Lehre und Wehre St. Louis, Missouri — Juli–August 1894, Seite 245

German transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

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Kirchlich⸗Zeitgeschichtliches. 2⁴⁵

Come Holy Spirit, God and Lord!

Be all Thy graces now outpoured

On the believers' mind and soul,

Jo strengthen, save, and make us whole.“
Were the voice of this immortal leader with us to-day, he would bid all who
bear the Luther name throw their life into the Christian Endeavor revival.
The Lucheran Evangelist heéartily bids it God-speed.. . . Remote is the time
when religious denominations shall all be merged into one great, united
church with one name. That kind of union, amid present conditions, is Uto-
pian, impracticable and undeésirable. But, we can have pulpit and altar fel-
lowship with all whom the Lord accepts... We can cooperate with fellow
Christians in every work that is good, laboring and praying for the better day
when Ephraim and Judah, when Luther and Zwingli and Calvin and Wes-
ley will cease to vex each other.... It is a significant fact that the General
Synod is the only branch of the Lutheran church in America that harbors
Christian Endeavor. Why? Because it is the only branch that permits
pulpit and altar fellowship with other Protestant bodies, and that works side
by side with them in advancing Christ's kingdom. Whateéver may be thought
of the General Synod's position, it must be conceded that she is the only liberal
Lutheran body in America.. . While the General Synod does not forget
that she is Lutheran, and has too much self-respect to go down on her knees
before any other body of Lutherans, or beg their pardon, or even crave their
indulgence, or admit that she is not Lutheran in the best and highest sense
of the term; yet we thank God that she can often so lar lay aside her Lu-
theran self-consciousness — or, rather, egotism — as to work solely and purely
for the salvation of men and the promotion of truth.... It never gives us a
single moment's pain or shame or anxiety, nor brings the faintest tinge to
our chéeeks, when our brethren behind the walls in which they have im-
mured themselves, peep over the top and pipe out: Vou are not Lutheran,
vou General Synod herd! Vou're a sort of hybrid race!“ We simply an-
swer good-humoredly. . .. True, we are not your type of Lutherans. Vou
are literalists; we are frée from the bondage of the letter, which Paul says
killeth, and have drunk of the fountain of Luther's own disimprisoned spirit.
Luther said emphatically: Don't take my word for it; Luther is nothing;
take the Bible, and we of theée General Synod believe that to beé one of the
most important utterances of our grand old reformer. . .. No, we are not of
the same type of Lutherans as our immured breéthren, but we are sui gene-
ris, we are of the General Synod type — a type of which we need not to be
ashamed, the best typée, in our opinion, on the American continent; at least
the best for us who march under the banner. For its doctrinal position,
for its creditable history, for its honorable place among other evangelical
denominations in evero advance movement, — for none of these do we have
to blush.“ — ‚ F. B.

Episcopal⸗Kirche. In New Hork hat sich innerhalb der Episcopal-⸗Kirche eine

Gesellschaft gebildet, die sich Tbe Protèstant Episcopal Sociéty of the Refor-
mation“ nennt. Diese Gesellschaft sendet Circulare aus, in welchen sie vor den
Ritualisten in ihrer Mitte warnt. Sie redet von denselben als „rapidly inerèas-
ing sect,“ und behauptet, daß sie Lehren vortragen, welche im directen Widerspruch
mit dem Protestantismus stehen. Sie klagt die Ritualisten an, daß sie offen und
frech, wo nöthig, aber auch listig vorwärts schreiten und die Episcopal-Kirche be⸗

„

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