fen) our Synod." At the same time Pastors
Braun and Miller were appointed a committee to publish a refutation of
Bachman's sermon. (B. 1838, 11.) In his address delivered on November
12, 1837, Bachman, as President of the South Carolina Synod, had voiced,
with a squint toward Tennessee, among others, the following sentiments:
"We have never boasted of being an exclusive church, whose doctrines are
more Scriptural or whose confessors are purer than those of other
denominations round about us. . . . We will gladly unite with every
friend of the Gospel in producing the downfall of sectarianism, though
not the obliteration of sects. Our pulpits have ever been open to the
servants of every Christian communion, and we invite to our communion
tables the followers of Jesus regardless of what particular denomination
they may belong to." Dr. Bachman, in direct contravention to what the
Henkels had maintained over against Stork and Shober of the North
Carolina Synod, expressed his own indifferentistic and Reformed
doctrinal position as follows: "If Baptism is regeneration, why, then,
does not every one who has been baptized in infancy walk with God from
his Baptism? Why does not every one lead a pious life? Evidently, such
is not the case!" "As a matter of fact, for a hundred years the Lutheran
Church has abandoned the moot question of the body of Christ, etc., and
has left it to the consciences of its members to decide what they must
believe according to Holy Writ. This we may do without deviating from
the faith of our Church, since at our ordination, especially in this
country, we confess nothing more than that the fundamental articles of
the divine Word are, in a manner substantially correct, presented in the
doctrinal articles of the Augsburg Confession." (_Kirchl. Mitt_. 1846,
34 f.) In the same year (1838) the Tennessee Synod instructed its
secretary to inquire of the president of the Virginia Synod (organized
1829 at Woodstock) why, according to the resolution passed at their last
meeting, they do "not recognize the members of the Tennessee Conference
as Evangelical Lutheran pastors." (B. 1838 12.) And, when, in 1848, the
Western Virginia Synod (Southwest Virginia Synod, organized 1841)
requested an exchange of delegates, Tennessee answered: "Resolved, That,
although it would afford us the highest gratification, and we most
sincerely desire to see those who are one with us in name also united in
doctrine and practise, and in