# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1887_S18
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

18 Proceedings of the 20th General or

and made fully ready — only then will the Lord, working through our
labor too, go on building his house; will he take what each has quietly
worked at and built up in his own place, without the need of many
human ordinances, and bring it together and fit it into the most
beautiful whole, so that it grows together into one and the same
spiritual temple, the dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

Well then! With this year's assembly a new chapter in the history of
our Synod will, roughly speaking, begin. That much is certain. But let
us enter it with the vow to carry on our work in the coming period in
the old way, only still more zealously and still more carefully than
before; then we too shall be built up as the apostolic congregations
built themselves up, we shall walk in the fear of God, and, come what
may, the comfort of the Holy Spirit will not fail us.

May the gracious and merciful God grant this for the sake of his
beloved Son Jesus Christ. Amen.

[Swelled rule with a lozenge — not asterisks.]

Presidential Report.

The older one grows, the less one is inclined to see everything in a
rosy light, and the more, as a rule, one finds to criticize. So I too, I
hope, am not blind to the faults and failings of our Synod. I see quite
well, for example, how here and there, especially in older congregations,
the first love threatens to grow cold, and worldly-mindedness and a
worldly spirit threaten to creep in; how, for that reason, people no
longer have a proper heart for the welfare of the Synod and its needs,
and are unwilling to give either their money — still less their children —
to the service of the Lord in church and school. All this I too see only
too well. But, thank God, that is not all I see when I survey the wide
circle of our fellowship. No, wherever I look I see much that is
gladdening, and indeed far more that is gladdening than that is
distressing. But what always, and above all, lifts my heart and makes
it glad is the heartfelt unity among our teachers, pastors, congregations,
and districts. Clearly a quite special grace of God! For where, except
in the apostolic age and during the Reformation, has so numerous a
fellowship ever been of one heart and one soul to such a degree? Where
has so great a multitude of so widely scattered congregations, held
together by nothing other than faith and love, ever formed so firm a
whole as our Synod truly is? Let us then acknowledge the grace that
has been given us, and let us be very diligent to