# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1847 07 07_S132
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

and blood of Christ from their hearts. This, among others, was discovered by the well-known unionist David Pareus. He was born of Lutheran parents, but was led astray to the Reformed religion already in his youth by his teacher, a man named Schilling, a secret Calvinist and rector at the gymnasium in Hirschberg, Silesia. He finally became, in 1584, professor at the Reformed university of Heidelberg, and now labored with great zeal to establish a union between the Reformed and the Lutherans. He writes the following in his book "On Bread and the Breaking of Bread": "By the breaking of the bread, the idolatrous, false delusion of the body of Christ in, with, or under the bread, and of the oral eating of it, is most powerfully broken and cleared out of the hearts of the common, erring people; for what is broken up within an hour into three hundred, four hundred, three thousand, four thousand fragments cannot be the natural body of Christ." (See Amberg edition, p. 199.)

To what honest Lutheran must it not, after such undisguised declarations on the part of the Reformed, become a matter of conscience to omit the breaking of bread at the Lord's Supper? Here finds its full application what St. Paul once did, when false teachers wished to insist on circumcision, in order thereby to smuggle in the false doctrine that the observance of the ceremonial law was necessary. Before this, Paul, out of love for the weak Jews, had still permitted circumcision; but when it now began to appear as though he thereby approved the false doctrine of those false teachers, he says: "Because of false brethren secretly brought in, who came in stealthily to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage: to whom we gave place by subjection, no, not for an hour, that the truth of the gospel might continue with you." Galatians 2:4–5. We hold that a preacher who, after considering this, nevertheless retains the breaking of bread, is either a secret Zwinglian, or else the money that the Reformed-minded members of his congregation bring him is dearer to him than the truth of which he is convinced in his conscience.

But should someone say that his situation is quite different, that he has nothing at all to do with the Reformed, and that therefore in his case there is no need for him to omit the breaking of bread for the sake of the confession — then we answer: since the Reformed church has separated itself from the Lutheran through its false doctrine, and the two churches now stand opposed to one another, every individual congregation, even one that has no contact with the Reformed, now makes itself extremely suspect of siding with our adversaries if it itself uses those very ceremonies by which the latter seek to "clear out of people's hearts" the pure doctrine of our church. But a Christian congregation ought to avoid the appearance of evil and giving offense. Moreover, precisely in America there is not a single congregation that, on account of the Reformed living in its vicinity and on account of the ever more general mixing of religions here, would not be in danger of denying the truth also through certain ceremonies.

Furthermore, a preacher must also think of the future. Might he not easily, by tolerating Reformed ceremonies in his congregation, thereby pave the way himself for his congregation later to be lost to the Lutheran church and to fall into the hands of a Reformed teacher? But how will he then answer for this before God one day? Experience has proven that this fear is by no means unfounded. We will give an example. The Reformed Elector Georg Wilhelm of Brandenburg writes, among other things, in a rescript to the government of Cleve dated December 18, 1637: "And, what is worst, a report has reached us to the effect that in other places too you are pressing the Lutheran congregations, forcing the Reformed exercise (worship service) upon them against their will, and seeking to deprive them of their own, and to that end also making use of some altogether unsuitable pretexts — namely, that because a Lutheran pastor, for want of wafers, had had to divide and break a few of them into several pieces according to the number of communicants, or that a schoolmaster, for lack of other books, had merely taught some boys to read out of the (Reformed) Heidelberg Catechism, you are citing such things as proof of the customary Reformed exercise." (See: Collection of Old and New Theological Matters of the Year 1738, p. 143f.)

If, then, the Reformed have already tried to prove from this that a congregation had become Reformed merely because the pastor a few times, out of necessity, had to break the wafers, how much more will they do so if the pastor outright introduces the Reformed practice of breaking bread?

(To be continued.)

First Synodical Report of the German Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and Other States, for the Year 1847.

This report, prepared by the secretary of the Synod, and containing, with the omission of everything nonessential, an extract from the minutes of this year's meeting of the same, has just now appeared in print.*) We cannot refrain from communicating the following to our readers as excerpted from it:

As a result of the conferences held by several ministers of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in September 1845 at Cleveland and in July 1846 at Fort Wayne, the chief purpose of which was the deliberation upon and drawing up of a synodical constitution founded on the Word of God and the pure confession of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, and in accordance with the resolution reached at the last conference, a number of ministers and delegates assembled on April 24, 1847, and the following days, at Chicago, Illinois, in order, on the basis of the synodical constitution drawn up at that last conference, published in No. 1 of the third volume of the "Lutheraner," and later printed in pamphlet form, to constitute themselves as the "German Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and Other States."

*) The report may be obtained as a pamphlet through Mr. F. W. Barthel, care of C. F. W. Walther, St. Louis, Mo., or through Rev. Dr. Sihler, Fort Wayne, Ind. 1 copy 10 cts., 2 copies 15 cts., 3 copies 20 cts., 12 copies 80 cts.

Unfortunately, some fellow ministers who had been present at that conference, as well as others inclined to join this Synod, were prevented by difficult circumstances from personally appearing and taking part in this first important assembly. — A dear member of those conferences, our beloved brother Burger, pastor at Wilshire, Van Wert County, Ohio, had been called home to the heavenly homeland by the Lord of the Harvest on March 26 of this year. — On the other hand, there appeared at the Synod other brethren in the faith who had come over from Germany in the course of the past year, and who had entered here into the great field of labor of the "far West."

Even before the beginning of the actual synodical business, namely on Sunday Jubilate, as well as during the session period of the Synod, several sermons were preached by various fellow ministers.

The synodical sessions began Monday morning, April 26, and lasted until Thursday evening, May 6. The sessions were opened daily with singing, and at the beginning and end of them, some brother appointed for the purpose by the presiding officer implored God, the Giver of every good gift, for His help and blessing.

The morning sessions usually lasted from 8 to 12 o'clock, the afternoon sessions from 1 or 2 to 5 or 6 o'clock.

The preliminary introduction and consideration of the matters submitted for deliberation, as well as, later, the final decision upon them, always took place in the public assembly of the Synod. Matters requiring special examination or preparation were referred to appropriate committees, which submitted their report at a later session; this report was then carefully examined by the Synod and, where necessary, amended, and raised to a resolution of the Synod.

All letters drawn up, on the Synod's behalf, by the secretary or by individual members were likewise first submitted to the Synod for examination and approval.

The provision in Chapter V, Section 24, according to which the ministers concerned must submit to a colloquium, was applied several times; — these colloquia, however, were not held in public session, but privately before the Synod.

During the synodical assembly, ten temporary committees were appointed one after another, to which, for the most part, very important and difficult tasks were assigned; one expert opinion was drawn up; three instructions and six