# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1899_S21
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Ninth Delegate Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and Other States, 1899. 21

and our missions, on which, under God, the life of our Synod depends
after all. It seems to me, further, that there is an increasing
tendency, the longer this goes on, to build not as many churches and
schools as possible everywhere, but rather a few large, splendid
cathedrals instead. It seems to me, finally, that our dear young
people, who have hitherto so zealously supported such a great number
of poor pupils and students, are now spending much more on all sorts
of social purposes than in earlier times. And if I am not mistaken in
all this, these are plain signs that things are indeed moving
forward, but not exactly in the right direction.

Well for us, then, if we recognize the danger. Then help is still at
hand. Indeed, then help has already come. We do, after all, know the
remedy, and we have not yet lost it. The gospel is, by God's grace,
still preached pure and fresh in our churches and schools. Through it,
children of God are constantly being born anew, like the dew from the
dawn. They join the old congregations. They form new ones. So fresh,
young blood continually flows into the old body. That staves off
stagnation, warms again what would grow cold, replaces what dies off,
and keeps what is living full of sap and strength. For life, after
all, has the upper hand over death. So whoever notices some decline
among us here and there can, if he has eyes to see and is willing to
see, always still perceive growth among us as well; and if he cannot
decide which of the two predominates — which is not his to judge
anyway — then, if he is a child of God, he should always hope for the
best.

Such an impression of our Synod was also gained — as earlier by Herr
Präses Willkomm of the Saxon Free Church — this past year by Herr
Pastor Hübener, with whom I had the pleasure of meeting at several
district synods in city and country. "They are," he said time and
again, "always the same kind of people, in the East and the West, in
city and country: simple, earnest, friendly, and attentive hearers of
the word." — So much, this time, about the inner condition of the
Synod.

As for our relationship with the synods allied with us, both here and
in Germany, Denmark, and Australia, it remains the same friendly one.
Let us, then, continue to show our love for them through help, where
it is needed and as far as it is possible.

This year's assembly will have many important resolutions to make
concerning our institutions, our work, and our budget. The most
important petitions and proposals on this, as the brothers know, are
already in the hands of a preliminary committee and are already
before all of you in printed form. I will briefly state the content
of the others, which arrived in part very late, as I am today already
referring them to special committees for preliminary review.