Chapter 17

85. Conservatives Unionistic.--In their reports in the _Lutheraner_ and in _Kirchliche Mitteilungen_ on the confessional awakening within the General Synod, Walther and Sihler joyfully mention Drs. Morris and Reynolds as the promising leaders of the movement. (_Lutheraner_ 6, 37.) "An opposition has arisen against Kurtz and Schmucker such as no one would have dared to hope for ten years ago," Loehe wrote in 1850. "Reynolds," he continued, "placed the Confession into the light again. Ministers ask for the wisdom of old. Students at Gettysburg purchase the Book of Concord." The _Evangelical Review_ would contribute "to deliver the children of the Church and her teachers out of the Kurtz-Schmuckerian captivity." Similar progress was made in other synods. (_Kirchl. Mitt_. 1850, 57.) In a letter of October, 1847, Philip Schaff refers to Drs. Morris, Reynolds, Demme, and the two Krauths as prominent among the conservatives of the General Synod. (Spaeth, _W. J. Mann_, 38.) But what these men who at the middle of the nineteenth century thrilled many a Lutheran heart with joy and hope abandoned, was, at best, not unionism, but Reformedism. The most that can he said of Dr. C.R. Demme (1795-1863; studied in Halle and Goettingen; came to America in 1818), who was pastor in Philadelphia and prominent in the Pennsylvania Synod, is that he was a theologian of a mild confessional tendency. As late as 1852 he stood for the union distribution formula in the Lord's Supper. Dr. J.G. Morris (1803-1895; received his theological training at Nazareth, Princeton, and Gettysburg; founded the _Lutheran Observer_; wrote _Life Reminiscences of an Old Lutheran Minister_, etc.) signed the notorious letter of 1845, which later he declared to be the greatest blunder of the General Synod. Morris approved of the unionistic practises of the General Synod. As late as 1885 he declared his position as follows: "I preach the Lutheran doctrine of the real presence of our glorified Lord in the blessed elements; but when a poor, penitent, praying, confessing, believing sinner comes and asks for permission to commune with us, I dare not ask him whether his views agree with mine," etc. (_L. u. W._ 1885, 252.) Dr. Charles Philip Krauth (1797-1867; professor in Gettysburg and editor of the _Evangelical Review_ from 1850 to 1860), though having a strong aversion to the Platform and being more in favor of a revision of the doctrinal basis of the General Synod than his son, signed the Pacific Overture and, in the Platform controversy, was an ardent advocate of mutual toleration. Dr. Charles Porterfield Krauth (1823-1883), prior to his manly retraction in 1864, was an out-and-out unionist, and, in more than one respect, infected also with Reformed views. As late as 1866, at Fort Wayne, he was apparently satisfied with the confessional basis of the General Synod as declared in the York Amendment and Resolution. Dr. L.A. Gotwald (1833-1900; professor in Wittenberg Seminary from 1888 to 1895) was, in 1893, charged with, and tried upon, charges, among others, of holding "to the type of Lutheranism characteristic of the General Council," _viz_., "that all the doctrines of the Augsburg Confession are fundamental," and "that the doctrinal position of the General Synod, when rightly interpreted, is identical with that of the General Council." His acquittal strengthened the conservative, but unionistic, tendency of Wittenberg Seminary. (Jacobs, 510.) Dr. E.J. Wolf (1840-1905; since 1873 professor in Gettysburg Seminary) was perhaps the most Lutheran of the influential English members of the General Synod since the Fort Wayne disruption of 1866. In the Preface to his _Lutherans in America_ of 1889 he expresses the conviction with respect to our "glorious Church," "that to know her is to love her, and that those knowing and loving her true character will consecrate themselves to the maintenance of her purity in faith and life, and the enlargement of her efficiency in extending the Word and kingdom of Christ." Dr. D.H. Bauslin, who served the cause of conservatism within the General Synod both as professor in Wittenberg College and as editor of the _Lutheran World_ (from 1901 to 1912, when it merged into the _Lutheran Church Work_), was a champion of the unionistic practises of the General Synod. The same is true of other conservatives who contributed to the revision and restatement of the doctrinal basis of the General Synod as finally adopted in 1913--they all must be classified as unionists, tolerating, on principle, deviations from the doctrines and practises distinctive of Lutheranism. Thus, in the course of years, the unionistic Lutherans multiplied, while the Reformed radicals decreased within the General Synod. In 1896 the _Herald_ of the General Council, itself a mildly unionistic paper, wrote: "It is gradually getting better in the General Synod. True, with respect to some old gentlemen the word of 1815 is applicable: 'The old guard dies, but does not surrender.' And the younger lordings, who swear by the Methodistic _Lutheran Evangelist_, exercise themselves in crying against the dead orthodoxists. But these as well as the former are no longer strong enough to stop the movement toward the right. 'Toward the right'--that means the General Council, which, strange to say, is more obnoxious to the radicals than Missouri." (_L. u. W._ 1896, 154.)

86. Dr. William Morton Reynolds.--Reynolds (1812 to 1875) graduated at Gettysburg Seminary; served as professor in Pennsylvania College from 1833 to 1850; with an interruption of the year 1835 to 1836, when he was pastor at Deerfield, N.J.; was president of Capital University, Columbus, 0., from 1850 to 1853, and of Illinois State University at Springfield from 1857 to 1860; joined the Episcopalians in 1863; translated and published Acrelius's _History of New Sweden_ in 1874. In 1842 Reynolds left the Ministerium of Pennsylvania and organized the East Pennsylvania Synod. In the interest of conservative Lutheranism, Reynolds, in 1849, founded the _Evangelical Review_, which B. Kurtz promptly condemned as "the most sectarian periodical he ever read." In 1850, when asked whether he intended to adhere to the doctrinal basis of the General Synod, Reynolds stated in the _Lutheran Observer_: "Well, I frankly confess and rejoice in being able to say that within the last two years I have changed my views with respect to several very important points. But this change has not cast me out of the Lutheran Church, but, moreover, led me into it," etc. Reynolds declared that he joyously adopted "old Lutheranism," "as plainly taught in the Augsburg Confession and Luther's Small Catechism." (_Lutheraner_, April 30, 1850.) In the _Lutheran Observer_ of January 25, 1856, Reynolds retracted his former endorsement of Kurtz's _Why You Are a Lutheran_, a booklet in which Kurtz affirmed that the present Lutheran Church, with a few exceptions, believed concerning the Lord's Supper what had been held by those whom Luther termed "Sacramentarians." (_L. u. W._ 1870, 156.) Walther, in 1850, praised Reynolds as a man of substantial learning and a teacher true to the Lutheran Church and her confessions. (_Lutheraner_ 6, 139.) But Walther and other friends of true Lutheranism who staked great hopes on Reynolds, were sorely disappointed in their expectations. In spite of his retractions, Reynolds always was and remained a unionist. In 1857 Harkey gave the assurance that Reynolds was not a symbolist, but stood on the doctrinal basis of the General Synod. When Dr. G. Diehl, in the _Observer_, designated Reynolds as a strict confessionalist, Reynolds, in the _Observer_ of October 2, 1857, protested that he was a General Synod man, whose primary object was not to divide, but to unite. (_L. u. W._ 1857, 314.) In his Springfield inaugural address, 1858, Reynolds coordinated the evangelical denominations, and advocated extensive unionism, maintaining that they all base their doctrines on Holy Scripture. In order to justify his apostasy, Reynolds, in 1863, published the statement that, in part, he had been moved to unite with the Episcopalians on account of the bitter "sectarianism" of the Lutheran Church and the denunciations of the men of the _Observer_ party by the _Lutheran and Missionary_. (_L. u. W._ 1864, 25.) Later Reynolds was reported to have said that he left the Lutheran Church because he was without employment, and believed every door in the General Synod closed against himself. The _Observer_ of October 9, 1863, justified the propriety of Reynold's action by referring to the constitution which provides for the honorable dismissal from District Synods and the admittance of ministers from other denominations. (_L. u. W._ 1863, 379.) In 1877 the _Observer_ published an article in which the writer states: "When a pastor who depends for his support on his office does not succeed in obtaining a position in our Church and must suffer on account of this, he may accept a call from another denomination.... Several of such cases have happened, and no liberal-minded man will censure persons who have left us for such reasons." (_L. u. W._ 1877, 186.)

87. Conservative Periodicals.--In 1849 the English Lutherans in New York declared that the _Lutheran Observer_ was opposed to the spirit and character of the Lutheran Church, and appointed a committee to bring about a radical change in the editorship, or, in case this should fail, to advocate the establishment of a new church-paper at the next General Synod. "Thus one funeral song after the other is chanted to our friend at Baltimore, and partly by his own former adherents," remarked the _Lutheraner_. (6, 47.) It was but another of the numerous symptoms of awakening confessionalism in the East, when, at New York, June 8, 1853, a conference of the New York Ministerium, in a resolution, declared that they were utterly dissatisfied with the unevangelical and unsymbolical position of the _Lutheran Observer_ as a church-paper, dissatisfied also with the miserable stuff which it contained, and that, in place of it, they recommend the _Lutheran Standard_. (_Lutheraner_ 9, 175.)--The first German paper within the General Synod which occasionally raised its voice against the apostasy of the _Observer_ was the _Lutherische Kirchenzeitung_ of Pittsburgh, published from 1838 to 1846 by Prof. Schmidt of Lafayette College, Easton, Pa., at a great personal sacrifice. (_Kirchl. Mitt._ 1843, No. 10.) At Chambersburg, 1839, the General Synod resolved "that we continue to view the _Lutheran Observer_ published by Dr. Kurtz, at Baltimore, Md., and the _Lutherische Kirchenzeitung_, published by Prof. Schmidt, at Easton, Pa., as able advocates of the cause of evangelical religion in our Church, and that we recommend them to the cordial support of our people." (16.) But the German paper soon proved a thorn in the flesh of the liberals. In 1841 "a Lutheran of Ohio" wrote in the _Kirchenzeitung:_ "It is astounding that the Lutheran Church should support a paper like the _Observer_ and nurse an enemy in its midst; the editor [Kurtz] himself ought to be honest enough to leave the Church whose doctrines and customs he does not love, but regards as false." Because of this critical attitude the Synod of the West, in the same year, declared that it was unable to recommend the _Kirchenzeitung_ to its members. The charges were that the _Kirchenzeitung_ was directly opposed to the _Lutheran Observer_; that it revealed an improper spirit with respect to revivals and charitable institutions; that it had declared the _Lutheran Observer_ to be anti-Lutheran, and directed its influence against this excellent paper. The Pennsylvania Synod, however, to which Pastor Schmidt submitted the resolution of the Synod of the West, decided in favor of the _Kirchenzeitung_. In 1849, the same year in which the _Mercersburg Review_ appeared, the _Evangelical Review_ was published at Gettysburg by W. M. Reynolds, whom Charles Philip Krauth succeeded as editor. Both Reynolds and Krauth were prominent among the leaders of the conservatives. What the _Evangelical Review_, however, really stood for was not unqualified Lutheranism, but unionism. (_L. u. W._ 1858, 272 f.) On principle the _Review_ opened its pages to both the advocates and the opponents of the Lutheran symbols and its doctrines. (_Lutheraner_ 1852, 136.) Walther's report in the _Lutheraner_ on his trip to Germany in the interest of an agreement with Loehe appeared English in the _Evangelical Review_ of 1853. (_L._ 9, 134.) The career of the _Evangelical Review_ was closed in 1870. It was succeeded by the _Lutheran Quarterly_, first edited by Drs. Brown and Valentine, both of whom were not essentially Lutheran, but unionistic and Reformed theologians.--In 1845, Dr. W. A. Passavant began a small missionary periodical which grew into a large family weekly, the _Missionary_. Though one of its objects was to oppose the un-Lutheran tendency of the _Observer_, the _Missionary_ itself was free neither of unionism nor even of Reformedism. According to its issue of February 28, 1861, for instance, communicants at the Lord's Supper partake of Christ's body and blood by faith. The _Missionary_ was a champion also of the Reformed doctrine of the Sunday. (_L. u. W._ 1861, 123. 350.) In 1861 the _Missionary_ merged into the _Lutheran and Missionary_, with Drs. Krauth and Passavant as editors--a paper which took a decided stand in favor of a modified confessional Lutheranism. In 1861 the editors declared with respect to pulpit- and altar-fellowship: "We do not want to refuse the sweet bond of Christian fellowship to those who sincerely love our Lord Jesus Christ." (_L. u. W._ 1861, 379; 1862, 19 ff.) The _Lutheran World_, serving the cause of the conservatives till 1912, when it was merged into the _Lutheran Church Work_ (established 1911 as the official organ of the General Synod), always defended the unionistic practises of the General Synod, and violently attacked Missouri for disapproving of her fellowship with the sects. (_L. u. W._ 1901, 54; 1904, 564.) In 1901 the _Lutheran World_ wrote: "Perhaps we shall always have three great church bodies, lest any truth concerning the Trinity be lost. Perhaps there will always be Calvinists to emphasize the sovereignty of God, Arminians to emphasize the freedom of man and the work of the Holy Spirit, and Lutherans who place the emphasis on God in Christ and justification by faith in Him." (_L. u. W._ 1901, 154.) In 1905 the _World_ defended the affiliation of the General Synod with the Federal Council, and attacked the _Lutheran_ for criticizing the Federal Council as unionistic. (_L. u. W._ 1906, 32.) Without a word of criticism the _World_, in 1903, published the news: "Rev. Eli Miller, of St. Mark's church, Allegheny, Pa., recently addressed the I. O. O. F. in his church on 'We be brethren'." (_L. u. W._ 1903, 184.) In the same year the _World_ designated the doctrine that every word of the Bible was inspired as an orthodox exaggeration and an astonishing assertion, at the same time declaring that it was time to formulate a theory of inspiration, and that, in this matter, all eyes in America were directed on the Lutheran church. (_L. u. W._ 1904, 39; 1903, 307.) In 1901 the _Lutheran World_ wrote that one must not imagine that man cannot do anything toward his own salvation; that grace must not be viewed as such a supernatural operation which effects a change in the moral nature of man while his own exertions contribute nothing; that man must cooperate with God when the machinery is set into motion. (_L. u. W._ 1901, 234.) The _Lutherische Zionsbote_, the organ of the German Nebraska and the Wartburg Synods, as well as of the German congregations in other District Synods, was much more moderate and conservative than its predecessor, the _Lutherische Kirchenfreund_.

MISSOURI'S INFLUENCE.

88. Light Coming from the West.--In 1845, at the convention of the General Synod in Philadelphia, Wyneken, a delegate of the Synod of the West, made a bold, determined, and consistent stand for genuine Lutheranism against the prevailing unionistic and Reformed tendencies of the leaders of the General Synod. Wyneken, who, in his pamphlet _The Distress of the German Lutherans in North America_, had characterized the General Synod as Reformed in doctrine, Methodistic in practise, and Lutheran in name only, demanded at Philadelphia that Synod either renounce the name Lutheran, or reject as utterly un-Lutheran Schmucker's _Popular Theology, Appeal, Portraiture of Lutheranism_, etc., Kurtz's _On Infant Baptism, Why You Are a Lutheran_, and the _Lutheran Observer_, as well as the _Hirtenstimme_ of Weyl. But on floor of Synod not a single voice was heard that understood him, and was in sympathy with him. On the contrary, in _Lutherische Hirtenstimme_, July 1, 1845, Rev. Weyl began to decry Wyneken as a masked Romanist, an enemy of Lutheran doctrines, usages, books, and periodicals, and to ridicule his zeal for true Lutheranism at Philadelphia as a "ludicrous motion (_spasshafte Motion_)" which the General Synod had tabled "good-naturedly." (_L._ 1845, 96; 3, 32; 7, 133. 153.) Wyneken was a strange figure on the floor of the General Synod--without predecessors, without successors. Down to the Merger in 1918 there was not found a single prominent General Synodist walking in his steps. In an address delivered March 10, 1846, Dr. Philip Schaff (Schaaf was his original name) declared that it was impossible to build a confessional Lutheran Church (not to speak of the exclusive Lutheranism of the Form of Concord) on the Reformed English soil of America. It would be easier to direct the course of the Mississippi to Bavaria and to convert the Chinese through German sermons. The emissaries from Germany would soon be convinced of the folly of their undertaking, etc.--This was the view also of the leaders of the General Synod. But, though fully aware of the difficulties ahead, nothing was able to daunt the courage of the men of the West, or shake their faith in the truth and final success of their cause. And their faith did not fail them. Throughout the United States and far beyond its bounds the fact of Missouri's powerful rise was felt as an encouragement and incentive to true Lutheranism everywhere. Indeed, the confessional influence of the West on the East was much greater than is usually acknowledged. As early as 1846 Dr. Walther felt justified in stating in the _Lutheraner_ (Sept. 5): "No doubt but God has arisen in order to remove the rubbish under which our precious Evangelical Lutheran Church was buried for a long time, also here in America." (3, 1.) The _Observer_, reporting on the organization of the Missouri Synod in 1847, ridiculed: "This new Synod is composed of genuine Old Lutherans, the true, spotless orthodox ones, whose theology is as strong and straight as the symbolical books can make it, and whose religious usages are as stiff as such thoroughbred old-school men can wish them." (_L._ 4, 30.) But while B. Kurtz and his compeers indulged in mockery and ridicule, the men of Missouri were clear-sighted, serious, and determined. The consequence was that a decade later the hearts of the General Synod's anti-confessionalists were filled with fear and consternation. Schmucker's chief object in writing the Definite Platform, as appears from this document itself, was to stem the tide of the confessional wave coming from the West, and to make the General Synod immune against Misouri. [tr. note: sic!]