90. Improved Conditions.--In the issue of the _Lutheraner_ dated August 31, 1852, Walther declared: "Since the last eight years, conditions have really improved in many respects, and to this end, according to many testimonies which have been made against us, God has used and blessed also our humble testimony." (9, 1.) The enmity which Missouri met everywhere was indeed a significant symptom of conditions changing for the better. It proved that the leaven of "foreign symbolism," as Schmucker pleased to style it, was doing its work. Foremost among the men that witnessed to the powerful influence of Missouri by testifying against her was B. Kurtz, who again and again denounced all confessionalists, especially those of the West, as "resurrectionists of elemental, undeveloped, halting, stumbling, and staggering humanity," as priests ready "to immolate bright meridian splendor on the altar of misty, musky dust," men bent on going backward, and consequently, of necessity, going downward! (Spaeth, 1, 344.) In 1859 the _Observer_ wrote: "It is true that there are some small factions who call themselves Lutherans, but they are not of us, and there is no hope that the Missourians, or Buffaloans, and other small communions will ever become wiser in their generation. But it is to be expected that their children and children's children will outgrow the prejudices of their fathers, and become sensible and useful Christians. As said before, we do not regard these factions as Lutherans; they have stolen a part of Luther's livery, but they lack his spirit, and would be disowned by the great Reformer if he were on earth now." (_L. u. W._ 1859, 227.) "The symbolists have forgotten that Luther had a soul, and that they are only quarreling over his old hat, coat, and boots," the _Observer_ declared in its issue of April 1, 1864. It was a great shame for them that they made the doctrine concerning the reception of the body and blood of Christ in the Lord's Supper also by the wicked an essential part of the Lutheran system. "The Lutheran Church of this country," the _Observer_ continued, "moving forward gloriously on the basis of the General Synod, had gradually forgotten everything pertaining to the old boots, coats, and hats, until this extreme party [Missouri] rose, gathered the old rags, tied them to a stick, and now calls upon all Lutherans to agree with them on pain of excommunication." (_Kirchl. Mitt._ 1864, 56.) In May of the following year Dr. Conrad wrote, in a similar strain: "The extreme symbolical standpoint, adopted anew in America and Europe and demanding an unconditional subscription to the whole [doctrinal] content of the Symbolical Books, is historically hyper-Lutheran, essentially schismatic, practically disastrous, and providentially condemned." (_L. u. W._ 1865, 217.) Referring to Kurtz's tirade on "Luther's old boots," etc., the _Lutheran_ remarked: "Is there no one in the General Synod who