The Conservative Reformation and Its Theology - Saint Mary ...

not only can be demonstrated from Scripture, but can be shown to have
been fully received in the Church before Popery had a name or a being. It
would be far more natural to suppose, that in the fierce and imbittered strife
with that gigantic system of Error, a part of the Protestant party would be
driven to deny some truths, by whose abuse the Church of Rome strove to
maintain her power. The insinuation of Romish influence is a sword with a
double edge, and is almost sure to wound those who handle it; it is, in fact,
ordinarily but the refuge of a sectarian spirit, which tries to accomplish by
exciting odium, what it failed to do by argument.
American and German.
But are those Confessions, after all, of any value to the American
Lutheran preacher? it may be asked. We cannot conceal our sorrow, that
that term, "American," should be made so emphatic, dear and hallowed
though it be to our heart. Why should we break or weaken the golden
chain which unites us to the high and holy associations of our history as a
Church, by thrusting into a false position a word which makes a national
appeal? Is there a conflict between the two, when carried to their very
farthest limits? Must Lutheranism be shorn of its glory to adapt it to our
times or our land? No! Our land is great, and wide, and glorious, and
destined, we trust, under the sunlight of her free institutions, long to endure;
but our faith is wider, and greater, and is eternal. The world owes more to
the Reformation than to America; America owes more to it than to herself.
The names of our Country and of our Church should excite no conflict, but
blend harmoniously together. We are placed here in the midst of
sectarianism, and it becomes us, not lightly to consent to swell that
destructive torrent of separatism which threatens the welfare of pure
Christianity on our shores more than all other causes combined. We are
surrounded by the children of those Churches, which claim an origin in the
Reformation. We sincerely respect and love them; we fervently pray that
they may be increased in every labor of love, and may be won more and
more to add to that precious truth, which they set forth with such power,
those no less precious doctrines which, in the midst of so wide an
abandonment