owing them that the
pure spiritual Lutheranism of this land is so much better than the
leather-bound symbolism of the Bavarian autocrat, as our political
institutions are better than those of the old Fatherland. But, instead
of this work of love, our benighted symbolists have strengthened the
prejudices of the foreigners in saying to them that the Lutheranism of
the General Synod is a pseudo-Lutheranism."--The origin, then, of the
confessional commotion within the Lutheran Church of America must be
traced chiefly to such men as Wyneken, Sihler, and especially to
Walther, who since 1839 had been zealous in unfurling the banner of true
Lutheranism, seriously, determinately, aggressively, victoriously. If
the confessional movement was wrong, Missouri, above all, must be
condemned as the great disturber of the peace, but Lutheranism itself
must go down with it. (_L. u. W._ 1864, 59.) The sincerity, seriousness,
and determination of the men of Missouri in applying the principles of
Lutheranism as they saw it, commanded the admiration even of an opponent
like S.S. Schmucker, who wrote in the _Observer_, September 21, 1860:
"Would it not reveal a lack of self-respect if the General Synod were to
receive men who seem to believe that she has departed so far from the
Lutheran doctrine that she could no further lay any just claim to the
name Lutheran? The opposite way of the Missourians is much more
honorable and has won the respect not only of the General Synod, but of
the Church everywhere."(_L. u. W._ 1860, p. 353.)

90. Improved Conditions.--In the issue of the _Lutheraner_ dated August
31, 1852, Walther declared: "Since the last eight years, conditions have
really improved in many respects, and to this end, according to many
testimonies which have been made against us, God has used and blessed
also our humble testimony." (9, 1.) The enmity which Missouri met
everywhere was indeed a significant symptom of conditions changing for
the better. It proved that the leaven of "foreign symbolism," as
Schmucker pleased to style it, was doing its work. Foremost among the
men that witnessed to the powerful influence of Missouri by testifying
against her was B. Kurtz, who again and again denounced all
confessionalists, especially those of the West, as "resurrectionists of
elemental, undeveloped, halting, stumbling, and staggering humanity," as
priests ready "to immolate bright meridian splendor on the altar of
misty, musky dust," men bent