# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1847 07 07_S129
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

The Lutheraner.

"God's Word and Luther's teaching shall never pass away."

Published by C. F. W. Walther.

Volume 3.

St. Louis, Mo., July 7, 1847.

No. 24.

Terms: The Lutheraner appears once every two weeks, at a subscription price of one dollar for out-of-town subscribers, half of which they must pay in advance, and who must also bear the postage. — In St. Louis, each single issue is sold for 5 cents.

Conversation of Two Lutherans Concerning Church Constitution.

III.

The children clung to Siegfried's hand and pulled him into the garden that lay beside the house. Clean sandy paths led through the dew-laden grass, which alternated here and there with rose bushes and small plots, where flowers, awakened by the breath of the mild spring, opened their friendly eyes once more for the first time after the long winter night. Here and there stood single tall trees, against whose shade the soft green of the grass stood out all the more charmingly in the brightness of the sun. The children hurried to their little garden plot, to see how far it had grown there in the past night, while Siegfried enjoyed the view into the valley from a hill. Busy industry reigned in the fields; herds grazed in the meadows by the river, which rolled its silvery waves along with a murmur and finally lost itself in the distance behind blue mountains. Everywhere joy and life, everywhere that tender blending of color that smiles upon us so pleasantly in the fresh breath of life of lovely May light, so that the gracious charm in which the young creation is wrapped might let us taste and see how kind the Lord is. Yet, like everything beautiful in this transient world, spring too awakens only the Christian's longing for the never-fading springtime of eternal life:

Ah, I think, if you are so fair here,
and let it go so pleasantly for us
upon this poor earth:
what, then, will it be
there in the rich tent of heaven
and the golden palace?

With such thoughts Siegfried withdrew into an arbor, where he occupied himself with reading, until after some time his friend came to find him, holding in his hand the pamphlet that Siegfried had given him.

E. Among the reasons given there for forming a synodical association, I miss the real chief reason.

S. Which one, then?

E. A definite, explicit command of the Lord for it.

S. The synodical constitution is, to be sure, not explicitly commanded in Holy Scripture.

E. Therefore it is also not permitted.

S. That is a false conclusion. Where, then, is it forbidden in Holy Scripture?

E. Nowhere.

S. But what God has neither forbidden nor commanded belongs among the so-called adiaphora, which, as you know, one may do or leave undone out of Christian freedom without sin.

E. In so important a matter it is not enough for me merely to know that it is permitted.

S. Consider the glory of Christian freedom. All things are yours, says the apostle. Thus we have the most complete right to form a constitution.

E. Even so, the synodical constitution still remains only a human work, since it rests only on Christian freedom.

S. As does every church constitution.

E. But human contrivances cannot help the church.

S. Not as such, certainly — but they can, if the Lord gives His blessing to it.

E. My conscience must have some definite obligation before I take part in so important a matter.

S. You have that too, indeed the most sacred and most definite, in the general command: Seek to excel in building up the church, that you may abound in all things; and: let all things be done decently and in order. 1 Cor. 14:12, 40.

E. But does this command not concern, first of all, a particular congregation by itself?

S. Indeed — but then every individual congregation, and thus the whole church.

E. And you mean, then, that in this lies for us the duty to join together in common action concerning the improvement and order of the congregation?

S. Yes. To this we are driven by faith, which is to be active through love; to this we are driven by the command of the Lord and a thousand passages of Holy Scripture — to seek not our own good, but that of our neighbor, of the whole.

E. It would be the mark of a dead faith if one wished to separate oneself from one's brothers and live for oneself alone.

S. All for one, one for all, is the watchword of Christians. As the apostle Paul teaches us: "The eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you; nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you . . . that there should be no division in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another." 1 Cor. 12:21, 25.

E. Clearly, common action for the good of the church is our most sacred duty.

S. In order that this common action for the good of the church may be as fitting and beneficial as possible, a constitution is needed.

E. So you regard it only as a means and a tool.

S. As nothing more. There is no constitution that is simply perfect; no particular form of it is commanded to us in Holy Scripture, but it is left to Christian wisdom to choose the best one.

E. Which constitution, in your opinion, is the best for this?

S. To put it briefly: the most tried and tested, the most fitting, and the freest.

E. Explain yourself more fully.

S. Because the doctrine of the Lutheran church is the purest, its constitution must also be the freest — that is, it must rest on the majority, must grow of necessity out of our confession, and must bring the spiritual priesthood of Christians, with all its rights and freedoms, into living practice.

E. With all my heart I agree with you.

S. The most fitting constitution is the one that meets all the needs of the church most quickly and most thoroughly.

E. That is true.

S. Church history has most proven that constitution which left the chief decision neither to individuals, nor to certain corporations, nor to whole estates within the church, but entrusted it to the whole church in the totality of its various members, offices, and gifts — namely, to such general assemblies in which the estate of hearers and the estate of teachers were equally entitled and equally represented.

E. Is that why your constitution also appeals to "the example of the apostolic church"?

S. For that very reason. Read Acts, chapter 15. Pharisaic false doctrine threatened to confuse the young Christian congregations. So they sent Paul, Barnabas, and several others from among themselves to Jerusalem, who, together with the congregation there, held a