eath this
objection, as if Christians had not been able to determine, in eighteen
hundred years, what are the fundamental, chief, or great doctrines of
their holy religion. Down on all such quibbling! Others have objected to
the words 'substantially correct,' as meaning anything or nothing, at
pleasure. This, like the other objection, is a quibble. None can err
here, unless it be wilfully.... The amount of the whole is, '_In
necessariis unitas, in dubiis libertas, in omnibus caritas_.' This is as
far as the General Synod has gone or could go; but it does not interfere
with the liberty of the District Synods. Any District Synod may go
beyond this, and adopt the Augsburg Confession in an unqualified manner;
or it may state the points in which it dissents from it, and if not
'fundamental,' no objection can be made to its admission into the
General Synod; but no body adopting a different Confession, or the
Augsburg Confession less fully than as containing 'the fundamental
doctrines of the Word of God in a manner substantially correct,' could
be admitted into the union of the General Synod." (13.) "Does any one
say doctrinal 'tares' are found in it, growing among the pure wheat of
God's truth, and that he is anxious only 'to pluck up the tares'? I
answer, 'Nay; lest while you gather up the tares, you root up also the
wheat with them.' Let the venerable Confession stand just as it is,
especially since you are bound only to receive it as containing the
fundamental truths of God's Word." (14.) "Cease, O! cease from your
controversies and disputes about non-essential points of doctrine and
practise, and labor with all your might for the conversion and
salvation of immortal souls!" (27.) In agreement with Harkey, Dr.
Reynolds had declared in the _Evangelical Review_, July, 1858, that
within the General Synod every one was privileged either to reject or to
accept the doctrines enumerated as errors by the Platform. (_L. u. W._
1858, 274.) And prior to, and in agreement with, both, Krauth, Jr., had
maintained in the _Missionary_, April 30, 1857, that such men as
Schmucker and Kurtz formed a legitimate variety in the General Synod.
(Spaeth, 1, 397.) "The Church in the United States," said Krauth, "wants
neither Symbololatry nor Schism, neither a German Lutheranism, in an
exclusive sense, nor an American Lutheranism, in a separatistic one, but
an Evangelical Lutheranism broad enough to embrace both, and to make
each vitalize and bless