LUTHERAN^
577
LUTHERAN
forward where their proper goal lies, they turn back- wards. They are constantly recurring to the point on which the confessional differences originally rested. They desire to establish by the Church confessions what they hold to be the real substance of the evangelical faith. Yet they must themselves confess that they can- not be satisfied that they are throughout in harmony with either the Lutheran or the Reformed doctrine, and that on this ground they are wishing for what can be found in neither. The more the two systems are com- pared, the more do they show that the one excludes the other. This is the contradiction out of which there is no escape, the code in which tliere is a perpetual revo- lution between union and confession. The sympathy for the old system is lost, and yet there is lack of force and courage to rise to a new one. Men know in their hearts that they are no longer at one with the Church, and yet they are afraid to break with it outwardly. They hold fast to tlie union, and yet cannot let go of the confessional. Is it a matter of wonder that all the dogmatic products of this school of theologians have an air of feebleness, superficiality, and lifelessness ? From the dogmatic position it is impossible to deny that the opponents of the theology of the union are right ; from it we must justify the Lutheran theologians, whose sys- tem, with all the offensiveness of its particularism, has at least the advantages of character, decision, and log- ical consistency" {Kirchengeschichte des Neimz. Jahrh. [Tubing. 1862 J, p. 409-411).
Mecklenburg isolated itself by its exclusive state- churchism. Even the Hanoverian Catechism, with which the earliest agitations in North Germany had been connected, did not secure the unmixed approval of the portion of the Church with whose views it was in sympathy. New Lutheranism has been accused of manifesting a tendency towards Romanizing, especially in the doctrine of the ministr\', of the sacraments, and of the Church. To the ministerial office it is charged with imputing a hierarchical priestly character. It is charged with holding that ordination confers a divine authority for the ministration of the Word and sacra- ments, and for the discipline and government of the Church. "With this tendency has been connected a desire to restore private confession, which its oppo- nents say is almost equivalent to auricular confession. With it has arisen a strong opposition to the presbyte- rial constitution. It is said to maintain that the sacra- ments derive their operativeness from the " office of the means of grace." In connection with this view, an ex- alted importance is attached to the sacraments. The Lord's Supper is made the proper centre of the public service. The whole artistic sense has been developed in this movement ; a higher interest has been excited in the proper performance of the ritual, and, indeed, of the whole liturgical service of the Church. The in- toning and the whole musical element in worship has been assigned its old place of esteem. This school has been charged with maintaining that, in order to pre- serve the pure doctrine, a view of tradition in affinity with tliat of Rome is to be held. Subjection to the au- thority of the Church is to be substituted for individual faith. The most important literary organ of this ten- dency has been Hengstenberg's Evangelische Kirchen- zeituiiff, established in 1827, which maintains within the Prussian union, with immense force and success, the po- sition of distinctive Lutheranism. This tendency sep- arated itself from the orthodoxy which bore the tinge of pietism, and from the mediating theology, especially in the work of inner missions (q. v.), with which it re- fused to co-operate, on the ground that it was not churchly. In the Prussian Church it opposed itself to the regulations of the congregations, and to the consti- tution of the State Church. In the department of mis- sions to tlie heathen (the term foreign missions has ceased to answer, since it has become the fashion for one set of Christians to establish missions for the con- version of another set), the revised New Lutheranism v.— Oo
has pursued an independent course. Against this Dor- ner expressed himself, in a memorial of the Prussian High Consistory in 186G, which did not, however, pre- vent the newly-acquired state churches (such as Hano- ver, etc.) from being placed under the care of the minis- ter of cultus. The Lutherans outside of Prussia, the Mecklenburgers, Bavarians, and others, at the confer- ence at Hanover in 18G8, with the Hanoverians, and others in Church fellowship with them, made use of the seventh article of the Augsburg Confession (of the Church and its true unity) to keep up the agitation against all union with the rest of the State Church of Prussia. See Neue Evangel: Kirchenztitung (18G8) ; Ritschl, in Dorner's Zeitschrift fur dus Kirchen-recht (1869) ; Matthes, A llgemeine Kirchliche Ckronilc (1871).
V. Ritual and Worship (cultus) of the Lutheran Church. — The foundation for these was laid by Luther in his Formida Missaj (1523) and his German Mass (1 525). In these he proceeded upon the principle, which he expressed and defended, that the Church service was not to be abrogated as a whole; that the vital parts of it had a noble origin ; that the great thing was to purge off its excrescences and defilements, and to restore to its true place in it the Word of God, which had been more and more neglected. In conformity with Luther's fun- damental principles, the ritual was purified, the neglect- ed elements replaced, and the more necessary parts de- veloped still further. It was brought back to the stand- ard of the Bible, and of early pure Catholic antiquity. The Lord's Supper, restored to its true position, became the grand point of culmination in all the chief services. The office of the Word was renewed. Preaching became a great indispensable element of the chief public ser- vices. The congregation took a direct part in the ser- vice in response and singing. The services were held in the vernacidar of the country, though a certain pro- portion of the familiar old Latin part of the services was in many cases continued, mainly, however, in order to re- tain the noble Church-music, until time had been given to fit it to a vemacular service complete in all its parts. Luther insisted simply on an organization of worship which shoidd preserve its rich treasures and resources. Services ibr the morning and evening, and for the days of the week, were retained or arranged. More than all, congregational singing was developed. In conformity with these views, there arose the service of the Luther- an type which we find in the agenda (q. v.) of the 16th and 17th centuries. In northern, eastern, and middle Germany the Wittenberg order was followed, and is maintained to this day. The service is of moderate length, and is rich liturgically.