Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume X.djvu/739

 LUTHERAN CHURCH 733 under the bread, there never was any contro- versy between the Lutherans and Calvinists ; that local presence we expressly reject and con- demn in all our writings. But a local absence does not prevent a sacramental presence, which is dependent on the communication of the di- vine majesty." (" Colloquium of Mompelgart," Tubingen, 1594.) 4. The Lord's Day. The Augsburg Confession touches on this subject only incidentally in connection with the ques- tion of church power. It teaches that the Jew- ish sabbath is abolished ; that the necessity of observing the first day of the week rests not upon the supposition that such observance has in itself a justifying power, but on the reli- gious wants of men. It teaches moreover that the Lord's day is of apostolic institution. The common judgment of the great theologians of the church has been that the sabbath was in- stituted at the creation of man ; that the ge- neric idea of devoting one day of the week to rest from labor and to religious duties pertains to the entire race through all time ; and that the law of the sabbath, so far as it is not de- terminative and typical, is binding on Chris- tians. (" The Lutheran Church and the Divine Obligation of the Lord's Day," by the Rev. C. P. Krauth, 1856.) At times, especially in the early history of the Lutheran church, there arose controversies, the most important of which were : 1, the Philipistic, arising from the excessive desire of Melanchthon and his school to harmonize with the Roman Catholics and the Reformed ; 2, the antinomistic (1537- '40, 1556), caused by the effort of Agricola to introduce what has been called a " Pelagianism of the gospel ;" 3, the Osiandrian (1550-'67), so called from Osiander, who confounded sanc- tification with justification ; 4, the adiaphoris- tic (1548-'55) (see MELANCHTHON) ; 5, the Ma- joristic"(1551-'52), so called from Georg Major of Wittenberg, on the necessity of good works ; 6, the synergistic (1555-'67), on the coopera- tion of the human will in conversion, in the course of which Flacius spoke of original sin as substantial, not accidental ; -7, the Crypto-Cal- vinistic (1552-'74). The view -of Bucer and the Strasburg school, which was adopted in part by Calvin in regard to the Lord's supper, was so much profounder than that of Zwingli (which Calvin strongly condemned), and in- deed, in the aspect which it assumed in the "Wittenberg Concord, so Lutheranizing, that Melanchthon, without abandoning the Lutheran view, thought that the view of the Strasburg- ers might be tolerated, and the points of dif- ference ignored in the confessions. This po- sition was assailed by the stricter Lutherans. In the course of controversy the more gener-al questions connected with the person of Christ were discussed. (See CEYPTO-CALVINISTS.) All these questions were settled in the " For- mula of Concord " (1577-'80). So deeply was the church grounded in fundamental unity of faith, that none of these controversies, violent as some of them were, were able to rend it into denominational fragments. The subse- quent controversies have been on syncretism (1655), pietism (1686), and rationalism (1751), and those connected with the union and the revival of Lutheranism (from 1817, Harms's Theses, to the present hour). Many learned writers of different denominations have found nothing in the doctrines or usages of Luther- ans to prevent a union between them and oth- er Protestants. Claude, one of the greatest theologians of the French Reformed church, says: "Those of the Augsburg Confession (who are called Lutherans) are in difference with us only about the point of the real pres- ence, and about some questions of the schools which we cannot yet impute to their whole body ; and as for the rest, they reject with us the invocation of saints, religious worship of images, human satisfactions, indulgences, pur- gatory, worship of relics, the public service in an unknown tongue, the merit of good works, transubstantiation, the sacrifice of the mass, the supremacy of the pope, the opinion of the in- fallibility of the church, and the principle of blind obedience to the decisions of councils. They acknowledge the Scriptures to be the only rule of faith ; they carefully practise the reading of them ; they own their sufficiency ; they believe their authority, independent of that of the church ; they distinctly explain the doctrine of justification, and that of the use of the law, and its distinction from the gos- pel ; they do not conceive amiss of the nature of faith, and that of good works ; and as for popular superstitions, we can scarce see any reign among them." ("Defence of the Refor- mation," 1673, translated by T. B., London, 1815, vol. i., p. 291.) II. DIVINE WOESHIP. The Lutheran church regards preaching as an indispensable part of divine service. All wor- ship is to be in the vernacular, or at least in a tongue understood by those who use it ; the wants of the heart as well as of the reason are to be met. Whatever of the past is spiritual, beautiful, and appropriate is to be retained. The church year, with its great festivals, is kept. With various national diversities there is a substantial agreement in the liturgical services of the Lutheran church throughout almost all the world. The hymns are sung by all the people with the organ accompaniment. The clergymen in their official functions wear a distinctive dress, usually a black robe, with the bands, though in portions of the church, as Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, the sur- plice and cope are retained, and the archbish- op of Sweden wears the mitre and carries the crosier on solemn occasions. A preparatory service precedes communion. The doctrine and practice of auricular confession were re- jected at the beginning. The " private con- fession," which was established in some parts of the church, involves no enumeration or confession of particular sins whatever, unless the communicant desires to speak of them; and the "private absolution" is simply the