# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Juni 1860_S191
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Church and Contemporary Notices. 191

have set down here gives a living testimony that things must, in other respects, stand far better in North America than among us. Would that at least the clergy and elementary teachers, to whom instruction in natural history in the schools is entrusted or committed for oversight, would take note of the spirit of this work, which still praises its Creator. From the German guild-scholars one may not expect this. They will seize upon its specialties; the physico-theological portion they will, in the best case, disdainfully ignore. The first volume appeared two years ago; nowhere have we yet found a review of it, and we preferred now to give one ourselves in a church paper, since in this form it would elsewhere not be noticed, would be regarded as a hors d'oeuvre, or would not be taken up at all.

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Church and Contemporary Notices.

I. America.

The Withdrawal of the Scandinavians from the Northern Illinois Synod. — The Scandinavian Conference, assembled at Chicago from April 24–27, occupied itself in particular with deliberation over the withdrawal of Prof. Esbjorn and of most of the Scandinavian students from the University at Springfield, Illinois, and not only fully recognized the grounds for this as justified, but the entire Scandinavian membership of the Northern Illinois Synod — namely about 24 Swedish and Norwegian preachers with some 60 congregations — has unanimously separated itself from this synod. As the reason for their course of action, the Scandinavian brethren cite their fidelity to the Lutheran confession. They state, in their unanimous resolution itself, that they withdrew from the Northern Illinois Synod for this reason: because they were fully convinced that a decided difference in doctrine existed within it; because in fact disunity rather than unity prevailed there; because strife and division threaten to destroy trust and to hinder and impede the work of the church; because they would at all times have to fear that a change in the confessional standing would be forced upon them, against their doctrinal conviction, by a chance majority; because it was their highest duty to preserve and maintain their confession unabridged, both in their congregations and in the theological training of their students, who are to become the future preachers and pastors of their congregations; because their experience showed them plainly that they could not achieve this with certainty under their previous circumstances. This declaration at the same time casts light on the sorry state of affairs in the General Synod, where men seek to found church unity not upon the rock of the Word, on which Christ has set it, but upon the swamp of indifference to the truth and the shifting sand of human politics. The Scandinavians will hold a convention on June 5 in Rock County, Wisconsin, to deliberate on the organization of a synod of their own. May God preserve and strengthen the dear brethren in the confession of His saving truth! — S.

The Lutheran Orphan Institutions at Pittsburg and Zelienople. — These excellent institutions were founded by Rev. W. A. Passavant and still stand under the direction of this worthy man. He began his labors in the year 1848 by opening a hospital, in which, in the eleven years since elapsed, 2,400 sick persons have found help or relief. Since the sick were often parents with children, they would bring these along into the hospital, and when their illness ended in death, they left their little ones behind in the hands of their benefactor. In this way the orphan institution arose, both branches of which are now located at Pittsburg and at Zelienople.