# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Februar 1860_S61
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Church and Contemporary Notices. 61

50 of the members of the society were carried off as victims of this disease, which was very detrimental to its progress. The growth since then has scarcely made up the loss, in that the membership at the present time scarcely exceeds 200. Although they have not increased in number, their wealth has nevertheless increased very greatly. Their large farm, to which they have added considerable tracts through their diligence and thrift, is in the best condition. A large, three-story house of brick, formerly inhabited by their founder, is now used as the trustees' dwelling. A large store, and an inn after the old German fashion, a handsome church, a flour mill, and 50 good dwelling houses make up the property of the society. They likewise possess a small printing office, which was recently newly fitted out and somewhat enlarged. A school for the instruction of the young, in the English and German languages, is kept during the winter. All members of the society are clothed in blue cloth of their own manufacture. Their ultimate aim seems to be to live in a simple and economical way, and to trouble themselves as little as possible about the outside world.
(Fr. Botschafter.)
The Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Tennessee, on the occasion of its meeting in September of last year, unanimously adopted a revised constitution, which is now to be laid before the respective congregations for adoption or rejection. In this revised constitution it says, among other things: "This synod accepts, as a true and faithful presentation of the doctrines of the Holy Scriptures with respect to matters of faith and practice, the ancient symbols of the church — the Apostles', Nicene, and Athanasian creeds — and the unaltered Augsburg Confession. It also accepts the other symbolical writings of the Evangelical Lutheran Church (namely the Apology, the Smalcald Articles, Luther's Smaller and Larger Catechisms, and the Formula of Concord) as true and scriptural developments of the doctrines taught in the Augsburg Confession. Every minister who desires to be received into the fellowship of this synod shall, upon his reception, be obligated to subscribe to this confessional basis. No minister standing in fellowship with this synod shall be permitted to teach anything, nor shall the synod transact any business, contrary to the said basis."

The Wisconsin Synod (whose president is Pastor Mühlhausen) is trying, as we learn from the "Kirchenbote" of December 23 of last year, by all sorts of heart-rending reports, to beg money in the East, so as, among other things, to erect and maintain opposition congregations in those cities of Wisconsin where our synod has already established the preaching office (as in Watertown), so that the poor souls there may not be lost.

II. Abroad.

Löhianism. In Bauer's Correspondenzblatt, Nos. 8 and 9 of last year, it is declared, among other things, that there are now two directions in the Lutheran Church of the present day, "of which the one regards the development of doctrine in the sixteenth century as closed, and will not go beyond this standpoint at any price, while the other pays homage to progress on the basis of Holy Scripture and history, as the need of the time and God's guidance demand, and believes in and strives after a perfection of the church not only in outward form and in life, but also in doctrine and its formulation." Most plainly, it says there, is the former direction represented by the Missouri Synod. This so-called "traditional" Lutheranism is thereupon characterized, among other things, as follows: "To every proof from Scripture in matters that seem new to it and by no means concern the actual fundamental doctrines, it always has the answer ready: ""all heretics appeal to Holy Scripture;"" — or: ""so-and-so, the heretic, said that,"" as though Holy Scripture really were a dangerous or obscure book that could not be understood without authentic interpretation, or to which only our fathers of the sixteenth century had possessed the key. One can hardly trust one's eyes and ears when, from orthodox Lutherans, who yet, together with all others, acknowledge as the supreme principle the sole