In Luther's Succession The German Church conflict seemed last Sunday
to have reached a crisis which, however, has so far failed to materialize. The 7,000 dissident pastors refuse resolutely to recognize the decisions of the German Evangelical National Synod which declared legal ex post facto every act carried out by the Reich Bishop since he assumed his present office. Still more resolutely do they refuse to accept the new oath by which they are required to swear, as preachers of the Gospel, loyalty and obedience to Adolf Hitler. They had before them the choice between obeying men and obeying God, and they have declared for obeying God. "There stand they ; they can no other." Many of them read in their pulpits last Sunday a declaration embodying their refusal and affirming to their congregations that obedience to the Church regime as at present constituted is disobedience to God. Battle could be joined on no more vital issue, and it is hard to see where any road to conciliation lies open. Certain arrests of pastors are recorded, without details, but no general action seems so far to have been taken against the dissidents. There are no signs of their yielding their ground, and Dr. Muller can entertain no hope of seeing himself the head of a united and acquiescent Church. It is still in the religious sphere alone that independence of thought and word is manifest in Germany.
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