Chapter X: Section 5: , declares: "The General Synod may give advice or opinion when (5)

64. Pittsburgh and Hartwick Synods.--In the _Observer_, February 15, 1856, Kurtz suggested with respect to the Platform controversy that a District Synod adopt a resolution to the effect that the Augustana did not contain the errors charged with by the Platform, and that respecting these doctrines every member of Synod was at liberty to follow his own judgment. In accordance with this advice the Pittsburgh Synod, in the same year, compromised the differences of the Old and New School men in a number of resolutions framed by Charles Porterfield Krauth, who then was still spending his efforts in trying to mediate between the adherents and opponents of the Definite Platform. Among these resolutions are the following: "II. Resolved, That while the basis of our General Synod has allowed of diversity in regard to some parts of the Augsburg Confession, that basis never was designed to imply the right to alter, amend, or curtail the Confession itself." "III. Resolved, That while this Synod, resting on the Word of God as the sole authority in matters of faith, on its infallible warrant rejects the Romish doctrine of the real presence of transubstantiation, and with it the doctrine of consubstantiation; rejects the Mass, and all ceremonies distinctive of the Mass; denies any power in the Sacraments as an _opus operatum_, or that the blessings of Baptism and the Lord's Supper can be received without faith; rejects auricular confession and priestly absolution; holds that there is no priesthood on earth except that of all believers, and that God only can forgive sins; and maintains the sacred obligation of the Lord's Day; and while we would with our whole heart reject any part of any confession which taught doctrines in conflict with this our testimony, nevertheless, before God and His Church, we declare that in our judgment the Augsburg Confession, properly interpreted, is in perfect consistence with this our testimony and with Holy Scripture as regards the errors specified." "IV. Resolved, That while we do not wish to conceal the fact that some parts of the doctrine of our Confession in regard to the Sacraments are received in different degrees by different brethren, yet that even in these points, wherein we as brethren in Christ agree to differ, till the Holy Ghost shall make us see eye to eye, the differences are not such as to destroy the foundation of faith, our unity in labor, our mutual confidence, and our tender love." "VI. Resolved, That if we have indulged harsh thoughts and groundless suspicions, if we have without reason criminated and recriminated, we here humbly confess our fault before our adorable Redeemer, beseeching pardon of Him and of each other," etc. "VII. Resolved, That we will resist all efforts to sow dissensions among us on the ground of minor differences, all efforts, on the one hand, to restrict the liberty which Christ has given us, or, on the other, to impair the purity of the 'faith once delivered to the saints,' and that with new ardor we will devote ourselves to the work of the Gospel," etc. (Spaeth, 1, 378.) A stand similar to the one of the Pittsburgh Synod was taken in the same year, 1856, by the Hartwick Synod, in declaring, on the one hand, that they adopt the fundamental doctrines of the Augsburg Confession, other articles of this Confession, however, only when rightly understood and interpreted, and in rejecting, on the other hand, the doctrines enumerated in the third of the Pittsburgh resolutions. (_L. u. W._ 1856, 349.) On the part of the Franckean Synod this caused a declaration to the effect that they would not have withdrawn (1837) if Hartwick had taken this stand earlier. Hartwick answered, 1857, that they had not adopted a new platform, but merely the General Synod's "interpretation of the Augustana." (_L. u. W._ 1857, 352; 1864, 314; 1866, 119.)

65. The Pittsburgh Compromise.--The Pittsburgh resolutions, notably the third (adopted also in 1864 at York by the General Synod, and since known as the York Resolution), breathe a unionistic and, in part, a Reformed spirit. Conspicuous among their un-Lutheran features are the following. With respect to the Lutheran doctrines rejected by Schmucker and his compeers, the Pittsburgh compromise declares in general: "We as brethren in Christ agree to differ." The theological attitude of the notorious union letter of 1845 was thus practically reaffirmed and the doctrines distinctive of Lutheranism declared irrelevant. Every Lutheran synod, according to the Pittsburgh agreement, was, indeed, to recognize the Augustana unmutilated, but, on the other hand, grant complete liberty to deviate from its doctrines in the manner of the supporters of the Platform. In addition to this unionistic feature the Pittsburgh compromise, at least in three important points, makes concessions to the Reformed tenets of the Platform theology. It does not only fail to confess the Lutheran doctrines of the Lord's Supper, absolution, and the Sunday, at a time when these doctrines were universally denied and assailed also within the General Synod, and when, accordingly, a failure to confess them was tantamount to an open denial, but itself rejects them. Concerning the Sunday, Article 28 of the Augsburg Confession declares: "For those who judge that by the authority of the Church the observance of the Lord's Day instead of the Sabbath-day was ordained as a thing necessary, do greatly err. Scripture has abrogated the Sabbath-day." Over against this plain teaching the General Synod always held that "the observance of the Sunday is binding on all by divine requirement." (_Lutheran Observer_, Oct. 1, 1915.) Siding with this un-Lutheran position, the third of the Pittsburgh resolutions declares: "We adhere to the divine authority of the Sabbath as the Lord's Day." Again, absolution by Christians, and especially the minister of a Christian congregation, was one of the doctrines abhorred by the Platform men. As late as 1864 even C.P. Krauth regarded the Eleventh Article of the Augustana as excluded from the confessional subscription of the General Synod. The Pittsburgh compromise rejects "priestly absolution" and maintains "that God only can forgive sins" on earth, thus openly disavowing a specific Lutheran doctrine and coinciding with Schmucker and Kurtz, Zwingli, and Calvin. Furthermore, the Lutheran Church most emphatically teaches "the real presence" of the body and blood of Christ in the Lord's Supper. And in the days of Schmucker, and later, this doctrine, openly assailed and denied by the leaders of the General Synod, was generally, though erroneously, identified with, and termed, "consubstantiation," without as well as within the General Synod. The _Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge_, of 1854, edited by J. Newton Brown, describes "consubstantiation" as "a tenet of the Lutheran Church respecting the presence of Christ in the Lord's Supper. Luther denied that the elements were changed after consecration, and therefore taught that the bread and wine indeed remain, but that, together with them, there is present the substance of the body and blood of Christ, which is literally received by communicants." As late as 1899 Philip Schaff wrote in his _Creeds of Christendom_: "The Lutheran Church, as represented in Luther's writings and in the Form of Concord, rejects transubstantiation, and also the doctrine of impanation, _i. e._, a local inclusion of Christ's body and blood in the elements (_localis inclusio in pane_), or a permanent and extrasacramental conjunction of the two substances (_durabilis aliqua conjunctio extra usum sacramenti_); _but it teaches consubstantiation_ in the sense of a sacramental conjunction of the two substances effected by the consecration, or a real presence of Christ's very body and blood in, with, and under (_in, cum, et sub_) bread and wine. The word consubstantiation, however, is not found in the Lutheran symbols, and is rejected by Lutheran theologians if used in the sense of impanation." (1, 232.) Down to the present day the Lutheran doctrine of the real presence has been universally designated by its opponents as "consubstantiation." (_L. u. W._ 1856, 33. 115. 255.) Respecting this use of the term outside of the Lutheran Church, compare also Worcester's Dictionary; _Cyclopedia_, Harper and Brothers, 1894; Century Dictionary, 1906; Heyse, _Fremdwoerterbuch_; etc. And as to the use made of the term within the General Synod, S. S. Schmucker, B. Kurtz, B. Sprecher, and the rest of the Platform theologians always designated the Lutheran doctrine of the real presence as consubstantiation. As late as 1880 Dr. Helwig wrote in the _Lutheran Evangelist_: "The Missouri Lutherans adhere as closely as possible to the doctrines of Martin Luther, even his consubstantiation theory with respect to the Holy Eucharist according to the words: in, with, and under the bread." (_L. u. W._ 1880, 246.) Viewed, then, in its historical context, the third of the Pittsburgh resolutions, instead of plainly stating and boldly confessing the Lutheran doctrine of the real presence, disavows it, at least indirectly, declaring: This Synod "rejects the Romish doctrine of the real presence or transubstantiation, and with it the doctrine of consubstantiation." To cap the climax, the compromise proceeds: "Before God and His Church we declare that in our judgment the Augsburg Confession, properly interpreted, is in perfect consistence with this our testimony and with Holy Scripture as regards the errors specified." How Charles Porterfield Krauth was able thinkingly to write as he did is a problem which still awaits a satisfactory explanation. Thus, then, though formally acknowledging the Augustana and denying the right "to alter, amend, or curtail the Confession itself," the Pittsburgh compromise cannot but be viewed as a distinctly unionistic and anti-Lutheran document. It was a surrender, if not to the Platform as such, at least to its theology.

GENERAL SYNOD'S ATTITUDE.

66. Ignoring Platform, But Endorsing Its Theology.--No formal action was taken by the conventions of the General Synod with respect either to the Definite Platform itself or its authors, abettors, and endorsers. Apart from the doctrinal indifference prevailing within the General Synod also among the conservatives, this was chiefly due to the articles published by Krauth, Jr., in defense of the General Synod in the _Missionary_. "Silently," says Dr. Spaeth, "yet no less surely, the brethren gave the most unmistakable evidence that the views therein expressed met their concurrence." (1, 409.) However, Krauth himself, in advocating mutual toleration, merely acted on the old principles of the General Synod. His policy was in keeping with its unionistic traditions of "agreeing to disagree and not to settle disputed points, but to omit them and declare them free--_quieta non movere et mota quiescere!_" Well satisfied with the course of the General Synod at its conventions in 1857 and 1859, the _Observer_ wrote: "The convention at Pittsburgh has strengthened the bond of our union and shown that no question of doctrine or discipline can disrupt us. We are one and inseparable. Our union is based on mutual concession. We have learned a lesson which our fathers could not learn: to give and to take." (_L. u. W._ 1859, 285.) Officially and directly, then, the General Synod neither approved nor condemned the Platform. Nor could she consistently have taken a different course, as Schmucker had but acted on previous suggestions of Synod herself. In 1844 the Maryland Synod had appointed a committee to prepare an "Abstract," which, in a way, was to serve as a substitute for the Augsburg Confession. This "Abstract," though not adopted by the Maryland Synod, was a forerunner of the Definite Platform. Schmucker, says Dr. Spaeth, "was so much pleased with the 'Abstract' that he referred to it again and again in his lectures and articles, and even made his students commit to memory its principal statements. In an article on the 'Vocation of the American Lutheran Church' (_Ev. Review_ II, 510) Schmucker said: 'With the exception of several minor shades of doctrine, in which we are more symbolic than Dr. Baugher, we could not ourselves, in so few words, give a better description of the views taught in the seminary [Gettysburg] than that contained in his 'Abstract of the Doctrines and Practises.'" (1, 114.) Also the General Synod, in 1845, at Philadelphia, following in the steps of the Maryland Synod, authorized a committee to formulate the doctrines and usages of the American Lutheran Church. Schmucker, then, in preparing and publishing the Definite Platform, was certainly not so very much out of tune with the sentiments then prevailing in, and encouraged by, the General and some of the District Synods. Consistently they could not rebuke Schmucker without condemning themselves. Accordingly, the convention of the General Synod in 1857, at Reading, took formal action neither with respect to Schmucker, nor the Platform, nor the synods which had endorsed the Platform. And while the motion of Schmucker that the Board (which had published Mann's "Plea") should not publish any writings on the existing controversies was adopted, the motion of Kurtz for a "liberal platform" found no support. (_L. u. W._ 1857, 218.) But, while painfully avoiding any reference to the Platform as such, the General Synod more than tolerated its theology. The convention of 1859 cordially admitted the Melanchthon Synod, which charged the Augustana with teaching the alleged errors of regeneration by Baptism, of the real presence, private confession and absolution, and the denial of the divine institution of the Sunday. At Lancaster, 1862, Synod evaded a deliverance on the question whether the Augsburg Confession contains the errors with which it was generally charged; indirectly, however, it affirmed the question by electing B. Kurtz as President. (_L. u. W._ 1862, 217.) In 1864 the Franckean Synod was admitted with a confession of her own making, from which the distinctive Lutheran doctrines were eliminated. And in order to conciliate the protesting conservatives, the General Synod in the same year passed the resolution, adopted 1856 by the Pittsburgh Synod, which served the contradictory purposes of condemning Lutheran doctrines plainly taught in the Augustana, and, at the same time, acquitting the Confession of harboring these doctrines. Thus the General Synod, though unwilling to commit herself to the Platform as such, directly and indirectly approved of its theology.

67. Admitting Melanchthon Synod.--In 1857, on the principle of "elective affinity," and for the purpose of resisting the confessional trend in the General Synod, and encouraging and strengthening the Platform men, the Melanchthon Synod was organized in the territory of the Maryland Synod, under the leadership of B. Kurtz. In its "Declaration of Faith" this Synod stated: "II. We believe that the fundamental doctrines of the Word of God are taught in a manner substantially correct in the doctrinal articles of the Augsburg Confession: 1. The divine inspiration, authority, and sufficiency of the Holy Scriptures. 2. The unity of the Godhead and the trinity of Persons therein. 3. The deity of our Lord Jesus Christ. 4. The utter depravity of human nature in consequence of the Fall. 5. The incarnation of the Son of God and His work of atonement for sinners of mankind. 6. The necessity of repentance and faith. 7. The justification of a sinner by faith alone. 8. The work of the Holy Spirit in the conversion and sanctification of the sinner. 9. The right and duty of private judgment in the interpretation of the Holy Scriptures. 10. The immortality of the soul, the resurrection of the body, the judgment of the world by Jesus Christ, with the eternal blessedness of the righteous and the eternal punishment of the wicked. 11. The divine institution and perpetuity of the Christian ministry, and the ordinances of Baptism and the Lord's Supper. But while we thus publicly avow and declare our convictions in the substantial correctness of the fundamental doctrines of the Augsburg Confession, we owe it to ourselves and to the cause of evangelical truth to disavow and repudiate certain errors which are said by some to be contained in said Confession: 1. The approval of the ceremonies of the mass; 2. private confession and absolution; 3. denial of the divine obligation of the Christian Sabbath; 4. baptismal regeneration; and 5. the real presence of the body and blood of the Savior in the Eucharist. With these exceptions, whether found in the Confession or not, we believe and retain the entire Augsburg Confession, with all the great doctrines of the Reformation." (_L. u. W._ 1858, 28.) In spite of this attitude toward the Augustana the General Synod, in 1859, on motion of Krauth, Jr., passed the resolution: "Resolved, That we cordially admit the Melanchthon Synod, and ... we would fraternally solicit them to consider whether a change, in their doctrinal basis, of the paragraph in regard to certain alleged errors would not tend to the promotion of mutual love, and the furtherance of the great objects for which we are laboring together." (_Proceedings_ 1859, 11.) The vote for the admission of the un-Lutheran Synod, registering the victory of the liberals and the defeat of the conservatives, stood 98 to 26, the entire delegation of the Pennsylvania Ministerium and the three Scandinavian delegates being recorded in the negative. Without further protest on the part of the conservatives "the credentials of the [Melanchthon Synod] delegates were then presented and their names entered upon the roll of Synod." (12.) Confirming their doctrinal position, the Melanchthon Synod, in 1860, by formal resolution, approved of a sermon delivered by B. Kurtz in which he denounced baptismal regeneration as "a part of papistical superstition" and the real presence of the body and blood of Christ in, with, and under the bread and wine as "consubstantiation," and "just as untenable and absurd as transubstantiation." (_L. u. W._ 1860, 384.) Considering the Constitution of the General Synod together with the fact that the Platform synods had not been molested, the admission of the Melanchthon Synod, advocated by Krauth, cannot be construed as inconsistent. It must, however, be regarded as an indirect approval, on the part of the General Synod, of the Platform theology. Dr. Mann remarked, "he doubted not that there was much good in the constitution of the Melanchthon Synod; but he would not eat poisoned bread, though there was much good flour in it." (_L. u. W._ 1859, 196.)

68. Synod's Position Explained.--In 1859 the General Synod resolved that S. W. Harkey publish, in German as well as in English, the sermon delivered by him as President of Synod at the opening of the convention. (_Proceedings_, 48.) Harkey was an opponent of the Platform on the order of Brown and Conrad. In 1852, in his inaugural address as professor of theology at the Illinois State University in Springfield, he had declared that we must take a firm foothold in the Augsburg Confession as a whole without binding the consciences of men to its unessential individual determinations; and that the doctrine of the symbols on the Sacraments belongs to the points concerning which they had agreed to differ. (_Lutheraner_ 9, 99.) Reaffirming this position in the sermon, endorsed by the General Synod in 1859, Harkey said: "We want love as much as orthodoxy, yes, a thousand times more than what some men call orthodoxy." (6.) "The General Synod cannot and does not require perfect unity or uniformity in all points of doctrine." (10.) "The General Synod adopted it [Augustana] as to fundamentals, and to these she requires unqualified subscription." (12.) "Objections have been urged against the expression 'fundamental doctrines,' as meaning one thing in the mouth of one man and a different thing in that of another--that to some everything is fundamental and to others only a few points. Now I cannot reply to this at length, at present, but have only to say in few words that there are fundamental doctrines in Christianity, and everybody not spoiled by his theory or philosophy knows what they are [the doctrines held in common by all evangelical denominations]. Indeed, I feel like sternly rebuking the infidelity which lies concealed beneath this objection, as if Christians had not been able to determine, in eighteen hundred years, what are the fundamental, chief, or great doctrines of their holy religion. Down on all such quibbling! Others have objected to the words 'substantially correct,' as meaning anything or nothing, at pleasure. This, like the other objection, is a quibble. None can err here, unless it be wilfully.... The amount of the whole is, '_In necessariis unitas, in dubiis libertas, in omnibus caritas_.' This is as far as the General Synod has gone or could go; but it does not interfere with the liberty of the District Synods. Any District Synod may go beyond this, and adopt the Augsburg Confession in an unqualified manner; or it may state the points in which it dissents from it, and if not 'fundamental,' no objection can be made to its admission into the General Synod; but no body adopting a different Confession, or the Augsburg Confession less fully than as containing 'the fundamental doctrines of the Word of God in a manner substantially correct,' could be admitted into the union of the General Synod." (13.) "Does any one say doctrinal 'tares' are found in it, growing among the pure wheat of God's truth, and that he is anxious only 'to pluck up the tares'? I answer, 'Nay; lest while you gather up the tares, you root up also the wheat with them.' Let the venerable Confession stand just as it is, especially since you are bound only to receive it as containing the fundamental truths of God's Word." (14.) "Cease, O! cease from your controversies and disputes about non-essential points of doctrine and practise, and labor with all your might for the conversion and salvation of immortal souls!" (27.) In agreement with Harkey, Dr. Reynolds had declared in the _Evangelical Review_, July, 1858, that within the General Synod every one was privileged either to reject or to accept the doctrines enumerated as errors by the Platform. (_L. u. W._ 1858, 274.) And prior to, and in agreement with, both, Krauth, Jr., had maintained in the _Missionary_, April 30, 1857, that such men as Schmucker and Kurtz formed a legitimate variety in the General Synod. (Spaeth, 1, 397.) "The Church in the United States," said Krauth, "wants neither Symbololatry nor Schism, neither a German Lutheranism, in an exclusive sense, nor an American Lutheranism, in a separatistic one, but an Evangelical Lutheranism broad enough to embrace both, and to make each vitalize and bless the other, and supply the mutual defects of each. She will abide by the essentials of her Scripture-doctrine and of her Christian life, but she will use her liberty to adapt herself to her new position on this continent. She will neither be juggled out of her faith by one set of operators, nor out of her freedom by another. She will hold fast that which she has, and those who strive to take her crown from her will be remembered only by their utter and ignominious failure. The General Synod cannot take a higher position as to doctrine than her present one; she cannot take a lower one; therefore she must remain where she is." (401.) "That Church, then, is not Evangelical Lutheran which officially rejects the Augsburg Confession, or officially rejects, or requires, directly or indirectly, on the part of its members, a rejection of the Augsburg Confession, or a connivance at such official rejection." (407.) Doctrinally, then, the General Synod, as such, had not advanced beyond the union letter of November, 1845. The scheme and dream of the New School men, however, of officially substituting a new confession for the Augustana was doomed to oblivion.

YORK CONVENTION.

69. Radical Franckean Synod Admitted.--The Franckean Synod was organized 1837 by four members who had withdrawn from the Hartwick Synod for these reasons: "1. To license pious, intelligent men, sound in faith, although they may not be classically educated, or have pursued a regular theological course; 2. to license or admit none to the ministry who are unacquainted with experimental religion." The synod pressed "new measures" and advocated abstinence. In a civil suit, in 1844, Vice-Chancellor Sandford decided that the Franckean Synod was not Lutheran, and awarded the property involved in the suit to the two congregations in Schoharie County, which had refused to follow their pastor in joining the new synod. ( _L. u. W._ 1864, 187. 283.) The Franckeans had abandoned the Augsburg Confession and adopted a "Declaration of Faith," of which Sandford says: "1. It does not maintain and declare the doctrine of the Trinity, or that the three Persons constituting the Godhead are equal in power and glory; or even that there are three Persons constituting the Deity. 2. It does not declare or admit the divinity of Jesus Christ, or His equality with God the Father. 3. It does not teach or declare that man will be condemned to punishment in a future state because of original or inherited sin, unless it be repented of; or that it condemneth all who are not born again of water and the Holy Ghost." (Jacobs, 385.) The paragraph of the "Declaration" on Baptism and the Lord's Supper reads: "9. That Christ has instituted the ordinances of Baptism and the Lord's Supper for the perpetual observance and edification of the Church. Baptism is the initiatory ordinance, and signifies the necessity of holiness of heart; and the Lord's Supper is frequently to be celebrated as a token of faith in the atonement of Christ and of brotherly love." In 1839, at Chambersburg, the General Synod had censured both the Franckean and Tennessee Synods as the two extremes "causing disturbances and divisions in our churches," and standing in the way of the union advocated by the General Synod. (_Proceedings_, 17.) In 1857, however, in order to pave the way for a union with the Franckean Synod, Synod rescinded its action of 1839 as "not in accordance with the spirit of our constitution, and not the sentiment of this convention," thus indirectly declaring its willingness to receive both, the most radical and the most orthodox of Lutheran synods. (25.) And in 1864, at York, after protracted debates and subsequent to the declaration on the part of the Franckean delegates that they fully understood that in adopting the constitution of the General Synod they were adopting its doctrinal position, _viz._, "that the fundamental truths of the Word of God are taught in a manner substantially correct in the Augsburg Confession," the following resolution was carried, with 97 against 40 votes: "Resolved, That the Franckean Synod is hereby received into connection with the General Synod, with the understanding that said Synod, at its next meeting, declare, in an official manner, its adoption of the doctrinal articles of the Augsburg Confession as a substantially correct exhibition of the fundamental doctrines of the Word of God." The credentials of the delegates were then presented and their names entered upon the roll of Synod. (12. 17. 18. 19. 23. 41.) Abolition of the "Declaration" was not demanded. (_L. u. W._ 1864, 283.) Majority men argued: Recognition of the Augsburg Confession was not required in order to unite with the General Synod; the principle excluding the Franckean Synod necessitated the expulsion also of the Platform synods; it was destructive of the General Synod itself, because its original constitution did not refer to the Augsburg Confession. (_L. u. W._ 1864, 187.) The minority, among whom the delegates of the Pennsylvania Synod were prominent, protested against the admission of the Franckean Synod, declaring "that by this action of the General Synod its constitution has been sadly, lamentably violated." And when Synod refused to reconsider her action, the Pennsylvania delegates, appealing to the conditions upon which they had reentered the General Synod in 1853, publicly declared their withdrawal. At Fort Wayne, 1866, the General Synod "resolved, That, inasmuch as the Franckean Synod has complied with the condition of admission laid down by the last General Synod, its delegation be received." (17.) In the same year, however, the Western Conference of the Franckean Synod had organized as "Mission Synod of the West" in order to "Americanize" Lutherans in Iowa, Minnesota, etc. Rev. Fair, a member of this synod, wrote: For what is it (the Augsburg Confession) but a bit of paper and ink, containing, indeed, some good truths, but likewise also virulent errors; therefore let it go where finally all error must go--to hell. (_L. u. W._ 1866, 380f.) The fifth article of the Incorporation Charter of the "Mission Synod of the West" provided that, since the Augsburg Confession taught regeneration by Baptism, the bodily presence of Christ in the Lord's Supper, private confession and absolution, and rejected the divine institution and obligation of the Christian Sabbath, ministers who were in favor of subscribing to the Augustana as a test of membership, etc., should not be received into Synod, nor employed as teachers in its colleges or as ministers in its congregations. As its doctrinal basis the Mission Synod adopted the "Declaration of Faith" of the Franckean Synod as containing all fundamental doctrines of the Word of God, all that is truly evangelical in the Augsburg Confession. This radical attitude was criticized by the _Observer_, not, however, as false, but as too open, unguarded, and unwise. (_L. u. W._ 1866, 199f.) At Fort Wayne, 1866, the General Synod advised the Franckean Synod "to dissolve the distant Mission Synod of the West, and direct the ministers now composing it to apply for admission to those synods within whose bounds they may reside"; its radical confessional attitude, however, was not criticized. (35.) As late as 1899 A.S. Hardy wrote concerning the Franckean Synod: "Both her 'Declaration of Faith' and practise [revivalism] discloses naught but a firm Lutheran position, though of Pietistic type." (_Luth. Cycl._, 480.) Self-evidently, the admission of the Franckean Synod was generally regarded as a further victory of the liberal element of the General Synod over the conservatives.

70. York Amendment.--After the General Synod, at York, had passed the resolution to receive the Franckean Synod, 28 delegates entered a protest against this action as being in violation of the constitution, and the delegates of the Pennsylvania Synod declared their withdrawal. Yet the admission of the Franckean Synod was not reconsidered. But in order to satisfy the conservatives, and to obviate further disintegration, the victorious liberals, realizing the seriousness of the crisis, consented to amend the constitution and to adopt the Pittsburgh resolution of 1856 on the alleged errors in the Augustana. Accordingly, Art. III, Sec. 3, adopted 1835, was amended as follows: "All regularly constituted Lutheran synods not now in connection with the General Synod, receiving and holding, with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of our fathers, the Word of God, as contained in the canonical Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, as the only infallible rule of faith and practise, and the Augsburg Confession as a correct exhibition of the fundamental doctrines of the Divine Word and of the faith of our Church, founded upon that Word, may at any time become associated with the General Synod by complying with the requisitions of this constitution and sending delegates to its convention according to the ratio specified in Article II." (_Proceedings_ 1864, 39.) This amendment, constitutionally adopted 1869 in Washington, D. C., remained the confessional formula till 1913, when, at Atchison, Kans., it was supplanted by the present doctrinal basis. Inasmuch as it canceled both the former limitation to the twenty-one doctrinal articles and the phrase "in a manner substantially correct," the York Amendment was an improvement on the General Synod's basis. Yet the formula was left ambiguous, because the question was not decided whether all of the articles of the Augsburg Confession were to be regarded as fundamental doctrines of the Bible. The facts are: 1. While, indeed, all doctrines of the Augsburg Confession are Scriptural, not all of them, _e.g._, the doctrine of the Sunday, are fundamental doctrines of the Bible. 2. The leading men of the General Synod, after as well as before 1864, declined to accept even all of the twenty-one doctrinal articles as Scriptural and fundamental. 3. After as well as before 1864 they justified their deviations by referring to, and interpreting, the phrase "fundamental doctrines" as a limitation of their subscription to the Augsburg Confession. Dr. Spaeth: "Again and again it was openly declared that a strict and faithful adherence to the Confession, as fundamental in all its doctrinal statements, was 'irrational, unscriptural, and un-Lutheran.' (_Luth. Observer_, Nov. 17, 1865.) The demand was made that Lutherans should no longer insist upon such points as fundamental 'about which the ablest theologians and most devout Christians have not been entirely agreed.... Sooner than yield on this point we would see the Church perish.' (_Lutheran Observer_, Dec. 1, 1865.)" (2, 113.)

71. York Resolution.--Granting that the York Amendment, in a measure, marked a step forward, the so-called York Resolution, quoted above, was more than a step backward. It neutralized the Amendment, and practically identified Synod with the theology of the Platform. Indirectly it rejected the Lutheran doctrines of the real presence, absolution, and the Sabbath. In brief, the York convention had betrayed the cause of Lutheran confessionalism--a fact which only very gradually dawned on the conservatives. Dr. Spaeth, quoting Krauth of September 10, 1868, who in the _Lutheran and Missionary_, April 14, 1864, a month prior to the convention of the General Synod in York, had declared that the Eleventh Article of the Augsburg Confession "is not fundamental, and never has been so regarded by the Lutheran Church, in any part of the world," says: "The Pennsylvania Synod, with that charity [blindness] which believeth all things, regarded the subsequent resolutions of the General Synod [at York] professedly in vindication of the Augsburg Confession as earnest and the token of a better mind. Taken in the meaning of those who offered them, they would have been[?] such a token. The after-events showed that they were designed by the majority as an adroit piece of thimble-rig. Passed in their earliest form in the Pittsburgh Synod to counteract the Definite Platform [but not its theology], these resolutions were so modified [the changes are of no theological import] by the General Synod as to be, in the sense it put into them [historically no other sense was possible], the Definite Platform itself in a new form. Their representative men had made a 'Recension' of the Augsburg Confession, which made it mean everything it did not mean; and now the General Synod, moved largely by the lobby influence which was the power behind the throne, mightier than the throne itself, made a recension of the Pittsburgh resolutions, which commuted [?] them into the poison to which they had originally been [?] the antidote." (2,138.) While the Amendment apparently gratified and conciliated the conservatives, also those of the Pennsylvania Synod, the York Resolution more than satisfied the liberals. Dr. Spaeth: "The _Lutheran Observer_ greeted the action of the General Synod on the last day of its convention in an enthusiastic editorial: 'Now we know where we stand, and there is no longer room for controversy and the personal abuse of intolerant exclusionists. We all stand on the Augsburg Confession, with the qualifications and moral restrictions defined in the accompanying resolutions, so that we are true Lutherans ... without hyperorthodoxy and exclusivism on the one hand or radicalism on the other.' And even the Pennsylvania Synod looked upon the action of the General Synod as the indication 'of an earnest desire to stand firmly and faithfully upon the true basis of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, and to prevent forever the reception of any synod which could not and would not stand upon this basis.'" (134.) Even such out-and-out Reformed theologians as Schmucker, Kurtz, Brown, Butler, etc., did not find the York Amendment and Resolution too narrow. (_L. u. W._ 1909, 91.) The General Synod, they maintained, adopted the Augsburg Confession "as to fundamentals," the doctrines held in common by all Evangelical denominations. "We repeat, this received the unanimous sanction of the General Synod," Dr. Brown declared in his pamphlet "The General Synod and Her Assailants." (13.) Rejecting the position adopted 1865 by the Pennsylvania Synod that "all the doctrinal articles of the Augsburg Confession do set forth fundamental doctrines of Holy Scripture," J.A. Brown continues: "The General Synod does not now seek, nor has she ever sought, to magnify non-essential doctrines, or to make of chief importance those matters in which she differs from other orthodox" (non-Unitarian) "denominations; but has aimed at a catholic Lutheranism that might embrace the various portions of the Lutheran Church in the land, willing to unite on such a basis, and also bring her into cordial and active cooperation with other evangelical churches in the great work of extending the Redeemer's kingdom. To this her constitution binds her, and she can only become narrow and exclusive by disregarding the very law of her own existence." (21.) In order to prepare the General Synod for its indifferentistic attitude, the _Lutheran Observer_ had suggested, prior to the convention at York, that an unconditional armistice be declared for fifteen years, or that the questions be discussed on the basis of Scripture only, to the exclusion of the symbols. "We are all sufficiently Lutheran," declared the _Observer_. Not a word, said he, should be spoken, calculated to offend any brother. In lecture-rooms and periodicals doctrinal questions might be ventilated. "But," the _Observer_ continued, "keep controversies out of the General Synod! Let this synod in truth be a bond of unity on its old liberal basis, which is broad enough, Scriptural enough, and Lutheran enough for the whole Church of this country to rest upon. We need no better one than the good old basis. We need brotherly love and harmony, and brotherly comity, and the Spirit of the Lord in our approaching convention at York. The sacramental questions are sufficiently discussed in printed books." (_L. u. W._ 1864, 124.) Thus the General Synod, at the conventions subsequent to the publication of the Definite Platform, notably the convention at York, 1864, had once again, by applying its old principle of agreeing to disagree and unionistically reconciling contradictories, apparently succeeded in keeping them all in the fold, conservatives as well as liberals.

SECESSIONS AND SEPARATIONS.

72. Southern Synods Withdrawing.--One of the arguments advanced against confessionalism was that synods subscribing to all of the Lutheran symbols neither agreed in doctrine, nor succeeded in effecting a union. But did her unionistic principle enable the General Synod to steer clear of dissensions? In 1860 the General Synod embraced two-thirds of the Lutheran Church in America: 864 out of 1,313 pastors, and 164,000 out of 235,000 communicants. But the following decade completely shattered her dream of a Pan-Lutheran union. In 1868 the General Synod reported 590 ministers and 86,198 communicants--hardly one-fourth of the Lutherans then in America. At a convention in Chicago, May 7, 1860, the Swedes and Norwegians severed their connections with the District Synod of Northern Illinois. The rupture was the direct result of the admittance of the Melanchthon Synod in 1859, which the Scandinavians regarded as a fateful victory of the Platform men. In the preambles of their resolution of withdrawal the seceders state: "Whereas we are fully convinced that there is a decided doctrinal difference in our synod; and whereas there in reality already exists a disunion, instead of union, in the synod; and whereas strife and contention tend to destroy confidence, and to weaken our hands and retard our progress; and whereas we are liable at any time, by an accidental majority of votes against our doctrinal position, to have a change forced upon us; and whereas it is our highest duty to maintain and preserve unmutilated our confession of faith, both in our congregations and in the theological instruction imparted to, and the influence brought to bear upon, our students, who are to be the future ministers and pastors of our congregations; and whereas our experience clearly demonstrates to us that we cannot be sure of this, in the relations we have heretofore sustained." (Jacobs, 449.) The Scandinavians were followed by the Synods of the South. At Lancaster, May, 1862, the General Synod passed and, by a committee, presented to President Lincoln resolutions respecting the Rebellion. Among them were the following: "Resolved, That it is the deliberate judgment of this Synod that the rebellion against the constitutional Government of this land is most wicked in its inception, unjustifiable in its cause, unnatural in its character, inhuman in its prosecution, oppressive in its aims, and destructive in its results to the highest interests of morality and religion." "Resolved, That we deeply sympathize with all loyal citizens and Christian patriots in the rebellious portions of our country, and we cordially invite their cooperation, in offering united supplications at a Throne of Grace, that God would restore peace to our distracted country, reestablish fraternal relations between all the States, and make our land, in all time to come, the asylum of the oppressed and the permanent abode of liberty and religion." (30.) Two further resolutions were added with special reference to the Southern Lutherans: "Resolved, That this Synod cannot but express its most decided disapprobation of the course of these synods and ministers, heretofore connected with this body, in the open sympathy and active cooperation which they have given to the cause of treason and insurrection." "Resolved, That we deeply sympathize with our people in the Southern States, who, maintaining their proper Christian loyalty, have in consequence been compelled to suffer persecution and wrong, and we hail with pleasure the near approach of their deliverance and restoration to our Christian and ecclesiastical fellowship." (31.) As these resolutions practically amounted to an expulsion, the five Southern synods felt justified in withdrawing and organizing, at Concord, N.C., May 20, 1863, "The General Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Confederate States of America." In 1869 the General Synod appointed a committee to correspond with the Southern synods on the propriety of returning to their former connection. (64.) And in 1877 Synod declared: "The action of former General Synods was not intended to compromise the Christian character of the ministers and churches of the General Synod South, and is not so interpreted by us; and if there be anything found therein that can rightfully be so construed (_i.e._, as compromising the Christian character of said ministers and churches), we hereby place upon record our belief that such is not the sentiment of this body." (27.) The result was mutual acknowledgment and an exchange of fraternal delegates.

73. The Fort Wayne Rupture.--The last and, by far, severest blow, the separation of the synods which afterwards organized as the General Council, came as an aftermath of the admission of the Franckean Synod and the consequent withdrawal of the Pennsylvania delegation, in 1864, which the General Synod construed as the act of the Ministerium of Pennsylvania. However, since the Ministerium, reassured by the adoption of the York Amendment and Resolution, had already resolved to maintain its connection and to send a delegation to the next convention of the General Synod, the Fort Wayne schism could have been averted. And probably the break would have been avoided if the hasty establishment of the Philadelphia Seminary (as such, an act altogether justified, especially in the interest of the growing German element) had not caused suspicion and chagrin within the General Synod. As it was, the resolution of the Pennsylvania Synod, May 25, 1864, at Pottstown, to establish a new seminary at Philadelphia, and the subsequent election, on July 27, of Drs. C.F. Schaeffer of Gettysburg, W.J. Mann, and C.P. Krauth as the first faculty, was generally viewed as the first actual step toward a breach. According to Dr. Jacobs both the establishment of the Philadelphia Seminary and the subsequent disruption of the General Synod would probably have been avoided, "if the chair at Gettysburg, vacated by the resignation of Dr. S.S. Schmucker, had been filled by his [Charles Porterfield Krauth's instead of J.A. Brown's] election." (462.) Howbeit, at its convention in Fort Wayne, May, 1866, President S. Sprecher ruled that Synod could recognize the Pennsylvania delegation only after receiving the report of an act on the part of the Pennsylvania Synod reestablishing its relation to the General Synod. In spite of vigorous protests on the part of the Pennsylvania and other delegates, the chair in its ruling was supported by the majority of the convention. After a good deal of parliamentary fencing and quibbling, Synod adopted, with a vote of 77 to 32, as the "ultimate resolution": "Resolved, That after hearing the response of the delegates of the Pennsylvania Synod, we cannot conscientiously recede from the action adopted by this body, believing, after full and careful deliberation, said action to have been regular and constitutional; but that we reaffirm our readiness to receive the delegates of said Synod as soon as they present their credentials in due form." (_Proceedings_ 1866, 3. 5. 9. 12. 25 ff.) Of the alternatives, either practically applying for readmission or withdrawing from the convention, the Pennsylvania delegation chose the latter course. At the same time they stated "that in retiring, as they now do, they distinctly declare that this their act in no sense or degree affects the relations of the Pennsylvania Synod to the General Synod." (28.) President A.J. Brown replied in behalf of the General Synod: "This body has not decided at any time that the Pennsylvania Synod was out of the General Synod. But having by its delegation openly withdrawn from the sessions of the General Synod, at York, Pa., the former President [Sprecher] ruled that the practical relation of the Synod of Pennsylvania to the General Synod was such that no report could be heard from that Synod until the General Synod was organized.... The General Synod hereby extend to the delegation from the Synod of Pennsylvania the assurance of its kindest regard." (28.) "The die was cast," says E.J. Wolf. "The prospect of a general Evangelical Lutheran organization in this country was dispelled." (369.) A few weeks afterward the Ministerium of Pennsylvania declared its connection with the General Synod dissolved. The New York Ministerium, the Pittsburgh Synod, the English Synod of Ohio, and the synods of Illinois, Minnesota, and Texas followed suit. In 1873 the General Synod, on motion of Dr. Morris, proposed an interchange of delegates to the General Council. The Council proposed, instead, a colloquium--a proposition which was accepted by the General Synod South, but declined by the General Synod in 1875. The Lutheran Diets held in 1877 and 1878 at Philadelphia, though temporarily barren of results, helped to pave the way for the General Synod's revision of its doctrinal basis and the subsequent establishment of fraternal relations and interchange of delegates between the two general bodies.

74. Subsequent Separations.--Within the seceding synods the Fort Wayne rupture also led to various internal separations. A number of English pastors and congregations, in 1867, severed their connection with the New York Ministerium (leaving it an almost exclusively German body) and formed the New York Synod which, in turn, joined the General Synod. In the same year ten ministers and seven laymen withdrew from the Pittsburgh Synod, on the ground that, in adopting the Principles of the General Council, Synod had violated its constitution. The receding party claimed the name of the Synod, and as such was recognized by the General Synod. A minority of the Illinois Synod organized the Central Illinois Synod, which also united with the General Synod. The Pennsylvania Ministerium, too, lost some of its pastors and congregations, which united with the East Pennsylvania Synod, a member of the General Synod. The Central Pennsylvania Synod received a few Pennsylvania Ministerium congregations. On the other hand, pastors and congregations in Philadelphia and the neighborhood, hitherto belonging to the East Pennsylvania Synod, united with the Ministerium of Pennsylvania. The English Church at Fort Wayne, in which the battle of 1866 had been fought, entered the Pittsburgh Synod of the General Council. Other congregations in various parts of the country united with other synods of the Council. Some congregations were divided, one portion remaining with the Council, the other entering the General Synod and _vice versa_, while law suits were carried on by rival claimants for the property. (Ochsenford, _Doc. History_, 166.)

75. Causes of Disruption.--Though not publicly advanced and pressed at Fort Wayne, the ultimate reason of the separation was the growing confessional trend within the Pennsylvania and New York Ministeriums and other synods over against the confessional and doctrinal laxism of the leaders and the majority of the General Synod. In 1853, when the Pennsylvania Synod reunited with the General Synod, the former body resolved that, "should the General Synod violate its constitution and require of our synod assent to anything conflicting with the old and long-established faith of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, then our delegates are hereby required to protest against such action, to withdraw from its sessions, and to report to this body." (_Minutes of Penn. Synod_ 1853, 18.) For confessional reasons the entire Pennsylvania delegation in 1859 voted against the admission of the liberal Melanchthon Synod which succored the Platform men. After the admission, at York, 1864, of the un-Lutheran Franckean Synod in spite of the protest of 28 representatives of various synods, the Pennsylvania delegation, referring to the resolution of 1853, submitted a paper in which they declared that, since the terms upon which the Franckean Synod was admitted were in direct violation of the constitution of the General Synod, they would withdraw in order to report to their synod. (_Proceedings_ 1864, 25.) In the same year the Pennsylvania Synod approved of the action of their delegates. In 1865 she resolved, "That, in our judgment, all the doctrinal articles of the Augsburg Confession do set forth fundamental doctrines of Holy Scripture." At the same time she reaffirmed her resolution of 1853, but, being reassured by the adoption of the York Amendment and Resolution, decided to maintain her connection and wend a delegation to the convention of the General Synod at Fort Wayne. Accordingly, at Fort Wayne, the Pennsylvania delegates advanced no further scruples respecting the admittance of the Franckean Synod, and declared themselves satisfied with the doctrinal basis of the General Synod. In his pamphlet "The General Synod and Her Assailants," J.A. Brown says: "At Fort Wayne and on the floor of the General Synod it was repeated, again and again, that there were no doctrinal difficulties between the Synod of Pennsylvania and the General Synod, that all were now satisfied with the doctrinal position of the General Synod. It was declared to be entirely a question of order." (11.) Yet back of the diplomatic technicalities and parliamentary fencing were the conflicting principles of governmental centralization _versus_ independence of the District Synods, and especially of liberalism _versus_ confessionalism. And although the subsequent separation did not proceed on purely confessional and doctrinal lines, the bulk of the conservatives, including practically all truly Lutheran conservatives, went with the seceders, while the great majority of the liberals remained in the General Synod. (_L. u. W._ 1868, 95.) In its issue of January 30, 1868, the _American Lutheran_ commented: "Now that the symbolistic element has been eliminated from the General Synod, for which we may thank God, we are enabled to speak and write our peculiarly American Lutheran thoughts without having to fear that we offend those who never were in agreement with us. Our unfortunate York Compromise with our symbolistic brethren failed, like all compromises." (_L. U. W._ 1868, 95.)

INFLUENTIAL THEOLOGIANS.

76. Dr. Samuel Simon Schmucker.--That the actual doctrinal position of the General Synod, especially during the first half of its history, was much lower than its official confessional formulas would lead one to believe, appears from a glance at some of the most prominent men of this period. S.S. Schmucker (1799-1873), the author of 44 books and pamphlets, and perhaps the most influential man of the General Synod, was not merely a unionistic, but a pronounced Reformed theologian, rejecting and denouncing all doctrines distinctive of Lutheranism, as shown in the preceding pages of this history. He was a scholar of Helmuth, and finished his theological studies at Princeton, 1818-1820. From 1820 to 1826 he was active in pastoral work at New Market, Va.; and from 1826 to 1864 he filled the chair of Didactic Theology at Gettysburg, training about 400 men. After his resignation in 1864 till the end of his life, in 1873, he devoted himself to authorship. His first larger publication was a translation of Storr and Flatt's _Biblical Theology_. His _Popular Theology_ appeared 1834 and passed through eight editions. Schmucker also was the author of most of the General Synod's organic documents, as the constitution and the formula of government and discipline for its synods and churches, the constitution of the theological seminary, etc. In London, 1846, at the organization of the Evangelical Alliance by Dr. Chalmers, Schmucker, because of his "Appeal" written in 1831, was lauded by Dr. King of Ireland as the "Father" of the Evangelical Alliance. The nine articles adopted by the Alliance were regarded by Schmucker as a sufficient basis for a union of Evangelical Christendom. They formed the standard according to which he revised the Augsburg Confession in the Definite Platform of 1855, which "alienated from him many former friends and clouded the evening of his days." (_Luth. Cycl._, 433.) According to the Memorial of the convention of the General Synod in 1875, Schmucker is to be remembered as "the first professor of theology in the Theological Seminary of the General Synod, a chair filled by him with distinguished ability for nearly forty years; a man most successful in the work of organization, whose wisdom, energy, and devotion to the Church contributed most largely to the development of the General Synod, to the founding of her literary and theological institutions, and the organization of her benevolent societies." (41.)