em for Puritan legalism and Methodistic
'new measures'; the other, conservative, holding on to the inheritance
of the fathers, and hoping almost against hope to bring the Church back
to their good foundation. If the former element succeeded in keeping out
of the General Synod's original constitution any direct and outspoken
reference to the historic confession of the Lutheran Church, the latter
might have thought themselves secure in the provision which denied to
the General Synod the power 'to make or demand any alteration whatever
in the doctrines hitherto received by us.' But the first-named party, at
the outset, had the popular sympathy on its side; it was the 'American'
over against the 'foreigner'; it was aggressive, and had the advantage
of having able and determined leaders, and thus, during the first
twenty-five years of the General Synod's history, easily ruled the day,
while the Lutheran consciousness of the second party slowly awoke from
its slumbers, and those that were to be its leaders on the day of battle
were quietly maturing from boyhood into manhood." (1, 320.) H. E.
Jacobs, endeavoring to view the origin of the General Synod in its
historical context, writes: "The General Synod must be regarded as a
very important forward movement, and its influence as beneficial. It
necessarily was not without the weaknesses that characterized the
Lutheran Church in America at that time. One who ignores the entire
historical development will find much to criticize and condemn, when
examined from the standpoint of what is demanded by consistency with
accurate theological definitions and clear conceptions of church polity.
But he will find just as much that incurs the same judgment in the
proceedings of the synods that united to form it. The faults peculiar to
each synod were lost, while only the common faults of them all remained.
The General Synod was a protest against the Socinianizing tendency in
New York and the schemes of a union with the Reformed in Pennsylvania
and with the Episcopalians in North Carolina. It stood for the
independent existence of the Lutheran Church in America, and the clear
and unequivocal confession of a positive faith. It failed, as its
founders in the several synods had failed, in specifically determining
the contents of this faith. It was not ready yet, as these synods were
not ready, to return to the foundations laid by Muhlenberg and his
associates, and from which there had been a genera