# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_October 1859_S306
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

306 Correspondence to Germany.

but the congregations freely exercise their rights themselves, and the Synod, the totality of the individual congregations, only stands by them, in its representatives from the ranks of pastors and hearers, as an advisory body, and exercises through its authorities a fatherly oversight over them. That in itself you cannot attack; indeed you confess yourselves already defeated by this one argument, that we find this polity to be the most wholesome and best for us, and you yourselves grant that we do indeed have the essential features that seem to you necessary for the government of free congregations. And yet you are still full of misgivings about our polity, feel moved to chide us lovingly, and fear great and serious dangers. That would be impossible if your view were not clouded by the unbiblical, unlutheran doctrine of a church standing over the congregations — as though a baptized, believing Christian in a single, independently standing congregation were not yet a member of the church, whereas the church is supposed to be nothing other than a free communion of faith. But we can say with confidence: come and see. That we practice discipline of doctrine you have already convinced yourself of; you have also seen, in the chiliastic dispute, an actual example of how matters proceed with us in such cases. Either, if the matter cannot be settled definitively at once within the congregation itself, the parties obtain an opinion from the Synod or its authorities; or one party requests a review and the other submits; or the matter comes up for discussion at the visitation of the congregation. There, through careful, faithful, correct application of the Word of God, either the matter is thoroughly settled, or a stubborn, unbending disposition reveals itself, which lets all the patience and labor of love spent on it prove vain, and so in the end brings about the cutting off of such a dead member — which is exactly the last act of love that can still take place in such a case, and according to Scripture ought to take place. — If a congregation is left without a preacher, it as a rule turns first to the president of the district synod concerned, or, in case it must set its sights on a candidate, to the directors of our theological institutions. There its circumstances, needs, and wishes are carefully weighed, the available men and their qualifications well considered, and the congregation is then advised to the best of one's knowledge and ability — such advice being not merely gratefully received but also faithfully heeded. — At the visitations of the district presidents, every effort is made to ascertain whether the congregations are indeed building on the foundation of their most holy faith, and to that end counsel, instruction, and encouragement are faithfully given. The visitation of the general president has, moreover, the particular purpose of watching and see[illegible] all the individual parts of our great synodical body in [illegible] of the purpose of the whole show[illegible] all diligence and all good faithfulness; the congregations, however, are kept informed through the annual reports of the presidents and through det[illegible] accounts of the state of the individual congregations,