# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1853 10 11_S31
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

31

year 1703. He reports at the same time that, unfortunately, when the answer bringing comfort also to this unspeakably miserable sinner arrived, he had already been called out of time into eternity. Surely a warning example not to sin wilfully against conscience, above all not in matters of faith and religion!

The General Synod.

The General Synod of the Ev. Lutheran Church in the United States, as it is pleased to call itself, held its last (the sixteenth) meeting on the days from the 21st to the 26th of May of this year at Winchester, in the State of Virginia. The printed abstract of the proceedings there conducted lies before us. We communicate the following from it to our readers.

This body is, as is well known, so constituted that a number of synods have united to conduct certain church affairs in common, in that from time to time chosen representatives of these synods assemble, to deliberate over the affairs brought within their circle, and partly to make proposals, partly to adopt resolutions valid for all the synods concerned. At present the following 20 synods calling themselves Lutheran belong to this union:

1. The Synod of Maryland, (34 ordained pastors),

2. the Synod of West Pennsylvania,

3. the Synod of South Carolina, (31 pastors,

4. the Synod of North Carolina, (12 pastors),

5. the Hartwick Synod, (22 pastors),

6. the Synod of New York, (40 pastors)

7. the Synod of Virginia, (25 pastors)

8. the Alleghany Synod, (19 pastors),

9. the East Pennsylvania Synod, (25 pastors.

10. the Miami Synod, (25 pastors),

11. the Wittenberg Synod, (29 pastors),

12. the English Synod of Ohio, (21 pastors),

13. the Synod of Illinois, (9 pastors),

14. the Synod of West Virginia, (15 pastors),

15. the Synod of the Southwest, (13 pastors),

16. the Olive Branch Synod in Indiana (15 pastors.)

17. the Synod of Pennsylvania, (88 pastors,)

18. the Synod of North Illinois, (8 pastors),

19. the Synod of Pittsburg, (30 pastors),

20. the Synod of Texas, (8 pastors).

Counting those pastors who are not ordained, but only licensed on probation to preach and, respectively, to administer the sacraments, 559 pastors belong to the union of the General Synod. Of the congregations served by them there are 1229, to which belong 112,993 communicant members.†)

The synods belonging to the General Synod have among them 5 institutions for the training of pastors. The first is the theological seminary at Gettysburg in Pennsylvania. In the report made concerning it, it is stated that the number of students in recent years has not been so large as in former ones, and that in general never more than 20 have attended the lectures at one and the same time. The second institution of this kind is the seminary at Hartwick in the State of New York (Otsego Co.). During the past year it was attended by no more than 13 students of theology. The 3rd seminary is that at Lexington in South Carolina. The number of those studying theology here is 14 in several classes. The fourth institution is the recently established so-called Illinois State University at Springfield in the state named, in which at present 14 are preparing for the ministry, of whom 8 are of Norwegian descent. The fifth institution, finally, is the Wittenberg Collegium at Springfield in Ohio. How many of the pupils in this institute are pursuing the study of theology is not stated. It is remarkable that the number of students of theology in these institutions, some of them founded already many years ago and richly endowed, is so small.

Of resolutions showing zeal for the pure doctrine of our Church, or even mere recognition of it, nothing is found in the whole voluminous report of this so-called Lutheran General Synod; but proofs in plenty that this body uses the name "Lutheran" only as a signboard, while it is nothing but a unionistic society. It feels flattered when erring synods (such as those of the German Reformed, the Presbyterians, etc.) send it delegates, and it extends to them the hand as brethren in the faith and receives them without further ado as advisory members. Dr. Harkey even moved that the General Synod enter into brotherly correspondence with the so-called Evangelical Church Association of the West of the Unionists here, and the General Synod unanimously adopted this resolution. In this un-Lutheran, religiously indifferent, unionistic spirit it is then said, among other things, in the report: "We believe that the day is not far distant when our whole Church in this country will direct its attention only to those points of doctrine in which we all agree." (We hope, by the way, to God that this sinful "hope" of the gentlemen "Generalists" will not be fulfilled; for if it came to pass, it would indeed be all over with our whole Evangelical Lutheran Church in these lands, as it is already all over with it in the General Synod by the fact that the latter has betrayed and sold the distinguishing doctrines of our Church.)

May God look upon it and put an end soon to the hypocrisy, most displeasing to God, with which men still adorn themselves with the name of our Church, and yet precisely the distinguishing doctrines they either reject or declare to be unessential points. The Synods of Pennsylvania and of Texas profess, to be sure, on paper all the symbols of our Church: but in the first place, probably hardly with decision, for if they really did so in earnest, the many secret and open Zwinglian and Methodistic false brethren in the General Synod would surely soon drive them out; and in the second place, precisely those synods which subscribe our public confessions of the Church commit a double sin beyond the others. For if their conscience tells them that the Lutheran doctrine is the pure truth, how can they pull in one yoke with its enemies? There it says: "By thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned."

Church News.

By God's grace a new Lutheran congregation has gathered at Downersgrove, near Chicago, in a settlement occupied for the most part by Alsatians. It had for 10 years been almost without any spiritual care, the Word of God was proclaimed to it only very seldom, and then by itinerant enthusiasts; the celebration of the holy Lord's Supper had never taken place among them.

Now the merciful God has taken pity also on His dearly purchased children dwelling here, and has given them grace to set up the holy ministry among themselves and to call Pastor Fr. Ottmann of Cincinnati regularly as their preacher and pastor. The dear brother was, on the 15th Sunday after Trinity, after he had preached on 1 Tim. 1:3: The office of bishop a precious work, 1) because it was instituted by God Himself, 2) because through it the body of Christ is built up,—publicly installed into his office by the undersigned, by commission of the Presidium.—May the faithful Savior, who has said: "Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world!" also give to this congregation and its shepherd courage and victory to the glory of His heavenly

†)Those synods in the United States which bear the name Lutheran and do not wish to belong to the so-called General Synod are: 1. The Franckean Synod, 2. the Central Virginia Synod, 3. the Eastern District Synod of Ohio, 4. the Western District Synod of Ohio, 5. the English Synod of Ohio, 6. the Indiana Synod, 7. the Synod of Michigan, 8. the Synod of Wisconsin, 9. the Synod of New York, 10. the Synod of Buffalo, 11. the Tennessee Synod and 12. our Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and other States. According to a calculation made in the Lutheran Almanac, there are said to be in the United States somewhat more than 900 pastors calling themselves Lutheran, with nearly 3000 congregations.