# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1906_S26
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

26 Proceedings of the twenty-first convention

do straw and wheat go together?" That is: How do God's Word and human word go together in the Church of God? It is precisely by this that one destroys the unity in the Spirit, that one wants to unite both. This we should well consider in the Synodical Conference [Synodalkonferenz]. We have no special interests in doctrine; such special interests do not exist at all in the Church. We all have only one interest, namely that God's Word be given validity. If a doctrinal matter becomes disputed among us, we have no Missourian, Minnesotan, Wisconsinite interest, but only the one interest, that the matter be settled according to God's Word. If we keep this in view, we shall preserve unity undisturbed. We are free of the notion of the Union, that in doctrine different tendencies are equally entitled; there is only one entitled tendency in the Church, namely the one which gives God's Word full and complete validity.

For this reason it is also of such great importance that our dear Christians be admonished not always to reach first for devotional writings, but above all things to read the Holy Scripture again and again from beginning to end. Highly as we esteem the writings which our orthodox fathers have given us, they are for us only, as Luther puts it, a scaffolding on which we climb into Holy Scripture itself. Likewise, as much as we urge that our synodical periodicals be read, we should recommend them only in the sense that they serve toward a better knowledge of Holy Scripture. The more our Christians search in the Bible, the more independent Christians they will be.

Further, we must constantly test the doctrine as it comes to presentation among us in books and other writings, to see whether it agrees with God's Word. For we must consider that we as human beings are so constituted that we, often without noticing it, allow our own feelings, thoughts and interests influence on the manner in which we present the Christian doctrine. This danger we can escape only by assuring ourselves again and again that the words we speak are words of the Holy Spirit.

The Essayist.

If we want to build the Church of God through the Gospel, it also belongs to this that we watch in the congregations and synods over the purity of conduct; for if we do not do this, then from the sins which go on unnoticed discord will arise among Christians, and from this in turn disunity in doctrine. But then we have lost the ground on which the unity of the Spirit rests. The Apostle seems to have regard to this too when he exhorts us: "Be diligent to keep the unity in the Spirit through the bond of peace!" In the life of Christians with one another there is, however, still much more occasion to fall into dissension and to lose the unity in the Spirit. Here it is a matter of