# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1847 08 03_S136
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S. A measure over which I heartily rejoice.

E. How so?

S. These visitation journeys, as well as the pastoral conferences connected with the Synod, further the district ministerial conferences, and the papers which our preachers and schoolteachers write on theological and pedagogical subjects, will, in the hand of the Lord, be the blessed means by which the servants of the Church strengthen themselves in zeal for the faithful fulfillment of all the duties of the preaching office, and grow in knowledge.

E. The more educated, capable, and conscientious the preachers are, the better for the congregations.

S. Certainly. The preaching office is so full of responsibility and so difficult that it must be a joy for a preacher to be visited by the President, as an experienced brother, and to be able to obtain various counsel from him.

E. The President also has to render a report on the condition of the congregations visited.

S. In this way the Lutheran congregations will, it is hoped, become better acquainted with one another. Living fellowship is urgently necessary, so that we may counsel and help one another, put away false doctrines and teachers, and strengthen one another in the confession of the truth.

E. Therefore I also find it fitting that the President is permitted, through the [congregational] board, to call together a congregational meeting, in order to become acquainted with the congregation; but is there not reason to fear interference on his part in the internal affairs of the congregation?

S. No, that is expressly forbidden in his instructions. It states in Chap. VI, A, § 13: "In his duties of supervision he is to conform strictly to the written instructions which he receives for this purpose from the Synod."

E. Now my last misgiving falls away. I see that the officers are dependent on the Synod, and that the Synod, together with its officers, is dependent on the congregations, so that the rights and freedoms of the congregations find their most complete recognition precisely through the Synod.

S. And in turn the congregations trustingly clothe the Synod with the necessary authority to do everything that serves the common good.

E. If the Synod did not have sufficient room for free movement, its laborious work would be but an empty game.

S. The welfare of the Church is its goal. This consideration determines its rights, freedoms, and limits.

E. Thus the Synod possesses dependence, in that it serves the good of the congregations, and independence, in that it does so consciously, not under compulsion but freely out of love; both together, in their right measure, mark the essence of Christian freedom.

S. I regard the Synod as a moral person, which is as little enslaved by the congregations as it enslaves them, but which stands free toward them through love.

E. Therefore I give it my full respect.

S. Mutual trust of love, with the reservation that the Word of God alone binds and may rule — that is the bond between the congregations and the Synod.

E. There is no more beautiful relationship.

S. This trust our Synod will, with God's help, ever more deserve through its zeal for the preservation of pure doctrine, the wisdom of its counsels, and through its motherly care for the good of the congregations in general.

E. May the Synod find a wide field for its activity.

S. It will use, to the best of its ability, all proper means to set the truth of our pure confession upon the lampstand, so that its rays may shine far and wide through the night in victorious clarity, and, if God grants grace, that many more souls may be redeemed out of the captivity of false doctrine into the glorious freedom of the children of God.

E. Look around: what does false doctrine bring forth? Either a despondent, servile spirit, or a brazen presumption in which the deluded boast of themselves as sinless saints.

S. And where does this come from? From contempt for the full use of the means of grace, on account of which so many poor souls cannot attain to a sound life from God.

E. Hence the sad result is clerical conceit and bondage.

S. Against this, the watchword of our Church remains for eternity: truth, grace, and freedom.

E. May the Lord bless the Synod, that it may turn out to the salvation of the Church.

The friends talked with one another still longer, until the hour of parting struck. "When shall we see each other again?" asked Siegfried. "God willing, at your next Synod," replied Erich. He and his family accompanied Siegfried aboard the steamship, where they said farewell to one another. The ship pushed off from the shore; for a long time the friends still gazed after each other with moist eyes, handkerchiefs waved through the air, until the distance took them from their sight.

Hermann Fick.

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

While referring [our readers] to the Synodical Report itself,*) we communicate to the wider circle of our readers, in summary form, the following further resolutions of the said Synod.

*) The same may be obtained 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.

1. Concerning the Synodical Constitution.

a. Resolved: The following shall be submitted to the respective congregations, as an addition to the Constitution, for confirmation or, respectively, rejection:

"Since the Synod, with respect to the self-government of the individual congregations, is only an advisory body, no resolution of the former, if it imposes something on the individual congregation, has binding force for the latter. — Such a synodical resolution can have binding force only when the individual congregation has examined it and has voluntarily accepted and confirmed it by a formal congregational resolution. — If a congregation finds the resolution not in accordance with the Word of God, or unsuitable to its circumstances, it has the right to reject the resolution."

b. Resolved: The following shall be added to the 10th paragraph of Chapter IV of the Constitution:

"When the Synod, according to Chap. IV, § 10 of its Constitution, includes within its sphere of business the striving for the greatest possible uniformity in the ceremonies, it does not, in doing so — as § 14 of Chapter V states — proceed from the principle that such uniformity is necessary to the essence of the true Church; rather, it considers such uniformity beneficial only under the particular circumstances in which our Church finds itself here. — The Synod also intends that, in the introduction of any ceremony, no compulsion whatsoever be applied, but that, after thorough prior instruction of the consciences, everything be left to the Christian freedom of the congregation concerned."

2. Concerning the Educational Institutions.

With regard to the establishment, maintenance, and supervision of institutions for training future preachers and schoolteachers for the service of the Church, according to Chap. V, § 9 of the Constitution, the Synod considers it very desirable that such private institutions, which up to now have been connected with it only through some of its members, should be placed under the direct supervision of the Synod. Therefore

a. Resolved: That the representative of the German brethren, the Rev. Pastor Löhe, be asked whether the founders of the seminary at Fort Wayne are willing formally to hand it over to the Synod for its free disposal, while nevertheless continuing, as before, insofar as the Lord provides for it, to support it with funds, books, etc., since the Synod — especially now, at its beginning — would not be in a position to maintain the seminary. —

b. That the Rev. Pastor Löhe be requested, in view of a possible call of the Rev. Pastor Oster to the seminary at Fort Wayne, to bring all the writings of the Rev. Pastor Oster to the knowledge of the Synod as soon as possible.

c. The committee charged with this task has, in a letter to the Rev. Pastor Löhe in Neudet-