# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1860_S60
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

— Page 60 —

Regarding this third reason, it was pointed out in particular that,
by God's grace, in our institutions it is not only the doctrine that
is now taught in the simple manner of our old theologians, but that a
genuinely evangelical spirit also prevails. Both are a great treasure
that we should seek to preserve by every possible means. Now, God has
given us both through men of like conduct of life and like
experience, who have, however, worked separately up to now. Should it
please God to call one of these men away by death, then the great
danger would arise that, through his successor — especially if that
successor were called from Germany — much could be spoiled and an
entirely different spirit could enter the institution, in that, on
the one hand, through an abstrusely philosophical-scientific manner
of presenting doctrine, such as is now fashionable at German
universities, the pure doctrine might suffer harm; and on the other
hand, through faulty discipline, either an overly legalistic, or an
overly loose and unrestrained, temper might take hold among the
students. Through the union of the seminaries, and by bringing
together the men who head them, a greater safeguard would be offered
that such harm be averted, that the spirit now prevailing in the
institutions be preserved, and that any new instructor be initiated
into this spirit and introduced to the conduct of the office and to
the whole direction of the seminary under the guidance of his
already longer-serving colleagues.

After a long debate, this reason too — at first much contested — was
unanimously acknowledged.

4. The fourth reason for the union is the easier overview it
gives of the gifts of the trained students for purposes of
their placement, and thus the avoidance of otherwise
unavoidable misjudgments.

This reason was so self-evident that it was acknowledged without any
debate.

5. The union is desirable because, in part, the students who
enter already at a more mature age and with Christian
experience would exercise a wholesome influence on the
other students who have been trained for it from youth; and
in part, such less-prepared students would, in turn, through
contact with the more scientifically trained students, be
spurred on more to diligence and preserved from
one-sidedness — so that a wholesome blending of the two
would take place both through living together and through
shared and mutual instruction.

On this point it was recalled: whereas the first and third theses aim
at the fine goal that, through an ever clearer recognition of pure
doctrine, the teachers be fused into one and false doctrinal
tendencies averted, this fifth reason points to the advantage that
the union would bring about a fusing into one of the differently
formed students of both institutions. The students of our practical
institution, already more matured through Christian experience and
manifold spiritual trial [Anfechtung], will exercise a wholesome
influence on the students of the scientific institution, so that the
latter do not suppose that, once they have gathered a sum of
knowledge, their task is thereby accomplished, but rather learn from
the former to also apply their knowledge in practice. The
scientifically trained students, for their part, will...