ving the dinner, etc. (_Luth. Witness_ 1918,
386.)

103. New Formula Dead Letter.--Though one will readily admit that the
Atchison Amendments signified a stride forward officially and formally,
the actual conditions prevailing within the General Synod till the
Merger in 1918 (the official indifferentistic and unionistic attitude of
the General Synod as such, as well as the teaching and practise of
District Synods, ministers, and congregations) were not in agreement,
but in open conflict with the formula of 1913. In its issue of June 18,
1915, the _Observer_ stated: "The acceptance of this basis, they [the
opponents of the new basis] further maintain, involves certain
corollaries, such as the rule of 'Lutheran pulpits for Lutheran
ministers only, and Lutheran altars for Lutheran communicants only'; the
withdrawal of fellowship with other Christian bodies in general
religious and moral movements, such as the Federation of the Churches,
the International Sunday-school Lesson Series, and evangelistic
campaigns, in which the congregations of a community unite their efforts
to reach the multitudes of the unchurched and the unsaved. It includes
also condemnation of secret orders, such as Masonry and Odd-Fellowship."
(_L. u. W._ 1916, 58.) Such, indeed, was the price of the new doctrinal
basis. The General Synod as a whole, however, was evidently neither
possessed of the power nor even of the earnest will to draw the
consequences of her new articles practically. The fact certainly is, as
shown in the preceding paragraphs, that neither the General Synod as
such nor its constituency did make any serious effort at paying the
price required by an unqualified subscription to the Augustana as
professed at Atchison. However, as long as a religious body contents
itself with having a correct Lutheran basis merely incorporated in the
constitution; as long as it shows no determination in reducing the
principles of such basis to actual practise; as long as it objects to
the discipline which this basis calls for; as long as it declines
responsibility for contrary teaching and practise on the part of its
ministers and congregations; as long as it adheres to the principle of
agreeing to disagree on doctrines plainly taught in the Lutheran
Confessions, and never to settle disputed points, but to omit them and
declare them free,--just so long even the very best Lutheran basis
embodied in a constitution will remain, in more than one respect, a