part in the homes
and companionship of older ministers, have not a wide and varied
culture, but possess a profound acquaintance with the writings of Luther
and a ready and genial knowledge of the Holy Scriptures." (_Dist.
Doctr._, 1893, 178.) In the revised constitution of 1866 the original
confessional statement of the Tennessee Synod, adopting the Augsburg
Confession without limitation or qualification, was enlarged to include
also the Apology, the Smalcald Articles, the Smaller and Larger
Catechisms of Luther, and the Formula of Concord "as true Scriptural
developments of the doctrines taught in the Augsburg Confession." In
the same year the Tennessee Synod, following the example of her
daughter, the Holston Synod, eliminated from her constitution the
objectionable features respecting incorporation, theological seminaries,
synodical treasuries, etc. Among the Southern synods the Tennessee Synod
alone adopted rules against pulpit- and altar-fellowship and against
holding membership in secret societies. Her endeavors to induce the
United Synod to take a similar position failed. Indeed, the original
constitution, submitted in 1884 at Salisbury, contained a paragraph
against pulpit- and altar-fellowship, membership in lodges, and
chiliasm. And when this paragraph was rejected, Polycarp Henkel,
representing the Tennessee Synod, refused to vote for the constitution.
In 1886 the Tennessee Synod adopted the Salisbury basis, but added a
declaration which condemned chiliasm, lodge-services, pulpit- and
altar-fellowship, and all church union and cooperation conflicting with
pure Lutheran doctrine, and recommended that the United Synod embody in
its by-laws a paragraph pledging theological professors to teach nothing
contrary to these principles or the doctrines of the Lutheran Church. At
the meeting of the United Synod in Savannah, 1887, Socrates Henkel
proposed a corresponding by-law, which, however, was tabled till the
next meeting. The Tennessee Synod reaffirmed its resolution with the
threat that they would not cooperate with the United Synod until a
by-law embodying the four points had been adopted. However, when the
North Carolina Synod, with equal determination, took the opposite stand,
Tennessee yielded, compromising on, and contending herself with, the
resolution adopted in 1900 in which the United Synod assured the
Tennessee Synod that, in their common work, they would earnestly
endeavor to avoid everything that might