Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1954, Page 14

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14 Proceedings of the Forty-Third Convention,

As we are met here today, our hearts are filled with anxiety
and concern for the future. It is apparent that we are no longer
speaking the same language, and it is no secret that the harmony
which once prevailed among us no longer exists.

It is strange indeed that things have come to such a pass.
We have one Lord, one faith, one Baptism, one God and Father.
We all accept the Scriptures as the inerrant Word of our Savior
in all its parts and in all its words. There is none among us who
knowingly or willingly would go contrary to the Scriptures in
doctrine or in practice. We all subscribe to the same Confessions,
and we do this without reservation, not inasmuch as, but because
they square with the truth of the Gospel. We all daily pray that
the Lord would preserve us from error and pernicious doctrine.
And still the bond of peace has been loosened.

What has enabled Satan — for it is Satan’s work — to achieve
this? I wonder whether I am far from the mark when I state as one
of the reasons for the present straitened conditions the failure on
our part to follow Paul’s exhortation of Eph. 4:1-3: “I, therefore,
the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the
vocation wherewith ye are called, with all lowliness and meekness,
with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love; endeavoring
to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” It seems
to me that particularly we of the younger generation have taken
the Synodical Conference too much for granted. We did not
experience the isolation and loneliness of the fathers. Some of us
have grown strong and powerful and therefore are in danger of
not appreciating the blessings of fellowship with kindred spirits,
for which the fathers longed and which they so laboriously
established. Hence we were indifferent and slack in our endeavor
to. keep the unity of the Spirit. This word “endeavoring” has
nothing nonchalant or lackadaisical in its definition. It means
something more strenuous and energetic than a halfhearted or
listless attempt to do something. This word means to be zealous,
to make an eager and earnest effort; it means to labor and to toil.
And so we ask ourselves: Have we really endeavored to keep this
unity of the Spirit? Have we earnestly labored to preserve the
bond of peace at the price of toil? Have we been aware of the
implications and the comprehensiveness of the “forbearing one
another in love?” And what of our lowliness and meekness and
long-suffering when dealing with one another? As we ponder
these questions, let us not ask, Who is guilty? Let us rather in
all sincerity ask, What share of guilt do I bear in the loosening
of the bonds which the fathers welded after many years of effort
and labor, because I did not endeavor with all the power at my
command to keep the unity of the Spirit?

When men submit to the Word of God and are eager to follow
its leading, no situation in life can be hopeless. Likewise, the
slackened relations within the Synodical Conference can again be
made as firm as they were in 1872. However, this cannot and
should not be done by any rationalization, not by any formula of
compromise or resolutions of expediency. We are all willing to
bow to the Word of God, and we shall and must let this Word
direct our thinking and our speaking. However, when we do this,
let us follow the example of the fathers, who met and solved sim-
ilar problems of their day by exercising patience and forbearance