# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1902_S19
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Tenth Delegate Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and Other States, 1902. 19

...ran," complain that the Gospel is to them a deeply hidden mystery, indeed
a stumbling block and offense. That anyone should be saved by grace appears
to them to be heresy.

Therefore let us not allow ourselves to be unsettled, or even led into a
secret quarreling with God, when we too are ceaselessly attacked — indeed
most shamefully slandered and branded with the names of heretics — by those
who bear the name of Christian, indeed the name of the church of the
Reformation. We are no better than the prophets of the Old Testament, than
Christ and the apostles, than the witnesses of Jesus in the time of the
papacy, than Luther and the church of the Reformation. Our task is not to
gather large bodies that agree with us; rather, our task is to bear witness
to the divine truth. If the testimony finds acceptance — and God grants us
this refreshment too — then we thank God. If our testimony meets
contradiction, let us not think that anything strange has befallen us, but
rather thank God that he has let us know the truth that makes our souls
blessed, and that he counts us worthy to be witnesses of this truth here on
earth. God's grace be with us, as it has been with our fathers. Amen.

Presidential Report.

In what follows I render to the Reverend Synod the report prescribed by the
Constitution.

All the Synodical Districts — now 14 in number, after the separation of the
Oregon and Washington District in 1899 — have held their regular annual
meetings. At all these meetings not only was the current district business
attended to, but portions of Christian doctrine were also always treated in
depth. And I am glad to be able to testify that it was precisely the
delegates from the laity [*Hörerschaft*, lit. "the hearers"] who brought a
lively interest to the doctrinal discussions. I have made this observation
at all the district meetings I myself attended, and my colleagues, Vice-
Presidents Schmidt and Brand, report the same of the meetings they attended.
This is a fact that calls us to praise and thank God. While other synods —
outside the Synodical Conference — complain that at their gatherings it is
simply impossible to arouse any general interest in doctrinal discussions,
among us it is precisely the delegates from the laity who have often
testified to me: "The doctrinal discussions are, for us, the dearest and
most important part of the synodical meetings." Let us continue henceforth
to cultivate doctrine with all earnestness at our synodical meetings. The
common...