# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1905_S25
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

11th Delegate Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and Other States, 1905. 25

...to a larger church body simply because of its size. To this the
answer is: we have neither the task of displaying the poverty of the
church, nor the task of striving after an outwardly splendid
appearance of the church. We have only one task: to teach and confess
the Word of Christ — only the Word of Christ, but also the whole Word
of Christ. If we do this, then the Lord of the church provides for
growth and for the shape of the cross according to his good pleasure.
And as for the impure elements, these are not kept away simply by the
smallness of a church body. Even in the small circle of the twelve
disciples a Judas emerged. The weeding out of impure elements is
brought about by God's Word in its own time. This has happened at all
times in the Missouri Synod as well. If we look through the roll of
those who joined the Synod in its first five years, we notice that
part of them have since withdrawn from us again. The same thing has
gone on happening continually as the Synod grew larger, and it is
still happening now. As it goes in individual congregations, so it
goes also in a fellowship of congregations, in a synod. By God's
permission people arise who say or do perverse things and will not be
corrected by God's Word. Then a time of testing comes for the
congregation, or for the synod, as the case may be. What is of the
truth takes the side of the truth; what is of falsehood and impure
takes the side of error and falsehood. Of this refining process, which
goes on unceasingly in the church, the apostle Paul writes: "There
must be factions among you, so that those who are genuine among you
may become recognized." If we only hold fast to God's Word, it brings
about both the ongoing joining together of hearts on the foundation of
divine truth and the necessary refining within the congregations and
within the synod.

My closing reminder is this: let us hold fast to God's Word. That, and
that alone, shall bind us together. This requires that preachers and
hearers deal with God's Word diligently and unceasingly. Only
continual engagement with God's Word keeps hearts anchored to God's
Word. The preachers must study diligently and hold conferences; the
hearers must regularly hear God's Word in church, and not neglect to
pursue it at home as well. God's Word, diligently used, wins hearts
back again and again and rescues them from the seduction of the world
and of false teachers. One of our opponents once said: "As long as the
pastors of the Missouri Synod hold pastoral conferences so diligently
and continually occupy themselves at them with doctrine, it will...