# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_April 1861_S108 # AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration) 108 Literary Intelligence. -declared that they stood on the ground and foundation of the church's confessions, and were by no means forming a separate party, nor did they wish to set themselves in opposition to the Dresden conference, the Dresden conference accordingly declared that, while it must condemn the whole origin and history of the Meißen conference in the most decided terms, yet since the conference had evidently improved itself, the past should be overlooked; and inasmuch as it had placed itself on the ground of the confessions, all the clergy of Saxony now regarded themselves as invited to this conference. As a result, the conference at Meißen that followed, in the autumn, was very numerously attended. A large part came out of mere curiosity. The leaders of the Dresden conference, on the other hand, did not trust the peace and stayed away. Unfortunately people are already too accustomed to double-dealing, so that someone can assure everyone he stands on the ground of the confessions when his only intention is to trample them underfoot. It is also becoming ever more evident that the Meißen conference, according to a higher wish and will, is meant to represent the golden mean, and thereby to serve as a tugboat to bring the rocking vessel of church government through the opposing currents. For, as it appears, the intention on the part of the ministry in using this last conference was to obtain, from a large number of clergy who did not stand in the odor of the strictest orthodoxy, a favorable testimony for the newly drafted, likewise mediating, church constitution, so as to be able to say, in the negotiations over it in the Estates: a whole conference has spoken out favorably for it. For this reason the chairman, Professor Brückner, also declared that a list of those present, together with the conference's verdict, should be sent to the ministry — a practice quite new in kind, which arouses the most serious misgivings, but which, incidentally, this time completely missed its mark, because the leaders of the sound church party had not come to Meißen, or had not had their names entered on the list. From these events in Saxony we learn once again the old truth, that Union and politics are sister children, in whose affairs scholarship, with its refined formulas, conducts the diplomatic negotiations. ⁂ Literary Intelligence. At the beginning of this year there will appear, published by Liesching in Stuttgart, a new periodical under the title Pastoral-Theological Papers, in monthly numbers of 3 to 4 sheets each, at a price of 1 Thaler 6 Groschen for the half-year, edited by A. Vilmar, Consistorial Councillor and Professor at Marburg, with the cooperation of Löhe, Müller of Beerfelden, and others. It will encompass the whole field of practical church life — that is, the tasks and experiences of the Lutheran pastoral office — and will bring together relevant essays from the most various branches of the scholarly and