ir brethren of Pennsylvania, and confidently trust that they will
without delay resume their connection with the General Synod." (5.)--
The "Address of the General Synod to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in
the United States," added to the Minutes of 1823, remarks: "Whilst the
General Synod, with due deference to the judgment of this respectable
Synod, cannot divest themselves of doubt as to the expediency of the
temporary recession of the Pennsylvania Synod from the general union of
the Lutheran Church, they rejoice that in the very act of withdrawing
they declare their unaltered conviction of the propriety and utility of
such a union, and intimate that their recession shall continue only
until the prejudices against the General Synod shall in some measure
have subsided. But, most of all, the General Synod rejoiced in the
measures which have already been taken by the brethren west of the
Susquehanna, among whose churches these prejudices do not exist, to
return to the general union of the Lutheran Church." (11.)The minutes of
1823: "Several delegates were absent in consequence of indisposition,
but a representation of a majority of the synods in connection with the
General Synod being present, the brethren, in reliance on the guidance
of the Holy Spirit, proceeded to business." (4.) With respect to the
fears expressed by Tennessee that the establishment of a General Synod
would endanger both the Lutheran and American liberties, the "Address"
of 1823 states: "The brethren of this Conference [Tennessee], as well as
individuals in some other sections of the United States, have heretofore
doubted the utility of the General Synod; but it is hoped their
apprehensions will be dissipated when a few years of experience shall
have demonstrated its utility, and when maturer reflection on the nature
of our constitution shall have convinced them that, if ever our Church
at large should so far degenerate as that a majority of any future
General Synod should not only be so void of common Christian integrity,
but so destitute of every sentiment of probity and honor, as to wish
those evils which have been feared, still even then the attainments of
them would, in our happy government, be physically and civilly
impossible." (14.) Repudiating the charge of the Tennessee Synod that
the object of the General Synod was an amalgamation with other
Protestant denominations, and urging the Carolina and Tennessee Synods
to cover their doctrinal di