# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1896_S14
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

14 Proceedings of the sixteenth convention

are not wholly and fully united in the confession of Christ and His truth, shall also not take part in our communion. Our practice of the Lord's Supper, insofar as it is governed in God's Word, is therefore not a matter of our free discretion; there we have no leave to let anything prevail by setting aside what Christ, the Lord, what God in His Word has prescribed with regard to the practice of the Lord's Supper. One says, perhaps: "You are presumptuous people! Who has given you preachers the right to refuse the Sacrament to anyone? It is not your Sacrament, it is Christ's Sacrament, and you behave as though it were your Sacrament. The Savior says: Take and eat, and you say to this one or that one: No, you shall not take and not eat!" But this argument is worth nothing; for just the opposite of what is supposed to be proved by it follows from it. Precisely because the Holy Supper is not ours but the Savior's Sacrament, and because He has given His instructions and rules for the administration of His Sacrament, has made known His will, because His Sacrament is to be administered, we have not to decide how we want to administer it, but to administer the Sacrament of the Lord Christ according to His instruction and not according to our own opinion, not according to the desire of any unreasonable or ungodly person. Christ's Sacrament, His table, His altar, His body and blood, His meal it is; therefore it is also to be administered as He wants it administered according to His prescription.

Our practice of Baptism is likewise governed by God's Word. The Savior says: "Go and teach all nations, or make them disciples, by baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, and teach them to observe all that I have commanded you." We are to make disciples of all nations, and for this Baptism is to be a means. Through it He wants to let His grace prevail over all nations. And there He has not set a limit, say for all persons from twenty-one years of age on, but He includes everything that belongs to the people in His command. As in a census everything, little men and little women and the children in the cradle, is counted because they belong to the people, so the baptismal command applies not only to adults but to all who belong to the people. Therefore we, according to our Savior's instruction and order, according to the right divine norm, also practice infant baptism. — Further, He has said: "Baptize them, wet them with water." He has not said how the water is to be applied. The manner and way of applying the water is not governed, but that they are to be wet with water is commanded. — And that is to be done "in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost," and not in the name of God, Virtue and Immortality. — We should also take care that those who are baptized are also taught; let this take place beforehand where that is possible, or follow afterward where Baptism has gone before,