speak of our Evangelical Lutheran testimony before
Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians, _et al., et id genus omne._" But
the fact is that at such occasions the distinctive features of
Lutheranism are, as a rule, passed over in silence; that full fellowship
of prayer and service is indulged in; and that the spirit of
indifferentism as well as the desire, on the part of the Lutheran synods
and congregations, for returning the comity and kindness received at the
hands of Methodists, etc., is encouraged and strengthened. As such,
furthermore, the United Synod did not take an active part in
interdenominational organizations, but, on the other hand, did not
consider it a denial of the truth when its pastors openly and heartily
participated in local ministerial unions, or when its congregations
occasionally joined in union religious meetings. Thus Drs. Horn and
Drach took part in the Interdenominational Conference at Edinburgh in
1910. The _Lutheran Church Visitor_ encouraged participation in
interdenominational meetings; _e.g._, in its issue of April 6, 1916, the
Men's National Missionary Congress in Washington, D.C. "So it has done,
does, and shall continue to do, and not be ashamed," declared the
_Visitor_, March 15, 1917, and explained in defense of this attitude
toward non-Lutheran bodies: "The United Synod believes that the lump
[non-Lutheran churches] cannot receive 'absent treatment,' and that the
Lutheran leaven cannot be placed in the lump from a prohibitive
distance." However, according to the history of the Lutheran Church in
America, in practically all of the interdenominational movements and
meetings participated in by Lutherans, the rule has been not to confess,
but, directly or indirectly, to deny the distinctive truths of
Lutheranism. Speaking of the United Synod, Dr. Voigt remarked: "Rigid
exclusiveness is quite foreign to its spirit."

TENNESSEE AND HOLSTON SYNODS.

151. Tennessee Lowering Her Standard.--The Tennessee Synod, whose early
history is dealt with extensively in _American Lutheranism, Part I_, was
the main factor in bringing about the change in the confessional
attitude of the Southern synods. The _Lutheran Church Visitor_, March 8,
1917: "The Tennessee Synod helped the other synods to rise and regain
their Lutheran feet. Since then she has helped them to keep their feet
and to win stronger foothold." "The ministers of the Tennessee Synod,"
says Dr. Horn, "trained as they have been for the most