# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1898_S5
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

of the Ev. Luth. Synodical Conference of North America. 1898. 5

community. Our LORD and Master Jesus Christ himself, too, did not become a teacher of a little band of separatists as a hermit out in solitude; rather he let himself be heard with his companions, with his disciples, where he came into contact with his fellow countrymen, with the scattered sheep of the house of Israel; he ate and drank with the tax collectors and sinners, and indeed in the night in which he was betrayed we see him and hear him in company with his disciples. There he holds conversations with them, until it is said: "Arise, let us go hence." And even then he does not go alone; he takes his disciples with him into the garden; in his mortal anguish and bloody sweat he has at least three of them near him; he pleads with them and almost implores them: "Tarry ye here, and watch with me." It is not good that the man should be alone. Not for the last time has the devil sought out the solitary man, as Satan approached the Son of God in the wilderness; and whoever has no calling for it, as the Savior was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, should take good care before he cuts himself loose from the fellowship of his brethren and betakes himself into solitude, or wants to be by himself in the midst of the others, a separatist. That is not a sign of heightened godliness but of an unhealthy spirit and an unhealthy spiritual life. Nothing good has ever come of it, either, when self-chosen solitude and self-chosen separating have been held to be something good. Thus the Christian church, too, was founded from the very beginning as a church, as a fellowship of many, as one body with many members under the one Head, as a household in which God himself is the master of the house, as a kingdom in which Christ is the King. It is true that individuals must be saved, each for himself; we are not saved by the dozen, but each individual must believe for himself, and each individual be kept in faith for himself, in order to be saved. And therefore it is right when a Christian pastor and a Christian congregation also keep their eyes fixed on the individuals, perform their duty of pastoral care and brotherly duty toward the individuals, and do not think that it is done with when good preaching is done from the pulpit. That is also true: good preaching from the pulpit is the main part of the activity of a good pastor; but the individual too is to be given his own modest portion specially allotted to him, as he has need of it; for this the LORD has set stewards over his mysteries. And yet, certain as that is, it is on the other hand just as certain that, according to God's will, the individual here on earth, as there in heaven, is to know himself bound together with other fellow believers who are redeemed and converted with him, in one faith, one love, one hope. So it is not by chance, even though we have no express commandment of God for it, that Christian congregations enter into connection with one another, and that in this way synods arise, that synods enter into connection with one another and in this way a *Synodalconferenz* [Synodical Conference] arises.