g, on
the one hand, that they adopt the fundamental doctrines of the Augsburg
Confession, other articles of this Confession, however, only when
rightly understood and interpreted, and in rejecting, on the other hand,
the doctrines enumerated in the third of the Pittsburgh resolutions.
(_L. u. W._ 1856, 349.) On the part of the Franckean Synod this caused a
declaration to the effect that they would not have withdrawn (1837) if
Hartwick had taken this stand earlier. Hartwick answered, 1857, that
they had not adopted a new platform, but merely the General Synod's
"interpretation of the Augustana." (_L. u. W._ 1857, 352; 1864, 314;
1866, 119.)

65. The Pittsburgh Compromise.--The Pittsburgh resolutions, notably the
third (adopted also in 1864 at York by the General Synod, and since
known as the York Resolution), breathe a unionistic and, in part, a
Reformed spirit. Conspicuous among their un-Lutheran features are the
following. With respect to the Lutheran doctrines rejected by Schmucker
and his compeers, the Pittsburgh compromise declares in general: "We as
brethren in Christ agree to differ." The theological attitude of the
notorious union letter of 1845 was thus practically reaffirmed and the
doctrines distinctive of Lutheranism declared irrelevant. Every Lutheran
synod, according to the Pittsburgh agreement, was, indeed, to recognize
the Augustana unmutilated, but, on the other hand, grant complete
liberty to deviate from its doctrines in the manner of the supporters of
the Platform. In addition to this unionistic feature the Pittsburgh
compromise, at least in three important points, makes concessions to the
Reformed tenets of the Platform theology. It does not only fail to
confess the Lutheran doctrines of the Lord's Supper, absolution, and the
Sunday, at a time when these doctrines were universally denied and
assailed also within the General Synod, and when, accordingly, a failure
to confess them was tantamount to an open denial, but itself rejects
them. Concerning the Sunday, Article 28 of the Augsburg Confession
declares: "For those who judge that by the authority of the Church the
observance of the Lord's Day instead of the Sabbath-day was ordained as
a thing necessary, do greatly err. Scripture has abrogated the
Sabbath-day." Over against this plain teaching the General Synod always
held that "the observance of the Sunday is binding on all by divine
requirement." (_Lutheran Observer_, Oct. 1, 1915.) Siding with th