# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1874_S24
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

— 24 —

torial delimitation, whether he believes that all may act so; that if, then, one moves from the North to the South, he may say: I belong in New York to the congregation? Would he not have to admit that, if all acted so, a dreadful confusion would thereby arise in all America? But if a Christian must say to himself: as I act, not all can and may act, then he should not do it himself either.

As to the improvements to be inserted in the four points, it was replied that what was proposed is indeed not incorrect, for far less is said in it than in the four reasons now before us. What is said less is of course also correct. But what is said more sharply in the present wording of the four reasons cannot be denied either.

It is of infinite importance to recognize our present disorder, together with its evil consequences, in its full size. For it cannot be denied that our present conditions are a disgrace and shame before the whole Church, quite against nature and against love. They have arisen out of sin and are therefore ruinous. Yes, it is a thoroughly offensive Babylonian confusion. Hundreds and thousands of souls are thereby put at stake. Everywhere we look there is complaint about these conditions. Someone comes, for example, from Germany and settles in a place where two congregations with their preachers live intermingled. Both congregations are still small, would gladly increase and grow in membership on account of the burdens they have to bear. The result is that the man is now looked after and worked on by both congregations and their preachers, to join them. These are no fictitious cases, but facts. Every preacher who lives with his congregation within the boundaries of another preacher must constantly fear that, among the newly arrived, he will come upon a soul which the other preacher has already tried to win, and thus meddle in another's office. If two congregations living mixed together wish to exercise church discipline on their members, the quick answer is: I will not put up with that, I jump over to the other congregation. Into what unrest, indeed often into the deepest unrest, a congregation can thereby be put!

How could we now renounce this experience of all Christendom! Therefore it surely stands firm and immovable: where no territorial delimitation exists, nothing else can arise than disorder. The power to produce such evil lies in this disorder. For it is in itself against nature. But what is in itself against nature must be disorder, and that again can only produce disorder. To be sure, God often prevents that out of sheer grace. If, therefore, here and there disorder has not yet arisen, we have this

[Vertical pencil lines in the left margin beside the lines "territorial delimitation ..." through "... not do it himself either" and beside "congregations and their preachers ..."; in the print the sentences "The result is that the man ... to join them." and "If two congregations living mixed together ... put!" are underlined by hand. At the left margin also a slanting handwritten marginal note, illegible.]