loved Bible, when the one holds to Calvin, the other to Zwingli, a
third to the Heidelberg Catechism, a fourth to the Confession of the
Synod of Dort, a fifth to the Westminster Catechism, a sixth to the
Common-prayer Book, a seventh to the Solemn League and Covenant, and the
eighth to the darkened and depraved reason per se, the ninth to reason
under the name of Holy Spirit, and the tenth to the devil himself in the
form of an angel of light. But I will cleave to my beloved Bible, and
hereby it shall remain. Amen." (_Luth. Observer_, Sept., 1881.)

65. Rev. Probst Defending Union.--The _Lutheran Observer_, September,
1881, from whose columns we quoted the statements above concerning Dr.
Endress, continues: Rev. Probst, who was a member of the Pennsylvania
Synod from 1813 until his death, and well acquainted with the sentiments
of his brethren, in a work published in 1826 for the express purpose of
promoting a formal and complete union of the German Reformed and
Lutheran churches in America, entitled, _Reunion of the Lutherans and
Reformed_, says that there was no material difference of doctrinal views
between them, the Lutherans having relinquished the bodily presence, and
the Reformed unconditional election. Speaking of the supposed obstacles
to such union, he remarks: "The doctrine of unconditional election
cannot be in the way. This doctrine has long since been abandoned; for
there can scarcely be a single German Reformed preacher found who
regards it as his duty to defend this doctrine. Zwingli's more liberal,
rational, and Scriptural view of this doctrine, as well as of the Lord's
Supper, has become the prevailing one among Lutherans and Reformed, and
it has been deemed proper to abandon the view of both Luther and Calvin
on the subject of both these doctrines." (74.) "The whole mass of the
old Confessions, occasioned by the peculiar circumstances of those
troublous times, has become obsolete by the lapse of ages, and is yet
valuable only as matter of history. Those times and circumstances have
passed away, and our situation, both in regard to political and
ecclesiastical relations, is entirely changed. We are therefore not
bound to these books, but only to the Bible. For what do the unlearned
know of the Augsburg Confession, or the Form of Concord, or the Synod of
Dort?" (76.) "Both churches [the Lutheran and the Reformed] advocate the
evangelical liberty of judging for themselves, and have one and the same
ground