# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Juli 1859_S199
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Some Glosses on This Year's Sessions of the So-called, Etc.                                                      199

the beginning of obedience toward God, the beginning of Christian
brotherly love. Instead, the clever, American-Lutheran politics took an
underhanded, roundabout way, one that could not have been more
dishonest, more unlutheran, and more unbiblical. What dishonesty it is,
first to smuggle someone into a society, and only afterward — merely to
save appearances — to ask formally whether he might perhaps be so kind
as to submit to the order of the society! How unlutheran it is to receive
someone as a brother in the faith into a fellowship of faith, to extend to
him the hand of brotherhood, and only then to ask and inquire whether he
even wishes to be a brother. A contemptible game of "hush, hush" in
matters of faith. — How utterly unbiblical, to unite with false teachers,
and indeed so closely that there is no more intimate brotherly union on
earth than this, namely to share the same confession and communion at
the Lord's Supper, with those of whom one ought rather to "beware,"
from whom one should "withdraw," "go out and separate oneself," whom
one "should not receive into one's house nor even greet." — But what has
the General Synod to do with the Word of God, where it presumes to let
its own cleverness stand in the way of its own plans?

The pretty resolution for admitting the Melanchthon Synod was
submitted by Dr. Krauth Jr. to the venerable body; it reads as follows:
"Resolved: that we cordially admit the Melanchthon Synod, and would
affectionately request the brethren of that Synod, to express officially,
with a clearness which shall remove all doubt, their adhesion to the
principles of Synodical division recognized by the General Synod
(Art. 3, Sect. 8) and we would fraternally solicit them to consider if the
removal from their doctrinal basis of the paragraph in regard to certain
alleged errors would not tend to the promotion of mutual love and the
furtherance of the objects for which we are laboring together." — What
kind of ecclesiastical body is it, that could even have such a resolution
proposed to it without the utmost indignation? First, then, the
Melanchthon Synod is to be admitted "cordially," with love and joy. But
why with love? What is there about it that is lovable? Does it not attack
the very apple of the Lutheran Church's eye, her confession — does it not
tear it to pieces, does it not bring in "poison," does it not steal from
Christians the means of salvation? And after it has been admitted, they
intend to ask it, brotherly, to consider whether the removal of a
paragraph from its doctrinal basis, concerning certain alleged errors,
might not tend to promote mutual love and the shared work. Could there
be a more pitiful mealy-mouthedness, anything more effeminate, than such
chatter! So there is not even enough manliness, not even enough courage,
to venture to express directly, to a Dr. Kurtz and his associates, the
request for a change to the doctrinal paragraph. No — one only asks
them, brotherly, to consider whether the change might not tend to
promote mutual