as in America require of their ministers subscription to these
Confessions. At the same time it is also true that many churches, whose
Lutheranism cannot be impugned, find in the Augsburg Confession an
adequate expression of their doctrinal position.

According to the Confessors of Augsburg: "For the true unity of the
church it is sufficient to agree concerning the doctrines of the
Gospel."

It would seem, therefore, to be in harmony with the spirit of
Lutheranism to make "the confession of the churches" rather than "the
Confessions of the Church" the bond of union. Underneath the Confessions
there are distinctive principles differentiating us from the sacerdotal
churches on the one hand and from the Reformed churches on the other
hand.

The soul of the Confessions is the confession, and this soul we may
recognize amid all the changes that take place in the course of time
and the progress of thought. It reveals itself in innumerable forms, in
sermons and in sacred song, and above all in the sanctified lives of
those who confess the faith.

In conversation with an eminent teacher in one of our most conservative
schools, the author not long ago requested a definition of Lutheranism
from the standpoint of the school which the Professor represented. Of
course, it was suggested, the acceptance of the Symbolical books must be
presumed, _sine qua non_.

The reply was: "The Symbolical Books are valuable, but their obligatory
acceptance is not essential: The same is true even of the Augsburg