# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Juni 1861_S175
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Dr. Reynolds and the Lutheran Observer, on etc. 175

congregation members belongs not merely examination, licensure, and
ordination, but also actual doctrinal discipline. This latter, he holds, is
the office of the whole synod, whose members are both preachers and
hearers; and if it is exercised by preachers alone, this is a presumption
and an encroachment on the rights of the synod's members drawn from
the body of hearers, one that offends against the doctrine of the church
and against Scripture. This right is by no means communicated to the
ministerium or to the preachers through ordination, for ordination is
only the public confirmation of the call already made by the
congregation, through which the office was already conferred
beforehand. The ministerium, he holds, should be left only examination,
licensure, and ordination, in the name and on behalf of the synod, but
in such a way that the examination takes place in the presence of the
whole synod, and that ordination is not conferred before a call has been
extended by a congregation, as is the German practice, but only after
such a call has taken place.

One sees that Dr. Reynolds professes the pure doctrine of the
preaching office, although he is unwilling to give up the licensing
system. Against this, however, the Observer of April 12, in a critique
of Dr. Reynolds's essay, now maintains that between preachers and
hearers there is not merely a difference of office, but that the preaching
office carries with it certain prerogatives and specific functions. What
else would ordination be for? "The preacher," it continues, "is, as a
member of the Christian church, wholly equal to the laity, but in his
official character he is different from them, or the office is nothing.
The president of the United, or Confederated, States has, as a citizen,
no claim to greater respect, and his private acts are of no greater
importance than those of any other citizen; but once he is installed in
his office and has taken his oath, his official acts are then clothed with
an authority and power that can be communicated only through the
office. It is the same with the Christian preacher." The Observer thus
teaches that it is only through the official character communicated in
ordination that the word of God and the sacraments become powerful
and effective. — As to the passage from Luther, in which he says that
a group of Christians cast away on a desert island may choose and
ordain a preacher for themselves, the Observer holds that too great a
weight should not be placed on it, and that the prerogatives of the
spiritual office should therefore not be denied — although he himself
tells a most remarkable story about a certain Adams, which serves as
an example of that very saying of Luther's, and at the same time
demonstrates, in an edifying way, the wonderful power of the divine
word apart from any ordination or official character. Adams and his
companions, namely, had made themselves guilty of mutiny on an
English ship and had landed on Pitcairn Island, after they had set the
captain and the mate adrift in a boat and left them to the waves. Those
sailors were no God-fearing men. They quarreled with one another so
long that all were killed except Adams. After the death of his
companions, he began to