Lutheran Church in America,' had solved the problem of a religious synthesis between East and West, a social synthesis between frontier and city, the problem of organized Protestantism itself. Its leaders planned an apostolic Protestant union, and in 1846 its guiding genius, Professor S. S. Schmucker, was given cheerful credit for the initiative in the organization of the Evangelical Alliance at London.2 Nor was Professor Schaff, the leading spirit of the Reformed church, opposed to this principle. To him, as late as 1857, Amèrica seemed to be destined to become "the phoenix grave of all European churches and sects, of Protestantism and Romanism." In the light of its activities in recent years, the General Synod cannot be called a slacker in contributing its bit to the fulfillment of this prophecy.4

Of course, it was said by a prominent member of the church itself that "a large body of men in our church have no knowledge of her history, no sympathy with her doctrine, no idea of her true character, and whose conception of the church is that of a kind of mongrel Methodistic Presbyterianism." It was also said by others that it was a concoction of rationalism and sentimentalism. But stressing the American spirit to be that of fellowship, that organ of the church,

' Unionism: According to Synod of Pennsylvania constitution, revision of 1841, par. 17, ministers of the Evangelical church of Prussia, Baden, and other countries of Germany (i.e., coming from the United church) were to be treated like those of the Lutheran state churches. Kraushaar, op. cit., p. 253. Secession of East Pennsylvania Synod, 1842. Protest against this "discrimination against American pastors in favor of European," ibid., p. 255. (European pastors so specified could be refused admission by a two-thirds majority. American pastors and all others needed a two-thirds majority for admission.) Kraushaar, op. cit., p. 256. This provision is dropped with the constitution of 1867. Bente, I, 15-16, 40, 42, 45, 136, 5–7, 36, 7-8, 13-14, 58.

That the unionism in Prussia cut a wide breach into the walls of the church through which the rationalists entered, see Evangelische Kirchen Zeitung (1856); also J. Mueller, "Die Union," Kirchenfreund (1856), pp. 210-14. The Kirchenfreund is always in very close touch with unionist or anti-unionist tendencies in Germany.

General Synod Statistics, 1,823: 900 churches, 175 ministers, 24, 794 communicants, 208 Congregational schools; 1843: 424 pastors, 1,374 congregations, 146, 343 communicants (Bente, I, 95-96).

Compare Muehlenberg's position. Lutheran Church Review, January 13, 1888. Bente, I, 73, 84-91.

2 Bente, II, 63 ff.

3 Bente, II, 58.

♦ Bente, II, 1-11; also A. R. Wentz, The Lutheran Church (1923).

s Bente, II, 90-91. Bente, II, 93 (1885, 1906).

the Lutheran Observer, found adequate compensation in the mission, "to open the blind eyes and to convert our Teutonic people from the letters of its language and customs to the light and to the liberty of this Bible-loving, Sabbath-keeping, water-drinking, church-going, and God-fearing country." The church began early with the adoption of the English language, the acknowledgment and toleration of the lodges, and proceeded in its fellowship with the sects.'

If the church had sloughed off the doctrinal rigorism of the sixteenth century, it could make up by introducing the anxious seat as a "lever of Archimedes, which, by the blessing of God, can raise our German churches to that degree of respectability in the religious world which they ought to enjoy." So strong was at one time the rush in that direction that mourners had to be asked to withdraw from the church into the parsonage so that the synod might proceed 1 Bente, II, 81.

* Tennessee. First opposition to the General Synod and secession Synod of North Carolina. Bente, I, 198 ff. Attitude of Tennessee toward creed and history, elements of the Augsburg creed, and symbols which Synod of North Carolina rejected. Bente, I, 11931, 198 (the Heuckels). The unionism of North Carolina is that of Shober, a Moravian. Creed: Synodal-vereinigung Creed, 1748 (Pennsylvania Synod, VI, par. 2, Ministerial Order 1781, documentary history of the Evangelical Lutheran Ministerium of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 1898). Liability of ministry to the symbolic books given up in revision of 1792 (Kraushaar, op.cit., p. 245). Revision of 1867. Admission of confession to all the synods of the Lutheran church, synodical order, par. 11. In modern synodical constitutions Creed basis of 1864 of the districts of the General Synod (Kraushaar, op. cit., p. 399). "The synodical order of the General Synod has no confessional paragraph," but unchanged Augsburg Confession is the proper foundation of the Synod. If part of a member community repudiates it, the remaining part of the corporation is recognized as a legitimate member (Kraushaar, op. cit., p. 400). For the influence of creed, orthodoxy, on synergistic practice, attitude toward altar and pulpit community, mixed communities, Methodists, secret societies, Turners, Socialists, and freethinkers, see Kraushaar, op. cit., p. 400. But for the actual practice in disregard of constitutional limitations, see Bente: controversial problems, Bente, II, 115-17; history and fate of the general platform, Bente, II, 93-117; attitude of General Synod toward, Bente, II, 117-30; later disruptions, Bente, II, 130–45.

3 New measures: Bente, II, 87. Revivalism: influence on constitutions, North Carolina (Kraushaar, op. cit., p. 276); on Tennessee Synod, ibid., p. 289. General reaction vs. autonomy of the community in favor of synodical power, tightening of confessional bond, group integration, and increased sectional consciousness (Kraushaar, op. cit., p. 294). Cause of doctrinal disputes, Bente, I, 131-34; sketch of early history, Bente, I, 77; description "worse than whiskey," see Kirchliche Mitteilungen (1843), Nos. 2 and 5. In the General Synod, reaction sets in against in 1845, but 1875 seasons of quickening; in 1881, synod for catechization.

with business. Unfortunately, with the coming of the "new measures," the parochial schools began to languish. If some people came in by way of the anxious seat, others, by the sawdust trail, straggled out of the German fold. They became domesticated to a different Christianity from that of their fathers, socialized through a different set of religious exercises from those that Muehlenberg had brought from Halle. They became agitated to put themselves in harmony with their social universe otherwise than in terms of the older religious sanctions thereof. They became accustomed to respond to a new type of leadership and go with a different crowd. The first grumbling against the liberalism of the "new measures," therefore, came, as in the eighteenth century, from those constituent groups of

'Language: German, Ebenezer, until 1824 (Bente, I, 20). 1827, petitions on the language question. After 1828, English growing (Bente, I, 150-52). Tennessee Synod committed to the German language (Bente, I, 161). Germans and English do not get along together. New York, 1774 (Bente, I, 37). English church organized 1804; goes into the Episcopalian fold 1810 (Bente, I, 38). Braune, Belehrungen (1828), for statistics of transition. Immigrants very few join the English churches; slow to form new social connections (Morris, Fifty Years, pp. 375-89; Kraushaar, passim). Transition from German to English means transition to an English-speaking church, or complete isolation, G. Fritschel, Geschichte, I, 35; letter of Falckner, 1702). Trinity Congregation, St. Louis first constitution (par. 14). Later, by-laws (par. 7) becomes a new model after 1850 (Kraushaar, op. cit., p. 255). Difference of language as synodical organ cause of secession of East Pennsylvania Synod. Pennsylvania Synod had limited itself to one language, ibid., p. 255. Revision of 1792, amendment (1805): Ministerium commits itself to the German language as official synodical language; concerning English congregations, treatment thereof, see Kraushaar, op. cit., p. 252. Valid until 1841. Model constitution for daughter synods, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Maryland, Virginia, and West Pennsylvania. General influence of this constitution, Kraushaar, op. cit., p. 252. With Constitution of 1867, Synod becomes bilingual (ibid., p. 256). Missouri (II, 7), makes sole use of German language in synodical meetings, condition of membership (I, 2): "Amtssprache soll die Deutsche sein und bleiben." German predominating, New York, Man. Nebraska (C) (S.K.) Wart. Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, Ohio Buff. Iowa, Imm. Jeh. for those who only accept communities and pastors with service in English, see Kraushaar, op. cit., p. 401.

Peculiarities of German language congregations pointing toward creed: heterogeneous in origin, mixed element coming from all parts of Germany, no likemindedness, outside influences; personality of pastor counts for more than church constitution; petty, quarrelsome, miserly (abundant evidence).

Inherent interest of the group and church; uniform creed acknowledged in constitution and sworn to would eliminate quarrels and lawsuits; definite and uniform constitutional provisions; definite relative delimitation of rights; get the women interested. German parochial independentism and sectionalism is a fright. Kirchenfreund (1856), pp. 96-101.

the General Synod which had a larger element of Germans. New measures were a language sectional issue; underneath there was the domestic Methodism of the family farm militating against the methodism of emotional religion. On the surface, the objections of the new immigration were concentrated upon the centralization of power in the General Synod, upon its synergism, its new measures, its doctrinal laxity.

A new principle of group centrism, a principle around which a general will could remain integrated, was wanted. The consensus had to be rationalized anew. The religious group owed its existence to the fact that it had identified itself with a real want of a culture group. If it had outgrown the language sectionalism of that group, it needed to endear itself to that group in some new way. Its own inherent interest continued to coincide with some of the wants of that group.

The trail that led to the camp meeting of the Methodist or Baptist churches had led through the jungle. First came a period of cultural attrition in the wilderness. A generation grew up which, if it had no creed, knew no church; if it had no parochial school, it had no language; a generation which spoke neither German nor English. Utterly inarticulate, it understood only what came from the flesh. When its gregarious instinct, its Eros, drove it to seek human fellowship on a higher plane, the mourners' bench was the logical medium for a new spiritual experience, the weird sounds of a revival sometimes the only available expression thereof. Such new measures, if they did release a new man, as has been suggested, did not lead back to the old church. But the ministers of the new dispensation did not always play the game fairly. In the beginning at least, muscular Christianity sometimes hit below the belt. But even with the competition for souls altogether fair in its means, the Lutherans of the General Synod were handicapped. Their traditional technique was indoctrination. But here was a situation in which they had forgotten their doctrines, and if they had not forgotten the Augsburg Confession, they had lost the language and "meaning" thereof. In such a situation the new churches of the many camp-grounds proved dangerous rivals. The Archimedic lever worked the other way. In the struggle for a status and for power, its synergism had helped-in the

struggle for converts it was bound to leave the Lutheran church at a disadvantage in the presence of more powerful rivals. Time was against it.

The situation pointed in the direction of the immigrant, and the new Germans pointed in the direction of a creed as the logical principle of group centrism for the Lutheran church. Furthermore, they came to be very positive in that direction. Creed Gemeinschaft with them was a condition of church fellowship and Genossenschaft. Their faith, their Christianity, had been rationalized within the meaning of a creed; thus far rationalism, humanism, had done its work in a European German city of God, whose rational principle of socialization is indoctrination.' In a creed, then, the new Germans would seek a charisma that meant salvation in the promised land. This much the fathers of the General Synod realized full well. In a letter to Germany it was intimated, in 1845, that the immigrants must not set up a new German church on American soil, that they might join with a good conscience the General Synod. A creed, then, acceptable to both Germans and Americans, the General Synod must have. It began to admit that "external organic union is not an end per se divine." The intrasocial as well as the intersocial process now prompted a search for a creed principle of unity, as well as union within the Lutheran church. But while it was admitted that "all endeavors at union which disregarded the divine norm of Christian fellowship are anti-scriptural," to Americans that divine norm lay not in tradition. They would accept the Bible as the fundamental law of their church, but not history as normative nor the precedents thereof as binding. Sailing into a great future "on the wings of the morning," they looked ahead, but not back. They looked around, thought, and found the majority principle of consensus. It might work in religion. Why should not a working majority of Lutherans in America count for more than a few dead ones in Germany? Their attitude toward history can perhaps be characterized by this: "We can do as well, nay, better, than those who have lived three hundred years ago. We are standing on the shoulders of a giant and can see farther than he. An intelligent Sunday-school child has a clearer insight into the plan of salvation than John the Baptist, the greatest 'Bente, II, passim; also Wentz, pp. 135, 163-64.