# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1872_S10
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

— 10 —

with which he could defend himself and conquer? Are we to extinguish for a man wandering about in the darkness of this world even one star kindled for him by God, which could be his guiding star to the blessed goal? In short, are we to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs? No, no, we shall then cry out, as dear as our own and our fellow-redeemed's salvation is to us, so faithfully will we keep the Word, this deposit entrusted to us, so help us God, down to the last jot.

And a blessed struggle is the struggle for pure doctrine, when it has the salvation of souls as its ground! It is truly worth it that for its sake we gladly let ourselves be called loveless quarrelers. [Let it] cover [us] with shame here; there awaits it the crown of eternal honor.

3.

But, my brethren, there is one thing more why it is so important that above all we make the salvation of souls the ultimate purpose of our common work in the kingdom of Christ: namely, because we shall then certainly also persevere in the things named, in life and doctrine, in work and struggle, in faith and confession, and so be preserved from growing weary in the time of trial; for the Apostle calls out to his Timothy in our text not only: "Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine," but also: "Persevere in these things. For if you do this, you will save both yourself and those who hear you." — Of this, third, only a few more words.

A high and heavy task lies before us from today. What has brought us together is the common conviction that the true Church does not first have to seek the truth unto salvation but has found it, is its possessor and keeper, that it is therefore always one and the same, and that for this reason, today also, only that church is the true Church which agrees most exactly, in doctrine and practice, with the true Church of the past, wherever it may have been. But we are all at the same time convinced that the Church of our fathers, the Evangelical Lutheran Church, as it has testified to its faith before all the world in the Unaltered Augsburg Confession and in the other confessions, is the true visible Church of God on earth, and in the name of the Lord we are resolved to build this church and no other, in doctrine and practice, in this Western land, together.

Hereby we set ourselves against all the currents of our time, within and outside the church. We therefore may also expect nothing other than what the true Church experienced right at the beginning and at all times: namely, that it stood there as the sect that is spoken against everywhere.