# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1854 07 05_S181
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

181

Knecht, for example) mistook this slowness for solemnity. All the old and new melodies therefore had to submit either to being robbed of their rhythm, or, where that was not possible, to being altered (as has happened, for example, with the melody of "Es ist das Heil uns kommen her") and, in general, to being made to crawl along in nothing but half notes, with a trilling interlude between the individual lines of the verse; or if a tune would not submit to such an act of violence, as especially the old, truly Lutheran ones would not, it was declared unsingable (for example, "Es woll uns Gott genädig sein"). What had been begun in many quarters around the year 1700 was completed by 1800: the church melodies had become pedagogical chorales, and the rhythm was forgotten.

If you look back upon the account just concluded, you must recognize this as its result: that in the Christian congregation rhythmic singing has always been practiced whenever faith in the Word of God was alive in its heart and pressed to confession with the mouth; that, on the other hand, non-rhythmic singing in former times was the singing of the priest and the choir, and testified to the bondage of the Christian congregation under men and the ordinances of men, and later was regarded as a means of making all sorts of useful teachings palatable to the congregation. Let no Christian, therefore, who has once come to regard the earlier slow manner of singing in church as the right one, be astonished if in our Lutheran congregations the melodies are gradually sung in an ever quicker tempo; the Word of God, thank God, is preached in all our congregations and also bears some fruit everywhere, even if often not much; so it is natural that the congregations should sing again, because they have a desire to confess, and then it no longer goes in the slow manner. The rhythmic movement, too, will not fail to appear the more the congregations come to confess; oh, then let no one complain of innovations where precisely the good and sound old thing returns, because the good and sound old doctrine of the Word of God kindles hearts afresh to faith. I have been asked several times whether Layritz, who has furnished in three volumes a chorale book with the rhythmic setting of the melodies, found this setting indicated in the old chorale books and has now reproduced it exactly. He found the rhythmic setting indicated in all chorale books down to the Darmstadt hymnal published in 1687 mentioned above, in which only little regard is still paid to rhythm; whether he has reproduced the old rhythm exactly I can answer only so far as he himself states: he remarks in the case of many hymns that he has altered it. He has also transposed several hymns of the most recent time, for example No. 369 in the third part, from even time into rhythmic time, and has made others partly from already existing motifs and partly invented them himself. That he had to make changes here and there was probably made necessary by the fact that the melodies, especially those of the 16th century, presupposed the 12 old church modes, a tonal structure which was very different from that in which we are now instructed and which we teach. In any case he has done much to show us the glory of the old congregational singing and to give us instruction in rhythmic singing, as soon as the common life of the congregation among us presses in that direction. May God, our highly praised Savior, teach us to do the Apostle Paul's word, Ephesians 5:19 and 20, ever more zealously and joyfully.

On the History of the Lutheran Conference Held at Leipzig on the 2nd of August of Last Year.

We cannot refrain from communicating to our readers some things from a letter received from Germany, in which two theologians and a Doctor of Law (not Dr. Marbach), who have jointly signed the letter, report to us something more particular about the last Leipzig conference. The signers of the letter were fellow members present at the conference, but did not belong to those who publicly protested against its resolutions concerning the American controversy. The letter therefore has first of all the purpose of justifying themselves for omitting a public protest; at the same time it serves to let us take a deeper look into the proceedings at the conference. Since the letter is a private letter and the writers have not expressly given us permission to publish their written confession with their names, we do not for the present consider ourselves authorized to name them.

Among other things, then, the letter says:

"Mr. *** is anxious that a testimony concerning the proceedings of the Leipzig conference of the 2nd of August of last year should reach you also from such as did not come forward at it with a public protest against it. It is given herewith by me, because he has requested me to do so; I could hardly refuse, since it concerns a testimony. I give it first on my own part; but I shall communicate it to my nearest friends, and if my words express their mind, they will confess it by their signature.

If what has been judged by the said conference concerning your North American church controversy were the collective expression of the Lutheran Church of Germany, that Church would certainly have to be charged with at least a general error. But let me simply report the course of those proceedings, in order to show that

neither was the voice of the conference also the voice of Lutheran Germany; nor did all members of the conference who did not formally protest also assent; nor, finally, did all members of the conference who assented do so in consequence of a false doctrine of Church and Ministry.

May God keep me therein from untruthfulness and injustice on both sides!

I.

The Voice of the Conference Was Not the Voice of Lutheran Germany in General.

According to the invitation, the conference was not to bear a general, independent character, but rather to be a discussion attached to the mission festival. For that reason the membership was smaller than before. From Bavaria only 2 pastors were present, the mission delegates Diezel and Heller.—Pastor Brömel of Lauenburg—the prospective successor of Catenhusen—who for some time has stood up for the pure doctrine of justification and of the Church, had already left on the previous day when your church affairs came up for discussion; he has declared himself against the proceeding of the conference in an essay, "The Invisible Church" (Rudelb.-Guer. 1854, II).—In Breslau, whither Grabau and von Rohr betook themselves from Leipzig, their propositions were affirmed in genere by a pastoral conference, but they themselves were so informed in specie that they later saw fit, in opposition (as if they had taken that reproof to heart), to remonstrate under pretext of a misunderstanding (Preuß.-luth. Kirchenblatt of Ehlers 1853, 19, p. 236 sq., cf. 1854, 1, p. 16).—That, finally, Harleß is by no means in agreement on this point with the Leipzig conference, of which he was formerly president, I can say with certainty; as he has also declared in the preface to his latest work, "Kirche und Amt."

I have herewith taken only a cursory survey. Nevertheless, this much can be recognized from it, that the Leipzig conference, even by its outward representation, cannot count as the mouth of the whole Lutheran Church of Germany; the more so since contradiction has been raised by absent persons (and indeed hoi docuntes styloi einai, Gal. 2:9).

II.

But not merely from without, also within the conference there was contradiction concerning the North American controversy.

Not All Members Who Did Not Formally Protest Therefore Assented; Rather, They Simply Abstained from the Vote.

I myself am among them, and to this hour I know of nothing to make my conscience uneasy about it. Münchmeyer presented on the last day of the conference the questions to which those of Buffalo desired an answer, after he had briefly communicated the preliminary discussion held with them. He explained at the same time that the questions were "intentionally kept quite general. It did not seem advisable to enter here into the personal circumstances