but _as man_, knows all things, is able to do all things. ... His
flesh is a true, vivifying food, and His blood is a true, vivifying
drink." (35f.) The Platform furthermore rejects the doctrine that the
Lord's Supper "offers forgiveness of sins," and "that the real body and
blood of the Savior are present at the Eucharist, in some mysterious
way, and are received by the mouth of every communicant, worthy or
unworthy." (38f.) The Platform declares: "During the first quarter of
this century the conviction that our Reformers did not purge away the
whole of the Romish error from this doctrine gained ground universally,
until the great mass of the whole Lutheran Church, before the year 1817,
had rejected the doctrine of the real presence." (40.) With respect to
the doctrine that the proper and natural body and blood of Christ are
received in the Lord's Supper, the Platform remarks: "Now we cannot
persuade ourselves that this is the view of a single minister of the
General Synod or of many out of it." (42.)

PLATFORM CONTROVERSY.

59. Champions of the Platform.--"The principal effect of the Definite
Platform," says Dr. Spaeth, "was to open the eyes even of the
indifferent and undecided ones, and to cause them to reflect and to
realize the ultimate designs of the men at the helm of the General
Synod. A storm of indignation burst against the perpetrators of this
attack on the venerable Augustana. Many men who were before numbered
with 'American Lutheranism,' and whose full sympathy with the movement
was confidently expected, had nothing but stern rebuke for it." (1,
360.) Howbeit, the Platform was not in lack of ardent defenders. To some
of the ministers it was not radical enough. Dr. Morris remarks:
"Extremely un-Lutheran, un-churchly, and even rationalistic positions
were assumed by some who defended the Platform." (Wolf, _Lutherans_,
364.) In the _Observer_, December 7, 1855, a correspondent maintained
that it was incorrect to speak of the Augustana as "our confession,"
since of Lutheran theologians not one in twenty was governed in doctrine
and practise by this Symbol. (_L. u. W._ 1856, 28.) In the following
year the _Observer_ published a protest of Rev. Kitz, censuring the
Platform for granting toleration to believers in baptismal regeneration
and the real presence. (_L. u. W._ 1857, 27.) At Gettysburg Seminary,
self-evidently, Schmucker zealously propagated his Reformed theology,
while his brother-in-law, C. F. Schae