Qtnurnr~tu UJqtulugtral :!Inutltly Continuing LEHRE UNO WEHRE MAGAZIN FUER Ev.-LuTH. H OMILETIK THEOLOGICAL QUARTERLY-THEOLOGICAL MONTHLY Vol. XV May, 1944 No.5 CONTENTS The Right and Wrong of Private Judgment. Th. Engclder Nathan Soedel'blom. Theodore Gra"hner Page 289 314 328 Outlines on the Standard Gospels Miscellanea Theological Obsen.·er Book Review Eln Predlger muss nlcht alleln wei- deft. also dais er die Schafe unter- weise. wle de rechte Chrl8ten sollen Rln. sondem liIuch cianeben den Woel- ten tDeh7'lm. dass sle die Schafe nlcht angrelfen Wld mit talscher Lehre ver- tuehren und Irrtum elntuehren. Luther 339 3·a 354 Es 1st keln Ding. das die Leute mehr bel der Klrche behaelt denn die gute Predigt. - A pologie. Arl. 24 If tile trumpet give an uncertain sound. who ahall prepare himself to the battle? -1 eM. 14:8 Published for the Ev. Luth. Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and Other States CONCORDIA PUBUSIUNG BOUSE, St. Louis 18, Mo. '11'1 T!:) I - tr. IS. A. 344 Theological Observer Theological Observer Work Among Foreign-Born Lutherans. - In the Lutheran of Feb- ruary 16, 1944, Dr. E. A. Tappert, Divisional Secretary, Board of American Missions (U. L. C. A.), published an important article having the title "Language and Church Progress" and the subtitle "What Is the Future of Bilingual Work in the Lutheran Church of America?" Some of the facts to which he draws attention should be placed before our readers, too. We quote, "According to the United States Census report there are still some ten million people in our land who have come from Lutheran countries - Germany, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Latvia, Estonia, to say nothing of Austria, Slovakia, Bohemia, Poland, and Russia. The metropolitan area of New York houses some 375,000 people of German extraction, 50,000 Norwegians, 60,000 Swedes, 18,000 Danes, 96,000 Finns." Undoubtedly the author is referring to people that were born abroad. In speaking of the efforts made by other de- nominations to win these immigrants with a Lutheran background for their faith, Dr. Tappert says, "Before the depression set in, the P res- byter ian Church used to spend the enormous sum of $1,105,000 on lin- guistic work alone, more than the U. L . C. A. is spending on all its mission activities; yet their field among their own people, the Hungarian Reformed and the Italian Waldensians, is very limited. Th e Congre- gationalists are working with great success among our Lutherans from Russia. They maintain a seminary for the training of German pastors for them at Yankton, South Dakota, and have succeeded in building up a synod with 94 pastors serving synodical congregations and 26 pastors serving elsewhere. These pastors are receiving Lutheran training at the seminary; they use Luther's Catechism in their churches, but they call themselves German Congregational churches, and have no con- nection with the Lutheran Church. They publish a sixteen-page Ger- man weekly, Der Kirchenbote, which is well edited. Baptists, Metho- dists, Episcopalians all are busy working in our Lutheran field." Speaking of his own synod, Dr. Tappert says, "The only field in which we are active among the immigrants seems to be Western Canada. There Lutherans with 237,500 members occupy fourth place, topped only by the United Church of Canada, the Roman Catholic, and the Anglican Church." Then the author looks ahead. "But what is the prospect for the future? Looking to the north, we find that Canada is in dire need of a larger population to develop its great resources. It will undoubtedly open its doors again and receive a large number of immigrants. Among t...~em will be a considerable number of Lutherans. While Germans from the Reich will not be welcome for a long time, there are many German Lutherans from Russia and P oland who may be looked upon by the authorities with more favor. It is probable that Russia will occupy a larger part of Finland after the war , and this would result in a larger immigration of Finnish people. 'who would be more welcome than the Germans. It is also probable that a large number of Norwegians and Theological Observer 345 Danes who have been uprooted by the war will seek a new home across the waters, as will iTlany Estonians an' ~ . :_, _.iter their ' ____ ~_~_" ~_~s been absorbed. All these should offer a fruitful field for linguistic work. "Looking to the south, we find a situation which should arrest the attention of all Lutherans in our land. The great work which the Church of Germany had built up in South America, especially in Brazil, is in danger of disintegration. Large congregations, deprived of their pastors, are like sheep having no shepherd. Their schools have been closed, their public functions forbidden, all religious activities terminated. There is no hope that the German State Church will ever again be per- mitted to work in Brazil as before World War II nor that it can, or will, send pastors to fill their vacant pulpits. "The SOS for pastors has come from a consecrated layman, and efforts are being made to establish a workable contact with the situation through the Lutheran World Convention. But later this must be taken up by Lutherans in our land. While for the time being the use of any foreign language in public worship is prohibited, no matter how indispensable it may be - and only the Portuguese language can be used - this decree will undoubtedly be eased after the war, when passions have calmed down and the danger of European interference is no longer imminent. a tremen delicate t< Ie awaiting our Church, and a gre;J.t deal of wisdom aild Con",,!cration will be needed to meet it." We of the Missouri Synod think of our large District in South America, which is doing a blessed and ever-increasing work, although thc difficulties that have grown out of the war are truly formidable. The lack of aggressiveness on the part of Lutherans to do mission work among immigrants having the name "Lutheran" is ascribed by Dr. Tappert to an inferiority complex. "She" (that is, the Lutheran Church) "felt inclined to apologize for the fact that she had a racial background which was not always popular in our land, and frantically she has tried to get away from the stigma which ignorant people might attach to her, that she was a 'foreign' church, as if that would make her less precious in the sight of God." It has happened, so he says, that a Lutheran congregation in the spirit of exclusiveness refused to have anything to do with immigrant Lutherans living in a territory contiguous to its own, and as a result the Presbyterians went into that territory and built up a large church. Our author continues, "Which of our seminaries would engage a professor who is a recognized authority in a Gennan theological faculty? Princeton and other American universities have no hesitancy in adding valuable 'foreigners' to their teaching staff and have profited by it; but would we?" We inject here that with us Missourians the chief difficulty would not be such a professor's foreign birth and training, but his all too likely rejection of vital elements of the Chris- tian faith. With the plea of Dr. Tapper, which we now submit, we are in full agreement, "We must rid ourselves of such inhibitions and change our attitude. Our Church is strong enough and well enough known that she need not care what the ignorant may say about her. The policies or our Church should never be influenced by political cons:- 0 s, 346 Theological Observer but solely by the things that please God and benefit immortal souls." He insists that there should be a change in method, too. Formerly the work among immigrants, so he says, was done in a very haphazard way. His remarks pertain, we believe, especially to work done by the bodies that now form the U. L. C. A. He closes with words of Luther which should be reprinted here, too: "I do not agree with those who give themselves entirely to one language and despise the others; for I would like to train young people who could be useful to Christ in strange lands, able to talk to the people, so that we may escape what happened to the Waldensians in Bohemia, who have tied up their faith with their language in such a way that they cannot explain it or talk to anybody except he learn their language. That is not the way the Holy Spirit acted in the begin- ning: He did not wait until all the world would come to J erusalem and learn the Hebrew language, but gave all kinds of tongues to the office of the ministry, so that the Apostles could speak to the people wherever they went. I would rather follow this example, and it is entirely proper · to expect the young to practice in many languages; who knows how God will use them some time." A. Has the Bible P laced a Curse upon the Negro Race. - The Presby- terian Guardian (March 10, 1944) answers this question as follows: "This question should be answered with an emphatic negative. It is surpr ising to discover that there are Christians who believe that the Negro race, because of its descent from Ham, is therefore under a curse. It should be noted that, upon the basis of Scripture alone, it is im- possible either to prove or to disprove that the Negro is descended from Ham. Upon this point the Bible is completely silent. A list of Ham's descendants is given in Genesis 10: 6-20. Upon one of Ham's sons, Canaan, a curse was pronounced in these words: 'Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren' (Gen. 9: 25) . It is sometimes erroneously held, as seems to be the case in the Scofield Bible, that this curse applies to all the descendants of Ham. Indeed, it is somewhat of a puzzling question why Ham is cursed in his younger son. Possibly the answer is to be found in the fact that Ham, having sinned as a son against his father (Gen. 9: 22) , is in turn punished in the person of his youngest son of Noah. Now, the Negro race is obviously not descended from Canaan, and hence this curse upon Canaan does not apply to it. We do well to note the words of August Dillmann, a learned commentator on the Book of Genesis: ' . .. and, it may be said in passing, the slavery of the Negro races cannot be justified from this passage [i . e., Gen. 9: 25], all the less because Negro peoples in the strict sense (ch. 10: 6) are not derived from Ham at all.' There appears to be absolutely no Scriptural warrant for considering the Negro race to be servile." We agree to this, despite the fact that frequently in our pub- lications the view that "the Bible has put a curse upon the Negro race" has been expressed and defended. But to do so, means to make a declaration without having clear and firm and unmistakable Scripture proof upon which to rest one;s assertion. J . T . M. Theological Observer 347 The Good Work of the Student Welfare Committee Goes On.- The work of the "Student Welfare Committee," as performed by our Church, belongs to our most important mission work at the present time. It is therefore very gratifying to learn from its monthly News Letter, which, on behalf of this work, Rev. R. W. Hahn is sending out to the workers and all who are interested in it, that this excellent work is successfully going on. In the bulletin of March, 1944, we read among other most interesting paragraphs the following: "In his book Science, Religion, and the Future C. E. Raven describes Darwinism as the dogma of a sect in science to be defended with fanatical zeal, rather than at hypothesis to be viewed strictly on its merits. Macmillan Company. Two dollars." - Indeed, an important witness against evolution! - "A con- secrated co-ed at Kearney State Teachers College temporarily discon- tinued her studies to take over a rural parochial school at a salary of $90 a month. With a tremendous parochial teacher shortage imminent, Pastor Potratz, who serves Nebraska State Teachers College, hopes that our student pastors universally will encourage qualified young ladies in their respective groups to follow the noble example of Miss Lorna Bergt." - "An outstanding member of Pastor Bruening's group of 30 at Southwestern Louisiana Institute, Lafayette, La., is a refugee Jewess from Germany. 'A fine member, wonderful singer, talented girl, assistant editor of the college paper.''' - "Final success note from Siudent Pastor A H. Besalski of the University of Alaba.ma, who this month relinquishes his office to Pastor Vernon Grosse, erstwhile Service Center Pastor in Kansas City: 'Confirmed another uniformed student (air crew trainee) two weeks ago.''' - "Soul-winning at Indiana University: 'I recently confirmed two students, one with the Master's degree in Biology.'- C. Stephan." - Of the students at Ohio University 80 per cent who ex~ pressed their religious views by means of a questionnaire said that they were too lazy or sleepy to go to church. One student gave up his belief in God because he studied zoology and evolution. Another dis- likes the Church's references to the Bible for everything that comes up.- Religion on the Grill, in Intercollegian." - "Soul-winning at the Uni- Versity of Wyoming: an unchurched co-ed, regularly brought to our services in Laramie by a faithful Lutheran woman student, made an appointment with Pastor Reuter in February to discuss her contemplated enrollment in his church membership class." - "The Dean of Women at Indiana University has granted all Lutheran freshmen women per- mission to attend the midweek Lenten services conducted by Pastor Stephan at our University Church adjacent to the campus without having a night out charged against them, if they return to their quarters by 8: 45 P. M." - '''The booklets published by the Synodical Student Wel- fare Committee have aroused much interest on our campus. Several professors have commented favorably on them.' - Dr. Austin Predoehl, of the Faculty of Birmingham-Southern College (Methodist). - Laie in February a Methodist faculty member purchased 100 copies of They Go to Ch1trch!' - " 'Deck Thyself, My Soul, With Gladness' is included Ll1 University Hymns, the hymnbook used in the fine chapel on the Colo- rado College Campus, Colorado Springs." - "A new problem confronting 348 Theological Observer the student pastor is the spiritual care of discharged service men who will enroll in colleges and universities at govern.'llent exper se." - "Student Pastor l'iorden introduced the weekly envelop system in his campus congregation at the University of Minnesota at the beginning of the new calendar year." - "Pastor H. P. Schmidt, pastoral adviser to our student youth at Buena Vista College, Storm Lake, Iowa, is cur- rently teaching second-year German at that school. When religious problems arise in the class, this pastor accepts them as 'opportunities' for Scriptural testimony." - "Chuckle of the Month: 'In Der Lutheraner, January 25, I noticed that you have published a little bookJ.et under the title Sie gehen zur Kirche. Will you kindly mail me a copy? If it can be had in the English language, I would prefer that.''' - A boost for Der Lutheraner, indeed! - "From the order of worship of a Con- gregational church (picked up at a Sunday Evening Forum in February): Prelude, Two Chorale Preludes: 01~,r Father Which Art in Heaven, and 0 Sacred Head, Now Wounded, by J.S.Bach.-Anthem, Gracious Lord of All Our Being, by J. S. Bach. - Postlude, Lamb of God, Our Savior, by J. S. Bach." And are we Lutherans tiring of Bach and resorting to cheap music, while Congregationalists delight in Bach? Where is the logic? -Pastors not receiving the News Letter are missing much valuable sermon (especially. mission sermon) nater' VI. ':.. __ ?robl_ jf Cr.me. - Time (March 20, 1944) l=; this !:;:::i~f) but alarming report to make: "The boy of 17 is now the No.1 criminal of the U. S. for the first time in the records of the FBI. While his older brot1~.:.~s are busy at war, he committed 27.7 per cent more crimes last year. FBI, analyzing its way through the 1,381,681 major crimes com- mitted in the U. S. in 1943, had even sadder news about girl criminals. The number of under-21 girls arrested leaped 130.4 per cent over 1941. Biggest jump was in the 'V -girl' area of 'amateur' prostitution and saloon-going, which FBI politely calls 'offenses against public decency.' But there was also a 30 per cent increase in girl burglaries. Other FBI findings are: The U. S. had 1,052 fewer murders than in 1942. Robberies were down, too, but the haul per holdup was higher. Biggest increase: auto theft (up 11.4 per cent); rape (up 9.7 per cent). The war has forced house prowlers to change their hours. There are 10 per cent fewer early-evening burglaries, because gasoline-less citizens stay home more. Burglaries were up 7 per cent in daytime, when women workers were away from home. Robbers follow the market: filling-station holdups, longtime easy pickings, now declined 72 per cent." - As Christian citizens, we, too, share in the responsibility \vhich rests upon our people to support our Government in the prevention and suppression of crime. But unless the churches return to the preaching of God's pure Word, and unless there is restored to our country the Christian home (at least to sue' an extent that it becomes a leaven for good), and unless all Christia citizens on their part and in their sphere obey and uphold the la'V{ of the land, we must look for even an increase in crime after the drea(Lful war, now raging throughout the world, will have come to an end. Th problem of crime must be the concern of every decent citizen, in par~ ticular, or ever,; Christian in our country. J .. T. ivI. Theological Observer 349 The Lutheran God. - A correspondent of the Christian Century who had given son time le re: : of the 6A~ugsb ::OnfE 1 had indignation written a letter in which this rhetorical question occuned, "If Lutherans do not believe in an infinite monster for a God, why don't they repudiate such a terrifying doctrine?" Various replies were re- ceived. A representative of the Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church of America wrote that while his church body subscribed to the "Apostolic Creed as the confession of faith and to the Nicene Creed and Athanasian Creed, the Unaltered Augsburg Confession of 1530, and Luther's Small Catechism as doctrinal confessions," his church body in its 1929 conven- tion had appended the following footnote, " ... The four last-named symbols shall be considered as historical expressions of the paths our Church has trod, without, however, demanding acceptance of all their specific terms, IlS, for example, condemnation of those who t.~ink oth __ - wise." Evidently the delegates who accepted that footnote misunder- stood the Augsburg Confession when in various articles it says of the subscribers that they "condemn the Anabaptists" or others who teach false doctrine. The meaning, of course, is not that these false teachers are assigned to everlasting torment, but that their views are rejected as false. Very good was the l'cply which was sent by John Schmidt of Lutheran Theologica- uther Se:mim Collli-nbi: SOt ;arol He reminds the objector that the Augsburg COnf~()ll teal.aJ.t:IS the ~ "worshiped by all Christians " ... ho stand in the classical tradition of that faith." He points out to him that the Thir17,Y'-nine Articles of the Protestant Episcopal Church and the Heidelberg Catechism and the Westminster Confession contain the same teaching. Of special impor- tance is his last sentence. "The Lutheran Church takes seriously the fact and consequence of sin. And that is why it proclaims so emphatically the blessed Gospel of forgiveness through God's grace." A. Interest in Doctrine for the Sake of Doctrine. - President John Mackay of Princeton Theological Seminary is a popular speaker and welcome also in conservative Refonned circles. Hence he was the speaker at the Annual Winter Lectures of Western Seminary, Holland, Michigan. His opening address was on "John Calvin and Modern Protestantism." Largely through the influence of Emil Brunner, who lectured at Princeton for some time, he became interested in Barthianism, and in his lecture at Western Seminary he lauded Karl Barth for putting "iron into the soul of the confessional churches of Gennany" and "turning the thoughts of men back to the great source of revelation and inspiration" [which, of co ....... """ is giviHt; Barth more glory than he deserves]. The other modern exponent of the virility of Calvinism (said Mackay) is Prof. R. Niebuhr of Union Seminary of NeVI- 'V-Tk, V'1...o, according to Iv1ackay, comes to us "hi the German Reformed tradition on sin and grace" and is the "best contemporary interpreter of Charles Hodge" [which also is not true]. But in the report, as given in the Calvin Forum, of March, 1944, there is one paragraph which is interest· above others. In that paragra",=_ ::>residerri Mackay utters the warn against bei.!lg "interested in doctrine for the sake of doctrine." We read in the report: "'Doctrine becomes an end in itself. If you have the ideas. 350 Theological Observer nothing else matters.' At this point the speaker became eloquently bitter against those who were guilty of the heresy of putting the ideas about God in the place of God Himself. It is one thing, he contended, to have an idea of God and another thing to be in touch with the living God. Those who have only the idea of God are in danger of being self- righteous and censorious. Those who have found the living God will walk in humility before Him." This is a queer twist, which we beg our readers to observe carefully. There may indeed be such a thing as being interested in doctrine merely for its own sake without having any regard for the purpose for which God gave us His holy Word. We may thus approach Scripture from a purely speculative or academic viewpoint, much as Soeren Kierkegaard did, or also as Kant did. Again, there may be such a thing as having an idea of God without being in touch with the living God. In other words, there may be a dead ortho- doxy ; there may be a purely Pharisaic use of the idea or doctrine of God. But it may interest the reader to know just what Jacob T. Hoogstra, who wrote the r eport of Mackay's address, has to say to the speaker's warning. He writes: "This diatribe was powerful and eloquent. It stirred the audience. But-whom did President J . Mackay have in mind? No one can claim that the sin of serving an idea of God instead of the living God attaches itself necessarily to any group of people, orthodox or liberal. Even a Neo-Protestant can be guilty of that. No one can assert that self-righteousness is the vice of a certain group or tendency, and then, perhaps, in a self-righteous manner, denounce that group or tendency. John Calvin knew his God as the living God, and because he did, he never rested until he expressed this knowledge in the most precise way. John Calvin also knew, all things being equal, the truer our knowledge of God is, the closer we dwell with Him." There is much food for thought in this criticism. John Horsch in his fine book Modern Religious Liberalism warns his readers against Modernistic theological juggling and counterfeiting. Is it not counterfeiting on the part of Neo-Protestantism, which really is Barthianism in a liberal form, to warn against the danger of being interested in doctrine for doctrine's sake and against having an idea of God without knowing God? Is it not a subtle way of drawing the interested Bible student's attention away from the Christian doctrine so that liberal Neo-Protestantism may win its victory? Certainly, Luther did not only have a doctrine of God, but he also walked with God. And that is true of all Christian theo- logians deserving this name. Nor were they interested in doctrine merely for the sake of the doctrine, but they preached the doctrine and lived the doctrine, because they believed it was given them to make them and others wise unto salvation. The devil most assuredly hates the divine Word; otherwise he would not scheme out so many ways to draw people away from this precious divine gift. J . T. M. Confusion Regarding the Lord's Supper in Episcopalian Church Circles. - The Living Church (February 6, 1944) contains an article on Holy Communion which deserves credit in so far as it goes to the trouble to present to its readers the doctrine of the Lord's Supper in some detail. But L'le confusion prevailing in a body which admits members of High Church, Low Church, and Broad Church tendencies and which, Theological Observer 351 in addition, must do justice to the Thirty-Nine Articles is so sadly re- flected in the article that one wonders just what the ordinary Episco- palian is to believe concerning Holy Communion. A few excerpts may illustrate to our readers just how great the confusion is. Regarding the Real Presence the writer says: "The language of St. Paul and the Fourth Guspel show that the Early Church understood without qualifica- tion that the words meant that the elements of bread and wine actually become the body and blood of the Lord. That is the mind of the Catholic Church today - Roman, Orthodox, and Anglican. That was the mind of the Church of the first century" [?]. Farther down the writer states: "They [the words of institution] mean that which is the vehicle of the whole Christ, God and man - and, of course, of the ascended, reigning Christ of today. Hence, Article XXVIll declares, 'The body of Christ is given, taken, and eaten, in the Supper, only after an heavenly and spiritual manner,' and that 'the mean whereby the body of Christ is received, is Faith.''' Again: "It is clear that the words 'body' and 'blood' express a spiritual reality which is beyond the powers of expression of human speech. The Sacrament is the vehicle of our Savior as only His body can be; and of His life as only His blood can be. The words are sufficient to indicate His real presence." Here, then, is hopeless confusion. On the one hand, it is said that the bread and wine become truly Christ's body and blood, and that this doctrine is believed by the Roman and the Orthodox Catholic and the Anglican Church, there being a real presence, and, on the other, that the body and bread of Christ are received by faith, the body being, moreover "the whole Christ, God and man, and the ascended, reigning Christ of to- day." - The same confusion prevails with regard to the purpose of the Holy Sacrament. It is, in the first place, a "memorial of Christ's blessed passion and precious death." Again, it is offered for adoration, for "if the presence of Christ is granted, adoration is inevitable." In the third place, while the sacrifice of Christ cannot be repeated, in Holy Com- munion a memorial of it is made, and "it is re-presented before Gud and man." "But there is a further purpose, which can be completed only by the Church's offering: the communion of God and man, which is at once the highest of human duties and the greatest of human bless- ings. Emboldened to draw near by Christ's perfect offering for our sins, we dare to partake in a sacrifice of thanksgiving and union with God." But that is not all. "By virtue of the character which He con- ferred upon these elements, as the Prayer of Consecration goes on to say, we obtain 'remission of our sins and all other benefits of His pas- sion'; are filled with God's 'grace and heavenly benediction,' and made one body with Christ, 'that we may dwell in Him and He in us.''' This last is sound Scriptural and Lutheran doctrine; only these benefits are imparted to the believing communicant not "by virtue of the character which He conferred upon these elements," but through the precious Gospel promise which Christ has attached to the Holy Supper and which makes Holy Communion a true means of grace, the promise being re- ceived by faith. According to the writer, the body and blood of Christ are received in. Holy Communion by faith, while the benefits of re- 352 Theological Observer mission of sins, the grace of God, and the communicant's indwelling in Christ are obtained ex opere operata. Lutherans indeed have every reason in the world to be grateful because in the great Refonner's Small Catechism the doctrine of the Lord's Supper is so clearly, fully, and Scripturally presented. In the simplest words possible Luther here ex- plains both the nature and the purpose of the Holy Supper, as also, of course, why the bodily eating and drinking do such great things and how the Sacrament is to be received worthily. May it be granted us never to teach anything else than what Luther here sets forth on the basis of Holy Scripture. And while we are writing this, let our readers remember that in 1544 Luther wrote his Brief Confession Regarding the Holy Sacrament Against the Enthusiasts. The book appeared that year by the end of September, and it is still worthy of study, especially on account of Luther's fine characterization of enthusiasm and his excellent remarks on religious unionism, CSt, L. Ed., XX: 1764-1791.) J . T. M. Brief Items. - Officials of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints have fonnally commended law enforcement agencies on the recent arrests of fifty persons in connection with charges of polygamy. Monnon spokesmen emphasize that plural marriage has been a violation of their regulations for more than fifty years. Guilty members are ex- communicated, they say. So reports the Protestant Voice . To evaluate properly the comment of Mormon officials referred to, place beside it this statement contained Ll"J. Popular Symbolics (pp. 442 f.) , "The agreement to give up the practice of polygamy, which in 1895 was put into the Constitution of Utah as a condition of statehood, by no means implied a renunciation of the doctrine of polygamy." If anybody thinks that the Church is probably spending more money than it ought to for church buildings and on education, let him consider that last year the huge sum of $6,000,000,000 was spent in the United States for wine, beer, and liquor. Do we realize that our country is at war? It was a brave sixteen-page pamphlet which Miss Vera Brittain wrote, entitled "Massacre by Bombing," and which was sent out by twenty-eight prominent American citizens, chiefly clergymen. Whether this so-called obliteration bombing is absolutely a military necessity, as it claimed, we cannot say. Its horrors and the woes it inflicts on women and children are indescribable. The Christian Century in our view is right when it says that such methods are indefensible unless at the same time "every other means of shortening the war is being tried." The number of children in the United States that receive no fonnal religious education is said to be seventeen million. In Texas our brethren are tryhlg to assist in remedying this appalling situation by engaging all their members in behalf of child evangelism. One of our exchanges quotes a dispatch on conditions in India. An estimate coming from Calcutta University states "that the total number of deaths from famine and disease in Bengal above nonnal is in the neighborhood of 3,500,000. The survey shows the death rate among men is much higher than anlOng women, which means a loss Theological Observer 353 of wage earners and increasing demands for relief from women and children." And, according to the opinion of some observers, the end is not yet. Are we bestirring ourselves as we should? The vacancy created by the death of Dr. M. Reu in the faculty of Wartburg Lutheran Seminary, Dubuque, Iowa, has been filled by the election of the Rev. Emil Matzner of Marine City, Mich., who has accepted the call and will begin his teaching when the summer semester starts (May 29). May God use him as an instrument in the spreading of sound, Scriptural Lutheranism! Amazing is the amount of money Seventh-Day Adventists are raising for their denominational purposes. This body numbers 210,000 members. In 1942 the tithes and offerings of the members of this sect that live in North America totaled more than $15,000,000 ($77.14 per capita). Their 28,800 evangelistic worh.",rs labuL iu 413 Co1.u.;"'~c;; and island groups. Can we read this without a blush? America (Roman Catholic weekly) states editorially that it has be- come known that "since Pearl Harbor 1,028,000 men have been dis- charged from the armed services. . .. Some of them are wounded and need hospitalization; others require vocational rehabilitation; many must b::: helped to continue studies interrupted by the "Tar: and the great majority need assistance in .ailcling work, ei(iler in til"" 01d jobs,.,.!h"'i'3 these are still open, or in new occupations." Balancing all the factors, therefore, we thi:rL~ it likely that the atrocities on Bataan represented not the deliberate policy of the Japa- nese high command, but the brutal rage of subordinate officers and soldiers venting itself on helpless prisoners. Yet since this is not cer- tain and in the nature of the case cannot be proved now, the only way to deal with the issue which this question raises is to rely on the promise of future legal punishment against the proved perpetrators of such crimes given by President Roosevelt. - From an editorial in the Christian Century. The Christian Century editorially prints in part a letter of a Lutheran pastor pointing out to a young woman of his church who wished to join the Evangelical and Reformed Church why she could not with a good conscience do that. The letter points to the difference in the doctrine of the Lord's Supper between the two church bodies. The Christian Century editorially remarks, "The width of the actual gap between the Lutheran and Reformed churches we Call..!lot judge, but so long as representatives of one think this way about the other, the gap in fellowship is pretty wide." Yes, the gap is wide. A. 23