there is not an
entire agreement among them, the consent of the largest number of those
of greatest weight." In 1883 the General Synod declared her readiness to
cooperate in accordance with the rule proposed by the General Council.
The work was completed by a Joint Committee appointed by the three
general bodies, B.M. Schmucker serving as chairman. In 1888 the _Common
Service_ appeared in two editions, one published at Columbia, S.C., by
the United Synod South, the other at Philadelphia by the General Synod.
In his preface to the Southern edition B.M. Schmucker said: "The Common
Service here presented is intended to reproduce in English the consensus
of these pure Lutheran Liturgies. It is therefore no new Service, such
as the personal tastes of those who have prepared it would have selected
and arranged; but it is the old Lutheran Service, prepared by men whom
God raised up to reform the Service, as well as the life and doctrine of
the Church, and whom He plenteously endowed with the gifts of the Holy
Ghost.... This Common Service is in its newest parts as old as the time
of the Reformation," etc. The work of the committee was approved by the
three cooperating general bodies. The General Synod ratified it in 1885
and adopted the Manuscript in 1887. The efforts made at the conventions
in 1880, 1891, and 1893 to rescind this action failed. The Common
Service was adopted also by the Iowa Synod, the Joint Synod of Ohio, and
the English District of the Missouri Synod. But, while every Lutheran
will rejoice at this success, it must not be overlooked that liturgical
similarity dare never take the place of doctrinal unity. In 1873, in a
public letter, the secretary of the East Pennsylvania Synod declared
that similarity of ceremonies in the whole synod was of greater import
than unity in confession (_L. u. W._ 1873, 153.) Perhaps, this was
exceptional. However, it does not appear that the bodies cooperating in
preparing the Common Service developed a corresponding energy and
determination in bringing about a true Lutheran unity in doctrine and
practise. Yet, unity in doctrine is of divine obligation and of the very
essence of the Lutheran Church, while similarity in ceremonies,
desirable and advantageous as it may be, is, and always must remain, a
matter of expediency and Christian liberty.

THE END OF VOLUME II.

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of American Lutheranism, by Friedrich Bente

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