Chapter 8

38. "Apostolic Protestant Union."--The plan of Christian Union hatched by Schmucker and recommended by the General Synod is delineated in a report presented 1848, at New York, by the Committee of Conference on Christian Union appointed at the previous session of the General Synod, as follows: "The kind of union to which this body was disposed to invite the several evangelical denominations, and in which she felt it a duty and a pleasure to lead the way in hope of virtually healing the 'Great Schism' of Protestantism, is also definitely delineated by the following portraiture: 'The design to be aimed at shall be not to amalgamate the several denominations into one church, nor to impair in any degree the independent control of each denomination over its own affairs and interests, but to present to the world a more formal profession and practical proof of our mutual recognition of each other as integral parts of the visible Church of Christ on earth, as well as our fundamental unity of faith and readiness to cooperate harmoniously in the advancement of objects of common interest." (11.) "An article was prepared in which, after a glance at the solemn injunction of the Savior and His apostles to preserve unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, the nature and extent of the union prevailing in the primitive churches was delineated as consisting of the following features: a. unity of name; b. unity in fundamental doctrines, whilst diversity in nonessentials was concealed; c. mutual acknowledgment of each other's acts of discipline; d. sacramental and ministerial intercommunion; e. convention of the different churches of the land in synod or council for mutual consultation or ecclesiastical regulation." (12.) "In contrast with this picture of primitive union, the present deplorable divided and conflicting state of the Church was delineated.... In hope of removing the principal evils of these denominational divisions, your committee projected a scheme of Christian union based (in the following four preliminary principles for the guarantee of the rights of individual conscience and denominational religious liberty: 1. This plan must require of no one the renunciation of any doctrine or opinion believed by him to be true, nor the profession of anything he regards as erroneous; nor does the accession of any denomination to this union imply any sanction of the peculiarities of any other. 2. It must concede to every denomination the right to retain its own organization for government, discipline, and worship. 3. It must not prevent the discussion of the points of difference between the several associated denominations, but only require that it be done in the spirit of love. 4. It must either in all or at least some of its features be applicable to all evangelical, fundamentally orthodox [non-Unitarian] churches, and each denomination may at option adopt any or all of its features." (12.) The plan of union offered in accordance with these principles by Schmucker and the committee embraces the following features: 1. Adoption of the nine doctrinal articles of the Evangelical Alliance. 2. Regular interchange of delegates between the supreme judicatories of the several denominations. 3. Cooperation of the different associated churches in voluntary societies, notably such as Bible, Tract, Sabbath-school and Foreign Mission Societies. 4. The more extensive use of the Bible as a textbook in theological, congregational, and Sunday-school institutions. 5. Occasional free sacramental communion by all whose views of duty allow it. 6. A general, stated anniversary celebration and smaller state celebrations, also representation at the ecumenical conventions of the Evangelical Alliance. (12.) The report concludes: "This plan was sent by your committee in the form of a proof-sheet to about fifty of the most distinguished and influential divines of ten different denominations, and these not only returned letters expressing their substantial approbation of the plan, but nearly all of them united with your committee in sending it out over their own signatures as an overture of Christian union, submitted for the consideration of the Evangelical denominations in the United States." (13.)

39. Endorsed by the General Synod.--"According to the conception of prominent leaders," says Dr. Jacobs, "the General Synod was nothing more than the realization of Zinzendorf's dream of 1742, which the coming of Muhlenberg had so quickly dissipated." (_History_, 304.) But judged by its minutes, what Jacobs limits to its "prominent leaders" is true of the General Synod as such. Synod certainly did not discourage Schmucker in his union schemes. In 1839, at Chambersburg, the General Synod was immediately interested in his "Plan of Apostolic Protestant Union." The committee appointed in the matter recommended "that Synod approve of the several features of the union plan, and submit it for serious consideration to its District Synods." (19.) A following convention appointed Schmucker, Krauth, and Miller as a Committee of Conference on Christian Union to confer with similar committees and prominent individuals of different denominations "on the great subject of Christian Union." At New York, 1848, Synod resolved that the report on Christian Union be adopted, and the Committee on Christian Union be continued." (15.) At Charleston, 1850, the Committee of Conference remarked in its report: "As the general principles of the Apostolic Christian Union, _adopted by this body_, were fully detailed in our last report, it is deemed unnecessary to enlarge on them in this place." (21.) Schmucker continued his efforts till the year of his death, 1873, when again he made an appeal to the General Synod "for an advisory union among all Evangelical denominations" as an "additional aid to the promotion of the designs of the World's Evangelical Alliance." (53.) The committee to whom Schmucker's letter and his printed appeal was referred, recommended the resolution: "Resolved, That while this General Synod approves of the ends contemplated by the appeal, and commends the fraternal spirit of its author, yet it does not deem it necessary for the present to take any further action towards Christian union than that which is already upon record." (53.) Schmucker's ideas concerning Christian union, however, were not abandoned by the General Synod. Moreover, in a way, his plans materialized in the Federal Council, consisting of about 30 Protestant bodies, at the organization of which, in 1905, the General Synod was represented by Wenner, Remensnyder, Grosscup, and Bauslin. (_L. u. W._ 1906, 33.) Theologically the Federal Council does not even measure up to the ideals of Schmucker, inasmuch as it reduced the nine points of the Evangelical Alliance, which Schmucker viewed as essential, to the meager confession of "Jesus Christ as their divine Lord and Savior," which even Unitarians will not hesitate to subscribe to. Besides, Seventh-day Adventists, Christians, Friends, and other bodies tainted with Unitarianism are even now connected with the Federal Council. In 1909 the General Synod "heartily endorsed the work of the Federal Council." (115.) In 1917 Synod adopted the report of its delegates to the Council which said, in part: "It was a great privilege to have participated in this historic council. As the federation idea originated in the United States in the mind and heart of a learned and devout Lutheran, Dr. Samuel S. Schmucker, it was a great joy and satisfaction to see and participate in this consummation of Dr. Schmucker's hope of all Protestant bodies in council and cooperation in the one common task of propagating the kingdom of God in society and throughout the world." (27.) The ultimate aim of the Federal Council evidently is an amalgamation of all Protestant Churches. And there are, even now, General Synodists who are ready to countenance this eventuality. In the _Christian Herald_, December 12, 1917, Dr. J. B. Remensnyder spoke of the essential unity of Protestantism separated only by minor differences, and of "the practical possibility of a larger union,--one world-wide Protestant Church of Christ," to be brought about by mutual surrender of secondary differences. "It will not come about," says Remensnyder, "by one denomination insisting absolutely on its doctrinal type." In the _Lutheran Church Work and Observer_, May 23, 1918, p. 7 f., a General Synod pastor wrote: "With forms of religion and denominational differences we have nothing to do.... Let each one have his own faith, his own light and hope." "There come moments when we forget our differences and our various labels, when we arise above the partial, the individual, and sectarian, when a common impulse drives us headlong into the arms of trust and general comradeship...."

THEOLOGY REFORMED.

40. Championing Reformed Doctrines.--Wherever Lutherans unite with the Reformed, the former gradually sink to the level of the latter. Already by declaring the differences between the two Churches irrelevant, the Lutheran truths are actually sacrificed and denied. Unionism always breaks the backbone, and outrages the conscience, of true Lutheranism. And naturally enough, the refusal to confess the Lutheran truth is but too frequently followed by eager endorsement and fanatical defense of the opposite errors. This is fully borne out by the history of the General Synod. As the years rolled on, the Reformed lineaments, at first manifesting themselves in unionism, came out in ever bolder relief. The distinctive Lutheran doctrines of the Lord's Supper, the person of Christ, Baptism, absolution, infant faith, the means of grace, the Sabbath, abstinence, separation of State and Church, etc., were all rejected and assailed by the most prominent leaders of the General Synod. And the unionistic spirit, with which also the most conservative within the General Synod were infected, paralyzed the courage of the men who, in a measure, saw and loved the light, and should have been bold in confessing the truth and uncompromising in defending it against the opposite errors. In 1831, in deference to sectarianism, the publication of the _Lutheran Observer_ was transferred to Baltimore, with Dr. Morris as editor, because it was feared that the Presbyterians might take offense at the title "Lutheran" if, as was originally planned, it was published at Gettysburg with the professors as editors! It was in the interest of eliminating the specific Lutheran doctrines that, in 1845, at Philadelphia, a committee (Schmucker, Morris, Schmidt, Pohlman, Kurtz) was appointed to formulate and present to the next convention an abstract of the doctrines and usages of the American Lutheran Church, on the order of the Abstract requested in 1844 by the Maryland Synod, in which the Lutheran doctrine of the Real Presence was rejected. The report was made at Charleston, S. C., 1850, but "laid on the table, and the committee discharged from further duty." (27.) In 1855 a bold effort was made to abandon the Augsburg Confession in favor of the notorious Definite Platform, from which all specifically Lutheran doctrines had been eliminated in order to open the way officially for the tenets peculiar to Reformed theology. Some of the fanatics were not even willing to tolerate Lutheran doctrine in the General Synod. When in 1852 the Pennsylvania Synod resolved to reunite with the General Synod, and called upon all Lutherans in America to follow her example, the _Observer_, December 21, 1852, published a declaration stating that the Augsburg Confession taught the real presence of the body and blood of Christ in the Lord's Supper and several other things, which were rejected by almost all of the friends and promoters of the General Synod, and that it was sinful to unite with Lutherans who adhered to such doctrines. (_Lutheraner_, Dec. 21, 1852.) Former members of the North Illinois Synod declared in the _Observer_ of January 20, 1860: "We do not believe in the bodily presence, baptismal regeneration, the ceremonies of the mass, and in similar nonsense." (_L. u. W._ 1860, 93.) As late as 1896 the Allegheny Synod refused to ordain a candidate because he did not hold that the Sunday was of divine institution. (_L. u. W._ 1896, 281.)

41. Sailing under False Colors.--Foremost and boldest among the Reformed theologians within the General Synod were S. S. Schmucker and B. Kurtz, who nevertheless insisted on sailing under the Lutheran flag. Brazenly claiming to be the true representatives of Lutheranism, they at the same time assailed the Lutheran and defended the Reformed doctrines with ultra Calvinistic zeal and bigotry. They opposed the adoption of all the Lutheran symbols (especially of the Formula of Concord), as well as the unqualified subscription to the Augsburg Confession, because they were imbued with the Reformed spirit and absolute strangers to, and enemies of, everything distinctive of, and essential to, true Lutheranism. (_L. u. W._ 1866, 21.) In his _Popular Theology_, published for the first time in 1834, Schmucker says: "But whilst the Reformers [Luther and Zwingli] agreed in rejecting this papal error [transubstantiation], it is much to be regretted that they could neither harmonize among themselves as to what should be substituted in its stead, nor consent to walk together in love, when they could not entirely accord in opinion.... Alas! that men, distinguished so highly for intellect, and chosen of God to accomplish so great a work, should betray such a glaring want of liberality toward each other; that, having gloriously cooperated in vanquishing the papal beast, they should turn their weapons against each other, for a point not decided in Scripture, and therefore of minor importance!" (Edition 1848, p. 297.) With respect to the presence of Christ in the Lord's Supper, Schmucker, in his _Popular Theology_, distinguishes between the substantial, the influential, and the symbolical presence and the bald symbolical representation. Then he continues: "After a protracted and unprofitable struggle, the Lutheran Church has long since settled down in the happy conviction that on this, as on all other subjects not clearly determined by the inspired Volume, her sons shall be left to follow the dictates of their own conscience, having none to molest them or make them afraid. In the Lutheran Church in this country each of the above views has some advocates, though the great body of our divines, if we mistake not, embraces either the second or third." (305.) Also in his _Portraiture of Lutheranism_ (1840) Schmucker maintained that the Lutheran Church no longer demands the acknowledgment of the real presence in the Eucharist, Luther himself, toward the end of his life, having admitted that he had gone too far in this matter.

42. Moses Stuart's Declaration.--Referring to the statements quoted from Schmucker's _Popular Theology_, Prof. Moses Stuart of Andover said in the _Bibliotheca Sacra_ of 1844: "I should not do justice to the Lutheran Church of recent times if I did not say that many within its precincts have loudly called in question the old doctrine of Luther and his compeers and successors in respect to consubstantiation [real presence]. The battle has been fought of late with great power; and scarcely a doubt remains that the more enlightened of the Lutherans are either renouncing his views, or coming to the position that they are not worth contending for. In this country such is clearly the case. Dr. S. S. Schmucker, the able and excellent exponent of the Lutheran theology in this country, in his work, called _Popular Theology_, has told us that they are 'settled down in the happy conviction that on this, and on all other subjects not clearly determined by the inspired Volume, her sons shall be left to follow the dictates of their own conscience, having none to molest or make them afraid.' The great body of Lutheran divines among us, according to the same writer, doubt or deny the corporeal or physical presence of Christ in the elements of the Eucharist. It is not difficult to predict that ere long the great mass of well-informed Lutherans, at least in this country, will be substantially united, in regard to this subject, with the other Reformed Churches." (Spaeth, _C. P. Krauth_, 1, 115.)

43. Reformed Attitude of the "Observer."--Commenting on B. Kurtz, editor of the _Lutheran, Observer_, Dr. Spaeth says: "For years and years he was indefatigable in his coarse and irreverential, yea, blasphemous attacks upon what was set forth as most sacred in the Confessions of the Lutheran Church. The loyal adherents of the historical faith of the Augsburg Confession were denounced as 'resurrectionists of elemental, undeveloped, halting, stumbling, and staggering humanity,' as priests ready 'to immolate bright meridian splendor on the altar of misty, musky dust,' men bent on going backward, and consequently, of necessity, going downward!" Every distinctive doctrine and usage of Lutheranism was ridiculed and assailed, in the _Lutheran Observer_, by Kurtz and his theological affinities. In its issue of June 29, 1849, C.P. Krauth, in an article on the question of Christ's presence in the Eucharist, wrote: "From this high position [of the Lutheran confessions, held by some Lutherans in America] there are almost all shades of dissent and descent, not only to that which is popularly called the Zwinglian, and of which the _Lutheran Observer_ may be considered the exponent, but yet lower to that which we may call, for want of a better name, Socinian." (Spaeth I, 162.) A few weeks prior (June 8) Kurtz had declared that in the 60 Lutheran congregations in Maryland not 30 American-born members could be found who knew what "bodily presence" in the Lord's Supper meant, much less believed in it. The more the free-thinking, practical, and common-sense people the United States got acquainted with this doctrine, the less they would take to it. The same was true of other obsolete doctrines, such as baptismal regeneration. (_Lutheraner_, October 30, 1849.) In January of 1854 the _Observer_ announced that an old manuscript had been discovered in Germany, according to which Luther, shortly before his death, retracted his controversy against the Sacramentarians. (_Lutheraner_ 10, 108; cf. 2, 47.) In November of the same year the _Observer_ declared that Profs. Heppe and Ebrard had proved that the doctrine of the Lutheran Church on the Lord's Supper was not the one of Luther, but that of the later Melanchthon. (_Lutheraner_ 11, 71.) Anspach, coeditor of the _Observer_, stated in its number of November 12, 1858: "Difference of opinion concerning the Sacraments is tolerated in the General Synod, and although there are some among our brethren who believe in the real presence of our Savior in the Lord's Supper in a higher sense than others, they nevertheless hold that this takes place in a spiritual and supernatural manner." (_L. u. W._ 1859, 30.) In its issue of June 29, 1860, the _Observer_ protested: "We can never subscribe to the errors of the Augsburg Confession.... Let a separation take place. Let those who are able to swallow the errors of the sixteenth century, which have long ago been hissed from the stage, rally around the banner: 'The true body and the true blood of Christ in a natural manner in the elements,' and on the back side: 'Regeneration by Baptism and priestly absolution essential to true Lutheranism'! This is the theology of the symbolists. This papistical theology we cannot and will not subscribe to in America. For it is a theology which is not drawn from the Bible, but from the Roman Bible." In 1861 the _Observer_ remarked that the Missouri, Buffalo, and other Old Lutherans practise ceremonies and adhere to doctrines which are as odious to many of us as those in vogue in the Roman Church. (March 8.) Two years prior the _Observer_ had blasphemously scoffed at the Lutheran Communion Liturgy as "altar antics." (_L. u. W._ 1860, 31.) _Observer_, February 12, 1864: "Christ is at the right hand of God in heaven. How, then, can we speak of Christ's body and blood as present in the Sacrament since no such body did exist for these 1800 years, never since His ascension into glory?" (_L. u. W._ 1864, 125.) November 7, 1862: "But who exercises faith in infant baptism? Not the child, but the father or the sponsor," etc. (_L. u. W._ 1862, 373.) In 1904 the _Observer_ denied that a child believes and is regenerated by Baptism. (_L. u. W._ 1904, 471.) According to the _Observer_ of 1901 a man may become a true Christian even without any knowledge of the Gospel and of Christ. (_L. u. W._ 1901, 306.) _Observer_, March 27, 1868: "God's Book is a total abstinence book, and God's Son never made intoxicating wine." In 1867 the _American Lutheran_ (published by the Hartwick Synod and later merged with the _Lutheran Observer_), teaching the baldest Zwinglianism, maintained that Baptism is a mere sign and seal of membership in the visible Church on earth and no more regeneration itself than the sign-board "Hotel" is itself the hotel. (_L. u. W._ 1867, 125.) The _Lutheran Evangelist_, merged in 1909 into the _Observer_ and always disowning every doctrine distinctive of Lutheranism, stated January 20, 1899: The pastors of the General Synod are too sensible to believe "so foolish a dogma as infant faith." (_L. u. W._ 1899, 27.) The same paper had declared in 1892: "They are bad Lutherans who do not view the Sabbath as commanded by God. If the Augsburg Confession had been written in our day, it would have delivered no uncertain testimony with respect to the divine obligation of the Day of the Lord." The _Lutheran Church Work and Observer_, the official organ of the General Synod, wrote September 12, 1918: "The General Synod has always stood on the side of temperance.... Almost all her ministers have been abstainers and advocates of total abstinence. They have ever aligned themselves with the temperance forces of the country to put the American saloon out of business." The first resolution in favor of the temperance cause, referred to in the minutes of the General Synod, was adopted in 1831 by the Hartwick Synod. (9.)