# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1853_S239
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

— 239 —

— called forth by plans and calculations of carnal reason. It was the unity
of the Spirit, in which we stood through God's Word and grace, that
brought us together outwardly as well; nothing else.

And nothing other than the cultivation, preservation, and promotion of
this unity inwardly and outwardly, the desire to draw ever more people
into this unity through the knowledge of the truth, to the glory of God
and the salvation of the neighbor, was the purpose of this coming
together, as the Lord commands us and as the Spirit of God dwelling in
us brings with it; toward that end, at bottom, were directed all the rules
and measures that the Synod has laid down in her constitution. That the
Synod had to keep this chief purpose before her eyes follows from the
nature of the case; that she truly did have it, she declares in the
introduction placed before her constitution and in the grounds given for
her coming together, as well as in the constitution itself and in all its
parts; that she has pursued it until now, her published proceedings bear
witness; and that this purpose has, by God's grace, been attained so far
is proved by our loving and peaceful dwelling and working together, and
by the blessing that God has so far placed upon our work.

May the gracious and merciful God, of his grace, preserve this blessing
for us and our children! May he, through us, spread it also into the most
distant future, to the honor of his name, over many who through us may
be turned to the whole truth for their own salvation! May he himself
encamp around us like a wall of fire, and ward off everything that might
harm this lovely and glorious unity and its blessed fruits! May he
especially prevent such "wild heads," as Luther calls them, from springing
up or stealing in among us — those "who without good reason always want
to make something peculiar of themselves, who out of sheer malice cannot
bear anything common or shared, but whose heart and life consist in
being unlike others and stubborn." May he especially now let us
recognize this blessing with thankfulness, and equip us with the right
earnestness and zeal to seek out such means and ways, to adopt such
measures, by which we may hope, with his help, to preserve and spread
the blessing of this unity — the earnestness and zeal that counts it a sin,
out of reluctance and love of comfort, to content oneself with lesser, less
good arrangements when better ones are at hand. May he at the same
time grant us the humility and self-denial of love, so that each individual,
for the sake of the Lord and of the souls he has redeemed, submits with a
willing and joyful heart to the arrangements that we shall settle upon in
the fear of God and before his face, according to his Word.

If we are now convinced, as cannot be otherwise, that we stand on the
right foundation, pursue the right purposes, and have so far also adopted
the right means leading to these purposes, then we may, on the whole
and in essence, remain with what we have; so in the change of the
constitution made necessary by the division, we need only take into
account those particular points through which the necessity of the
division itself has been forced upon us, while at the same time retaining
or perfecting everything that we have hitherto recognized as right. The
main reason for the division lies, however, as already mentioned, in the
process of business having become too unwieldy through the Synod's
growth, in the difficulty — indeed the impossibility — of overseeing the
whole and of meeting the churchly needs over the wide territory that the
Synod —