# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_September 1858_S273
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

From the General Synod. 273

questions with which it is occupied. It may therefore be laid down as an
incontestable principle that a union on such a basis is not possible. If one
looks at that part of the church which clings most stubbornly to the
symbols — the so-called Old Lutherans — one finds that there are several
divisions of them which are not willing to march under the same banner or
to advance in closed phalanx against the enemy. The important question of
the origin of the ministerial office and of the organization of the church
is answered differently by the Missourians and the Buffaloites. While the
one excludes from its fellowship anyone who does not accept every letter
and title in the symbols, they condemn the others with immoderate
bitterness. Others of the same name, of essentially the same standpoint,
claim the right of progress in the sense of the symbols, by which they mean
that the doctrine in the Book of Concord, or in that last statement of the
Lutheran faith called the Formula of Concord, has not reached its highest
perfection. As to the position of the Old Lutherans of Ohio, it is needless
to say that they do not harmonize with their symbol-believing brethren. The
camp of symbolism is divided into several bands which, if not hostile, are
certainly not very friendly to one another.

"The basis of the General Synod, on which two-thirds of the Lutheran
church in the United States are united, may be regarded as the only one
suited to hold together the somewhat unharmonious elements of our
Lutheran Zion. If this is given up, division will follow — one will be
split into many, and our motto will be, not: one out of many, but: many
out of one. This has long been our conviction, and it has grown stronger,
not weaker, through our most recent history and through consideration of
the whole field of Lutheranism in this country. There is no other safe
ground. The conviction which we expressed in the well-known address at
Charleston, and published in the first number of the second volume of our
Review, we repeat without hesitation. We take nothing back, we add
nothing. We remain firm and immovable. Our conviction was declared at that
time, and without hesitation we avow ourselves to the same. For our own
part we say: if there are any in the General Synod who cannot approve the
principles there set forth, if their attachment to the symbols goes so far
that they cannot tolerate those who differ from them, then let them go to
Missouri, to Buffalo, to Iowa, to Columbus. This we would do ourselves
under similar circumstances — we wish to injure no one. On the other hand,
if there are those whose antipathy to the symbols is so great that they
cannot bear those who hold them in high esteem and subscribe them from the
heart, then they should look about for a more suitable home. For if, on
the one hand, the symbolist has no right to call in question the
Lutheranism of one who does not accept every letter and title