# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1848 12 12_S57
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Der Lutheraner.

"God's Word and Luther's doctrine pure shall to eternity endure."

Published by the German Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and Other States.

Edited by C. F. W. Walther.

Volume 5.  St. Louis, Mo., December 12, 1848.  No. 8.

Terms: Der Lutheraner appears once every two weeks at the yearly subscription price of One Dollar for subscribers living at a distance, who are to pay the same in advance and to bear the postage. — In St. Louis each single number is sold for 5 cents.

Only those letters which contain communications for the paper are to be addressed to the editor; all others, however, which contain business matters, orders, cancellations, money, etc., are to be sent hither under the address: Mr. F. W. Barthel, care of C. F. W. Walther, St. Louis, Mo.

(Submitted.)

Extract from the Minutes of the Pastoral Conference of the District of Fort Wayne, held at Fort Wayne on the 18th and 19th of October.

Present were the pastors: Sihler, Husmann, Jäbker, Schuster, Wolter, Heid, and Claus, as standing members of the conference; present as advisory members were the candidates Stürken and Bernreuther, recently arrived from Germany; the pupils of the Fort Wayne Preachers' Seminary also took part.

Partly on account of the importance of the subject matter, partly for the sake of the presence of the brethren from Germany, it was agreed to deal this time solely with practical matters from the field of church government and the cure of souls.

According to this agreement the first question was this:

1. How is the Lutheran pastor to conduct himself, upon taking over a congregation, when Reformed and Unionists who live within the circuit of his congregation and attend his preaching desire the holy Supper from him?

Answer: So that he sin neither against the truth of the divine Word and the confession of his church, nor against Christian love. This, however, could not be done otherwise than by first instructing those who desire it, thoroughly and carefully, in the sole Scriptural obedience of the Lutheran Church in the doctrine of the holy Sacraments, and especially of the holy Supper, and thereafter in the unscripturalness of the Reformed counter-doctrine, and also by informing himself, through suitable questions, as far as possible concerning the state of knowledge of his hearers.

Then, however, it is incumbent upon him to require not merely the approval of the Lutheran doctrine as alone agreeable to Scripture, but also the disapproval of the Reformed doctrine as contrary to Scripture; for otherwise it might easily happen that the Reformed and Unionists would be confirmed in the customary, frivolous delusion that the Reformed doctrine also is not contrary to Scripture.

Finally, the Lutheran minister must also give the declaration that the Reformed and Unionists, after that expressed approval and disapproval, by the partaking of the Supper which follows from his hands and with his congregation, do in fact depart from their former church fellowship and enter as members into the Lutheran Church.

For, in the first place, this is deed and truth before God and men; but, further, only by such a procedure can he become certain whether that acknowledgment of the Lutheran and that rejection of the Reformed doctrine has flowed from sincere and thorough conviction of conscience and from love of the divine truth of the Holy Scripture, or from an impure desire, be it even at this price to obtain the enjoyment of the holy Supper; finally, however, he thereby at the same time guards against the frivolous self-deception and the violation of conscience of those who desire it, as though they could acknowledge the pure doctrine of the Lutheran Church and reject the impure Reformed doctrine, and yet, as before, with a good conscience belong as members to the latter. And by that manner of action the servant of the Lutheran Church at the same time raises the right protest against the false Union of our day, which, as is well known, pretends that the doctrine of the holy Sacraments is a side doctrine, and that the difference in it does not essentially hinder the church union of the Lutherans and the Reformed.

2. To that first chief question there was now joined a second of subordinate importance, namely the following: Does, under all circumstances, the partaking of the Supper which finally follows on the part of the Reformed and Unionists suffice as a silent confession by deed of the Lutheran Church and as an actual entrance into the same?

Answer: Circumstances may indeed arise in which it is wisely done to have the confession of the Lutheran Church made before the partaking of the holy Supper, if not before the whole Lutheran congregation, yet before the elders. Yet this is to be regarded rather as the exception; as a rule, that manner of action of their pastor toward Reformed and Unionists who desire the holy Supper, which is acknowledged by the Lutheran congregation and is also otherwise known, will doubtless suffice.

3. Which ceremonies are, in any case, to be observed as proper confessional ceremonies, which are in any case to be avoided as contrary to the confession, and which, as indifferent things subject to Christian liberty, are to be practiced or omitted according to circumstances?

Answer: To the former (confessional ceremonies) belong chiefly:

a) the use of orthodox forms in the conduct of public divine service and of the special churchly acts,*) since the use of rationalistic agendas is a practical denial of the church's confession;

b) the giving of the Sacrament into the mouth, because the Reformed, in this also, especially tread the doctrine of Christian liberty under foot and assert that only with the hand can anything be taken, contrary to John 19, 30.;

c) the use of wafers or cut bread, because the Reformed falsely make the manner of the breaking the chief matter, whereas they treat the words of institution of the holy Supper as a side matter and rob them of their essential content. †)

To the others (those contrary to the confession) we count chiefly:

a) ambiguous formulas of distribution at the holy Supper, as, for example, that used by the Unionists: "Christ says," etc.;

b) the breaking of bread at the holy Supper, because the Reformed make a matter of conscience of

*) Connected with this is also the fact that the pastor should work toward the introduction of orthodox hymn-books from the best period of church hymnody, where they are not already at hand, and should persevere in the use of the small Lutheran Catechism.

†) That certain circumstances may arise in which the confessional ceremonies named under b and c may for a time be omitted for the sake of the weak, that is, for the sake of love, the dear brethren will surely not deny herewith. The Editor.