Churchman 5: Conventions– "so powerful", ”deep, lasting impression” on pastors, lay people

      This concludes from Part 4 (Table of Contents in Part 1), a series presenting Ludwig Fuerbringer's 1936 essay "Walther as Churchman". — Fuerbringer rightly emphasizes Walther's prominence at the many Synod conventions that he attended.  And the focus in those days was the doctrinal essay, the "Lehrverhandlungen".  I have said it before and I'll say it again: whenever Walther was in attendance at any convention, the essay that was delivered has his authority, even if he was not the official presenter.  This was documented for the 1872 Synodical Conference essay. I suspect that CHI Director August Suelflow understood this, but he only had translated and published the essays that Walther explicitly delivered and would only call those essays Walther's "Essays For The Church". Fuerbringer, in another article, also emphasized the prominence of Franz Pieper in his convention essays… just like Walther.
      One of the points made in this segment is the leadership of Walther in the Missouri Synod.  More will be said about this below.  But now I present my translation of the final installment of this essay.

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Original German essay in CTM, vol. 7 (October, 1936), p. 721-730, full text here. Text preparation and translation by BackToLuther using DeepL, Google Translate, Microsoft Translate, Yandex Translate. All bold text is Fuerbringer's emphasis. All highlighting, red text, and most text in square brackets [ ] are mine.
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Walther as Churchman.

[by Ludwig Fuerbringer; conclusion from Part 4]

And finally, in describing Walther as a churchman, one must not overlook his quite outstanding activity and effectiveness at synod conventions. Walther was great as a theologian, great as a preacher, but especially great also as a leader and advisor at such conventions. 

"always preferred to hear
Walther"

I am referring to a word from our former Synod President H. C. Schwan, which others may have heard, and this has been indelibly imprinted on me. Schwan once said in a circle of pastors that he had always preferred to hear Walther when he had intervened freely, without notes and written records, without quotations from Luther and the other teachers, directly in the course of the proceedings and had clarified and decided some doctrinal point or a church question by his presentation. There he was always so convincing, so powerful, that nobody could say anything against it anymore. And just as Schwan said from many years of experience and observation, Walther stands before me in my own, admittedly very poor perceptions. As a young man I saw him several times at such meetings and heard him, in 1881 at the delegate synod in Fort Wayne and at the following pastoral conference, the so-called “Election of Grace Synod” [* see new CPH Walther’s Works book Predestination p. 151 ff.], then 1882 in St. Louis and 1883 in Altenburg, when Walther was the speaker on the topic extending over thirteen years: “That Only Through the Doctrine of the Lutheran Church All Honor is Given to God, an Irrefutable Proof that its Doctrine is the Only True One”. Walther concluded this topic at that time according to the “tenth, in its doctrine of the invocation and worship of God” and the “twelfth, by the doctrine of obedience to men in matters of faith and conscience”. 14)

On two other occasions I have seen Walther heavily involved in the proceedings led by two other theologians, in 1884, when Dr. F. Pieper spoke about the Lutheran Scripture Principle at the St. Louis Delegate Synod, and in 1886, when Dr. A.L. Gräbner spoke about the divinity of Scripture at the Detroit Synodal Conference. No one who attended such meetings could escape the power and force of Walther's remarks, which he took from the Holy Scriptures, the norma normans,  <page 730> and proved with the testimonies of the Confessions, the norma normata. He had his famous quotation notes with him — Walther used to copy important passages from Luther, from the symbols and from the dogmatists of the Lutheran Church and to store them nicely arranged in a larger cupboard with drawers (pigeon-holes) to have them easily at hand. But even though he had his quotes in his hand and read them from time to time, he spoke freely and made a deep, lasting impression on pastors and lay people.  And so it would be at his last public appearance as a churchman at the Synod of the Western District in October 1886 in St. Louis. There he brought the above-mentioned theme to a conclusion with the statement, “That even the ruler of the house has neither right nor power to rule over the faith and conscience of his subordinates”. And then he concluded with these words, which also formed the conclusion of this article, with a barely audible voice suffocated with tears:

with a barely audible voice
suffocated with tears

“Thus we are at the end of theses which have been discussed for thirteen years, in which it has been proved that our Lutheran Church in all these doctrines alone gives all glory to God and never attaches the glory due to the great God to the creature. What God deserves, she gives Him completely. God help us that we may not only rejoice to belong to such a church, but that we ourselves may also give Him all glory in our faith, confession, life, suffering and death! Our motto for life must be: soli deo gloria (Glory to God Alone)! This is what the angels sang immediately after the Saviour was born. That was the first and is also the main thing. God got his honor back through Jesus. We have borne nothing but shame, but we have received eternal happiness by giving God his glory again. To all who believe that with their hearts! they will then see all the holy angels and continue the song of honor, praise and glory to God from eternity to eternity. God help us, dear brothers, that we may one day also be among this multitude and then truly give all our glory to the dear God with all our heart! For here we cannot do it; our shameful flesh clings to us. But there, when God has taken the old flesh from us, our doctrine will not only be theory, but we will also practice it. O Lord Jesus, help us all! Amen.” 15) L. Fuerbringer.

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14) 24th Synod Report of the Western District, p. 21 [1882]; 25th Synod Report of the Western District, p. 16 [1883].

15) 27th Synodal Report of the Western District, p. 9-58 [1886].

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      We have testimony above from Pres. H. C. Schwan how Walther "intervened freely… directly in the course of the proceedings" of conventions.  As Fuerbringer reported Schwan's comments, he said that he equated Walther's spiritual comments to be as good as Luther's! Whenever and wherever Walther was present at conventions, the doctrinal essay and discussion commanded the main attraction.  This is further evidence that even at those conventions where he was not the official presenter of the essay, yet just his presence ensured that the pure Bible doctrine prevailed. It is my contention that all conventions where Walther was in attendance bear the stamp of his teaching.
      The above narrative described in two places Walther's commanding presence at conventions – "so convincing, so powerful" and "a deep, lasting impression".  This was indeed high praise for Walther as a theologian.  But does it mean that Walther was the only reason for the "success" of the Missouri Synod?  Some theologians, even Missouri Synod professors of Walther's time, said… yes.  And two Missouri Synod professors who said "yes" then left the Lutheran faith and became Roman Catholic.  A series of blogs is planned to present the history of these.  But for now, it was not Walther who built the Missouri Synod, it was God – it was the God of the Bible, through the Holy Scriptures to which Walther pointed… just as with Luther.  Amen.