# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1853_S237
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

— 237 —

— of taking, in our undertaking, such measures as will ward off the
dangers threatening us. This we will naturally not achieve merely by
declaring that no separation, but only a division into various district
synods, is to be undertaken, while the Synod itself, despite this division,
is to remain one whole. Nor will we avoid these dangers through the
professed and truly cherished trust that the Lord will awaken, preserve,
and increase in each individual the fear of his Word, the love, humility,
self-denial, and living zeal needed for it. That, of course, the Lord must
do, if we are to endure at all. He must work all in all, and without him
we will accomplish nothing with our understanding, wisdom, and good
intentions, nothing with the measures, means, and ways devised in that
wisdom and good will; and God help us to look wholly away from our
own strength and, in full trust, cast ourselves upon him in prayer and
supplication — but the duty to act remains. We cannot and may not
place this trust in him without at the same time devising suitable means
and taking them up, in order to bring about the results that this division
is meant to secure, and to clear away the dangers and obstacles that
might hinder us in attaining them.

Where the right spirit is lacking, even the best constitution and order
will be of no use; it will neither create nor replace spirit and life. But to
see to it, through a right constitution, at least indirectly, that the right
spirit is preserved, fostered, and guided into the right activity and
effectiveness, so that all gifts and powers may freely and unhindered
prove themselves for the common good, so far as lies in our power — that
is our duty, a holy duty, which must stand before us all the more clearly
and firmly, and weigh all the more heavily on our conscience, since what
is at stake here is not human but divine matters: the sanctification of the
divine name, the spread of his kingdom, the rescue and preservation of
immortal souls purchased and called by the blood of Christ to heavenly
blessedness and glory. To fulfill this duty is the chief task of our
convention this time.

The importance of getting this right will be plain to everyone; no less
the magnitude of the responsibility, and the difficulty — indeed the latter
all the more, since we must surely all confess that we are newcomers in
this field, and that, under the new circumstances in which the Church
finds herself in this land, we can draw little counsel even from the wisdom
of our fathers, to whom we would otherwise so gladly turn.

Yet, praise be to God — he, whose cause this is, has wisdom in
abundance, and gives it plainly to everyone who needs it and asks him for
it earnestly and simply. With the holy duty we have to fulfill here, and
the heavy account we must render, let us place our trust in him, seek our
help from him, and in this trust follow the orderly paths of deliberation,
as befits Christians; then we shall, with God, hit upon what is right.

And this time, too, we do not go to the work wholly without the
guidance of experience. We have, after all, existed as a Synod for some
time now, and we intend no essential change; rather, the division of the
Synod is meant chiefly only to remove the difficulties, the obstacles