# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_April 1857_S125
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

The Mission Institute. 125

Or should the Lutheran give up her distinctive characteristics . . .? By no means. Rather, they must learn from one another. p. 131." The Pennsylvania Synod does not require of its members that they subscribe to the Augsburg Confession, and allows German Reformed preachers to preach in its pulpits, and is for that reason "liberal and not exclusive," p. 88 and 90, and various other passages.

Further objections must be raised against the portrayal of those comprised in the right wing, in that at least the Synod of Missouri and so forth is far from holding, as p. 74 asserts, "a confession of faith to be absolutely necessary for the church," since saving truth and the knowledge of it could exist and make progress even without such a confession, although a confession of faith is of relative necessity and of the greatest use in securing those goods for particular persons. Further, it is not spoken in accordance with the actual state of affairs when, on p. 83, the Synod of Missouri and that of Buffalo are equally charged with bitterness in dispute and carnal passion. It has not been contested with the same spirit on both sides. An unbiased, attentive examination of the writings of both parties will show that the Missourians, though also as human beings, nevertheless contended for what they held to be true and right for the sake of truth and right, whereas on the other side the contention was for its own sake. Incidentally, it should also be corrected that Pastor Grabau was never formerly a member of the Synod of Missouri and so forth, as is stated on p. 71.

Finally, there would also be occasion here and there for a reminder, for example when it is said on p. 47 that "there is still a longing for grace and peace in the natural heart," which one hopes is not meant in a Pelagian sense, though it reads quite that way; yet in general the condition of the Lutheran church in America is accurately depicted, and to those standing outside it, particularly the English-American public, an incomparably truer picture of the Lutheran church in its distinctive character is given than in the well-known caricature of it: "Why are you a Lutheran?" And since, moreover, the presentation is light and engaging, the work may help to spread more correct views of the Lutheran church and, under God's guidance, become for one person or another a bridge to finding the truth in the Lutheran church. B.

(Submitted.)

The Mission Institute.

The editor of the Lutheran Observer, Dr. B. Kurtz of Baltimore, is presently pursuing the founding of an institute under the above name, whose purpose is to be the training of preachers. What moves him to this, since there is no lack of theological training institutions, and in particular the in-