# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Mai 1862_S155
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Church-Contemporary History. 155

at the same time composed in a skillful style and with rhetorical pathos, whereby the layman in these sciences can easily be led astray as to its worth; the expert, by contrast, will already, on a cursory review, perceive at once that here a mass of facts, true and false, has been hastily and superficially heaped together, which the author was unable to digest, and which he now seeks to turn to account according to his own tendencies and on the principle that only the wretched are modest. I do not think it worth my while to honor with a special refutation the crude errors and windy bluster of an arrogant young man who ought first to learn thoroughly before he begins to teach; I turn away, rather, with indignation from this impudent piece of hackwork by a charlatan who, already standing in the service of the most tasteless superstition, has now also made it his business to proclaim the crudest materialism. I have brought this in itself utterly worthless book into discussion only as a contribution to the characterization of North American conditions, in the intellectual and especially the religious sphere, at the present time."

Luther's Writings. The Lutheran of Philadelphia, in its number of April 17, announces the publications of our Luther Society, and closes with the remark: "For the information of our readers we add further that the above-named books are obtainable only in the German language. How sad that, despite the existence of our Publication Society, it has not been possible for years to supply our membership with translations of the writings of the great Reformer!" God grant that this reminder may not be fruitless.

Advisory Members. In the so-called General Synod it is the custom to admit all ministers who are introduced to it as guests into the number of advisory members, whether these be Lutherans or Presbyterians, Methodists, Baptists, etc. Against this improper custom the Philadelphia Lutheran of April 24 takes a stand. First it shows that this practice is unconstitutional; for, 1. according to the Constitution, the General Synod is to consist of deputies from the various evangelical-Lutheran conventions of the United States; 2. the representation is to stand in a fixed, equal proportion to those represented; 3. it is not the General Synod but each individual synod that has the right to elect its representatives; 4. the General Synod is to consist only of representatives of Lutheran bodies; 5. the General Synod was chosen to be an advisory body, and therefore, naturally, those would be chosen from whom good counsel is especially expected; 6. the General Synod rests on the principle of equal lay representation. In the second place, that custom is incompatible with the true character and dignity of the General Synod, in that it turns its first deliberation into idle stump-oratory. — We fear that the good "Lutheran," to speak with Terence, will sooner wash a brick white than make the General Synod Lutheran by such well-meant criticisms.

II. Abroad.

Weinsberg. On February 22 died Justinus Kerner, born 1786, thus standing in his 76th year of life.

Prussian-Lutheran Church. Ehlers writes in his Kirchliches Zeitblatt of February 15: "It is significant, the communication of Pastor Diedrich, that our General Synods are regarded as non-existent, and that, according to the Ministers' declaration, the General Concession was not meant to be a privilege for a Lutheranism, but rather for certain historically arisen congregations, under certain individuals offering the government a guarantee. — Certainly this communication gives all readers something quite new; for hitherto we have all supposed that the General Concession was given to us in honor of Lutheranism. So it stands, however, as it seems, and falls with persons. But it is, as I am convinced, simply that another church-age is in the making (it is being born amid strong birth-pangs), and then the General Concession will of itself lose the significance which it has hitherto had in our eyes."