# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1853_S241
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

— 241 —

— it is customary — and how Paul complains to the Thessalonians, Corinthians,
and Galatians that even the apostles themselves had their hands full with
it. Accordingly, now that the Gospel has, through God's overflowing,
unspeakable mercy, come back to us — or perhaps has only now truly
begun — whereby we have seen how wretchedly Christendom is confused,
scattered, and torn apart, we would gladly have seen that same right
episcopal office of visitation, as most urgently needed, restored again."
Who could object to this, especially in our own time, when truly the
devil has grown no more pious and men no better, while we, for our part,
must drink the very dregs of all evil?

In my humble opinion, no other choice will remain to us than either to
carry out the division in such a way that the synods stand wholly
independent of one another, or only in a friendly relationship side by
side, or at most in a very loose external connection with one another —
and which of us should wish for that? — or else to give the general
president such a position that he oversees the whole, being, so to speak,
the living bond of connection between the individual parts; one who,
through his acquaintance with the whole and its individual parts, is able
to carry over into all the other parts whatever is wholesome and useful to
all that he finds in one part of the Synod; to suppress, in its very first
appearance, whatever is harmful to the common good that he sees
cropping up here and there, and to guard against its infecting the whole;
who, by knowing the gifts and powers found in the individual parts, can
also give the best guidance as to how they may be used for the good of
the whole, which he surveys and knows together with its needs; who not
only represents the unity of the body, but is also best suited to keep the
awareness of that unity awake and alive, and to nourish and increase it.

And how could this be done more effectively than by entrusting to him
not only the office of oversight but, at the same time, the office of
visitation — which alone will in any case first put him in a position to
fulfill the former in the right way, and through which he also remains in
proper, living contact with the district synods as well as with the
individual congregations, and is thereby enabled not only to become
acquainted with the whole, from personal observation, in its needs and
resources, but also, by taking the former into account and making use of
the latter, to promote the happy flourishing of the whole?

But will not the very authority thereby given to the general president
restrict the independence of the district synods, so far as that
independence is altogether necessary, and will not the power to intervene
everywhere repeatedly hold up the conduct of business and hinder free
movement? Indeed, is it not a natural fear that the very means we adopt
to ward off dangers might itself bring them about, and that we might be
calling in a power which, instead of promoting the true unity of the
Spirit, will transform it into a spiritual bondage? Certainly it might,
if we do not from the very beginning adopt wise measures against it and
remain watchful for the future. But how would it be if we took away
from the general president entirely the administrative authority hitherto
belonging to the president, and placed it instead in the district synods
and their presidents, while entrusting to him alone the office of visitor,
thus granting him only a moral influence — but that in the widest
possible scope? In this way we would at the same time have chosen the
human means best suited for the preservation