# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1879_S26
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

— 26 —

when Methodism and Rationalism finally seized everything, the Lutheran Church declined in very many places. The best Lutheran synod in former times has always been, in this country, the Tennessee Synod. Yet it followed the remarkable principle of having no seminary, but had individual preachers train young men for service in the vineyard of the LORD. The result has been that this synod too has fallen asleep. Only in more recent times does some life seem to want to show itself in it again, as members of it are thinking of undertaking the training of preachers in a seminary of its own. —

Luther expresses himself as follows on what is said in the thesis: "I cannot at all praise the Waldensian Brethren in this, that they despise the languages. For although they teach rightly, they must yet very often lack the right text, and also remain unequipped and unskilled to fight for the faith against error. . . . They may live and teach holily among themselves, but because they remain without languages, they will have to lack what all others lack, namely that they cannot handle Scripture with certainty and thoroughly, nor be useful to other peoples. But since they could well do this and do not want to, let them see how it is to be answered for before God." (Letter to the Councilmen of All Cities of Germany, that they should establish and maintain Christian schools. 1524. X, 554.)

Without scientifically trained preachers a larger church communion cannot endure in the long run. We need colleges or Latin schools. The three ancient languages, the Latin, the Greek and the Hebrew, in which it stood written on the cross: "Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews," are important; and indeed the Latin, because the greatest treasures of the knowledge of the Church are laid down in it; the Greek, because the New Testament was originally composed in it; the Hebrew, because Moses and the prophets wrote the Old Testament in it. It is true that not every preacher need be master of these languages; yes, one who has not learned them is often a better preacher than another who has studied them; but the Church as such cannot do without classically educated preachers, and if a church communion wants to do nothing in this respect, it digs its own grave. —

With the expression: "It stands in exact connection with the Confession — help," attention was to be called to this, that one should not, in the manner of enthusiasts, hope that God will preserve his Church without means, without colleges! No! In this the Methodists too should be a warning example to us, who also always wanted to hold nothing of education and learning in preachers and thought that the Spirit, the Spirit! must train the preachers and Latin schools were objectionable. But they have learned to sing another tune and now have colleges too.