# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1956_S798
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

796 CONVENTION MINUTES

available in 1,092 languages and dialects, so that 90-per cent of
the world’s population can hear the Word of God in a language
they can understand. The Society expects that 500,000 Bibles will
be printed in Russia from mats furnished by the American Bible
Society. Fifteen million copies are distributed annually at home
and abroad. In Japan the Japanese Bible translation was declared
to be the Book of the Year. He acknowledged the work of Dr.
Paul W. Schelp and Alberto Lehenbauer on the Portuguese and
Spanish Bible revisions respectively. Greetings were received from
the Diaspora in England by Dr. W. Arndt.

The session was closed by singing “Abide with Me,” uniting in
the Lord’s Prayer, and receiving the Votum.

Session 9
June 26, A.M.

The ninth session was opened by devotional exercises in which
Rev. W. D. Oetting, President of the Iowa District East, addressed
the convention. He pointed out that St. Paul praised the congre-
gation at Corinth because it abounded in the Word and Sacraments,
was rich in the faith, rooted in the Savior, bold in confession and
knowledge of the doctrine of Christ, and diligent in showing its
faith in daily life. Thereupon Paul added the admonition, “See
that you abound in this grace also, namely, Christian giving.”
So it must be, for “faith without works is dead.”. The praise and
admonition pertain to us and our convention also. We have the
riches the Corinthians enjoyed. We must abound also in the grace
of giving. Our fine resolutions about our missionary and education
programs must be implemented with the necessary gifts to carry
on what is really the program of our Savior. In our giving we are
not called upon to give from our poverty but from our abundance;
hence the delegates should provide encouragement and leadership
to their fellow Christians at home, that they may abound in this
grace of Christian giving. ,

The minutes were adopted as corrected. Prof. Martin J. Nau-
mann presented the first installment of his essay on the topic,
“Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”
He pointed out that Luther discovered from the Scriptures that
the congregation of saints, or the Christian Church, is not a matter
of outward organization. Conflict in the church grows out of the
sinful nature of man, who refuses to accept the Word of God or
makes enthusiast applications of it. The unity of the faith is created
by the Spirit of God by means of the Word and the Sacraments.
The church is one; it need not be made one. In fact, it cannot