ason to the Master, and be hearkening to the teachings of man rather
than of God! Yet how many are there from whose lips the phrase
confessional fidelity (Bekenntnisstreue,) is heard far oftener than
fidelity to God's word (Bibeltreue)!

Is it our duty to renounce the Augsburg Confession altogether? This
would be the case, _if its errors were fundamental_. But as they are few
in number, and all relate to non-fundamental points, this does not
necessarily follow. As nineteen twentieths of the creed are sustained by
Scripture, and embody a rich and ample exhibition of divine truth, ten
times as extended as that which was invested with normative authority in
the golden age, the first three centuries of the Christian church, and
used as a term of Christian fellowship, we may well retain the creed,
after in some way disavowing its several errors. And the historical
importance of the document, as the type of a renovated Christianity,
authenticated by the blessing of Heaven, renders its retention
desirable, as far as it has approved itself to the conscience of the
church, after the increasing philological, exegetical, and historical
light of three progressive centuries.

The position of those who maintain that _genuine Lutheranism_ demands
perpetual adherence to everything contained in this Confession, yea, as
some affirm, to all the former symbolical books, is utterly untenable.
In the _first_ place, these brethren forget that the symbolic system,
_i.e._, the practice of binding ministers to the so-called symbolical
books, was _not_ adopted at the organization of the Lutheran Church,
_nor at any time during Luther's life_, nor until more than half a
century after the rise of Lutheranism, and more than a quarter of a
century after the noble Luther had gone to his heavenly rest.
_Symbolism is therefore no part of original Lutheranism_. The efforts of
Luther to reform the Romish Church began in 1517--the first regular
organization of Lutheran churches was not made until some time after his
excommunication by the Pope, in 1520. The first directory for Lutheran
worship was published by Luther in 1523, in which, although private
masses and the idea of the mass being a sacrifice had been rejected, the
_ceremonies_ of the mass, even the _elevation of the host_, (though not
for adoration) were retained; another improved one in 1526; and the
Augsburg Confession was presented to the Diet in 1530; but the full
symbolic system contended f