# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_November 1861_S348
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

348 Church Contemporary News.

a writer, wishing to appear Lutheran, from the Union church, who here
indeed outbids himself in broad-mindedness, in that it is plain these
gentlemen Unionists feel the ground burning under their feet, so that
they would even unite with the Pope at Rome, or rather return to him in
penitence. *

Church Contemporary News.

I. America.

The Canada Synod, which was founded only this year, at its recently
held convention passed, among others, the following resolution: "1. Resolved, that
this synod acknowledges Holy Scripture, Old and New Testament, as the sole infallible rule of
faith, doctrine, and life; 2. resolved, that we, as a Lutheran synod, acknowledge not only
the three ecumenical creeds of the Christian Church, but also, to distinguish ourselves from
other denominations, the symbolical books of the Lutheran Church, namely the unaltered
Augsburg Confession and Luther's Small Catechism, accepting these as rule and guide in the
interpretation of Holy Scripture." There is nothing to object to in this confession, if it is
sincerely meant, except that it must then seem strange that the synod does not likewise
confess the Apology, the Smalcald Articles, and the Formula of Concord, but names outright
only two of our church's symbolical books. It hardly seems unfair to entertain the
suspicion that the confession of the Canada Synod is, after all, not meant so seriously,
since it has joined the creedless General Synod. It is bad enough when synods that wish to
be orthodox remain within this unionistic body; but when such a synod actually enters it
now, of all times — after God, in these recent years, has out of grace given America so
bright a light — that is truly sad, and inspires little confidence in such a synod.

The suicide of a preacher, the editor of the "Methodist Pro-
testant," a man of excellent reputation, is reported in that very paper itself, as
follows: "With this issue of the Methodist Protestant it has become our
sorrowful duty to record the saddest event ever entered in its
columns since the first day of its publication as a religious newspaper.
The Rev. E. A. Reese, D.D., is no more; and would to God the
simple notice of this sad event were all that needed to be said, but it
must be added that this gifted, lovable, and inestimable brother
found death by his own hand. He committed the dreadful deed in
a paroxysm of madness, cutting his throat with a razor,
in his own house in this city (Philadelphia), on the 14th of September. We
have no wish to go into the sad details of this heartrending tragedy,
but will simply set down a few of the main facts. Like a thousand others,
Dr. Reese had been very heavily weighed down by the unhappy and sorrowful
condition of the country, out of anxiety, as it seemed, that he and his
motherless children — five in number, and all of them still young — would
soon be reduced to great want and destitution. From this fear he
evidently suffered very deeply and intensely, and yet we firmly believe
that it was only the immediate, precipitating cause of a derangement of
mind and mental collapse whose true source lies elsewhere entirely.
Without doubt his mind was overloaded and overworked by numerous and
varied and difficult duties, which, out of his own characteristic loving
benevolence, he had taken it upon himself to fulfill, and did in fact
fulfill, with wonderful punctuality, for a number of years. In the
confusion of his mind and its agitated activity, Dr. Reese fell under the
unconquerable impression that he had grievously sinned against God through