f salvation,
etc., than John the Baptist, the greatest of prophets. Is it, then, to
be assumed that since the middle of the sixteenth century no progress
was made in Biblical learning? (_L. u. W._ 1863, 92.) However, always
guided by expediency, and hence able also "to do otherwise," the
_Observer_, April 13, 1866, wrote: "We have all agreed that the
Unaltered Augsburg Confession is the only general platform upon which
all of us can stand. There are some among us, to the number of whom the
writer belongs, who have always believed and still think that an
American Recension of this venerable document, as presented in the
Definite Platform, would give us a faith more in harmony with the
Scripture. But where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty, the
greatest liberty compatible with the unity of true Evangelical
Protestantism. To make concessions within reasonable limitations we have
accordingly deemed our religious duty." (_L. u. W._ 1866, 185.) In its
issue of January 17, 1908, the _Observer_ again claims the liberty of
revising the confessions. (_L. u. W._ 1908, 90.) Self-evidently, the
_American Lutheran_ was in sympathy with the Platform. In 1873 it
declared its standpoint as follows: "We American Lutherans adopt the
Augsburg Confession only in a qualified sense, _viz_., as teaching the
fundamental truths of religion in a manner substantially correct, but
containing also some inaccuracies with respect to the Sacraments,
private confession, absolution, and the Christian Sabbath." (_L. u.
W._ 1873, 29.)

60. Opponents of the Platform.--S. S. Schmucker boasted with respect to
the Platform that all intelligent Americans were on his side. However,
his opponents proved to be much stronger and more numerous than he had
anticipated, though most of them were in essential agreement with his
un-Lutheran theology, merely resenting his intolerant spirit and public
assault on the "venerable Augustana." Among the men who fiercely
denounced the new confession was J. A. Brown, who also followed up his
attack with charges for Schmucker's impeachment at Gettysburg, and in
1857, with a book, _The New Theology_. Yet Dr. Brown's theological views
and the views of the Platform were not nearly so far apart as his
assaults on Schmucker seemed to warrant. Brown was a Reformed theologian
and just as determined an opponent of genuine Lutheranism as Schmucker
and Kurtz. Dr. Wolf: "Brown contended with might and main against what
he consider