ted in 1864, at York. (_L. u. W._ 1864,284.) At
Dayton, 0., 1855, the General Synod declared its undiminished confidence
in the American Sunday-school Union, and cordially commended it to the
support and hearty cooperation of all churches. (23.) In 1859 (March 23)
the _Olive Branch_, edited by Dr. S. W. Harkey, stated that many
congregations connected with the General Synod were still using the
union hymn-book. Throughout its history ministers of the General Synod
served both Lutheran and sectarian congregations. (_L. u. W._ 1880,190.)
In 1863 Harkey proposed a union of all Lutherans in America on the basis
of the fundamental Christian doctrines, _i. e._, the doctrines held in
common by all evangelical Protestants, including the doctrine of the
divine obligation of the Sabbath which the Augsburg Confession rejects.
(_L. u. W._ 1863,91.) Reporting Dr. Crosby's statement with respect to
the differences of the old and new-school Presbyterians, "We can agree
to disagree," the _Observer_ exclaimed: "Oh, that the intolerant
dogmatists of the Lutheran Church would have attained such a degree of
Christian love and common sense!" (July 12, 1872.) In 1857 the
arch-unionist Philip Schaff wrote in _Rudelbach-Guericke's Zeitschrift_:
"To us America seems to be destined to become the phenix grave of all
European churches and sects, of Protestantism and Romanism." The General
Synod was certainly not a slacker in contributing her bit to fulfil this
prophecy.

UNION LETTER OP 1845.

34. Overtly Renouncing Lutheranism.--In 1845, at Philadelphia, the
General Synod appointed a committee to address, in a letter, the
Evangelical Church in Germany, in order to defend herself against
alleged detractors of her Lutheranism. But the signers of this letter,
Schmucker, Kurtz, Pohlmann, Morris, and H. I. Schmidt (then professor
in Hartwick Seminary), while believing that they were serving this
purpose, in reality made an unreserved confession of the General Synod's
complete apostasy from the Lutheran faith and Church. The letter states:
The General Synod requires only essential agreement in doctrinal views,
strict conformity being impossible in America. Peace can be maintained
only by an eclecticism, which adheres to essentials and passes over
non-important matters. Accordingly, the position of the General Synod is
not that of the Old Lutherans, but of the Union Church in Germany. "Now,
as to our doctrinal views, we confess without disguise, inde