"
Through it he laid the foundation also for the Common Service. "Next to
Dr. C.P. Krauth," said the _Kirchenblatt_ of the Iowa Synod (1918),
"there is no man to whom the General Council owes so much as to Dr. B.M.
Schmucker." B.M. Schmucker published articles on liturgical,
hymnological, biographical, and other themes, and wrote the preface to
the Common Service, first published by the United Synod of the South,
1888.--_Dr. G.F. Krotel_ (1826--1907) studied theology under Dr. Demme;
was renowned as pulpit orator; succeeded Krauth in the editorship of
the _Lutheran_; repeatedly served the Pennsylvania Synod and the General
Council as president.--_Dr. J.A. Seiss_ was pastor in Philadelphia from
1858 till his death in 1904; he also served as president of the
Pennsylvania Synod and the General Council. Seiss was one of the most
prolific Lutheran authors in America. "There was a strength, a
stateliness, a dignity, and an artistic finish to all his greatest
pulpit efforts that compelled a hearing." (_Luth. Church Review_ 1918,
90.) His style is oratorical rather than churchly. His _Lectures on the
Gospels and Epistles_ are the fruit of many years of careful sermonizing
and study. In his lectures on the _Last Times_, 1856, and on the _The
Apocalypse_, 1866, Seiss championed the cause of a chiliasm which the
General Council refused to reject.--_Dr. Adolph Spaeth_ (1839--1910)
graduated at Tuebingen; active in Wuerttemberg, Italy, France, and
Scotland till he accepted a call as Dr. Mann's assistant in Philadelphia
in 1864; served as professor at the Seminary from 1867 till his death;
was president of the General Council from 1880 to 1888, and of the
Pennsylvania Synod from 1892 to 1895. He wrote the biographies of W.J.
Mann, 1895, and of C.P. Krauth, Vol. I, 1898; Vol. II, 1909.--_Dr. R.F.
Weidner_ (1851--1915), president of the Seminary of the General Council
at Chicago since its opening in 1891, reproduced in the English language
a number of modern German theological works.

CONSTITUTION.

114. Fundamental Articles of Faith.--At the preliminary meeting at
Reading, 1866, "Fundamental Principles," embracing nine Articles of
Faith and Church Polity and eleven Articles of Ecclesiastical Power and
Church Government, were adopted as a necessary condition of the
contemplated union. The first Article of Faith states that, "to the true
unity of the Church, it is sufficient that there be agreement touching
the doctrine of the Gospe