men
who, in a measure, saw and loved the light, and should have been bold in
confessing the truth and uncompromising in defending it against the
opposite errors. In 1831, in deference to sectarianism, the publication
of the _Lutheran Observer_ was transferred to Baltimore, with Dr. Morris
as editor, because it was feared that the Presbyterians might take
offense at the title "Lutheran" if, as was originally planned, it was
published at Gettysburg with the professors as editors! It was in the
interest of eliminating the specific Lutheran doctrines that, in 1845,
at Philadelphia, a committee (Schmucker, Morris, Schmidt, Pohlman,
Kurtz) was appointed to formulate and present to the next convention an
abstract of the doctrines and usages of the American Lutheran Church, on
the order of the Abstract requested in 1844 by the Maryland Synod, in
which the Lutheran doctrine of the Real Presence was rejected. The
report was made at Charleston, S. C., 1850, but "laid on the table, and
the committee discharged from further duty." (27.) In 1855 a bold effort
was made to abandon the Augsburg Confession in favor of the notorious
Definite Platform, from which all specifically Lutheran doctrines had
been eliminated in order to open the way officially for the tenets
peculiar to Reformed theology. Some of the fanatics were not even
willing to tolerate Lutheran doctrine in the General Synod. When in 1852
the Pennsylvania Synod resolved to reunite with the General Synod, and
called upon all Lutherans in America to follow her example, the
_Observer_, December 21, 1852, published a declaration stating that the
Augsburg Confession taught the real presence of the body and blood of
Christ in the Lord's Supper and several other things, which were
rejected by almost all of the friends and promoters of the General
Synod, and that it was sinful to unite with Lutherans who adhered to
such doctrines. (_Lutheraner_, Dec. 21, 1852.) Former members of the
North Illinois Synod declared in the _Observer_ of January 20, 1860: "We
do not believe in the bodily presence, baptismal regeneration, the
ceremonies of the mass, and in similar nonsense." (_L. u. W._ 1860, 93.)
As late as 1896 the Allegheny Synod refused to ordain a candidate
because he did not hold that the Sunday was of divine institution.
(_L. u. W._ 1896, 281.)

41. Sailing under False Colors.--Foremost and boldest among the Reformed
theologians within the General Synod were S. S. Schmucker and B