# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1874_S32
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

— 32 —

to be a ground for joining as soon as other difficulties in reaching the near church come in the way. To decide this, however, should never be left to the individual alone, since in the Church all things are to be done decently and in order, every ground for offense and scandal, as well as for discord, and every appearance of willfulness should be avoided, and everything be arranged in love and concord.

Important in the 7th Thesis, however, is also this, that language too decides where a Christian is to turn. For when we speak of territorial delimitation, the division of the church of one language is always what is meant. For the church of another language the same order then holds again among themselves, and so on. For the Christian people in each language is to be territorially divided. If, then, the language boundary does not stand above the territorial division, it nevertheless stands beside it. In the midst of the boundaries of a German congregation a congregation of another tongue can be founded, provided both congregations living intermingled are again territorially delimited from any neighboring congregations of the same language. If, therefore, a preacher founds within the boundaries of a German congregation, where the need for it exists, a congregation of English tongue, and it cannot be proved against him (it is thus not notorious) that he uses the language boundary only as a pretext to be able to push into the German congregation, no one may deny him the right to it; indeed, one should rather be helpful and encouraging to him in it. Even on mere suspicion that he is using the language only as a pretext, one may not try to prevent the founding of an English congregation. For the language boundary can cut across again all the boundary lines of the congregations of another language. Territorial boundary and language boundary have nothing to do with one another. But if, say, the preacher of English tongue begins also to preach in German, to baptize, to give German funeral addresses, if he thus does not hold strictly to the English language, then it becomes evident that he is not sincere but an interloper and disturber of the peace. But if he conscientiously abstains from all proselytizing, and his intention in founding the English congregation is only to prevent those who are losing their German language from being thereby also lost to our Lutheran Church, then that is a glorious, precious work. The German congregation commits a grievous sin which wants to hinder this because it fears it might lose some members. Here also a Christian who can understand the preaching of God's Word well only in English should let no scruple of conscience be made for him about joining the congregation of English tongue instead of the German. A German congregation that wants to force such persons to join it acts very cruelly and violates conscience. For I hear God's Word only so far as I understand of it. And if a preacher were to speak in a language unintelligible or hard to understand to me with tongues of angels,