# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1922_S22
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

22 Proceedings of the twenty-eighth convention

more grant a victory of his power for our school. But we have no promise for it. If we therefore count too much on such a victory, if we exert ourselves too much for it, we may be bitterly disappointed. Indeed, it may happen that by our own efforts we spoil the matter and lose from our hands the real victory itself.

In what, then, does the real victory consist? That lies in the nature of the struggle, which is after all a struggle of testimony. The victory consists in this, that we ourselves become ever more firmly grounded in the testimony and ever clearer, more decided and more joyful in the performance of the testimony.

This requires many things, above all repentance. If we lull ourselves into the thought that we have hitherto always conducted our school cause, our school work and our school struggles properly, and still do so, we are already lost. It is also not enough that we say in general that not everything was quite correct, that much weakness and many defects have crept in; no, we must search and inquire where we have failed against our calling as witnesses. A good deal could be said on that. But since I cannot examine the hearts of my brethren, I can also speak only of such faults as I have found in myself. Since, however, in a certain sense I too am only a child of my time, the assumption may not be wholly without ground that the same faults are found in others also.

There I find in myself several things that offend against the office of witness in general, and which then naturally also influence my school work. First, I forget again and again, and so very easily, that the office of witness is the highest thing on earth, and my desires wander over to the goods of this earth. A splendid church property easily makes a deeper impression on me than the preaching of the Gospel. — If my observation does not deceive me, this temptation is very general among us.

Then the clear awareness often slips from me that Christ and the world are irreconcilable opposites. I forget that with the right testimony of Christ I must infallibly draw upon myself the hatred of the world. I give myself up to the thought that if the world only knew me better it would have to admire and love me and congratulate me. — And again my observation seems to show me that this temptation too plagues wide circles among us.

Finally I notice this also in myself: my course of development falls in a time when the Gospel lay before us in certain developed forms. Now with me the forms often gain excessive importance while the real life recedes strongly. A woodiness, a rigidity sets in. Luxuriantly sprouting water shoots may well feign life but are actually a sign of disease. — And again it seems to me that I am not the only one who has to suffer from this temptation.