HYMN To God, the only wise.... To Jesus, the crown of my hope........ To our Redeemer's glorious name.. To Thee this temple we devote...............J. R. Scott. 490 Triumphant Zion, lift Thy head......... Steele. 8 'Twas on that dreadful, doleful night............ Watts. 262 Unveil thy bosom, faithful tomb.... Vain, delusive world, adieu............................... Watts. 555 Watts. 70 .C. Wesley. 415 L. Bacon. 214 ...J. Wesley. 511 Wake the song of jubilee....... What thousands never knew the road.... 317 Hayward. 35 Kent. 441 Watts. 564 417 .... Cowper, 327 Steele. 446 .......... .King. 503 Watts. 383 When I survey the wondrous cross............... Watts. 127 When Israel through the desert passed.. HYMN Gibbons. 427 Toplady. 164 Newton. 544 When marshall'd on the nightly plain...H. K. White. 171 Watts. 477 Fawcett. 501 Watts. 109 14 Ye golden lamps of heaven, farewell........Doddridge. 576 Ryland. 114 Ye trembling souls, dismiss your fears....... Beddome. 83 Yes, the Redeemer rose....... Zion stands with hills surrounded.. .Doddridge. 242 Kelly. 484 FORMULA FOR THE GOVERNMENT AND DISCIPLINE OF THE EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH. CHAPTER I. PRELIMINARY PRINCIPLES. SECTION 1. We believe that from an examination of the works of nature and the course of events, we may derive evidence of the existence of God and the prominent truths of natural religion.* SEC. 2. But that the evidence of natural religion is not such as to afford us a satisfactory knowledge of the nature of God and our relation to him; nor its influence sufficient to urge us to duty; and that, therefore, a farther revelation from God is necessary. SEC. 3. We believe that such a revelation God has given, at sundry times and in divers manners, unto the fathers, and in later days by his Divine Son Jesus Christ, and his inspired servants; ‡ that this revelation is contained in the books known in Protestant Christendom as the Old and New Testaments, and that every individual is bound to *Rom. i. 20. Į Heb. i. 1, 2. Acts iv. 12; Rom. iii. 1, 2. 22 Tim. iii. 16. 459 receive this as his infallible rule of faith and practice, and to be governed by it.* SEC. 4. We hold that liberty of conscience and the free exercise of private judgment in matters of religion, are natural and inalienable rights of men, of which no government, civil or ecclesias tical, can deprive us.† SEC. 5. As order is necessary to the prosperity of every associate body, and as Jesus Christ has left no entire, specific form of Government and Discipline for His church, it is the duty of every individual Church to adopt such regulations as appear to them most consistent with the spirit and precepts of the New Testament, and best calculated to subserve the interests of the Church of Christ. SEC. 6. And as men exercising the right of private judgment agree in the opinion that Christianity requires a social connection among its professors; and as experience proves that men will differ in some of their views of doctrine and discipline; and as too much difference of opinion would be prejudicial to the objects of such an association, therefore reason dictates that those holding similar views of faith and practice should associate together; that it is their duty to require for admission to church-membership among them, or for induction into the sacred office, and for continuance in either, such terms as they deem most accordant with the precepts and spirit of the Bible. SEC. 7. Upon the broad basis of these principles was the Evangelical Lutheran Church founded, * John v. 39; Acts xv. 11; John xiv. 16, 17. † Rom. ii. 13, 15, and others; Dan. vi. 1, 23; Acts iv. 19 immediately after the Reformation. Adhering to the same principles, the Church in America is governed by three Judicatories: the Council of each individual church; the District Synods, consisting of the clergy and lay delegates from a particular district of country, and one GENERAL SYNOD, formed by representatives from all the different Synods of the Lutheran Church, receiving the Augsburg Confession as a correct exhibition of the fundamental doctrines of the word of God. The ratio of clerical and lay representatives is determined in the Constitution of the General Synod; and the powers of this body are chiefly those of an Advisory Council. CHAPTER II. OF THE CHURCH. PART I. OF THE INVISIBLE CHURCH. SECTION 1. The true or invisible Church of Christ is the collective body of all* those of every religious denomination in the world, who are in a state of grace.† SEC. 2. The true Church of Christ is a spiritual society, consisting of members whose qualifications are spiritual, and who are associated for spiritual purposes. || SEC. 3. It is a catholic or universal society; * Eph. iv. 1, 7. Matt. vii. 21, xii. 50; Acts x. 35. John xviii. 36. ? John iv. 13. Eph. iv. 12; 1 Thess. v. 11. 1 Cor. i. 2; John x. 16; Rom. xii. 4; Eph. iv. 4, 6. |