# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_November 1859_S349
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Church-Historical Current Events. 349

...withdrawn from the Buffalo synodical association in a lawful manner and joined the Iowa synodical association. Oh, this really goes beyond all bounds. Enough."

Gettysburg. At last the local German professor here, Dr. Schäffer, has been permitted to give instruction, in all branches of theology, to those students who do not understand English, and — to those to whom the German language is foreign and who desire it — in that language.

Pastor Krause, formerly a member of the Buffalo Synod, a preacher in Pekin, Illinois, has at last become a member of the Synod of Illinois.

The United Brethren in Christ. At the Iowa Conference of this sect it was resolved: "That, since there is an inclination on the part of our preachers to suppress pride, they be requested to run the razor over their own beards, as they did in former years." So reports the sect's own paper, the "Cheerful Messenger," in Dayton, Ohio, of September 29.

The Ministerium of New York has adopted the resolution: "The Ministerium confesses itself, together with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of our fathers, bound to the Word of God, as contained in the canonical books of the Old and New Testaments, as the sole infallible rule of our faith and conduct, and to the (—) Augsburg Confession as a correct presentation of the fundamental doctrines of the divine faith of our Church, founded upon this Word." So reports the Kirchenbote.

There are now 126,000 Mormons in all parts of the world, of whom 38,000 live in Utah; these consist of 4,617 men, with 16,500 women and 17,000 children. (Historisches Zeitblatt.)

The General Synod. In the Lutheran Observer of September 16 there appears an article by a member of the Miami Synod, which belongs to the General Synod, in which the writer defends, on the part of the Miami Synod, the reception of Pastor Swartz, who had been excluded by the English District Synod of Ohio. The writer sets forth as the second point of accusation: "Swartz has fallen away from the doctrines of the Lutheran Church, both in doctrine and in practice"; and adds: "Undoubtedly he has done so.. But can a preacher be cast out of the Church and deposed on account of such a fault? Then the great majority of Lutheran preachers in the United States would have to be deposed from the holy preaching office.. Perhaps the reason why Brother Swartz was expelled and deposed might be simply expressed in these words: he believed that the doctrinal errors of which the Augsburg Confession is accused are actually contained in it. If that is so, then he is guilty along with a great many others who belong to the fellowship of the General Synod."

The Melanchthon Synod. — As is well known, the General Synod, at its meeting in Pittsburg this past June, received the Melanchthon Synod into its fellowship with the request that it officially and plainly declare its recognition of the principle, valid in the General Synod, of the division of the synods, and with the counsel that it revise its "doctrinal basis," in which it had declared certain principal doctrines of the Augsburg Confession to be errors. To this request and this counsel the president of the Melanchthon Synod, Dr. B. Kurtz, now gives, in his synodical report for this year, the following answer — one that characterizes not only him and his synod, but also casts a remarkable light on the state of affairs within the General Synod. It reads in the "Observer" of October 14: "Against the counsel contained in the above resolution (namely, that of the General Synod, regarding the reception of the Melanchthon Synod), there is not merely nothing to object, but it is worthy of all praise, and, in my judgment, all our synods ought faithfully to adhere to its spirit. But since it will be evident to them that most of the other synods have departed from it far more than the Melanchthon Synod — whose very insignificant deviation has been so severely censured — we may not, without making ourselves guilty of the charge of a lack of respect, rightly cite here the pointed word of the Apostle: 'If the righteous is scarcely saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?' I propose that our synod place itself among the first of the six