# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Januar 1863_S31
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Church and Contemporary History.	31

...church order was cited, without specifying in detail wherein it consisted. If what is meant by this is that I have repeatedly declared that I hold the views underlying the synodical resolutions from the outset — which are, after all, only a part of the church order, and not the foremost part — to be false and unevangelical; that I am nevertheless prepared to conform myself, so far as possible, to the individual resolutions; that in particular I am unable to carry out, in the administration of my office, the Vorsteher-Ordnung [order of elders] and the Kirchenzucht-Ordnung [order of church discipline] as they stand in the synodical resolutions, and am equally unable to recognize the judicial office „of the Church,“ as it is grounded and set forth in the synodical resolutions — as I have indeed further set forth in various writings, being naturally ready to accept refutation from God's Word — then this is correct. In no other way have I wished to be disobedient on principle, nor do I believe I have been, although the conflict in doctrine inevitably had to bring with it various conflicts in practice. To the first and chief article of the church order, the ecclesiastical confession, I believe myself, by God's grace, to have remained altogether faithful.

After thorough deliberation before God, within myself and with members of my congregation — who did not wish to be separated from me by a measure whose reversal, unjust as we held it to be in itself, we could, after all that had gone before, by no means expect, and which took effect at once with its decisive consequences — I renounced, the following day, my hitherto existing ecclesiastical connection with the Ober-Kirchen-Collegium, and thereby declared my office, with respect to those of my former congregation members who wished to hold fast to this connection, to have lapsed of itself. Seven of my church elders, and a not inconsiderable part of my former congregation, the size of which I cannot yet exactly estimate, have on the same day and on the following days thus far followed this step of mine, and have requested of me that I continue to carry on the preaching office among them, which, with the help of the LORD, I am indeed resolved to do. While Pastor Feldner was in the church, I held service on Sunday, the day before Michaelmas, and for the second time yesterday in my dwelling, with numerous attendance.“

Pre-Parliament at Celle. On October 7, at Baurschmidt's invitation, 44 clergymen assembled for a conference, among whom was a fair number of superintendents, and also some from elsewhere, such as Superintendent Alt of Hamburg. Baurschmidt himself was fetched from the railway station like the Hanoverian Ronge, serenaded, and welcomed by maidens dressed in white who strewed flowers before him, and whom he greeted with the words: Suffer the little children to come unto me. All manner of tokens of honor were to make the day unforgettable and crown his deed. The conference, opened with prayer and closed with the hymn that has unfortunately become the Protestant Marseillaise, A Mighty Fortress, etc., paid Baurschmidt its homage for having, with manly courage, broken the hard ice, and deliberated on its business, concerning the catechism and the synod. It agreed in its resolutions, first, to recognize „the principles of the evangelical Church, as the Reformers established it, grounded on the Word of God in the Bible“ as the rule of doctrine and of faith. The foremost of these principles, freedom of faith and conscience, does not even allow the authority of the Bible to arise; naturally the confessions could not be mentioned at all. Further, it was resolved that every Lutheran clergyman must yield to the will of the congregation should it demand the old catechism; for him, then, freedom of faith and conscience does not exist. Finally, it was resolved to work toward a synod, and for this purpose to convene a kind of Durlach assembly of clergy and laity, which will no doubt set a new movement in motion. Schenkel was not present, and Baurschmidt, who should have been the guiding spirit, showed no gifts for it. Many thought they could detect in him the insignificance already written on the brow of his pamphlet „Test Everything.“ He will very soon be worn out. (Dr. Münkel's Zeitblatt.)