e Lutheran spirit revealed in the manly words of C.P. Krauth:
"The Lutheran Church can never have real moral dignity, real
self-respect, a real claim on the reverence and loyalty of her children
while she allows the fear of denominations around her, or the desire of
their approval, in any respect to shape her principles or control her
actions. It is a fatal thing to ask, not, What is right? What is
consistent? but, What will be thought of us? How will our neighbors of
the different communions regard this or that course? Better to die than
to prolong a miserable life by such a compromise of all that gives life
its value." (_L. u. W._ 1917, 468.) In 1909 Dr. T.E. Schmauk, then
president of the General Council, declared in regard to the World's
Missionary Conference: "We regret our inability, on account of our sound
fundamental principle of unity as a prerequisite to cooperation, to
enter in as one of the active elements in such a meeting." The committee
reported: "We approve of the President's position as to the World
Conference and the Federal Council." In 1913 the General Council
resolved with respect to participation in "The World Conference on Faith
and Order": "While regretting that it is unable to unite with the
Communion of the Episcopal Church in arranging for, and conducting, a
Conference on Faith and Order, yet, nevertheless, it hereby resolves to
appoint a Committee on the Unity of Faith, which shall be authorized,
without participating in organization or arrangement of any conference,
to present and set forth the Lutheran faith touching particular
doctrines, either independently, or when they are under discussion in
any conference or gathering, without, however, granting the committee
any power of association, arrangement, fellowship, or practical
direction, but confining it to the one specific function of witness and
testimony to the faith that is in us, and which we rejoice to confess,
and to have tested, before all the world." In 1915 the General Council
made the statement: "Regarding general movements in the Christian world
which have arisen in the last few years looking to the drawing together
of the whole Christian Church on earth, such as the movement of a free
Protestantism toward a united foreign mission objective, the Federation
of Churches, and other movements of a similar character, we recommend
that, while we cannot at this time [sic!] organically participate, it is
well, nevertheless, to keep fully