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g. SWEDES IN U.S.A. THE AUGUSTANA SYNOD. 411
require a closer and more generous definition than it has as
yet received. Further, it seems a great anomaly that a
congregation should exclude or excommunicate a member
whom the synod has not excluded or excommunicated as
sometimes is said to be done. Membership of a pro
fessedly
"
infidel
"
society such as the synod constitution
refers to is one thing. It is a justifiable cause for exclu
sion. But it is quite another thing to exclude as
11
infidels
"
men who belong to such lodges of the Free
masons as now exist in the British Isles and in Sweden, or
to some benefit society which admits to its privileges men
who are not all of necessity Christians. If a man is bound
by any unholy tie or rite he ought not to remain a member
of any such society. But if the religion is true and pure,
as far as it goes, it is hard to insist upon it. I think, how
ever, that the custom of inducing a man, when he joins a
society, to promise in writing that he will allow himself
to be buried by it, is much to be reprobated. Such services
give the society too much the character of a Church, or a
substitute for the Church, and it is right to warn a man not
to give such a pledge. I do not say that he is to be
excommunicated because he has done so.
(3) The third question, that of introducing the Swedish
episcopal polity, or some form of it, into the Augustana
Synod, is evidently one on which there is a difference of
opinion in the body. Many fear to relax or forfeit their
associations with other Churches affiliated to the
"
Lutheran
General Council," which is said to have a total of 900,000
communicants. But, if the much talked of
"
Lutheran
freedom
"
of Church organization means anything, it must
mean that it is quite as open to any Church to organize
itself on the basis of traditional episcopacy, as in Sweden,
as it is to organize itself on that of episcopal Superin-
tendency as in Denmark and Norway, or of Superin-
dency in Germany, or of Presbyterianism with synods and
presidents. Melanchthon, as I have indicated, wished to
retain the degrees of order in the Church. Three of them
were long retained in Sweden, and the two most important
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