59. Descent Increasingly Swift.--The Lutheran Church has always held
that, as faith cannot and must not be coerced, the broadest tolerance as
to matters of conscience and religion should govern the policy of the
State everywhere. On the other hand, the Lutheran Church maintains that,
as truth is absolutely intolerant of error, and error is the direct
denial of truth, the Christian Church dare not in any shape or manner
give recognition to false teaching, but, on the contrary, is bound
always to reject it and to confess God's truth alone. Indifferentism as
to false doctrine and practise has ever proved to be the most deadly
foe of true Lutheranism, which, essentially, is but another name for
consistent Christianity. Lutheranism and doctrinal indifferentism are
just as destructive mutually as are truth and falsehood. Also the
history of the Pennsylvania Synod offers ample proof of this law. In the
days of Muhlenberg, Lutherans began to doubt that their doctrinal
position, as presented in the Lutheran Symbols, alone is of divine right
in the Christian Church, and alone in complete keeping with the
Scriptures. Then they began to defend themselves as also being in the
right and standing for truth; then, to apologize for their presence in
America; then, to be ashamed of themselves and publicly to deny the
distinctive tenets of Lutheranism; and, finally, to oppose its
doctrines, champion their counterpart, and practically embrace
sectarianism. Muhlenberg had lived to see the beginning of the end of
true Lutheranism when Franklin College was opened. The descent was
increasingly swift. In 1792 the confession of the Lutheran Symbols was
omitted in the new constitution of the Ministerium. And when, under the
influence of Quitman, the New York Ministerium became rationalistic, the
Pennsylvania Synod made no protest, administered no rebuke, and did not
sever its fraternal relations with it. Moreover, in a measure, they
opened their own doors to Rationalism; the German language was regarded
as being of greater import than faithful adherence to the Lutheran
Confessions; and refuge against the inroads of Rationalism and the
English language was sought in a union with the German Reformed and the
German Moravians. The utter degeneration of the Pennsylvania Synod
appears from the new Agenda, concerning which Synod resolved in 1818
that it be introduced in all German congregations of the Ministerium.
In this Book there were embodied also forms designed to satisfy the
Rationalists. Two of the forms for administering the Sacrament of
Baptism contained no confession of faith. The confession to the
Lutheran Church was stricken from the form for Confirmation. In two of
the forms for the administration of the Lord's Supper the Union formula
of distribution was employed, _viz_., "Jesus says: Take and eat--Jesus
says: Take and drink ye all of it," etc. The second form contained the
following general invitation: "In the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and
Master, I say to all who acknowledge Him as their Savior, and are
determined to be His faithful followers: You are welcome at this Feast
of Love." (669.) The second formula for burials had a rationalistic
tang. And the formulas of ordination and licensure no longer demanded
adherence to the Lutheran Confessions. (669.)
60. Intrenching behind the German Language.--The Christian Church,
hence also the Lutheran Church, views every language, Hebrew, Greek, and
Latin, as well as German and English, not as an end, but always as a
means only toward furthering her real end, the regeneration and
salvation of souls. According to Loehe's _Kirchliche Mitteilungen_ of
1845, No. 5, a German emigrant wrote shortly after his arrival in
America: "I cannot sufficiently thank God for the grace bestowed upon
me; for when I for the first time heard the language of Canaan
[English], the language of the New Jerusalem, I was immediately and
deeply moved by the Spirit of God and was caught like tinder." This was
certainly not the attitude of the German Lutheran ministers of the
Pennsylvania Synod, some of whom, going to the other extreme, were in
danger of viewing the English, as compared with the German, as
impregnated with the spirit of rationalism and infidelity. Riding, as it
were, on the language, rationalism had made its public entry into the
New York Ministerium. The real cause, however, was not the language, but
the indifferentism and unionism prevailing within this body, which long
ago had paved the way for, indeed, had itself bred, religious unbelief.
However, mistaking what was merely accidental and a concomitant for the
chief and real cause of the calamity in the New York Ministerium,
prominent German ministers of the Pennsylvania Synod, in order to guard
against a similar turn of events in their own midst, frantically opposed
the use of the English language in the Synod and her congregations, and
placed such emphasis on the German as made it an end _per se_ peculiar
to the Lutheran Church rather than a means employed wherever and
whenever the conditions call for it in order to attain her real and
supreme object--the saving of souls. Men like J. H. C. Helmuth and J.
F. Schmidt, in a way, identified English and Rationalism, German and
Lutheranism (that is to say, unionistic Evangelicalism). Lamenting the
inroads that Rationalism was making also in Lutheran congregations, they
wrote: "But now the Protestant churches are threatened by a terrible
storm, which is not the mere consequence of the natural course of
things, but a _sign of this time_, and it will soon despoil them of the
treasures of their Church together with all their happiness, unless
teachers and parents will counteract it with united strength. Almost
universally, especially in the cities and at the boundaries, they are
beginning to educate the children exclusively in the English language,
and, in a manner for which they will not be able to answer, to neglect
them as regards the German services. This is the consequence of the
indifference and the disregard of sound doctrine which, in the present
hour of great temptation, is spreading over the face of the earth." But
instead of stemming the tide of Rationalism by returning to Lutheran
faithfulness, they ignored the Lutheran Confessions and intrenched
themselves behind the German language and the "brethren" in the German
Reformed and German Moravian churches. The general church-prayer of the
Agenda of 1786, universally introduced in the congregations of the
Pennsylvania Synod, contained the passage: "And since it has pleased
Thee [God] to transform this State [Pennsylvania] into a blooming
garden, the deserts into delightful meadows, grant that we may not
forget our nation, but strive to have our dear youth educated in such a
manner that German churches and schools may not only be maintained, but
brought to a flourishing condition, ever increasing." (404.) In 1812 the
_Evangelisches Magazin_ appeared "under the auspices of the German
Evangelical Lutheran Synod," Pastors Helmuth and Schmidt being the
editors. Its avowed purpose, however, was not to represent Lutheranism,
but specifically to bolster up the cause of the German and to oppose the
introduction of the English language. The "Proposal to Synod" concerning
the new German paper states: "1. We want to aid the German language as
much as we can, because we are convinced that, with her language, our
Church will lose unspeakably much, and, finally, for the most part, even
her very existence under her [Lutheran] name. 2. We know the days of the
great apostasy in Europe. . . . Also this devouring monster could be
counteracted by a well-arranged _Evangelisches Magazin_." (544.) In 1813
the _Magazin_ contained a series of articles urging the Reformed and
Lutherans to stand together against all attempts at introducing English.
The English language, it is said, is too poor to furnish an adequate
translation of the German prayers and hymns and books of devotion.
English congregations could not remain either Lutheran or Reformed,
because "our religious writings are all German." Revealing his Utopian
dreams, the writer continues: "What would Philadelphia be in forty years
if the Germans there were to remain German, and retain their language
and customs? It would not be forty years until Philadelphia would be a
German city, just as York and Lancaster are German counties. . . . What
would be the result throughout Pennsylvania and Northern Maryland in
forty or fifty years? An entirely German State, where, as formerly in
Germantown, the beautiful German language would be used in the
legislative halls and the courts of justice." (Jacobs, 330.) In 1805 the
Pennsylvania Synod resolved that "this Ministerium must remain a
German-speaking body"--a resolution which, especially in Philadelphia,
merely served to increase the humiliating and damaging language-strife
which had begun several decades before.