 162.) A few weeks prior (June 8) Kurtz had declared that in the 60 Lutheran congregations in Maryland not 30 American-born members could be found who knew what "bodily presence" in the Lord's Supper meant, much less believed in it. The more the free-thinking, practical, and common-sense people the United States got acquainted with this doctrine, the less they would take to it. The same was true of other obsolete doctrines, such as baptismal regeneration. (Lutheraner, October 30, 1849.) In January of 1854 theObserverannounced that an old manuscript had been discovered in Germany, according to which Luther, shortly before his death, retracted his controversy against the Sacramentarians. (Lutheraner10, 108; cf. 2, 47.) In November of the same year theObserverdeclared that Profs. Heppe and Ebrard had proved that the doctrine of the Lutheran Church on the Lord's Supper was not the one of Luther, but that of the later Melanchthon. (Lutheraner11, 71.) Anspach, coeditor of theObserver, stated in its number of November 12, 1858: "Difference of opinion concerning the Sacraments is tolerated in the General Synod, and although there are some among our brethren who believe in the real presence of our Savior in the Lord's Supper in a higher sense than others, they nevertheless hold that this takes place in a spiritual and supernatural manner." (L. u. W.1859, 30.) In its issue of June 29, 1860, theObserverprotested: "We can never subscribe to the errors of the Augsburg Confession…. Let a separation take place. Let those who are able to swallow the errors of the sixteenth century, which have long ago been hissed from the stage, rally around the banner: 'The true body and the true blood of Christ in a natural manner in the elements,' and on the back side: 'Regeneration by Baptism and priestly absolution essential to true Lutheranism'! This is the theology of the symbolists. This papistical theology we cannot and will not subscribe to in America. For it is a theology which is not drawn from the Bible, but from the Roman Bible." In 1861 theObserverremarked that the Missouri, Buffalo, and other Old Lutherans practise ceremonies and adhere to doctrines which are as odious to many of us as those in vogue in the Roman Church. (March 8.) Two years prior theObserverhad blasphemously scoffed at the Lutheran Communion Liturgy as "altar antics." (L. u. W.1860, 31.)Observer, February 12, 1864: "Christ is at the right hand of God in heaven. How, then, can we speak of Christ's body and blood as present in the Sacrament since no such body did exist for these 1800 years, never since His ascension into glory?" (L. u. W.1864, 125.) November 7, 1862: "But who exercises faith in infant baptism? Not the child, but the father or the sponsor," etc. (L. u. W.1862, 373.) In 1904 theObserverdenied that a child believes and is regenerated by Baptism. (L. u. W.1904, 471.) According to theObserverof 1901 a man may become a true Christian even without any knowledge of the Gospel and of Christ. (L. u. W.1901, 306.)Observer, March 27, 1868: "God's Book is a total abstinence book, and God's Son never made intoxicating wine." In 1867 theAmerican Lutheran(published by the Hartwick Synod and later merged with theLutheran Observer), teaching the baldest Zwinglianism, maintained that Baptism is a mere sign and seal of membership in the visible Church on earth and no more regeneration itself than the sign-board "Hotel" is itself the hotel. (L. u. W.1867, 125.) TheLutheran Evangelist, merged in 1909 into theObserverand always disowning every doctrine distinctive of Lutheranism, stated January 20, 1899: The pastors of the General Synod are too sensible to believe "so foolish a dogma as infant faith." (L. u. W.1899, 27.) The same paper had declared in 1892: "They are bad Lutherans who do not view the Sabbath as commanded by God. If the Augsburg Confession had been written in our day, it would have delivered no uncertain testimony with respect to the divine obligation of the Day of the Lord." TheLutheran Church Work and Observer, the official organ of the General Synod, wrote September 12, 1918: "The General Synod has always stood on the side of temperance…. Almost all her ministers have been abstainers and advocates of total abstinence. They have ever aligned themselves with the temperance forces of the country to put the American saloon out of business." The first resolution in favor of the temperance cause, referred to in the minutes of the General Synod, was adopted in 1831 by the Hartwick Synod. (9.)
44. General Synod Involved as Such.—In spite of its noncommittal policy as to doctrine, the General Synod also as such has not been able to conceal its distinctively Reformed complexion. The letter of 1845 admits and approves of the fact that Luther's doctrine of the bodily presence of the Lord's Supper had long ago been abandoned by the great majority of the ministers of the General Synod. It was the Reformed theology, taught in the books of Schmucker, in the books of Kurtz, in theObserveredited by Kurtz, and in theHirtenstimme, published by Weyl, against which Wyneken protested in 1845, at Philadelphia. But his appeal for true Lutheranism over against Reformedism impressed the General Synod merely as funny (spasshaft), and his motion in the matter was tabled. Wyneken was compelled to sever his connection with a body whose every prominent feature was Reformed. The confessional Resolution adopted 1864 at York rejects, as will be explained later, the Lutheran doctrines of the real presence, absolution, and the Sunday. The minutes of the General Synod contain frequent resolutions in favor of the sectarian views of the Sabbath, total abstinence, the introduction of the Bible into the State schools, etc. At New York, 1848, Synod declared "that we heartily approve of the 'New York City Temperance Society, organized on Christian principles,' and believe it to be the only system of operation that will be ultimately successful and triumphant; that we commend this Society to the attention of the Synods in connection with this body, and to our churches generally, and urge them to prosecute this great and philanthropic enterprise upon the Christian principles adopted by this Society." (8.) At Harrisburg, 1885, the resolutions were adopted "that we do hereby declare our belief in the divine authority of the Christian Sabbath as a day of sacred rest and religious instruction and worship of Almighty God; that we recommend to the respective Synods of the General Synod that they take such action from time to time as shall lead to more frequent and earnest appeals from all the pulpits of our Church upon this all-important subject; that with uplifted hands to that God who is the Father of us all we unceasingly implore that the day be hastened when all the earth shall be freed from the power of sin, and when life shall be one universal Sabbath to the ends of the earth." (69.) (Proceedings1848,44; 1853,28; 1864,45; 1883,46; 1887,61; etc.) In 1854 T. N. Kurtz of Baltimore published a "Lutheran Almanac," featuring on its title-page the pictures of Luther, Zwingli, and Calvin as "those great Reformers," and listing as "great theologians of the Lutheran Church" also the names of Herder, Paulus, Ammon, Bretschneider, Wegscheider, Gesenius, Roehr, etc. (Lutheraner10,15.) This is a true-to-life picture of the General Synod in her palmiest days— Zwinglianism, Methodism, Rationalism being the most protruding features. (4,198.)
45. Verdict of Contemporaries.—In his pamphletThe Distress of the German Lutherans in America, Wyneken said with special reference to the English part of the General Synod: "They have totally fallen away from the faith of the fathers. Though enthusiastic over the name 'Lutheran' and zealous in spreading the so-called 'Lutheran' Church, they, in a most shameful and foolhardy manner, attack the doctrines of our Church and seek to spread their errors in sermons, periodicals, and newspapers, notably the doctrines of Baptism and the Lord's Supper and the connected important doctrines of grace, of the two natures in Christ, etc. … Besides, they are ardent advocates of 'new measures' and altogether Methodistic in their method of conversion." In 1845, after severing his connection with the General Synod on account of its refusal to renounce the Reformed doctrines and usages advocated by Schmucker, Kurtz, and Weyl, Wyneken denounced the General Synod as "Reformed in doctrine, Methodistic in practise, and laboring for the ruin of the Church, whose name she falsely bears." (Lutheraner1845,96.) In a letter to Walther, dated December 11, 1844, Dr. Sihler wrote: "Our main enemies here in Ohio are not only the Methodists, but also the false brethren, the so-called General Synod, which, as generally known, is decidedly Reformed in the doctrine of the Sacraments, and in its practise decidedly Methodistic." Again, in 1858, Sihler branded Kurtz, Schmucker, and others as "open counterfeiters, Calvinists, Methodists, Unionists, and traitors and destroyers of the Lutheran Church." (L. u. W.1858, 137.) TheLutheran Standard, October 27, 1847, declared: "History has already recorded it for posterity that the General Synod is not an Evangelical Lutheran body, inasmuch as it fails to adhere to just those doctrines by which the Evangelical Lutheran Church differs from other denominations. History declares that the General Synod has expressly and without disguise renounced the distinctive doctrines of Lutheranism, and at the same time declared herself in favor of Union and Methodistic practise." (Lutheraner2,56; 4,46.) TheEvangelical Lutheran, published at Springfield, O., remarked that Schmucker and his compeers were engaged in selling Reformed goods under the trademark of Lutheranism. (April 9, 1868.) Dr. Mann, who himself for many years had intimate connections with Philip Schaff, wrote in theLutherische Zeitschriftof November 17, 1866: "It is the peculiarity of the un-Lutheran party [of the General Synod] that it is essentially committed to Reformed sentiments. Dr. Schmucker has long ago openly confessed views which are in open conflict with the doctrines of the Lutheran symbols, but harmonize with those of the Reformed confessions, especially of the Zwinglian type. In this sense many of his publications are written, and in this sense he has taught for many, many years in a Lutheran seminary. He is inspired by a Zwinglian-Reformed spirit, and has endeavored to imbue his scholars with it. It has never dawned on him and them what is properly the Lutheran view of Christianity. He himself has not the least sympathy for it." (Spaeth,A. Mann, 189 f.) In 1873 theLutheran Visitorin the South charged the General Synod with fostering disloyalty to, and causing defections from, the Lutheran Church by destroying the peculiarly distinctive marks of Lutheranism. (L. u. W.1873,94.)
46. "Justification by Sensation."—According to the Bible and the Lutheran Church the divine measures for converting sinners are the preaching of the pure Gospel and the administering of the unadulterated Sacraments. "New-measurism," then, as the very term indicates, is a human makeshift. Indeed, the Lutheran Church approves of all methods, also new measures, which merely serve to bring the divine means of grace into motion and men in contact with them. But it condemns all methods and measures, new or old, which hinder or corrupt or eliminate the divine means of grace. The new measures introduced by revivalism, however, are just such corruptions of, and substitutes for, the divine means of grace. "Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God"—of this truth New-measurism is a denialin toto. New-measurism denies the Gospel-truth that God is already reconciled and has already pardoned sinners. It denies that this pardon is freely offered in the unconditional promises of God's Word and in the Sacraments, the seals of grace. It denies that justifying and saving faith is the mere trust in these promises of God. It denies that faith in these promises alone engenders divine assurance of pardon. It mistakes, as C. P. Krauth put it, justification by sensation for justification by faith. (Spaeth 2, 35.) It holds that one cannot be assured of grace without certain peculiar sensations, emotions, and feelings in his heart. It denies that faith is purely a gift of God, and teaches that man must cooperate in his own conversion. It insists that special measures must be resorted to in order to frighten men into doing their share of conversion, and to produce the emotional and neurotic conditions which warrant assurance of grace. As such measures it prescribes emotional appeals, shrieking and shouting in preaching and praying, special prayer-meetings, the anxious bench, protracted meetings, camp-meetings, etc. Revivalism brands men as spiritually dead and unconverted who, like Walther and Wyneken, base their assurance of grace, not on alleged feelings and spiritual experiences, but on the clear and unmistakable promises of God in His Word and Sacraments. New-measurism condemns and ridicules the old methods of catechetical instruction, doctrinal preaching, and of administering the Sacraments as spiritually ineffective and productive merely of head Christianity and dead orthodoxy. "Jist git the spirit started," said a Methodist to C. P. Krauth, "and then it works like smoke." "Very much like smoke, I guess," answered Krauth. (1,67.) Indeed, Pelagianists, who believe that conversion is a mere outward moral improvement, effected by man's own free will; Romanists, who teach that man can and must by his own efforts and works earn the grace of God; Arminians and Synergists, who believe in man's ability to cooperate in his own conversion and salvation; Calvinists, who, denying universal grace, base their insurance on special marks of grace in their own hearts and lives; Reformedists and enthusiasts, who deny that Word and Sacraments are the only means of grace, collative as well as operative; Pietists, who insist that the terrors of conscience must be of a peculiar nature and degree, and that faith must be accompanied by a happiness and a sanctification of a special kind and measure before a sinner may fully be assured of his pardon and conversion,—they all may be, and, in fact, naturally are, in sympathy with one or the other form of New-measurism and revivalism; but Lutherans, who believe in a Gospel of real pardon and power—never. If the Lutheran doctrine of grace and the means of grace is Scriptural, then the work-nerve-and-emotion Christianity of New-measurism is wrong, andvice versa. Not Lutheranism, but Arminianism, Enthusiasm, and Reformedism are the premises of revivalism. The fact that New-measurism was enthusiastically hailed, defended, and extensively introduced by her leading men, is but a further proof that the spirit then rampant in the General Synod was not the spirit of Lutheranism.
47. Lutherans Vying with the Fanatics.—The pietism and unionism of Muhlenberg and his colaborers was the door through which, in the days of Wesley and Whitefield, revivalism had found an early, though limited, entrance into the Lutheran Church. And in the course of its history the General Synod was zealous in cultivating and developing the evil inheritance of their fathers. It sounds like a warning against the threatening contagion when D. F. Schaeffer, in the Pastoral Letter of 1831, admonishes: "Let us faithfully adhere to the Word of God and follow its precepts unswervingly; let us not follow after those whose enthusiastic behavior is more apt to promote disorder and confusion than true edification. Against such we would warn in a most friendly manner, even if they be never so beloved. As Lutherans we admonish you: 'Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; and walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given Himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor.'" (25.) But the General Synod herself had already opened the door for, and encouraged, the movement. According to Chapter XVI of the constitution adopted 1829 for the District Synods, the annual Special Conferences were to meet for two days, especially in order "by practical preaching to awaken and convert sinners and to edify believers." (41.) In the following year the Hartwick Synod was organized, in order more fully to satisfy the craving of their members for revivals. At the convention of the General Synod at Frederick, 1831, a committee reported that the Hartwick Synod, having unanimously voted to join the General Synod, was divided into two conferences which were to meet as often as possible, and whose chief business it was "by earnest and practical sermons to awaken and convert sinners, and to encourage and edify Christians." (9.) At Baltimore, 1833, the Ohio Synod was censured for certain utterances against the "new measures" adopted within the General Synod. Finding revivalism in the Hartwick Synod not advanced enough, a few of its members, in 1837, organized the Franckean Synod, in order to press "new measures" to the extreme. On the Hartwick Synod the withdrawal acted as an impulse for a greater activity in the same direction. At Chambersburg, 1839, a committee reported on the meeting of this synod held in 1838: "We take particular pleasure in remarking that the proceedings of this Synod, especially the statements contained in the annual address of its President, afford the most satisfactory evidence that this Synod is decidedly in favor of revivals of religion. Protracted meetings have been held in various parts, and the Lord has especially blessed them; from which we have reason to believe that true and undefiled religion is more and more abounding within its limits. All the religious operations of the day, such as Tract Societies, Temperance Societies, etc., etc., enjoy the hearty support of this Synod." (13.) The minutes of the General Synod, of the District Synods, theLutheran Observer, etc., soon began to teem with reports on revivals, visitations, outpourings, refreshing showers, etc. (L. u. W.1857, 27.) At the convention of the Maryland Synod in Frederick, 1842, Harkey proposed the publication of theRevivalist, a monthly to be devoted to the history and defense of revivals, revival intelligence, the best measures and means of promoting and managing revivals—a plan which Synod declined as "inexpedient." At the same convention B. Kurtz, the advocate of the wildest revivalism, succeeded in having a committee appointed to draft a minute expressive of the views of Synod in regard to "new measures." The report was discussed for two days, when it was referred back to the committee, and at the next meeting of Synod the committee was excused from further consideration of the subject. (Spaeth 1, 111.) As late as 1876 theAmerican Lutherandeclared that the great majority of the pastors and congregations of the General Synod favored revivals; that they managed them on the lines of those conducted by Moody and Sankey; that some of the congregations employed sectarian preachers for protracted meetings. (L. u. W.1876, 182.) When, in 1877, theAmerican Lutheranmerged into theObserver, Dr. Conrad solemnly promised to continue defending revivalism. (L. u. W.1877, 60.) In 1908, referring to revivals still occasionally reported in theObserver, theLutherische Heroldremarked that this sort of enthusiasm, formerly the rule in the Eastern and Central States, had as yet not nearly died out,e. g., in the General Synod congregations of Eastern and Central Pennsylvania. (L. u. W.1908, 322.) Down to 1918 occasional revivals were held or participated in by congregations and ministers of the General Synod. Several years ago Rev. Bell cooperated in a revival conducted by Billy Sunday in Toledo, etc. According toChurch Work and Observer, November 9, 1916, the General Synod church at Gettysburg, Pa., conducted a joint revival with Presbyterians, Methodists, and United Brethren.
48. "The Lever of Archimedes."—In the revival agitation which swept over America in the decades following 1830 practically all of the English Lutheran churches (the German churches, in part, stood aloof) caught the contagion in a malignant form and in great numbers. While even Prof. J. W. Nevin, Schaff's colleague at Mercersburg, in his bookThe Anxious Bench(1844), antagonized the extravagances of a movement which was germane to his own church, Lutherans such as Schmucker, Kurtz, Harkey, Passavant, and many others, became extremists in practising, and fanatics in advocating, "new measures" as the most needful and only effective methods of accelerating and deepening conversion and reviving the Lutheran Church. Vying in their wild extravagances with the most fanatical of the sects, Lutherans, in not a few places, condemned as spiritually dead formalists, head and memory Christians, all who adhered to the sound principles and old ways of Lutheranism. (Gerberding,The Way of Life, 197 ff.) S. L. Harkey, himself a fiery New-measurist, describes a revival held in connection with the convention of the Synod of the West, in 1839, as follows: "In an instant every soul in the house was upon the knees, and remained there weeping and praying for mercy." "The whole congregation became more or less moved. The place became truly awful and glorious, and it seemed that the time had come when a decided effort must be made upon the kingdom of darkness, and that under such circumstances to shrink from the task and, through fear of producing a little temporary disorder, to refuse to go heartily into the work, would have been nothing short of down right spiritual murder." "At one time during the meeting it was found necessary to invite the mourners to withdraw from the church and remove to the parsonage that the synod might have an opportunity to proceed with the transaction of business before it." (Neve, 97.) Dr. Kurtz wrote in theObserverof November 17, 1843: "The so-called 'anxious bench' is the lever of Archimedes, which by the blessing of God can raise our German churches to that degree of respectability in the religious world which they ought to enjoy." (Neve, 95.) TheLutheran Observerof March 21, 1862, while defending revivalism and misrepresenting the "symbolism" of the Missourians as the doctrine according to which one is saved by the Sacramentsex opere operato, without repentance and faith, condemns the Lutheran system of baptizing, catechizing, confirming, communing at the Lord's Supper, etc., as Romanism and Sacramentalism, as unbiblical and not at all the religion of Christ and His apostles, as fundamentally wrong and utterly ineffective, and disgusting also to Lutherans, as soon as they were enlightened by the Spirit of God. TheObservercontinues: The success of Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians, and even of the Congregationalists among the Germans is due to revivals. "The Lutheran Church in Germany and in this country is in need of religious revivals. Nothing else will save them." (L. u. W.1862, 152.) In 1900, reporting numerous conversions in consequence of revivals held in congregations of the General Synod, theObserverremarked: "If half a dozen of our best preachers would turn evangelists—no greater blessing could come to our Church." (L. u. W.1900, 179.) TheLutheran World, January 17, 1901: "In our own General Synod any of our churches came to look upon the Catechism as unfriendly to vital piety, and they cast it out. Today even there are still those among us who oppose and resist the use of the Catechism under the false notion that it is the enemy of practical religion. Their idea of religion is the Methodistic notion. Fitness for church-membership, according to their view, comes through the pressure and appointments of the big meeting. Sinners must come to a bench for mourning, or they must stand up in the congregation, or they must hold their hands, or they must send in their card asking for the prayers of the church. Human devices and appointments are fixed on as requisites for having a genuine conversion and being filled with the Spirit of God. This is Romanism in disguise." (L. u. W.1901, 54.)
49. Reports on Revivals.—To what an extent over a long period revivals were indulged in by the congregations of the General Synod appears from its minutes. The Committee on the State of the Church reported in 1857: "Revivals have been enjoyed in every quarter, many souls have been added to the Lord, and whilst the congregations have thus been largely increased, there is every reason to anticipate that the addition thus secured for the ranks of the ministry will not be a small one." (30.) In 1859: "The most extensive and powerful revivals of religion ever known among us have been enjoyed by a very large number of our churches during the past two years." (59.) In 1864: "Frequent and extensive revivals and numerous additions to the Church are reported by the brethren." (55.) In 1866: "Many of our churches are rejoicing in special seasons of grace, refreshings from on high, revivals of religion, in which sinners are converted, whilst God's people are awakening to new life." (42.) In 1869: "Revivals of religion have been quite general during the year, and many have been born into the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ." (59.) In 1875: "In most of the synods there have been seasons of special extended quickening. Large numbers have professed conversion. In some instances hundreds have been added to a single church in a twelvemonth." (23.) In 1848 the Synod of Western Virginia reported: "Almost all our churches have been blessed with revivals of religion. In some upwards of one hundred persons have professed to have passed from death unto life; in others seventy-five, in others fifty, and in some not so many." (45.) In 1859: "The two institutions, Roanoke College and Wytheville Female College, have also been blessed with gracious visitations from on high, which resulted in the conversion of a number of students in both institutions." (53.) The Virginia Synod, in 1859: "We have shared to some extent the great revival blessings which God has poured out upon the land." (51.) The New York Ministerium, in 1850: "The churches generally are in a state of prosperity, and many of them have been favored with special visitations of the Holy Spirit." (31.) In 1859: "The great revival has had its influence upon our churches; many have been added to our number, and the vital piety has increased." (61.) The Synod of West Pennsylvania, in 1850: "Interesting revivals of religion have occurred since the last General Synod in different places." (29.) In 1853: "The influences of the Holy Spirit have descended as the dew upon the labors of most of them, whilst there have been refreshing showers in the case of many. Revivals are known to have been enjoyed by eight of the pastoral districts within the last two years. This number embraces nearly half of the charges of the Synod. Some of these gracious seasons were of great power, resulting in the hopeful conversion of many souls, and furnishing a number of students having the ministry in view." (28.) In 1859: "Nearly all the churches have enjoyed revivals of religion more or less extensive; conversions have been numerous." (49.) In 1864: "In some pastorates there have been special awakenings, and many have been added to the Church of Christ." (55.) In 1871: "Many of the churches have been blessed with precious seasons of refreshing grace." (44.) East Pennsylvania Synod, in 1850: "Many sections of the Church have been blessed with special visitations of the Spirit of God." (32.) In 1862 the Synod of Central Pennsylvania reported: "In mercy God poured out His Spirit upon a number of the charges and congregations, and many souls professed conversion; and although the sad effects of the war are, in this Synod, clearly seen in her churches, still we are happy to state that much good has been accomplished." (45.) In 1871: "There have been extensive awakenings in several of our pastorates, and there is a steady and commendable progress in spiritual attainments generally." (47.) The Hartwick Synod, in 1853: "Precious seasons of refreshing have been vouchsafed to its churches. The Lord is in the midst of His people, making glad their hearts with the tokens of His presence and His love." (30.) In 1862: "Although there have not been, within the past three years, revivals so numerous and so extensive as in the two years previous, yet seasons of refreshing have been enjoyed on the part of many of the churches, and such progress made as to evince the Lord's presence and blessing." (41.) In 1804: "In several of our churches the Lord has graciously revived His work, believers have been quickened into higher life, and sinners have been converted." (57.) In 1871: "Many of our congregations have enjoyed special seasons of grace, and large accessions to the Church have been the result." (44.) In 1859 the Alleghany Synod reported: "Extensive revivals have been enjoyed and a large number of members added." (52.) In 1862: "The Synod has had some precious revivals of religion in many of its congregations. In many respects the Synod has prospered in vital piety." (42.) In 1869: "Some of the charges have made large additions, as results of religious awakenings, during the past winter." (58.) The Melanchthon Synod, in 1859: "Extensive revivals of religion have been enjoyed in many of the congregations, and large additions have been made to the membership." (58.) In 1862: "The churches within the bounds of this Synod enjoyed extensive revivals during the first two years after the last meeting of the General Synod, at which time the rebellion, so disastrous to both State and Church, took place and blasted many of our most cherished enterprises, and laid low many of our fondest hopes. During the past year, accessions to the Church within our bounds have been comparatively few, revivals of religion rare, whilst there has been a marked decline in vital godliness." (46.) In 1869: "During the past year quite a number of revivals of religion have occurred." (59.) The Synod of Kentucky, in 1859: "Some of our charges have enjoyed revivals of religion, which greatly refreshed both ministers and people, and considerably increased our numerical strength." (57.) The Maryland Synod, in 1859: "Extensive revivals have been enjoyed by many of the churches." (49.) The Synod of New Jersey, in 1862: "Our body has an existence of only one year. Yet we have enjoyed revivals of religion." (42.) In 1869: "A number of revivals of religion have been reported." (61.) In 1871: "Several of our churches have enjoyed seasons of special religious interest and revival." (48.) The Franckean Synod, in 1869: "Practical religion has been well sustained. Several precious revivals have been enjoyed." (62.) In 1871: "Synod is engaged with more or less success in establishing and unfolding a true religious life in the membership of the Church of God as the grand object of being, endeavoring to promote revivals of religion." (48.) The Susquehanna Synod, in 1869: "This Synod is in a prosperous condition. During the past year, and, more particularly, during the past winter, extensive revivals of religion were enjoyed and large numbers of souls hopefully converted to God and added to the Church." (62.) In 1871: "There has been a large increase in the membership, mostly through judiciously conducted protracted meetings and catechization." (48.)
50. Reports on Revivals (continued).—In 1869 the Synod of New York reported: "Some of the congregations have been visited with special showers of divine grace, and, as a consequence, large additions have been made to its membership." (58.) The English Synod of Ohio, in 1853: "There are but few congregations in connection with our Synod but what have, during the past year, enjoyed greater or less manifestations of the Spirit of God in the conversion of sinners." (34.) The East Ohio Synod, in 1859: "In all of our churches most precious seasons of grace were enjoyed. The Spirit of God 'came down like rain upon the mown grass,' and righteousness flourished in all our borders." (52.) In 1862: "The state of religion is healthy. The past few years have been marked with the gifts of the Divine Spirit, and, while sinners have been converted to God, the professed people of Christ have been stadily [sic] growing in spirituality and church-love." (43.) In 1869: "We have had many precious seasons of revival during the past year, and large accessions to the number of those who shall be saved." (59.) In 1871: "Many precious revivals of religion have been recorded, and large accessions have been made to the churches." (45.) The Olive Branch Synod, in 1853: "Almost all the churches connected with this Synod, during the year, enjoyed precious revivals of religion." (37.) In 1859: "Many of them have enjoyed refreshing seasons from the presence of the Lord, by which they have become much strengthened and encouraged." (54.) In 1862: "The churches are, with few exceptions, in a prosperous condition. Some of them have enjoyed seasons of refreshing." (43.) In 1871: "A number of charges have had precious seasons of revival, resulting in large additions to their membership. The state of religion in our churches is more favorable than it had been in the few years previous." (46.) The Miami Synod, in 1859: "Revivals have been enjoyed in almost every charge, and large numbers have been brought to the knowledge of the truth." (52.) In 1871: "Several of them have enjoyed special seasons of grace." (45.) The Synod of Iowa, in 1859: "Some of the churches have been visited by revivals of religion, and there a more healthful state of piety is seen." (58.) In 1862: "The most extensive revivals of religion ever known among us have been enjoyed during the past winter. Our laity are becoming more of a praying as well as a working people. A deeper tone of piety exists among us. There is more heartfelt and prayerful longing for the gracious outpouring of the blessing of God, and more earnest efforts are being put forth for the conversion and salvation of souls. It is therefore our decided conviction that at no former period of our brief history have we been so fully and generally awakened to our great mission in this distant West as at the present." (46.) The Synod of Northern Illinois, in 1859: "Our Swedish and Norwegian brethren are very active, and a living practical Christianity is making powerful progress among them. During the last two years extensive and powerful revivals have been enjoyed by many of the churches connected with this Synod." (54.) In 1871: "A number of refreshing seasons of divine grace has been enjoyed during the past two years." (47.) The Synod of Northern Indiana, in 1859: "In the last two years many of its churches have enjoyed revivals of religion." (57.) In 1862: "Many precious revivals of religion have been enjoyed." (44.) The Wittenberg Synod, in 1859: "During the past two years our churches have enjoyed the special visitations of the Holy Spirit and the number of our members has been greatly enlarged." (52.) The Synod of Illinois, in 1859: "Many of the churches have enjoyed refreshing seasons from the presence of the Lord, and vital piety is advancing." (53.) The Synod of Southern Illinois, in 1862; "Some of our congregations have enjoyed refreshing showers from the presence of the Lord, during the last winter, and are in prosperous condition." (46.) In 1864: "Amid all these hindrances, some of the churches have been revived by gracious outpourings of the Spirit." (59.) In 1869: "Although new elements of wickedness, such as rationalism, pantheism, etc., are making their way into our midst, yet Christians are awake to their baneful influences and are setting themselves against them." (61.)
51. Coming to Their Senses Gradually.—New-measurism was resorted to by the General Synod in order to revive the dying Church. The true cause of her apathy, atrophy, and decay, however, was not diagnosed correctly. It was the prevailing confessional indifference, religious ignorance, and the neglect of Lutheran indoctrination by catechization, especially of the young. Dr. Hazelius, himself a revivalist, as early as 1845, pointed out the real cause and cure. "The attachment of the Church"—said he— "has been weakened so much that the causes of this alarming fact have frequently been made the subject of inquiry in our churchpaper [Observer], and we are sorry to say that among all the causes assigned, we have missed the one which is at the root of the evil,viz., the remissness of many of our pastors in the religious instruction of youths." (Wolf,Lutherans in America, p. 484.) If this was the disease, it stands to reason that a cure could not be brought about by the quack methods of New-measurism, by exciting the nerves and emotions, but only by enlightening the mind and moving the will by the Word of God. Pastor Loehe, presenting inKirchliche Mitteilungenof 1843 a description of revivals and camp-meetings in America, remarked: "They intoxicate themselves with spiritual drinks which are worse than whisky." (Nos. 2 and 5.) Indeed, Methodistic revivalism has been found wanting, and worse than wanting, everywhere. In a Lutheran congregation it must necessarily result in a total annihilation of whatever there may be left of true Lutheranism.—The inoperativeness of revivalism was occasionally admitted also by its friends within the General Synod. At New York, 1848, regretting the decrease in the number of theological students, the Executive Committee of the Parent Education Society stated: "This subject becomes more painful when we consider that since 1842, when the Church at large was blessed with extensive revivals of religion, the number of beneficiaries has diminished constantly until the present time, whilst there has been no corresponding increase perceptible in the number of theological students who sustain themselves. During the same time there has been no corresponding increase in the benevolence of the Church in any other direction; on the contrary, the contributions of the whole Church for all benevolent purposes may now be easily covered by the annual charities of a single congregation in this city." (64.) But the ministers and congregations of the General Synod were slow in coming to their senses. It was one of the symptoms pointing in the right direction when, in 1864 at York, the Committee on the State of the Church reported: "It is a hopeful sign of substantial growth and prosperity in the Church that the time-honored custom of catechization is coming more and more into favor with the pastors. This means of preparing the baptized children of the Church for an intelligent profession of faith in Christ and the privilege of communicant membership, had, in many places, fallen into neglect on account of the frequent abuse to which it had been subject in the hands of those who employed it as a mere formal mode of introducing the young to the communion without any evidence of piety; but we believe it is now becoming more and more a means of conversion and salvation to our rising membership." (1864,55.) At Altoona, 1881, the same committee presented the following report, which Synod adopted: "Ministers, from every quarter, report with delight that catechization is regularly practised and grows in favor. We are foolish to throw away this noble heritage. It affords, as nothing else, an opportunity for the children of the Church to become professing Christians. The pastor can train, educate, and indoctrinate them through it. By its help our churches, every year, can have a healthful growth, and not depend alone upon special seasons, or revivals of religion. We, therefore, may expect in the future still larger accessions—accessions which, trained by a godly and devoted ministry, should be, not nominal, but living Christians, understanding the great truths and doctrines of the Word of God." (60.) In the following decades, as related, revivals decreased rapidly within the General Synod. A thorough and permanent cure of the Methodistic infection, however, can be effected only by the doctrine of grace, the Gospel of unconditional pardon and truly divine power, as taught by the Lutheran Church.
52. A Misnomer.—Essentially Americanism signifies liberty of thought, speech, press, and assemblage, based on democracy and national independence, religious freedom and equality being its most precious gem. Lutheranism, therefore, standing, as it does, for the complete separation of State and Church, as well as liberty and equal religious rights for all, is inherently American; while the Reformed confessions, inasmuch as they advocate religious intolerance, civil legislation favoring their own religious tenets, etc., are in conflict with the principles of American freedom. A Reformedist, in order to become a true American, must sacrifice some of his confessional teachings, while the Lutheran symbols are in need of no purging to bring them into harmony with American ideals. Indeed, in the atmosphere of American liberty the Lutheran Church, for the first time in her history, on a large scale was able to develop naturally and normally by consistent practical application of her own innate principles, without any corrupting or dwarfing coercion on the part of the State whatsoever. Yet the very man, Dr. Walther, who did more than any other theologian in America towards the building up of a Church at once truly Lutheran and truly American, was stigmatized by S. S. Schmucker and his compeers as a "foreign symbolist," neither Lutheran nor American. But the brand of American Lutheranism proposed and propagated by the leaders of the General Synod was, in reality, a counterfeit American Lutheranism. The new school movement, headed by Schmucker, Kurtz, and Sprecher, and constantly prating "American Lutheranism," was essentially Calvinistic, Methodistic, Puritanic, indifferentistic, and unionistic, hence nothing less than truly Lutheran. From his professor's chair and in the press Schmucker denied and assailed every doctrine distinctive of Lutheranism. In every issue of theObserverB. Kurtz ridiculed and attacked what was most sacred to Luther and most prominent in the Lutheran Confessions. In this he was seconded by Weyl inLutherische Hirtenstimmeand other publications in the General Synod. Thus, while professing and pretending to Americanize the Lutheran Church, the leaders of the General Synod, in reality, were zealous in denaturing, corrupting, and inoculating it with views and ways prevailing in the Reformed churches ever since the days of Zwingli, Bucer, Calvin, and Wesley. The coryphaei of the General Synod, in order to impart to the Lutheran Church, as they put it, "the warmth of Methodism and the vigor of Presbyterianism," disemboweled their own Church of heart and lungs, and filled the empty skin with sectarian stuffings. American Lutheranism, according to Schmucker, was not Lutheranism in sympathy with American institutions and the English language, but abolition of the Lutheran symbols and rejection of the Lutheran doctrines (absolution, real presence, baptismal regeneration, etc.) in favor of the corresponding Reformed tenets and the nine articles of the Evangelical Alliance. Reynolds said in a letter of January 7, 1850: "The fact is, there is a large body of men in our Church who have no knowledge of her history, no sympathy with her doctrines, no idea of her true character, and whose conception of the Church is that of a kind of mongrel Methodistic Presbyterianism, and of this party Drs. S. S. Schmucker and Kurtz are the coryphaei." (Spaeth 1,179.) In 1873Lehre und Wehrewrote: "So-called American Lutheranism is but a new edition of Zwinglianism, which, in a dishonest fashion, appropriates the Lutheran name. The more one agrees with Zwingli and disagrees with the 16th century Lutheranism, the more genuine an American Lutheran he is." (29.)
53. Spirit of the Movement.—The true inwardness of the "American Lutheranism" with which the General Synod was infected from its very birth, and which reached its crisis in the Definite Platform of 1855, was revealed in all its nakedness by theAmerican Lutheran,a paper into which theLutherische Kirchenboteof Selinsgrove, Pa., had been transformed in 1865. Its standpoint is characterized byLehre und Wehreas being beneath that of theObserver"the hollowest so-called American Lutheranism, a concoction of rationalism and sentimentalism." (1865,61.) When Prof. Sternberg, a fanatical anti-symbolist (opponent of the Lutheran Confessions), had been removed from Hartwick Seminary, theAmerican Lutheran, June 22, 1865, wrote: "The days when compromises with and concessions to symbolism were made are passed. If a clash between symbolism and American Lutheranism is unavoidable within the General Synod, the sooner it comes, the better it is." (L. u, W.1865, 253.) In its issue of July 20, 1865, theAmerican Lutheranpublished a number of letters in which the hope is expressed that the day was near when the Lutheran Church in America would shake off the yoke of symbolism and step forward, recognized by the great Protestant world. "The attempt"—the correspondent continues—"to live in one and the same house with the symbolists is useless. We thank God that we have a paper which says in its first year: No compromise any longer with symbolism! Hallelujah! May the whole Church hear it." (L. u. W.1865, 277.) Revealing both its ignorance and animus, theAmerican Lutheran, Rev. Anstaedt then being the editor, said in its issue of January 24, 1867: "The difference between the symbolists [Lutherans true to their Confessions] and American Lutherans is a radical one, going down to the innermost heart of Christianity and involving eternal interests, the salvation and hope of immortal souls. TheAmerican Lutheranbelieves that religion is a personal and individual matter, while the symbolist believes that it is but a congregational matter. Their articles of faith are: 1. All men are born in sin. 2. The Church must redeem us from sin. 3. The Church consists of the priests and the Sacraments. 4. The priests have the power on earth to administer the Sacraments and to forgive sins. 5. The Sacraments have in themselves the power to save. 6. Baptism regenerates the child. 7. The Lord's Supper nourishes the seed implanted in Baptism. 8. Hence man is not saved by the individual experience of something, but in a mass. I know that our symbolists will say that this is slander. But I affirm that it is a sincere and honest presentation of the matter…. The advocates of symbolism probably have never been converted, or they have backslidden again. This is a severe judgment. So it is. But must we not judge them by their fruits? How many souls have been converted by these symbolists? Go into their congregations and speak to their members on religion; what do they know of it? In 19 out of 20 cases their members, when awakened, seek Christ in other churches. We have held back too long with our testimony. I fear that by our negligence souls have gone to hell. And what have we won by our pusillanimity? The advocates of symbolism have grown and become more impudent by their success." (L. u. W.1867, 88.) In a subsequent issue the same paper, after boldly defending the baldest Zwinglianism, remarked with respect to the symbolists that, in a way, their success involved a certain blessing, inasmuch as they would serve as "an ecclesiastical sewer into which sooner or later the dead formalism, the cold, heartless ritualism, and the lager-beer Lutheranism of this country would find its way." (L. u. W.1867, 125.) Even theLutheran Observerwas censured by theAmerican Lutheranfor becoming too conservative. (L. u. W.1875, 375.) But the difference was one of degree only. In its issue of October 3, 1873, theObservercharged the Germans and Scandinavians, because of their adherence to the Lutheran Confessions, with sectarian presumption, enmity against other Christians, foreign bigotry, dead orthodoxy, cold dead faith, etc. "The position," theObservercontinued, "which these bigots assume in our enlightened land of churches, where the Lord Jesus is more universally honored than in any other country of the world, is ridiculous…. For while these short-sighted men set themselves against the liberal and enlightened spirit of the General Synod and against the times and the country in which they live, other churches annually lead away thousands of their most intelligent members." (L. u. W.1873, 375.) Enmity against Lutheranism—such was the spirit of the counterfeit American Lutheranism championed by Schmucker and his compeers. Nor is the assumption warranted that this spirit died with its early protagonists. In 1885 Dr. Butler characterized the Americanization of Lutherans in theLutheran Observeras follows: "It is a great mission of theObserverto open the blind eyes and to convert our Teutonic people from the fetters of its language and customs to the light and to the liberty of this Bible-loving, Sabbath-keeping, water-drinking, church-going and God-fearing country." (L. u. W.1885, 120.) As late as 1906 theObserverwrote: The General Synod is in possession of the American spirit in the greatest measure. It is her mission to inject this spirit into the Lutheran Church in America. This spirit embraces: adoption of the English language; acknowledgment and toleration of the lodges; fellowship with the sects. "The American spirit is that of fellowship. Failure to be American in this is sure to bring us into ridicule and even disrepute with the mass of the best Christian people of the land." (L. u. W.1906, 229.)
54. Now or Never!—Believing that the Lutheran Confessions, though not an authority above, or alongside of, the Bible, are doctrinally in perfect agreement with the Word of God, Walther, Wyneken, Sihler, Craemer, and others, since 1840, boldly, aggressively, and victoriously unfurled the banner of Lutheran confessionalism. Gradually, though timidly and rather inconsistently, the same spirit began to enter, and manifest itself in, some of the Eastern synods. A conservative tendency was developing and increasing. Especially since the return of the Pennsylvania Ministerium in 1853 the number of the so-called conservatives in the General Synod, who refused to go all the lengths with Schmucker and Kurtz, was materially strengthened. Among these New School men the powerful growth of confessionalism in the West and the silent increase of the conservatives in the larger Eastern synods gradually began to cause alarm, fear, and consternation. They first despised and ridiculed the movement as chimerical and utterly futile in America, then feared, and finally hated and fanatically combated what they termed "foreign symbolism." They felt the fateful crisis drawing nearer and nearer. To be or not to be was the question. Nor was there any time to be lost in protecting the General Synod against what they regarded as the Western peril. "Now or never!" they whispered. Indeed, Schmucker and his friends had long ago decided that a new confessional standard was needed. As early as 1845, at Philadelphia, the General Synod had appointed Schmucker, Kurtz, Morris, Schmidt, and Pohlman to formulate and present to the next convention an abstract of the doctrines and usages of the American Lutheran Church on the order of the Abstract requested by the Maryland Synod, in 1844. And though, in 1850, at Charleston, the report of this committee was laid on the table and the committee discharged from further duty (27), Schmucker did not abandon the idea of substituting a new "American Lutheran Creed" for the Augsburg Confession. Moreover, the conviction of the dire need of an American restatement of Lutheranism grew on him in the same proportion as confessionalism swept the West and threatened the East. His brother-in-law, S. Sprecher, was of the same opinion. In 1853 he wrote: "I hope that this unhappy condition of the Church will not continue long, and that the churches of the General Synod will do as the churches of the Augsburg Confession did in 1580—exercise their right to declare what they regard as doctrines of the sacred Scriptures in regard to all the points in dispute in the Church. I do not believe that the present position of the General Synod can long be maintained; it will either result in the Old-Lutheran men and synods gaining the control of the General Synod, and reintroducing those doctrines and practises of the symbols which the churches in this country and everywhere ought to abandon and condemn,and say that they do;or the friends of the American Lutheran Church must define what doctrines they do hold, and what they do reject, and refuse to fraternize with, and to make themselves responsible for, and to give their influence as a Church in favor of, men and doctrines and practises which they hold to be anti-Scriptural and injurious to the spiritual kingdom of Christ. I do not see how we can do otherwise than adopt the Symbols of the Church, or form a new symbol, which shall embrace all that is fundamental to Christianity in them, rejecting what is unscriptural, and supplying what is defective.A creed we must have, or we can have no real church union, and we must have a catechism which shall be a standard in the catechetical instruction of our children, in which there shall be no doctrines which we do not want our children to believe, and which shall, notwithstanding, be thoroughly orthodox, so that our children may be made strong in the faith of the Gospel in these times of doctrinal looseness and confusion. As long as the General Synod regards with equal favor, and is ready to receive, the Old Lutheran as well as the American Lutheran Synods, the symbolical men have a vast advantage, and they, no doubt, regard it as a triumph when the General Synod, meeting after meeting, continues to hold out its arms to every Lutheran synod, and recommends as heartily the reviews and institutions which are laboring to upturn its present foundations, as it does those which are known to hold the sentiments which it has hitherto fostered." (Spaeth 1, 347.) Five months before the readmission of the Pennsylvania Synod, Sprecher declared: "I fear there will be divisions, no matter what course is taken. As to the hope of gaining over the Symbolic Lutherans, I consider it altogether delusive. If they ever join the General Synod, it will be with the hope of controlling it eventually into their own views and for their own purposes." (353.) Thus, realizing the giant strides which Western confessionalism had already made, and the steady growth of the conservative element in the East, and, at the same time, fully understanding that Lutherans loyal to their Confessions would give no quarters to a counterfeit substitute of Lutheranism, Schmucker, Kurtz, Sprecher, and others decided on acoup d'etatin order to force the issue, to create a test-question, to separate the parties, to eliminate the "symbolists," and thus forever to make the General Synod immune against genuine Old School Lutheran confessionalism and safe for their own mongrel Puritanic-Calvinistic-Methodistic-American Lutheranism.
55. Casting Off the Mask.—In the early part of September, 1855, leading ministers of the General Synod received a pamphlet: "Definite Platform, doctrinal and disciplinarian, for Evangelical Lutheran District Synods; constructed in accordance with the principles of the General Synod." Spaeth: "The new Confession came without a confessor. It appeared as an anonymous document, proving by that very fact that the men who concocted it were not called by God to lead the Church on this Western Continent to a better, fuller, purer conception and statement of the faith of the Gospel than that of the Fathers." However, it was not long before Schmucker was generally known to be its author. Soon after its publication Krauth, Sr., wrote: "My colleague don't disclaim the authorship, so that it has a daddy." Ten years later Schmucker wrote: "Although my friend Dr. Kurtz and myself passed it in review together, and changed a few words, every sentence of the work I acknowledge to have been written by myself." (Spaeth 1, 357.) Besides a brief Preface the Platform contains two parts: 1. "Preliminary Principles and the Doctrinal Basis or Creed to be subscribed"; 2. "Synodical Disclaimer, or List of Symbolic Errors, rejected by the Great Body of the Churches belonging to the General Synod." Part II was not to be individually subscribed to, but published by Synod as a Disclaimer of the symbolical errors often imputed to her. (Second edition, 2. 6.) Its chief object, as appears from the Platform itself, was to obviate the influences of confessional Lutheranism coming from the West, notably from the Missouri Synod. The Preface begins: "This Definite Synodical Platform was prepared and published by consultation and cooperation of ministers of different Eastern and Western synods, connected with the General Synod, at the special request of some Western brethren, whose churches desire a more specific expression of the General Synod's doctrinal basis, being surrounded by German churches, which profess the entire mass of former symbols." (2.) Part I expresses the same thought, stating that the "American Recension of the Augsburg Confession," as Schmucker called the Platform, had been prepared "at the special request of Western brethren, whose churches particularly need it, being intermingled with German churches, which avow the whole mass of the former symbols." (4.) Furthermore, according to the Platform, Lutherans who believe in private confession and absolution should not be admitted into the General Synod; and Part II makes it a point to state: "By the old Lutheran Synod of Missouri, consisting entirely of Europeans, this rite [private confession, etc.] is still observed." (25.) Accordingly, in order to check the progress of the Missouri Synod's Lutheranism, a more specific declaration of the General Synod's basis was deemed indispensable. In the interest of truth, they claimed, it was necessary to specify, without hesitation and reservation, the doctrines of the Augsburg Confession which were rejected, some by all, others by the great majority of the General Synod. To satisfy this alleged need of the Church, the Platform was offered to the District Synods with the direction, for the sake of uniformity, to adopt it without further alterations and with the resolution not to receive any minister who will not subscribe to it. Thus, in publishing the Platform, Schmucker and his compeers cast off the Lutheran mask and revealed the true inwardness of their intolerant Reformed spirit—a blunder which served to frustrate their own sinister objects. The reception which this document met was a sore disappointment to its author. In the commotion which followed the publication of the Platform the conservative element was strengthened, a fact which, a decade later, led to the great secession of 1866, and gradually also to the present ascendency of the conservatives within the General Synod, and the subsequent revision of its doctrinal basis, completed in 1913. H. J. Mann wrote in 1856: "The Platform controversy will, in the end, prove a blessing. The conservative party will arrive at a better understanding. In ten years Schmucker has not damaged himself so much in the public opinion as in the one last year." (Spaeth, 178.)
56. Viewed Historically.—In explanation and extenuation of the Platform blunder Dr. Mann remarked in 1856: "The more thoroughly we investigate the history of the Lutheran Church of this country, the better we will comprehend why all happened just so. No one is particularly guilty; it is a common misfortune of the times, of the conditions." (Spaeth, 175.) H. E. Jacobs explains: "The ministers, in most cases, did not obtain that thorough and many-sided liberal culture which a college course was supposed to represent, and this was felt also in their theological training. … It may serve as a partial explanation of the confusion that prevailed that there was not a single professor of theology in the English seminaries in the North who had obtained the liberal training of a full college course, except the professor of German theology at Gettysburg. The controversy connected with the 'Definite Platform,' prepared and published under a supervision characterized by the same defects, may be more readily understood when this in remembered." (History, 436.) The explanation offered by Dr. Jacobs might be reenforced by the report of the Directors of the Seminary in 1839: "It is to be regretted that the students generally spend so short a time in theological studies. But few attend to the full course of studies as laid down in the Constitution. The average time of the stay of the major part is only about two years. Thus the theological education of those who go out from the Seminary is necessarily defective." (23.) C. A. Stork admitted with respect to the students at Gettysburg, notably the scholars of Prof. J. A. Brown (since 1864): "It is true, our young men did not know Lutheran theology thoroughly; on many minor points they were cloudy." (Wolf,Lutherans, 371.) Howbeit, explanation does not spell justification. Nor is it correct to view the Definite Platform as a mere derailment, a mere incidental blunder, of the General Synod. It was, on the contrary, the natural result and full development of the indifferentistic and unionistic germs which the General Synod inherited and zealously cultivated during the whole course of its history. Dr. Neve: "If Schmucker and his friends had not made this mistake, now condemned by history, others would surely try to do so now. These men therefore have rendered our Church a service. We have learned much from their mistake." "Sic non canitur"—such indeed is the lesson which Lutherans may learn not only from the Platform movement, but also from the greater part of the history of the General Synod.
57. Platform Theology.—The Platform charges the Augsburg Confession with the following alleged errors: Approval of the ceremonies of the mass, private confession and absolution, denial of the divine obligation of the Sunday, baptismal regeneration, the real presence of the body and blood of the Savior in the Eucharist. Of the Augustana eleven articles are mutilated and eight (the eleventh and the last seven) entirely omitted. The following declaration takes the place of the Eleventh Article: "As private confession and absolution, which are inculcated in this Article, though in a modified form, have been universally rejected by the American Lutheran Church, the omission of this Article is demanded by the principle on which the American Recension of the A. C. is constructed; namely, to omit the several portions which are rejected by the great mass of our churches in this country, and to add nothing in their stead." (11.) In all the articles the condemnatory sections are omitted. Even the deniers of the Trinity are not rejected. The Apostles' Creed is purged of "He descended into hell." The Athanasian Creed is omitted. The rest of the Lutheran symbols are rejected, on account of their length and alleged errors. (5.) The Platform declares: "The extraordinary length of the other former symbolic books as a whole is sufficient reason for their rejection as a prescribed creed, even if all their contents were believed to be true…. The exaction of such an extended creed is subversive of all individual liberty of thought and freedom of Scriptural investigation." (20.) Part II of the Platform, the "Synodical Disclaimer," contains a list of the symbolic errors with extracts from the Lutheran symbols, "which are rejected by the great body of the American Lutheran Church," to wit: I. Ceremonies of the mass (A. C., Art. 24; Apology, Art. 12). 2. Exorcism (Luther'sTaufbuechlein). 3. Private confession and absolution (A. C., Art. 11. 25. 28). 4. The denial of the divine institution and obligation of the Christian Sabbath (A. C., Art. 28). 5. Baptismal regeneration (A. C., Art. 2; Apology, Art. 9; Luther's Catechisms; Visitation Articles, Art. 3). 6. The outward form of baptism (Large Catechism, Smalcald Art.) 7. Errors concerning the personal or hypostatic union of the two natures in Christ (Form of Concord, Art. 8). 8. The supposed special sin-forgiving power of the Lord's Supper (Apol., Art. 12; Catechisms). 9. The real presence of the body and blood of Christ in the Eucharist (A. C., Art. 10; Apol., Art. 7. 8; Smalcald Art., Art. 6; Small Catechism; Form of Concord, Art. 7). According to the Platform, believers in exorcism, in private confession and absolution, and in the ceremonies of the mass should not be tolerated in the General Synod. To believers in the real presence, baptismal regeneration, etc., liberty was to be granted, provided that they regard these doctrines as nonessential, cooperate peacefully with members rejecting them, and adopt the Platform. Dr. Mann was right when he characterized the Platform as "the emasculated Augsburg Confession." (Spaeth, 178.)
58. Spirit of "Synodical Disclaimer."—While the first part of the Platform eliminates the distinctively Lutheran doctrines, the second part emphatically condemns them and teaches the opposite tenets of the Reformed Church. On exorcism the Platform remarks: "In the American Lutheran Church it was never received, and is regarded as unscriptural, and highly objectionable, under the most favorable explanation that can be given it." (23.) On private confession and absolution: "How dangerous the entire doctrine of absolution and forgiving power of the ministry is to the spirituality of the Church and to the doctrine of justification by grace alone through faith in Jesus Christ, is clearly evident." "John 20, 23: 'Whosesoever sins …' either refers to a miraculous power bestowed on the apostles to discern the condition of the heart, and to announce pardon of God to truly penitent individuals; or it confers on the ministry, in all ages, the power to announce, in general, the conditions on which God will pardon sinners; but it contains no authority for applying these promises to individuals, as is done in private absolution." (26.) On baptismal regeneration: "If Baptism is not a converting ordinance in adults, it cannot be in infants. … Of regeneration, in the proper sense of the term, infants are incapable; for it consists in a radical change in our religious views of the divine character, law, etc.; a change in our religious feelings, and in our religious purposes and habits of action; of none of which are children capable." Regeneration "must consist mainly in a change of thatincreasedpredisposition to sin arising from action, of that preponderance of sinful habits formed by voluntary indulgence of our natural depravity, after we have reached years of moral agency. But infants have no suchincreasedpredisposition, nohabitsof sin prior to moral agency, consequently there can be no change of them, no regeneration in this meaning of the term." "Baptismal regeneration, either in infants or adults, is therefore a doctrine not taught in the Word of God, and fraught with much injury to the souls of men, although inculcated in the former Symbolical Books." (30f.) On the hypostatic union: "The chief error on this subject is the supposition that the human and divine natures of Christ, to a certain extent, interchange attributes. This, in common with all other Protestant churches, we regard as contrary to the Holy Volume." "The supposition that humanity in any case acquired some attributes of divinity tends to give plausibility to the apotheosis of heroes and the pagan worship of the Virgin Mary." The Platform emphatically condemns the doctrine of Article 8 of the Form of Concord: "Hence we believe, teach, and confess that the Virgin Mary did not conceive and bring forth simply a mere man, butthe true Son of God; for which reason she is also rightly called, andshe is truly, the mother of God. … He consequently now, not only as God, butas man, knows all things, is able to do all things. … His flesh is a true, vivifying food, and His blood is a true, vivifying drink." (35f.) The Platform furthermore rejects the doctrine that the Lord's Supper "offers forgiveness of sins," and "that the real body and blood of the Savior are present at the Eucharist, in some mysterious way, and are received by the mouth of every communicant, worthy or unworthy." (38f.) The Platform declares: "During the first quarter of this century the conviction that our Reformers did not purge away the whole of the Romish error from this doctrine gained ground universally, until the great mass of the whole Lutheran Church, before the year 1817, had rejected the doctrine of the real presence." (40.) With respect to the doctrine that the proper and natural body and blood of Christ are received in the Lord's Supper, the Platform remarks: "Now we cannot persuade ourselves that this is the view of a single minister of the General Synod or of many out of it." (42.)
59. Champions of the Platform.—"The principal effect of the Definite Platform," says Dr. Spaeth, "was to open the eyes even of the indifferent and undecided ones, and to cause them to reflect and to realize the ultimate designs of the men at the helm of the General Synod. A storm of indignation burst against the perpetrators of this attack on the venerable Augustana. Many men who were before numbered with 'American Lutheranism,' and whose full sympathy with the movement was confidently expected, had nothing but stern rebuke for it." (1, 360.) Howbeit, the Platform was not in lack of ardent defenders. To some of the ministers it was not radical enough. Dr. Morris remarks: "Extremely un-Lutheran, un-churchly, and even rationalistic positions were assumed by some who defended the Platform." (Wolf,Lutherans, 364.) In theObserver, December 7, 1855, a correspondent maintained that it was incorrect to speak of the Augustana as "our confession," since of Lutheran theologians not one in twenty was governed in doctrine and practise by this Symbol. (L. u. W.1856, 28.) In the following year theObserverpublished a protest of Rev. Kitz, censuring the Platform for granting toleration to believers in baptismal regeneration and the real presence. (L. u. W.1857, 27.) At Gettysburg Seminary, self-evidently, Schmucker zealously propagated his Reformed theology, while his brother-in-law, C. F. Schaeffer, who had entered 1856, was the exponent of a mild confessionalism. E. J. Wolf: "At Gettysburg, in the same building, one professor in almost every lecture disparaged and discredited the Confessions, while another one constantly inspired his students with the highest [?] veneration for them." (Lutherans, 441.) Jacobs: "The students were soon divided, but the gain was constantly upon the conservative side." (History, 427.) But while thus at Gettysburg conservative influences, in a measure, were counteracting the Platform theology, Wittenberg Seminary, at Springfield, 0., the theological center of the Western synods, was unanimous, decided, and most advanced in its advocacy. Sprecher, the leader of "American Lutheranism" in the West, wrote concerning the Platform: "It is the very thing we have long needed in our Church; it will require every man to declare that he is for or against us, and will secure our American Lutheran Church against the insidious efforts of the Old Lutherans to remodel her." "If the New School brethren do not soon decide whether they will give the Church the positive form which it must take in this country ere long, the Old School will decide it for them by making all their synods stand on the Unaltered Augsburg Confession. I do not see what difficulty can be in the way. If those five dogmas rejected [by the Platform] are errors at all, they are very serious errors, and I do not see why there should be so great a desire to be associated with those who teach them. The difference between the Old School and the New School party is of such a nature that they cannot agree except by being silent or separate. If we did not intend to push this matter through, we should never have agitated it at all." (Spaeth, 1, 359.) It goes without saying that B. Kurtz acted the champion of the new confession. When, in 1855, prior to the publication of the Platform, the Synod of Northern Illinois, in its constitution, declared the Augustana and Luther's Small Catechism a "correct" exhibition of the divine truth, Kurtz wrote in theObserver: "This is certainly a tremendous leap backward to the patriarchs of the American Lutheran Church. In this enlightened country of free thought and action such high-churchism cannot long maintain itself; its most peculiar fruit is bigotry, ostracism, strife, and separation." (Lutheraner, Feb. 13, 1855:) In the same spirit Kurtz edited theObserverafter the appearance of the Platform. In an issue of January, 1856, he maintained that the Platform offered nothing new; in the past every member of the General Synod had practised according to its principles; now one merely was to do openly and honestly what heretofore he had been doing with areservatio mentalis. (L. u. W.1856, 64.) Several months later Kurtz published the list of rejected errors of the Symbolical Books, and in a number of subsequent articles supported the Platform, and, at the same time, attacked the distinctive doctrines of Lutheranism, misrepresenting them in Calvinistic fashion. (L. u. W.1856, 140 ff.; 1857,61; 1862,152; 1917,375.) Nor did Kurtz in the following years repent of, or change, his attitude. In theObserverof June 29, 1860, he declared: "We are qualified to formulate a confession of faith not only just as well, but better than those who lived three hundred years ago. We now have men in our Church who understand just as much of the Bible and of theology as our fathers. If this were not the case, we must be stupid scholars, a degenerated generation." (L. u. W. 6, 252.) In the same year: "May those, then, who are opposed to the progress backwards, to liturgies, to priestly gowns, to bands, candles, crucifixes, baptismal regeneration, the real presence, priestly confession and absolution, and all other phases of the half-papists, stand firmly by the oldObserver." (L. u. W.1860, 318.) In theObserver, December 26, 1862, Kurtz said: Wisdom did not die with the Reformers; nor would it die with the present generation. Giant strides had been made in science, history, chemistry, philology. The progress in astronomy enabled us to understand the Bible better than our fathers. Geology taught us to explain the first chapter of Genesis more correctly than a hundred years ago. Even if we were dwarfs compared with the Reformers, with our increased advantages we ought to understand the Bible better than they. A dwarf, standing on the shoulders of a giant, can see farther than the giant himself. A confession of faith, therefore, ought not to be like the laws of the Medes and Persians, but subject to improvement and growing perfection. Luther and his colaborers explained the Bible more correctly than any like number of their contemporaries. But we do not believe that they understood it as well as God's enlightened people of the present. Indeed, an intelligent Sunday-school child has a clearer insight into the plan of salvation, etc., than John the Baptist, the greatest of prophets. Is it, then, to be assumed that since the middle of the sixteenth century no progress was made in Biblical learning? (L. u. W.1863, 92.) However, always guided by expediency, and hence able also "to do otherwise," theObserver, April 13, 1866, wrote: "We have all agreed that the Unaltered Augsburg Confession is the only general platform upon which all of us can stand. There are some among us, to the number of whom the writer belongs, who have always believed and still think that an American Recension of this venerable document, as presented in the Definite Platform, would give us a faith more in harmony with the Scripture. But where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty, the greatest liberty compatible with the unity of true Evangelical Protestantism. To make concessions within reasonable limitations we have accordingly deemed our religious duty." (L. u. W.1866, 185.) In its issue of January 17, 1908, theObserveragain claims the liberty of revising the confessions. (L. u. W.1908, 90.) Self-evidently, theAmerican Lutheranwas in sympathy with the Platform. In 1873 it declared its standpoint as follows: "We American Lutherans adopt the Augsburg Confession only in a qualified sense,viz., as teaching the fundamental truths of religion in a manner substantially correct, but containing also some inaccuracies with respect to the Sacraments, private confession, absolution, and the Christian Sabbath." (L. u. W.1873, 29.)