d un-Lutheran to hold that
the meaning and use of ordination consists essentially in this that it
publicly attests and satisfies the validity of the call." (110.)
Ordination "conveys the special grace needed for the special work of the
ministry." (120.) In his _Pastor's Guide_, 1915, Dr. J. Fry, professor
at the seminary of the General Council in Mount Airy, Philadelphia,
teaches: The call to the ministry "must come from God, from the Church
[synod] and from a particular place or congregation." (5.) "Of all these
qualifications [required for the ministry] the Church [synod] must be
the judge, and in her synodical organization and authority must extend
the call to the ministry." (6.) "A pastor serving a parish of more than
one congregation has no right to resign one congregation and retain the
others without the consent of the president of the synod to which the
parish belongs." (14.) "The call should also specify that either party
desiring to withdraw from the agreement [between the pastor and
congregation] must give three months' notice to that effect to the other
party. This provision will do away with the very objectionable custom in
some congregations of holding annual elections for a pastor." (9.) "The
power to decide and impose penalties belongs to the pastor and church
council." (92.) Dr. Fry regards "the pastor and church council as the
highest authority in all congregational matters." (98.) All of these
tenets are corruptions of the Scriptural and evangelical doctrines as
proclaimed again by Luther. Consistently developed, their terminus is
Rome. However, in the atmosphere of American liberty, where State and
Church are separated and the will of the former is not foisted on the
latter, Romanistic tendencies cannot thrive, nor did they ever to any
extent succeed in practise in the Lutheran Church, a Church whose
fundamental articles are the doctrines of justification by faith alone
and absolute spiritual freedom from every human authority.

SYNERGISM.

135. Synergistic Teaching on Conversion.--In his _Confessional
Principle_, 1911, Dr. T.B. Schmauk rejects Melanchthon's _aliqua causa
discriminis in homine_, some kind of discriminating cause in man.
Schmauk writes: "Several qualities and motives in Melanchthon's nature,
including his humanist outlook on free will, and his tendency to
emphasize the necessity of good works, contributed to inspire him with
erroneous views, when the evangelical doctrine began to b