the Secondary Symbols, etc. True, the new articles
contain a confession of the Augustana only, while in our day, also in
our country, it is certainly of special import for Lutherans to
acknowledge all Lutheran symbols in order to show at the very outset
that they occupy a correct position also with respect to the
controversies after Luther's death, which, in part, have been revived in
our own country. Indeed, the second of the new articles has been
interpreted by some as involving a confession also of the Secondary
Articles. But Dr. Singmaster is right in declaring with reference to the
new formula: "The General Synod does not require subscription to the
Secondary Symbols as a condition to membership in that body. Their
formal acceptance is a matter of liberty with the individual synod."
However, since the confessional formula of 1913 contains neither a
limitation as to the adoption of the Augustana, nor any criticism of the
other Lutheran symbols, the present doctrinal basis of the General
Synod, as stated in the new articles, must be viewed as satisfactory--
_caeteris paribus_. By adopting the Atchison Amendments, the General
Synod in reality, at least formally and officially, did not merely
reaffirm and reiterate, but corrected and changed its former qualified
confessional basis. As it reads, the formula of 1913 is tantamount to a
rejection of all former doctrinal deliverances of the General Synod, the
resolutions of Synod and asseverations of her theologians to the
contrary notwithstanding. Dr. Neve admits as much when he says: "Thus
the General Synod took a great stride forward in the direction of
confessional correctness. The express mention of the 'Unaltered'
Augsburg Confession constitutes an outspoken confession against
Melanchthonianism, that is, against the Definite Platform theology, or
American Lutheranism. And the removal of the old formula concerning the
fundamental doctrines means the removal of an expression which has done
much harm in the General Synod." (158.) In part, this progress was a
result of the testimony of Walther and the Missouri Synod, whose
fidelity to the Lutheran Confessions had been stigmatized for decades by
the theologians of the General Synod, even such men as Charles
Porterfield Krauth (in 1857), as "rigid symbolism," "German
Lutheranism," "deformities of a Pharisaic exclusiveness," etc. Dr. Neve
remarks: "The close unity coupled with its size (for Missouri soon
became by far the la