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Cornell University Library 
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 Lutherans in America : a story of strugg 
 
 olin 
 
 3 1924 029 459 850 
 
The original of this book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924029459850 
 
THE 
 
 Lutherans in America. 
 
 A Story of Struggle, Progress, Influence 
 
 AND 
 
 Marvelous Growth. 
 
 BY 
 
 EDMUND JACOB WOLF, D. D. 
 ©yv*itft an dJi-itrocJuefion 
 
 BY 
 
 HENR Y E YSTER JACOBS, D. D. 
 
 « &, 5 
 
 Hier Stehe ieh, ich kann nicM anders. 
 
 i ^" d 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 J. A. HILL & COMPANY, 44 EAST 14TH ST., 
 
Copyright, 
 
 7. A. HILL & COMPANY, 
 
 1^89. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 In the preparation of this volume, grateful acknowledgements are due 
 to my colleagues, Rev. M. Valentine, D. D., LL. D., and Rev. C. A. 
 Hay, D. D., for valuable assistance ; to Rev. Prof. A. Graebner for the 
 material of the history of the Missourians ; to Rev. Prof. G. H. Schodde, 
 Ph. D., for that of the Synod of Ohio ; to Rev. Prof. G. J. Fritschel for 
 that of the Synod of Iowa ; to Rev. Prof. W. K. Frick for that of the 
 Swedes ; to Rev. Prof. K. O. Lomen for that of the Norwegians ; to Rev. 
 R. Andersen for that of the Danes ; to Rev. G. F. Krotel, D. D., LL. D., 
 and Rev. Prof. C. W. Schaeffer, D. D., LL. D., for contributions rela- 
 tive to the history of the Pennsylvania Synod and that of the General 
 Council ; to Rev. T. W. Dosh. D. D., for the matter of the Uniled Synod, 
 to Rev. J. Nicum for statistical matter ; to Revs. Prof .L. A. Fox, D. D., 
 and Rev. J. Paul Stirewalt for material on the Tennessee Synod, and to 
 Rev. D. M. Kemerer for similar favors concerning the Pittsburg 
 Synod, G. C. 
 
 The arduous labor of collecting and digesting the material has been 
 inspired and sustained by the supreme desire to afford to the Lutheran 
 people, as well as the general Christian public, a better acquaintance 
 with their glorious Church, under the firm conviction that to know her is 
 to love her, and that those knowing and loving her true character will 
 consecrate themselves to the maintenance of her purity in faith and 
 life, and the enlargement of her efficiency in extending the word and 
 kingdom of Jesus. 
 
 To the indulgence of the readers and the grace of the Holy Spirit the 
 imperfect results are humbly commended. 
 
 E. J. W. 
 Festival of the Reformation, i88g. 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 THERE are three forms of historical composition, 
 the documentary, the philosophical and the pop- 
 ular. The documentary and the philosophical, 
 the former furnishing the evidence for the facts stated, 
 and the latter dealing with the principles which under- 
 lie the facts, are intended for scholars, who come to 
 the study of the subject with some degree of prelim- 
 inary knowledge of what is treated. The critical stu- 
 dent is never satisfied until he can trace the statement 
 of a fact to its ultimate source, and judge it in the 
 same light as the historian himself. But there is no 
 less room for the popular presentation of history. 
 This is necessarily dependent upon what has been 
 previously accomplished in the other departments. 
 The main facts which have been gathered as the result 
 of minute and extensive research, are woven together 
 into a continuous narrative, which does not aim at 
 being exhaustive, but simply at giving what, in the 
 opinion of the historian, is most important and inter- 
 esting to the general reader. He takes the reader 
 with him to a mountain side, and points out the path 
 through which the ascent has been made; but does 
 not enter into the details as would the surveyor who 
 had been commissioned to revise lines, and establish 
 the validity of conflicting claims. 
 
vi Introduction. 
 
 With the growth of the Lutheran Church in this 
 country, there has been a most commendable cultiva- 
 tion of the department of documentary history by a 
 few learned and persevering scholars. Chief among 
 these are the editors of that work of stupendous in- 
 dustry, the revised edition of the Hallesche Nachrich- 
 ten, Drs. W. J. Mann, B. M. Schmucker and W. Ger- 
 mann. Dr. Mann has also laid the Church under ever- 
 lasting obligations by his "Life and Times of Muhlen- 
 berg." The earlier labors, within this sphere, of Dr. 
 W. M. Reynolds and the recent ones of Rev. J. Nicum, 
 are not to be forgotton. Unfortunately, the lack of his- 
 torical culture on the part of even our more scholarly 
 ministers is manifest by the rarity with which the 
 Hallesche Nachrichten appears on the shelves of their 
 libraries, and especially by the fact that the publica- 
 tion of that important collection of documents with 
 the illustrative historical notes brought down to 
 the present day, has' ceased with its first volume. 
 Such work, however, is not lost. With every advance 
 in the cultivation of documentary history, an ad- 
 vance in its more popular presentation is required. 
 The more monographs written within the scope of a 
 science, the greater the demand for handbooks out- 
 lining the subject. If we compare the readable, and, at 
 its time, very useful sketch of the life of Muhlenberg 
 published in 1856, by Dr. M. L. Stoever, with that 
 above referred to, some idea can be formed of the ad- 
 vance, during this interval, made among us in histor- 
 ical studies. While, therefore, in the past, the popu- 
 lar presentation has not been neglected, and Drs. E. 
 L. Hazelius, S. S. Schmucker, and C. W. Schaeffer, at 
 
Introduction. vii 
 
 different times have furnished sketches, it has been im- 
 possible for any member of our congregations to find 
 the facts of the origin and development of the Lu- 
 theran Church in America, as known up to the present 
 time, adequately given in any one book. 
 
 In this volume, Dr. Wolf has undertaken to chroni- 
 cle the results so far as they have been made accessi- 
 ble. The popular historian, in some respects, per- 
 forms a self-sacrificing work. He writes a book for 
 the times; but which, like everything adapted to the 
 times, can only indirectly serve a permanent end. It 
 stimulates to the higher appreciation and the more 
 extensive study of history. It leads students from the 
 popular, to the cultivation of the documentary and 
 philosophical spheres. It fulfils an important office 
 in widening the horizon, and informing the various 
 parts of the Church of their historical relations. It 
 becomes a starting-point for earnest activity, both in 
 practical work and in scholarly investigation. 
 
 Two difficulties especially confronted the author of 
 this work. Historians speak of the necessity of an 
 historical perspective. A photograph of a building 
 cannot be taken unless the camera be placed at a con- 
 siderable distance. Those who have made or who 
 are closely related to those who make history, cannot 
 well write it. They are the best witnesses concerning 
 bare statements of facts, but not the best judges as to 
 principles and results. They cannot see the trees, be- 
 cause of the leaves. A life of Muhlenberg, by Dr. 
 Kunze, or Dr. Helmuth, would not have been as satis- 
 factory as that of Dr. Mann, written one hundred years 
 after Muhlenberg's death. We have scarcely reached 
 
viii Introduction. 
 
 the point whence we can view the Lutheran Church in 
 America of even the earlier period of this century 
 with complete historical impartiality. This will be 
 done in time. Everything will doubtless be subjected 
 to critical, historical analysis. But, meanwhile, the 
 story, so far as known, must be told ; and the facts, so 
 far as known, must be judged, in order to prepare the 
 way for those who are to follow. 
 
 A second difficulty before him, has been that while 
 the Lutherans of America are separated into several 
 divisions, on the ground of principles upon which, thus 
 far, they have been unable to agree, and the discussion 
 of which has formed a greet part of the history during 
 the period treated, he has endeavored to present an 
 outline of the external history with entire impartiality. 
 It is too much to expect of any man, that even with 
 the highest appreciition of those with whom he dif- 
 fers, he can be completely uninfluenced by his theo- 
 logical standpoint. The writer frankly confesses that 
 he could not; and hence, would not demand of an- 
 other, what he cannot plead for himself. We have 
 read with much interest the entire book. We have 
 admired the general objectivity and impartiality of 
 the author's judgment. We have been stirred to en- 
 thusiasm by his eloquence, and only on a few points 
 have we ventured suggestions. Within its own sphere 
 and for its own purpose, the work is well conceived 
 and well executed and worthy of high commendation. 
 
 The story which is rehearsed is one of the deepest 
 interest. It abounds in incidents as inspiring and 
 worthy of commemoration as the far more familiar 
 history of communions hitherto more prominent in 
 
Introduction. ix 
 
 this country. It is at the same time a story of much 
 intricacy. So various are the sources from whence 
 our Lutheran people come, and so constant has been 
 the stream of immigration, placing layer after layer 
 of successive movements upon one another, that 
 much confusion would be unavoidable were the ele- 
 ments found here homogeneous in their European 
 home. This, however, as is well-known, is not the 
 case. The contrasts Which exist in Europe, become all 
 the more striking when placed in juxtaposition here. 
 Conflicts which there could be avoided because of 
 distance or national barriers, here must be faced, as 
 each theory is put to the severest tests. The distribu- 
 tion which Guizot makes of the history of the civiliza- 
 tion of Europe into three periods, viz.: one of origina- 
 tion, one of experimentation, and one of permanent 
 and vigorous development, we believe will be found to 
 be very applicable here. While this is true of the 
 Church as a whole, it is also true of each particular 
 element included in it. In one respect, the period of 
 origination was over with the new era that entered 
 with the landing of Muhlenberg. In another respect, 
 we are still in the midst of it, and will remain so as 
 long as the majority of our communicant membership 
 are of foreign birth. The period of experimentation 
 is marked by the several efforts that have been made 
 to comprise all Lutheran Synods into a general organ- 
 ization. How far this has advanced, and how near or 
 how far any of the general bodies is to this goal, may 
 be learned from this volume. In spite, however, of the 
 fact that the period of experimentation is still dom- 
 inant, that of vigorous development has not been 
 
x Introduction. 
 
 delayed. The three periods overlap each other, and 
 the one begins before the other ends. 
 
 There is yet another fact which a careful study of 
 this volume shows. We cannot but be reminded of 
 the parallel in the history of the chosen people of the 
 old covenant. Once there was a time when the efforts 
 of the prophets were directed to awaken Israel to a 
 sense of its true importance. There was no national 
 spirit left; all national self-consciousness had vanished. 
 Not only the national habits, but even the religious 
 rites of the neighboring nations became the standards 
 according to which they endeavored to amend and ad- 
 just what God had given them. But there came an- 
 other period when Israel awoke to a consciousness of 
 its prerogative and asserted its rights. Soon we find 
 national apathy succeeded by a self-consciousness that 
 ran to the opposite extreme, as exhibited in the days 
 when the new dispensation opened. The name, the 
 customs, the institutions were cherished as a badge of 
 their glorious past. All not able to establish its claim 
 to unquestioned national purity was renounced. Noth- 
 ing good could be acknowledged as coming from any 
 other quarter. Both periods of the history of God'speo- 
 ple may be found reproduced in that of the Lutheran 
 Church in America. Both tendencies may also befound 
 to coexist at the same time and place. As the elder 
 Dr. Krauth said, there was a time when the dom- 
 inant tendency was "to glory that we are like every- 
 body, and consequently nothing in ourselves, living 
 only by the breath of others," or as he might have ad- 
 ded, living by mere sufferance, despised by others as 
 those having little respect for themselves. Suddenly 
 
Introduction. xi 
 
 as the cloud lifted, the great proportions of our Church 
 her vast heritage, her wonderful structure of theology, 
 her rich treasures in every department of religious 
 literature and her active work in so many spheres of 
 beneficence, came to view. How easy now to glory 
 that we are Lutherans, and to fail to appreciate that 
 in other quarters which we formerly reverenced with 
 excessive devotion ! 
 
 The Lutheran Church has come to America, cer- 
 tainly not without some great purpose. When we 
 review the past, we are astonished at its vitality. If 
 Lutheranism were mortal, it would have died in this 
 country long ago. We have lost our hundreds of 
 thousands of members, and millions of wealth over 
 and over again. The mismanagement attending im- 
 portant trusts, and culminating in repeated disasters, 
 Dr. Wolf well traces. But in spite of all we do to 
 ruin it, on it moves with ever increasing vigor. Where 
 one is lost, ten are gained ! The conflicts and mistakes 
 make a noise and attract attention. The processes of 
 steady growth are silent, extending into numberless 
 recesses.and making themselves felt only when the whole 
 field is viewed from year to year. We cannot believe 
 that God is preserving such a communion, and con- 
 stantly extending it, simply for itself alone. Its infiu- 
 jence is destined to be felt far and wide beyond its own 
 boundaries, as its members become more thoroughly 
 identified with this country, as it ceases to become a 
 Church of strangers, and, after reaching a more thor- 
 ough harmony within itself, is able to take the posi- 
 tion which belongs to it from its birthright, as the 
 Mother Church of Protestantism. It has come to 
 
xii Introduction. 
 
 America to stay, and to grow, and by renewing its 
 youth in this new world, to assert itself with all the 
 power of its earliest days. Wherever this book is 
 read; it must stimulate most earnest thought as to 
 what we are, whither we are tending- and what each 
 one must do to fulfil his trust with respect to that no- 
 ble cause which is committed to us. Our members 
 certainly cannot discharge their responsibilities intelli- 
 gently and discriminatingly without knowledge of the 
 facts that are here gathered, and most lucidly and 
 forcibly exhibited. 
 
 Henry E. Jacobs. 
 
 Evangelical Lutheran Theological Seminary, 
 
 Mt. Airy, Philadelphia, Pa., 
 September 27th, 1889. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. Page. 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 The Church Indestructible — Some Corruption— Salvation -a. Gift— The Heathen Way 
 — Natural Susceptibilit to Krror — Indulgences — The Priesthood — The Hierarchy — 
 The Papacy — General Corruption — The Testimony of History 21 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE REFORMATION. 
 
 Divine Intervention — The Revival of Learning — The Invention of Printing — The 
 Mariner s Compass — National Self-consciousness — The Free Cities — Revulsion of 
 Popular Feeling toward the Hierarchy — The Man for the Hour — His Preparatory 
 Training — A Genuine Romanist — A Mighty Change — Birth of the Reformation — 
 Value of Experience — The Light of the Scriptures — Infallibility — The Material and 
 Formal Principles — Tetzel — The XCV Theses — Spread of the Reformation — A 
 Picture of the Time 44 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH. 
 
 Luther's Course — Superhuman Protection— Fate of Previous Reformations — Perma- 
 nence of Luther s — The XLVI. Psalm — Luther s Conservatism — Justification by 
 Faith — t hrist's Dominion — Not a New but a Regenerated Church — The Lutheran 
 Name — Luther's Co-laborers — Melancthon — Amsdorf — Bugenhagen — Justus Jonas 
 — Other Worthies — An Aroused Laity ... 75 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE EARLIEST LUTHERANS IN AMERICA. — THE DUTCH. 
 
 Luther and Columbus— Romanism and Liberty— The Founders of the Republic — 
 Dutch Lutherans— Their bemement on Manhattan — Their Persecutions — Appeal to 
 the West India Company — Conventicles Suppressed — Faith Enduring — A Success- 
 ful Apical — The First Pastor, Goetwater — Change of Government — A South 
 Carolina Colony — Another Pastor, I abricius— A Real Pastor, Arensius . . .107 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE EARLIEST LUTHERANS IN AMERICA.— THE SWEDES. 
 
 Gustavus Adolphus— A Swedish- American Project — The First Colony — Tolerance — 
 Missionary Zeal— Bitter Trials— Change of Government — Lutheran Devotion — 
 Fabricius — William Penn. — A Macedonian Cr — A Life Picture — The Answer — A 
 Nation's S mpathy— Re-enforcements — Building Churches — The Tears of Christ — 
 Glorious Success '3.1 
 
xiv Contents. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. Page. 
 
 THE EARLIEST LUTHERANS IN AMERICA. — THE GERMANS. 
 
 Prostrate Germany — First German Immigrants — First German Congregation — Rev. 
 Justus Falckner — The Palatines — Rev. Joshua von Kocherthal — Oppression — A 
 New Outrage — Emigration to Penns Ivania — Spiritual Destitution — The Salzburg- 
 ers — Penns} Ivania Alarmed — The Newlander — Lutherans in the Carolinas — In 
 Maine — In New Jersey . . 169 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE CHURCH OF THE DISPERSION. 
 
 Large Number of Germans — Their Temporal Destitution — Their Spiritual Distress — 
 A Few Ministers — Occasional Services — Steadfast in the Faith — Innumerable Sects 
 — Thieves and Robbers — A Cry for Help — Magister Wolf — The Hour of Darkness . 210 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 MUHLENBERG AND HIS COLLEAGUES. 
 
 Penns Ivania Congregations — A Deputation sent to Europe — Their Reception — Halle 
 — Effectual Sympath — Slow Haste — Heinrich Melchior Muhlenberg — His Youth— 
 His Call to America — The Voyage — His Character — His Welcome — His Labors — 
 His Enemies— His Colleagues.— 1 lis Success— Union. — A Liturgy — A Synod — A 
 Noble Ministry — The Power of God , . 233 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Til- RAVAGES OF WAR. 
 
 War and Religion — Devastations in the Church — Ministers Secularized — Infidelity- 
 Rationalism— Religious Declension — Peculiar Trials of the Lutheran C hurch — The 
 Conflict of Language — English in the Colonial Period — Lutheran Care of Episco- 
 pal Churches — Change of Polic — Its Occasion and Extent — Its Deplorable Re- 
 sults — A Measjre of Progress— Two Muhlcnbergs — Helmuth and Schmidt — 
 The Schaeffers— Kunze— Henry E. Muhlenberg— J. N. and J. P. Kurtz— Jacob 
 Goering— Christian Endress— J. G. Schmucker— Geo. Lochman— C A. G. Siorch 
 — F. H. Quitman — C hrislian Streit — A Presbyterian Estimate — Missionaries — 
 Bager — Henkel— Butler— Steck — Heyer — The Ministerium of New York — The Unio 
 Ecclesiastica of South Carolina— The Lutherans Ordain an Episcopalian— The 
 North Carolina S nod— The Synod of Maryland and Virginia — Dearth of Minis- 
 ters— Want of Schools— Private Training of Candidates 271 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 FORMATION OF THE GENERAL SYNOD. 
 
 The Occasion— Plan— Constitutional Convention — First Meeting — Practical Aims — 
 The Law of Success— Recession of the Pennsylvania Synod —Second Meeting — 
 New Synods— Theological Seminar. — Inaugural Charge— Benjamin Kurtz, D. D., 
 LL. D.— S. .v. Schmucker, D. D.— C. P. Krauth, D. D.— A Classical School— Edu- 
 cation Society — Missionary Organizations— Sunday-Schools— Publication Enterprise 
 — A General Revival — Extensive Prosperit — Part Borne by the General Synod — 
 Its Relations with Other Synods — Multiplication and Accession of Synods— With- 
 drawal of those in the South— Two Tendencies— The Disruption— J. A. Brown, 
 D. D., LL. D 32a 
 
Contents. xv 
 
 CHAPTER 1 XI. Page. 
 
 THE INDEPENDENT SYNODS. 
 
 The Tennessee Synod — Organization — Doctrinal Position — Rev. David Henkel — Use 
 of the Press — Book . of Concord — C atechisation — Missions — Union with the 
 United Synod — The Joint Synod of Ohio — Missionary Work — Education — Pro- 
 gress — Relation to other Bodies — Literature — The Iowa Synod — Doctrinal Posi- 
 tion — A Seminary — Missionary Zeal — Relation to Other Synods — A Colloquium — 
 Indian Missions — Internal Disturbance — A Secession — Rapid Growth — G. W. L. 
 Fritschel, D. D. — The Synod of Buffalo — The Norwegians — Early Destitution — 
 Proselyters — Organization — Growth — Mission Work — Different Parties — Doctrinal 
 Issues — Present Divisions — Efforts at Union — Danish Synods — An Icelandic Asso- 
 ciation . . . 372 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 THE MISSOURIANS. 
 
 A Circle of Pietists — C. F. W. Walther — Martin Stephan — Rationalism — Emigra- 
 tion — A Revelation — Christian Congregations — A School of Learning — Pastor Grab- 
 au — Rights of Congregations — "The Lutheraner" — The Dogmaticians — Wyne- 
 ken — Fort Wayne — Dr. Sihler — Loehe — A Practical Seminary — Aggressiveness — 
 Organization of Synod — A " Pilgerhaus '" — Gottlieb Schaller — A Rupture — Col- 
 loquium with the Iowa S nod — With Buffalo — District Synods — The Synodical 
 Conference — The Predestinarian Controversy — Separation — Statistics — The Patri- 
 archs — The Wisconsin Synod — The Minnesota Synod .... . 406 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE GENERAL COUNCIL. 
 
 Desire for Unity — An Inspiring Prospect — Fraternal Address — The Reading Conven- 
 tion — The First Meeting — The Four Points — Doctrinal Basis — A Chasm — Co-or- 
 dination of Languages— Philadelphia Seminary — Missionary Work— Charles Por- 
 terfield K auth, D D., LL. D.— Beale M. Schmucker, D. D.— The Pennsylvania 
 Ministerium — The New York Ministerium — The Pittsburg Synod — Purpose of its 
 Organization — Missionery Zeal — Gottlieb Bassler — The Swedish Aur;ustana Si nod 
 —Immigration — Americanization— Lars P. Esbjorn — T. N. Hasselquist— E. Carls- 
 son — Organization of Synod— Theological Seminary — Eric Norelius— Jonas Swens- 
 son — Peter Carlsson — Union with General Council — Olof Olsson — Waldenstrom— 
 Synodical Meetings— Conferences — Swedish Sects — Home Mission Work — Paroch- 
 ial Schools — Worship — Intelligence 432 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 THE UNITED SYNOD IN THE SOUTH. 
 
 Occasion for a new General Body — Preliminary Convention — General Synod, C. S. A. 
 — Doctrinal Basis — A Pastoral Letter— Desire for Union — A Common Service — 
 Theological Seminary — Interchange of Visitors with other Bodies— Foreign Mission 
 Effort — A Colloquium — The United Synod — Institutions— John Bachmann. D. D., 
 LL. D.— David F. Bittle, D. D ^ 
 
xv i Contents. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. Page. 
 
 THE LUTHERAN CHURCH AND CULTURE. 
 
 The Reformers and Education — Lutheran Universities — Popular Education — Culture 
 of the Fathers — Kunze — Helmuth — H. E. Muhlenberg — \\ ant of Institutions — 
 Pennsylvania College — Parochial Schools — Catechisation — Care for Orphans — 
 Higher Schools — Lutheran Publications — Periodicals . . . 47*> 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 THE LUTHERAN CHURCH AND MISSIONS. 
 
 Interest of the Reformers — Insuperable Obstacles — Missionary Princes — Pietism — 
 Danish Mission in India — Christian Friedrich Schwartz — First Bible House — First 
 Missionaries in America — An Example — Lack of Ministers — The Missionary Spirit 
 — Organization — First Anniversar) — C. F Heyer — Walter Gunn — India Mission — 
 African Mission — Home Missions — Illustrations . ... 490- 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 OBLIGATIONS OF OTHER COMMUNIONS TO THE LUTHERAN CHURCH. 
 
 Effect of the Lutheran Movement — Later Developments — Genetic Relation — The 
 Mother Confession — German Church Diet — Trunk and Branches— The Anglican 
 Church— The XXXIX Articles— Book of Common Pra er— English Catechisms- 
 Methodism — The Presb, terians — German Reformed — The Moravians . . . 504 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 DISTINGUISHING DOCTRINES AND FEATURES OF THE EVANGELICAL 
 LUTHERAN CHURCH. 
 
 The Trunk and Branches — Comprehensiveness— Three S stems — Free Grace — Re- 
 strictions Proposed — Limited Atonement — Baptism— Sacramental Grace — The 
 Real Presence — Consubstantiation — The Person of 1* hrist — Justification by Faith 
 — Liturgical Worship — Ti.e Common Service — The Church Festivals — Types of 
 Piety 513 
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 PRESENT STRENGTH OF THE LUTHERAN CHURCH IN THE UNITED STATES 
 AND EUROPE. 
 
 Numerical Strength — Comparison with the Past — Comparison with Others — Real Ex- 
 pressions of Strength— Union With 1 hrist— A (_ lear Faith— Instruction of the 
 Young — Aggressiveness — Institutions — Periodicals — Strength in other Lands , 523 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 THE FUTURE OF THE LUTHERAN CHURCH. 
 
 Seed and Harvest— The Living Word— Providence— Progress under Trials— Gron th 
 in every Sphere — Fub.ic Recognition — Drawbacks— Advantages —Doctrine — Indoc- 
 trination —Popularity — Vast Material— onservatism — Tile Polyglot ^ hurch— Pres- 
 tige — Trend of Other Churches— A Conviction , 530 
 
LIST OF AUTHORITIES. 
 
 The following are the principal works consulted in the preparation 
 of this volume : 
 
 Hallesche Nachrichten. 
 
 Hallesche Nachrichten, Neue Ausgabe. I. 
 
 Mann's Henry Melchior Muhlenberg. 
 
 Seidensticker's Geschichte der Deutschen Gesellschaft. 
 
 Acrelius' History of New Sweden. 
 
 Schaeffer's Early History of the Lutheran Church. 
 
 Hazelius' History of the American Lutheran Church. 
 
 Schmucker's Lutheran Church in America. 
 
 Sprague's Annals of the American Pulpit. 
 
 Dorchester's Christianity in the United States. 
 
 Evangelical Review. 
 
 Lutheran Quarterly. 
 
 Lutheran Church Review. 
 
 Nicum's Geschichte des New York Ministeriums. 
 
 Bernheim's German Settlements, Etc., in the Carolinas. 
 
 Strobel's History of the Salzburgers. 
 
 Kurtz's Church History. 
 
 Fisher's History of the Reformation. 
 
 Fisher's Outlines of Universal History. 
 
 Mommsen's Provinces of the Roman Empire. 
 
 Bayne's Martin Luther. 
 
 Kostlin's Life of Luther. 
 
 D'Aubgine's History of the Reformation. 
 
 Robertson's Charles V. 
 
 Hausser's Period of the Reformation. 
 
 Krauth's Conservative Reformation. 
 
 Hagenbach's History of the Church in the 18th and 19th centuries. 
 
 Thomasius' Dogmengeschichte. 
 
 Seiss' Ecclesia Lutherana. 
 
 Seiss' Luther and the Reformation. 
 
 Herzog's Real-Encyclopaedie. 
 
 Schaff-Herzog Encyclopaedia. 
 
 Minutes of the different Synods, especially those of Pennsylvania 
 and the General Synod. 
 
 Proceedings of the Lutheran Diets, 1878, 1879. 
 
 Morris' Fifty Years in the Lutheran Ministry. 
 
 Briggs' American Presbyterianism. 
 
 The Presbyterian Quarterly. 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 Portraits. Page. 
 
 Luther — Frontispiece, .... 
 
 Melancthon, . . . 73 
 
 Gustavus Adolphus, . . . . 133 
 
 Muhlenberg, Henry Melchior, . . 233 
 
 Kunze, John C, . . . . . 271 
 
 Henkel, Paul, ..... 302 
 
 Schmucker, S. S., . . 322 
 
 Stork, Charles A., .... 356 
 
 Lehman, W. F., . . . . . 380 
 
 Fritschel, Gottfried, .... 386 
 
 Walther, C. F. W., . . . 406 
 
 Krauth, Charles Porterfield, . . 432 
 
 Esbjorn, L. P., . 453 
 
 Bachman, John, ... 464 
 
 Heyer, C. F., . . . 490 
 
 Andrewsen, O., . . . 516 
 
 Colleges, Seminaries, Etc. 
 
 Augustana College, . 460 
 
 Augsburg Seminary, .... 226 
 
 Bethany College, . . . . 216 
 
 Capital University, .... 204 
 
 Carthage (Illinois) College, .... 486 
 
 Concordia College, (North Carolina), . . 376 
 
 Concordia Seminary, . . . 4I 8 
 
 Elk Horn (Iowa) High School, . . 113 
 
 Gaston College, . . .526 
 
 Gettysburg Theological Seminary, . 34I 
 
 Hagerstown (Maryland) Female Seminary, . . 509 
 
 Hartwick Seminary, .... 320 
 
 Luther College, ..... i2g 
 
Illustrations. xix 
 
 Page. 
 
 Luther Seminary, . . . . 253 
 
 Lutherville (Maryland) Female Seminary, 488 
 
 Midland College, . . . . 370 
 
 Missionary Institute, ..... 366 
 
 Muhlenberg College, . . . 457 
 
 Newberry (South Carolina) College, . . 468 
 
 Old Concordia Seminary, . . 412 
 
 Pennsylvania College, . . . 329 
 
 Philadelphia Theological Seminary, . 436 
 
 Roanoke College, ..... 473 
 
 Staunton (Virginia) Female Seminary, . . 483 
 
 Thiel College, ..... 449 
 
 Wagner Memorial College, . . 447 
 
 Wartburg College, ..... 230 
 
 Wartburg Seminary, . . . . 1 74 
 
 Wittenberg College, ..... 289 
 
 Orphans' Homes, Asylums, Etc. 
 
 Addison (Illinois) Lutheran Orphan Asylum, . . 427 
 
 ■ Germantown (Penn.) Orphan Home and Asylum, . 442 
 
 Jacksonville (Illinois) Lutheran Hospital, . 104 
 
 Mary J. Drexel Home, . . . 55 
 
 Milwaukee (Wisconsin) Lutheran Hospital, . . 79 
 
 St. John's Orphan Home (For Boys) Buffalo, N. Y., 534 
 
 St. Louis (Missouri) Lutheran Hospital, . . 422 
 
 St. John's Orphan Home (For Girls) Buffalo, N. Y., 538 
 
 Toledo (Ohio) Lutheran Orphan Asylum, . 388 
 
 Tressler Orphan Home, . . . . 351 
 
 Wartburg Orphans' Farm School, ... 43 
 
 Wernle Orphan Home, .... 383 
 
 Wittenberg Orphan Home, . . . . 317 
 
 Churches. 
 
 First Lutheran Church, . . 139 
 
 Old Swedes' Church (Gloria Dei), . . 155 
 
 Old Trappe Church, . . . . 237 
 
 Old St. Michael's Church, .... 262 
 
xx Illustrations. 
 
 Page. 
 
 Old Zion Church, .... 268 
 
 Jerusalem Church (Salzburger) Ebenezer, Ga., . 191 
 
 Church of the Holy Communion, Philadelphia, Perm., 23 
 
 Danish Lutheran Church, .... 208 
 
 Emanuel's Lutheran Church, New York, . . 29 
 
 First English Lutheran Church, Pittsburg, Penn., . 31 
 
 Gustavus Adolphus Swedish Luth'n Church, New York, 164 
 
 Memorial Lutheran Church, Washington, D. C, . 65 
 
 St. Mark's English Lutheran Church, St. Louis, Mo., 70 
 
 St. Mark's Lutheran Church, Charlotte, N. C, . 27 
 
 St. Paul's German Lutheran Church, Chicago, Ills., 100 
 
 Seamen's Norwegian Lutheran Church, Brooklyn, N. Y., 398 
 
 Trinity Lutheran Church, Lartcaster, Penn., . 218 
 
 Trinity German Lutheran Church, Milwaukee, Wis., . 39 
 
 Trinity Lutheran Church, Canton, Ohio, . . 90 
 
 Woman's Memorial Lutheran Church, Denver, Colo., 120 
 
 Miscellaneous. 
 
 Luther Memorial Statue, Washington, D. C, . . 48 
 
 Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis, Mo., . 430 
 
 Lutheran Mission House, Rajahmundry, India, . 496 
 
 Lutheran Mission High School, Rajahmundry, India, 501 
 
 Lutheran Mission Church, Guntur, India, . . 493 
 
The Lutherans in America. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 PERHAPS the boldest utterance ever heard upon 
 this earth was the announcement of Jesus that he 
 would found an imperishable institution. " Upon 
 this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell 
 shall not prevail against it." The universal destroyer 
 shall fail to overcome the Church. Everything else 
 under the face of the sun may perish. Thrones and 
 dynasties, nations and kingdoms, systems and creeds, 
 may become extinct. Heaven and earth under this 
 mighty law shall pass away, but the Church of Christ 
 shall never die. Built upon the eternal rock of truth, 
 she is indestructible. 
 
 The sublimity, the astounding significance of that 
 announcement, must ever challenge the attention of 
 thoughtful minds. Casting defiance at the scepter of 
 death, holding in contempt the teachings of universal 
 history, a Hebrew sage, in an obscure corner of the 
 world, and attended by a few humble peasants, sol- 
 emnly avows his purpose to rear a fabric that will 
 stand forever ! The lessons of some thousands of 
 years had pretty well demonstrated the transitory 
 
22 The Lutherans tn America. 
 
 and perishable character of the noblest results of 
 human endeavor. Nations had succeeded nations 
 and made the record of their achievements and their 
 glory, only to disappear again and forever. Colos- 
 sal empires, splendid civilizations, hoary religions,- 
 profound philosophies, vast monuments of art and 
 the loftiest creations of architectural genius, had fal- 
 len into decay and crumbled into dust. Of all the 
 mighty past, nothing remained but a few fragmentary 
 records, a few sporadic tenets of philosophy, of relig- 
 ion and of civil government, a few scattered columns 
 on the plains of Mesopotamia, and several huge piles 
 of masonry on the frontier of the Egyptian desert. 
 The earth was one vast graveyard, in which was 
 buried all that a hundred generations had either 
 thought or wrought, with but here and there a broken 
 shaft surviving to mark the spots which entomb the 
 exploits and products of human history. And stand- 
 ing thus amid the shadows and ghosts of this uni- 
 versal sepulchre, Christ declares his purpose of estab- 
 lishing a Church that shall defy the law of decay and 
 death. 
 
 And here, after nearly two thousand years, the 
 Church is to-day, with its faith uncorrupted, its vitality 
 unimpaired, its prayers still rising to God, its songs 
 never ending, its benedictions and benefactions ever 
 widening, and its resolve to subdue the earth becom- 
 ing more and more apparent. Its pulsations still give 
 life to dying men, and multitudes all over the earth 
 are fleeing to its shelter and clinging to its altars, as if 
 they beheld in it the one unfailing refuge for man- 
 kind, an impregnable fortress scorning the shocks and 
 
The Church. 
 
 23 
 
 storms of time, a rock in the midst of the sea unmoved 
 
 by tempest or billow. 
 
 The indestructibility of the Christian Church does 
 
 not, however, make her proof against all phases or 
 
 stages of cor- 
 ruption. The 
 stream of living 
 water in its 
 course from a 
 virgin spring 
 through many 
 lands into the 
 ocean, continu- 
 ally absorbs 
 some of the un- 
 clean and filthy 
 deposits of the 
 shores it washes 
 and fructifies. 
 Sometimes even 
 very noxious 
 and poisonous 
 ingredients are 
 
 1L 
 
 CHURCH OF THE HOLY COMMUNION, PHILADELPHIA, PA. 
 
 taken up into the 
 limpid waves. 
 While purifying 
 and refreshing 
 
 the earth the noble river contracts in turn some of 
 
 its corruptions. 
 
 The vanquished nation may react upon the victors. 
 
 Roman arms subdued the Greeks, but such was the 
 
 power of Greek civilization that Rome in turn became 
 
24 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 Hellenized. The Greeks became the educators of the 
 Romans, and their manners, culture, art and science 
 pervaded the great Empire. 
 
 "When conquered Greece brought in her captive arts, 
 She triumphed o'er her savage conquerors' hearts." 
 
 So powerful was this reaction, that while the Greek 
 States became Roman in name, the Roman Empire 
 itself in the East became Greek. 
 
 Christianity entered upon its career with the pur- 
 pose first to reduce to its faith the Jewish nation; 
 then began its conquest of the Graico-Roman world. 
 Afterward came its mission to the barbarians of the 
 West. The task which the Church thus set for her- 
 self, the complete moral revolution of society, in- 
 volved the application of superhuman wisdom and 
 divine power. Still the work had to be committed to 
 human instrumentalities, with all their limitations, 
 their infirmities, their impurities and their suscepti- 
 bilities, and nothing short of a perpetual miracle 
 could have prevented the Church from being, in some 
 measure, contaminated by her contact for a thousand 
 years with these hoary and corrupt systems which she 
 proposed to supplant. The principles of these sys- 
 tems had entwined themselves with every institution 
 of society. They had become inwoven with the whole 
 texture of domestic and public life, and in the conflict 
 which now arose between the new and the old, some- 
 times a drawn battle ensued, and sometimes the old 
 order made large inroads upon the ranks of the new. 
 
 There was prodigious vitality in the institutions 
 both of Judaism and of Heathenism, and though there 
 
The Church. 25 
 
 was not that aggressiveness which intrinsically char- 
 acterizes the Christian spirit, yet, when it is remem- 
 bered that heathen tenets and customs, in particular, 
 coincided with the natural tendencies and instincts of 
 a depraved humanity, and that the elements which 
 composed the Church were as yet but partially freed 
 from these same tendencies and instincts, it may 
 readily be understood, how, in the progress of the 
 contest, baleful influences would retroactively pene- 
 trate her bosom. Insensibly something of the spirit, 
 the beliefs and the customs of the opposing institu- 
 tions would invade the Christian community. 
 
 Without ever compromising her attitude or her 
 mission, the survival of depraved elements within the 
 pale of the Church, and the character of her surround- 
 ings, would inevitably expose her to the taint of 
 extraneous and injurious influences. In the course of 
 her progress, while unfolding and dispensing her own 
 treasures, she was liable to absorb, in a measure, the 
 very errors, superstitions and moral impurities which 
 she was charged to combat. When, at a later stage, 
 she hoped to facilitate the transition from Paganism 
 to Christianity by making concessions to heathen sen- 
 timents and customs, and accommodated herself to 
 national peculiarities, the infection became inevitable. 
 Her leaven that was introduced into Pagan society 
 yielded insensibly, before its work was completed, to a 
 counter-leaven. The power that was to conquer the 
 world suffered itself to some extent to be conquered 
 by the world. The energy of the contest became 
 gradually somewhat relaxed. The leaders of the 
 Church grew less vigilant, and ingredients of corrup- 
 
 «$*■& ••-''... 
 
26 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 tion, penetrated from time to time her bosom and 
 vitiated her blood. 
 
 Her conquests were often so rapid and so vast that 
 her capacity of assimilation was overtaxed. Like 
 America, opening her arms to receive and civilize the 
 world, the Church found herself the mistress of im- 
 mense masses when she lacked adequate resources for 
 their instruction and spiritual transformation. In this 
 way "gross errors incorporated themselves in the con- 
 ceptions of the Christian people and in the institu- 
 tions of the Church." 
 
 We cannot, in this volume, take account of all the 
 errors and abuses which, in the progress of centuries, 
 had corrupted the Church before the Reformation. 
 Our reference must be restricted to those which most 
 deeply affected her vital functions, and those which 
 wrought the greatest wrong and ruin to souls. 
 
 Christianity is a religion for the salvation of sin- 
 ners. It answers the cry, "what must I do to be saved !" 
 It reveals to men a Father's love and offers salva- 
 tion gratuitously to lost and guilty men. " By grace 
 ye are saved through faith, and this not of your- 
 selves ; it is the gift of God." " Of his mercy he saved 
 us by the washing of water and the renewal of the 
 Holy Ghost." "God so loved the world that he gave 
 his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth on 
 him might not perish but have everlasting life." This 
 was the good news proclaimed to sinners by inspired 
 men who had learned the gospel from the lips of the 
 founder of the Church. And this message brought 
 peace to the sinner and effected the renovation of 
 human nature. Alienated from the life of God and 
 
The Church. 
 
 2 7 
 
 fallen from his primordial state, man possesses within 
 him no power of self-recovery. His own unaided 
 efforts and strength avail nothing. Salvation is of 
 the Lord. It is a divine gift. It is the outflow of 
 infinite meicy. 
 
 All that devolves upon man is to grasp the offered 
 
 grace, to lay 
 hold of this sal- 
 vation, each for 
 himself to make 
 it his own by 
 that confiding 
 attitude, that 
 trustful action, 
 which is ex- 
 pressed in the 
 simple exercise 
 of faith in the 
 offer and the. 
 promises. Such 
 were the simple 
 terms on which 
 in the Apos- 
 tolic Church, 
 both Jews and 
 Heathen.the no- 
 blest alike with 
 the vilest of 
 men, obtained pardon and the grace of the Holy 
 Ghost. 
 
 This is, in fact, the feature which distinguishes the 
 Christian religion from all other religious systems. 
 
 ST. MARK S LUTHERAN CHURCH, CHARLOTTE, N. C 
 
28 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 So far as the latter aim at moral improvement it is 
 through the action and works of men. They assume 
 that there lies in man, despite his ruin through sin, 
 the capacity for self-redemption, the ability to effect 
 his own salvation, Paganism believes in man. He 
 may save himself. Christianity believes in the Son 
 of God. There is salvation in no other. 
 
 This vital truth, the very heart of the Gospel came, 
 in course of time, to be strangely obscured. It was 
 practically set aside. The pagan idea of salvation 
 through personal endeavor, through works of self- 
 righteousness and penance, usurped again the place 
 of salvation by grace. Instead of a free gift, pardon 
 was sought as a reward. Men taught that it might be 
 merited. By doing penance, by submitting to penal- 
 ties imposed by the Church, by self-inflicted sufferings 
 and privations, by tears and fasts and voluntary mor- 
 tifications, the sinner could find the deliverance for 
 which he sighed. Instead of being pointed to the 
 boundless mercy of heaven, men were subjected to a 
 system of cruel and rigorous exactions. They were 
 required to go barefooted in the cold, to exchange 
 their clothing for garments of torture, to undertake a 
 distant journey, to separate from their loved ones 
 and deprive themselves of the ioys of life, to enter 
 the cloister and submit to a rigorous suppression of 
 natural affection. Regular penitential systems were 
 devised and horrible hardships prescribed even for 
 secret sins. The soul yearning for pardon must 
 obtain by penance, by works, or even by the offer of 
 money, that salvation which was purchased for the 
 world by the Redeemer's blood. The essence of 
 
emanuel's Lutheran church, German) new york cnr. 
 
3° The Lutherans in America. 
 
 heathenism, salvation by man, was substituted for the 
 cross of Christ, and this fundamental error gave rise 
 to monstrous conceptions and led to the deepest cor- 
 ruptions of saving- truth. 
 
 The human mind is never so susceptible of delu- 
 sions and so ready to be misled and seduced as when 
 tormented by a sense of guilt and perplexed over the 
 attainment of mercy. Like the unfortunate victim of 
 a terrible disease it is ready to avail itself of every 
 device and nostrum that promises to bring relief. 
 Now, relief was never yet found by a process of pen- 
 ances, by a succession of " works," or by any other 
 devices whereby impotent man is expected to com- 
 pass his own deliverance. The moire sincere and 
 determined the effort the more clearly must the soul 
 realize its failure and experience the impossibility of 
 doing or suffering enough for securing inward peace 
 and moral renovation. 
 
 Not only the deluded people but their pastors and 
 teachers came to realize this during the middle ages. 
 They accordingly devised a system of exchange, by 
 which in lieu of the heavy burdens which they found 
 themselves unable to bear and which, even when 
 borne, brought no salvation, the people might give a 
 certain sum of money. A price was fixed upon the 
 grace of God. 
 
 Unlike Peter, claimed as the first Pope, the rulers 
 of the Church would sell God's gift for money. They 
 denied the gratuitous character of forgiveness and 
 began to barter and sell in the house of God, like 
 those who were driven from the temple by the indig- 
 nant Son of God. But unlike those indecent dealers 
 
The Church. 
 
 3i 
 
 in animals and coin, the priests of the papacy became 
 brokers in sin, they carried on a traffic with human 
 guilt. They made merchandise of the Gospel. They 
 sold pardon at a fixed sum. Holding this to be per- 
 
 FIRST ENGLISH LUTHERAN CHURCH, PITTSBURG, PA. 
 
 haps easier for the penitent, and certainly more profit- 
 able to a mercenary hierarchy, it was proposed, " For 
 a seven week's fast, you shall pay twenty pence, if you 
 are rich ; ten if less wealthy ; and three pence if you 
 are poor, and so on for other matters." Incest, if 
 not detected, was to cost five groats, if known six ; 
 
32 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 so there was a stated price for murder, infanticide, 
 adultery, perjury and burglary. 
 
 The traffic, which was thus conducted, is known 
 under the name of Indulgences. Originally and in 
 the minds of the theologians this was meant as a sys- 
 tem of commutation — the penitent paying a fine of 
 money in lieu of some disciplinary suffering he was 
 required to undergo. And the benefit to accrue 
 from these Indulgences was not the divine mercy, 
 but exemption from the penalties imposed by the 
 Church as a just penitential reparation for sins com- 
 mitted. The real effect of these enforced penances 
 ^was to make the grace of God of none effect, and 
 when a pecuniary consideration took their place they 
 led to incredible scandal and brought religion into 
 disrepute. The idea which was per se a hideous cari- 
 cature of the Gospel soon developed into an abomi- 
 nable traffic in the salvation of souls. 
 
 It is not known that the Church as such ever form- 
 ally and officially declared that an Indulgence deliv- 
 ered from all sin, or was an actual pardon of guilt 
 before God, but many of its agents affirmed this over 
 and over, and it cannot be denied that multitudes so 
 believed. 
 
 A Jesuit historian speaking of the monks who ac- 
 companied Tetzel, the famous vender of Indulgences, 
 says: "Some of these preachers failed not, as usual, 
 to go beyond the matter they were treating of, and so 
 far to exaggerate the worth of Indulgences, that they 
 gave the people cause to believe that they were 
 assured of their salvation, and of the deliverance of 
 souls from purgatory, so soon as they had given their 
 
The Church. 33 
 
 money." "Incredible as it may appear it is the dark, 
 damnable fact of history that, in praising the immeas- 
 urable value of his wares, Tetzel declared to his audi- 
 ence that he had saved more souls by his Indulgences 
 than the apostle had by his sermons, that no sin was 
 so great that an Indulgence cannot remit it — that 
 even the sins one intends to commit may be par- 
 doned, only pay well and all will be forgiven." 
 
 And these payments were valid even in the spir- 
 itual world. If Indulgences availed here for those 
 who by bitter torments were required to expiate their 
 offenses, why indeed should they not avail for those 
 who in purgatory are expiating sins for which they 
 could not do penance here. A regular tariff of Indul- 
 gences was provided by which those burning in pur- 
 gatory could have immediate exit from their pains, 
 and those to whom life on earth had been turned to 
 purgatorial fires might escape by paying the required 
 ransom. " The very instant that the money rattles at 
 the bottom of the chest, the soul escapes from purga- 
 tory and flies into heaven," said Tetzel. Although 
 the people on receiving their Indulgence had to 
 promise reformation, it was giving men, in the name 
 of the Church, permission to sin, and among an ignor- 
 ant and rude people was tantamount to the encour- 
 agement of gross immorality. 
 
 This rank offense that smelled to heaven and cast 
 reproach upon the Church resulted from the funda- 
 mental error of substituting works for faith in Christ. 
 When works were made co-ordinate with faith, as was 
 done by the mediaeval theology, and faith itself was 
 but submission to the Church and not trust in Christ, 
 
34 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 the consequences were no less subversive and soul- 
 destroying. For, according to the scriptures, good 
 works are not a condition of salvation but the fruit 
 and manifestation of saving faith. 
 
 Another departure from the principles of the 
 Church as founded by the Apostles was the institu- 
 tion of a priesthood to intervene between man and 
 God. The Old Testament sacerdotal service had 
 found its fulfilment in Jesus Christ, "who offered one 
 sacrifice for sins forever," and who having by this 
 "one offering perfected forever them that are sancti- 
 fied," appointed no priests in his Church. In this 
 again lies a broad and essential contrast between the 
 Christian religion and all religions which are of 
 human origin. The soul, however defiled or debased, 
 has free access to the fountains of grace. It may 
 come into immediate communion with God. The 
 Gospel knows of no intervention between the sinner 
 and his atoning Savior. It presents a publican and 
 a dying thief justified through the simple cry for 
 mercy. Confident of having a great High Priest, that 
 is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, 
 believers are encouraged to come boldly unto the 
 throne of grace, that they may obtain mercy, and find 
 grace to help in time of need. Heb. 4: 14, 16. In 
 respect to immediate access to God all are priests, 
 all have the same rights, the same privileges. The 
 priesthood is universal. The one real Mediator be- 
 tween God and man is Jesus Christ, who is our Advo- 
 cate with the Father, who ever maketh intercession 
 for us, and who has given his people the inestimable 
 promise, " Verily, verily, I say unto you, whatsoever 
 
The Church. 35 
 
 ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it 
 you." 
 
 This priceless gift of God, this inalienable right was 
 -wrested from men and vested in a special order, a me- 
 diatorial caste, who usurped the place, the office and 
 the Word of Christ, who claimed to hold in trust the 
 treasures of grace, to have in their possession the key 
 of heaven, and to have exclusive authority to dis- 
 pense the blessing of salvation. They stationed 
 themselves between the soul and its Savior, denied 
 immediate personal access to God and refused salva- 
 tion to all who would not seek it in those forms and 
 •channels of which they claimed exclusive control. 
 Faith in the priest became thus substituted for faith 
 in the Lord Jesus, and in fact this perversion of the 
 ■conditions of salvation involved in the priesthood, 
 rendered it necessary to change the essence of faith, 
 which from being a confident reliance on the grace 
 of God through Jesus Christ, came to mean submis- 
 sion to the authority and declaration of the priest. 
 His forgiveness was God's forgiveness. From his re- 
 fusal there was no appeal. It meant exclusion from 
 heaven. 
 
 " Christendom was divided into two unequal parties: 
 on the one side is a separate caste of priests, daring 
 to usurp the name of the Church, and claiming to be 
 invested with peculiar privileges in the eyes of the 
 Lord ; and on the other, servile flocks reduced to a 
 blind and passive submission — a people gagged and 
 fettered, and given over to a haughty caste." 
 
 To become really pious one must indeed enter a 
 monastery. It was the common belief that a truly 
 
36 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 religious life was possible only in the clerical profes- 
 sion or in the monastic habit. This was represented 
 among other things in a picture, which deeply im- 
 pressed Luther in his childhood: "The Church was. 
 set forth as a great ship bound for heaven, carrying 
 only the clergy and monks, while the laity swam 
 about in the water, some holding to ropes which 
 were thrown to them from the ship, others drown- 
 ing helplessly in the waves." 
 
 As grace was originally free to all, as there was. 
 in the Christian community an equality in privilege 
 the Church was really an association of equals. It 
 formed a community of brethren, with Christ the 
 elder brother as Lord. No man was called mas- 
 ter. The Church was a brotherhood, a spiritual de- 
 mocracy. The union of its members was not effected 
 through any outward rule, or by the exercise of 
 any authoritative ascendency, but a compact associa- 
 tion was formed by the bonds of a fraternal rela- 
 tion, by a oneness of faith and purpose, by ties of 
 holy affection, by a common interest, spontaneously 
 ministering to one another, and the greatest of 
 the number were those who ministered. Christ re- 
 buked all ambitious of pre-eminence among his fol- 
 lowers, and the Apostles in all their letters declined 
 to be considered lords over God's heritage, and 
 meekly avowed themselves as brethren and fellow- 
 servants of all believers. 
 
 But, in course of time, the organization of the 
 Church developed into a powerful hierarchy, a haughty 
 aristocracy, order towering above order, and gaining 
 such a domination as to suppress not only all equality 
 
The Church. 2>7 
 
 and fraternity, but all freedom and independence, 
 the sordid lust of power reducing the flock of Christ 
 to the most debasing enslavement of soul and body. 
 
 At last the Roman See is made the supreme head 
 of the Church, the monarch of Christendom, the 
 infallible vicar of Christ up6n earth. Never before 
 had human ambition reached such vaulting audacity. 
 The bishops of Rome, as if they were the heirs of 
 the Csesars and had received from them the scepter 
 of universal power, encroached age after age upon the 
 rights of the Christian Church, and finally usurped 
 universal dominion, claiming all people as their sub- 
 jects and requiring from all ranks absolute submis- 
 sion to their commands. 
 
 This high-handed and detestable usurpation is 
 without parallel or analogy. Not content with the 
 spiritual authority which it asserted — seeing in fact 
 that without invading the domain of civil authority, 
 it could not maintain its monstrous despotism in 
 the Church, the papacy insolently arrogated to it- 
 self the rights of princes, assumed the exercise of 
 secular power, declared itself supreme over the state 
 as well as the Church, and claimed to be lord of the 
 world, "the fountain of laws," having jurisdiction 
 "'over all the inhabitants of the earth." 
 
 No such claims were ever made for any heathen 
 deity. No such exorbitant prerogatives are com- 
 patible with the limitations of the human mind. 
 They are conceivable only as belonging to the infi- 
 nite God, and as being exercised through his Son 
 our Lord Jesus Christ. Here is a mortal, sinful man, 
 a child of dust, exalting himself as God, so that he 
 
38 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 as God, sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself 
 that he is God, and attempting dominion over the 
 state, over the Church, over the divine Word, over 
 the souls of men, over earth and heaven and hell, a 
 dominion from which lay no appeal to any higher 
 court. The Pope was in the place of God. 
 
 Such a subversion of truth must in the nature of 
 things be attended by the most baleful results. In- 
 stead of being the divine agency for the salvation of 
 sinners and the moral renovation of mankind, the 
 Church became a vast political engine employed 
 for the aggrandizement of power — its energies con- 
 sumed, and its institutions and ordinances debased 
 and prostituted in interminable contests with those 
 who bravely defended the rights of the state. Ab- 
 sorbed in such pursuits and contests the bishops of 
 the Church could give but little attention to the main- 
 tenance of her own purity, to the removal of growing 
 errors and superstitions, to the instruction of the peo- 
 ple and the salvation of men. Human souls, the 
 spiritual interests of the race, were sacrificed to the 
 accomplishment of political ends, and instead of 
 bringing to the weary the cup of life the hierarchy 
 was laying on their necks an iron yoke. 
 
 The papacy was, besides, often steeped in vices,, 
 crimes and shameful debaucheries. The Holy Father 
 was surrounded more than once by abandoned wo- 
 men. "That throne which pretended to rise above 
 the majesty of kings was sunk deep in the dregs of 
 vice," and the notorious courtesans, "Theodora and 
 Marozia installed and deposed at their pleasure the 
 self-styled masters of the Church of Christ, and 
 
TRINITY GERMAN EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH, MILWAUKEE, WIS. 
 
4-0 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 placed their lovers, sons and grandsons in Saint 
 Peter's chair." This was in the tenth century, notable 
 as the darkest in the Christian era. But a spectacle 
 yet more infamous is presented by the pontifical 
 throne in the times immediately preceding the Ref- 
 ormation. The rapacity, the profligacy and disso- 
 luteness of the papal court at that time are incredi- 
 ble. Alexander VI was openly accused of incest and 
 every disgraceful crime, and was known to sacrifice 
 every other interest to the elevation of his bastard 
 children. 
 
 Space fails to speak here in detail of other lep- 
 rous taints which were eating the life out of Christi- 
 anity. For the divine institution of marriage and 
 the sacred precincts of the family, we see the enforce- 
 ment of celibacy on the clergy and its strongest 
 encouragement on all others. The monastic life 
 instituted by men was more holy than the married 
 state instituted by God. The home was no place for 
 earnest piety. The convent was its proper nursery. 
 For the intercession of our divine Advocate were 
 substituted the prayers of the saints, and in cases 
 of distress or calamity appeals were directed to 
 them and divine honors accorded them in the very 
 temple of God. Images and relics were endowed 
 with supernatural qualities, holiness became a local 
 attribute, and the Church of God was everywhere 
 teeming with an idolatry which, excepting in the 
 name of the objects worshipped, differed but little 
 from the paganism of the ancient world. 
 
 All the evils which prevailed in the Church, error 
 in doctrine, misrule in administration, corruption in 
 
The Church. 41 
 
 life, and the manifold and terrible forms of oppres- 
 sion wrought remarkably in unison with each other 
 for the development of a colossal system. Popes and 
 priests, superstition and salvation by human merit, 
 ignorance and idolatry, false dogmas and moral cor- 
 ruption, each fostered the other, and all joined in 
 Tearing a structure whose towers cast a dark shadow 
 on the house of God, and whose walls were able to 
 ■defy every power on earth. 
 
 Sad, indeed, beyond description was the state of 
 -religion and of morals throughout Christendom in 
 the fourteenth and fifteen centuries. The central 
 teachings of Christ were overlaid with insidious 
 •errors. The charter of the Church suffered grievous 
 violence, her character had, in great measure, become 
 •changed, her attributes disappeared. The consciences 
 of the people were besotted with the perversions of 
 truth and stifled with a burden of ceremonies. The 
 worst abuses had become identified with religion, and 
 moral rottenness that smelled to heaven was con- 
 suming its vitals. The Church was still the Church, 
 but "the whole head was sick, and the whole heart 
 faint." 
 
 The magnitude of these scandals was clearly recog- 
 nized by enlightened minds, and for centuries most 
 strenuous efforts were put forward for their removal 
 and for the purging and reformation of the Church. 
 Every history of that age, Catholic as well as Pro- 
 testant, admits the fearful degeneracy into which the 
 whole ecclesiastical organism had sunk. The Church 
 had ceased to command any respect or to exert any 
 moral influence over the masses. Secular princes 
 
42 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 and learned divines gave expression to the crying" 
 need of a thorough reformation in head and mem- 
 bers. Imperial diets were summoned to take in hand 
 the frightful abuses which were rife in every quarter, 
 and three consecutive Councils of the Church Univer- 
 sal, at Pisa, at Constance, and Basle, were called 
 exclusively for the purpose of doing something to 
 arrest the growing corruption and the general spirit- 
 ual decay. The denunciations which Luther uttered 
 against the Romanism of his day, were not strictly 
 original with him. They had been repeated again 
 and again by the staunchest Romanists, long be- 
 fore Luther was born. Open the literature of the 
 fourteenth and the fifteenth centuries and your eyes 
 will stare and the blood will curdle at the exposure 
 there made of prevailing corruptions in all spheres 
 and ranks of the Church. This is in fact the reason 
 why a Catholic Emperor, for a long time, refused to 
 have the Reformer burned at the stake. He knew 
 that his denunciation of the existing order was but 
 the language of the most pronounced and loyal 
 Catholic divines in former years, that he was voicing 
 the sentiment of millions of his contemporaries. Sec- 
 ular princes, like George of Saxony, who bitterly 
 hated Luther and would gladly have executed him, 
 denounced in unmeasured and scathing terms the en- 
 croachments of Rome, made a withering exposure of 
 the prevalent scandals, and brought forward more 
 than one hundred grievances which they requested 
 the Emperor to have rectified, while they conjured 
 him to order a general reformation, and himself 
 to undertake its accomplishment. 
 
The Churck. 
 
 43- 
 
 This historic circumstance reveals the desperate 
 pass to which things had come: powerful princes cry- 
 ing out against the rapacity and oppression of the 
 Church, and appealing to the sovereign representa- 
 tive of the nation to interpose for their relief, and that 
 too when the Church claimed to have not only a. 
 spiritual mission to lighten the sorrows of men and 
 to raise them to freedom and happiness, but asserted 
 
 v iifeftj 
 
 WARTBURG ORPHANS' FARM SCHOOL, MOUNT VERNON, N. Y. 
 
 also political prerogatives which secured for it the 
 freest access to their souls and consciences. It was 
 at this juncture, when the wisest men despaired of 
 help from that institution which claimed to hold in 
 its bosom all truth and grace, it was then that they 
 turned to a political ruler for the salvation of man- 
 kind. The shelter of the lambs had become a den 
 of tigers and lions. The situation bordered ort despair. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE REFORMATION. 
 
 CHRIST had not abandoned his Church. He had 
 not forgotten the promise of his abiding pres- 
 ence. His hand in the supreme hour of need 
 brought deliverance. Aye, long before the supreme 
 hour had arrived, his providence was at work, slowly 
 maturing the elements and gathering the forces by 
 which might be effected a thorough reformation of the 
 Christian community. History has, by a number of ex- 
 amples, taught us that the interventions of God in 
 human affairs do not occur with magical suddenness 
 nor as isolated phenomena, but that they involve a 
 vast sweep of events and evolutions, all converging to 
 the same consummation. The century immediately 
 anterior to the outbreak of the Reformation was so 
 marked with great historic movements, and these 
 movements had so direct and powerful a bearing on the 
 Reformation, as to indicate, unmistakably, the agency 
 of superhuman wisdom and Almighty power, not only 
 in the ecclesiastical reform itself, but in the extraordi- 
 nary phenomena which combined to usher it into ex- 
 istence. The evidences of a far-reaching, all-compre- 
 liending Providence are incontrovertible. The Refor- 
 mation was the work of God, a work not of a day, or a 
 year, or a generation, but stretching its roots far back 
 into preceding centuries, and reaching its crisis at the 
 signal of Luther's hammer. An amazing concert of 
 most diverse movements toward one end marks the 
 
 44 
 
The Reformation. 45 
 
 whole period. Momentous changes were taking place 
 in the realm of ideas, of government, of inventions and 
 of discoveries, at once producing and proclaiming a. 
 general awakening of society, and all not only singular- 
 ly coincident with but most strikingly convergent to 
 a common result. 
 
 The great historians have recognized this singular 
 concurrence of extraordinary events in the political 
 and social life of Europe during the period preceding 
 the Reformation. Even the famous naturalist, Baron 
 Von Humboldt, pauses in his scientific studies to ob- 
 serve : "The fifteenth century belongs to those re- 
 markable epochs in which all the efforts of the mind 
 indicate one determined and general character, and 
 one unchanging striving towards the same goal. The 
 unity of this tendency and the results by which it was 
 crowned, combined with the activity of whole races, 
 give to this age a character both of grandeur and of 
 enduring splendor." 
 
 A revival of learning had been kindled through the 
 advent of Greek scholars who, on the fall of Constan- 
 tinople, sought refuge in Italy. The western world 
 awakened from the slumber of ages, and one of the 
 mightiest intellectual revolutions ever known occurred 
 just in time to become one of the potent factors in se- 
 curing the triumph of the Reformation. The human 
 mind became once more conscious of its powers, and 
 proceeded to assert its inalienable freedom of expan- 
 sion, of activity, of inquiry, and of criticism, thus break- 
 ing the bonds of sacerdotal training, by which it had 
 for ages been held in subjection and in ignorance. 
 This intellectual awakening gave a powerful mo men- 
 
46 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 turn to literary culture, kindling new aspirations, pro- 
 ducing new tastes, opening up new worlds in the spir- 
 itual and physical universe, liberalizing and broaden- 
 ing the views of men, stimulating in them the search 
 after truth and giving them new methods for its dis- 
 covery and new weapons for its defense. 
 
 The movement affected all classes. Monarchs on 
 their thrones, like Maximilian I, Henry VIII, and 
 Frederick of Saxony, applauded it ; illustrious knights 
 like von Hutten, in order to share the glory of the 
 new conquests exchanged the sword for the pen ; the 
 •common people, held for ages in abject bondage, con- 
 tracted a taste for intellectual liberty and an appetite 
 for intellectual food. The human mind was thus 
 providentially prepared for the Reformation. It 
 had its eyes open for the light about to burst upon 
 the world. It was armed for the coming contest 
 between the old and the new. 
 
 And just at this juncture came the art of printing, 
 an invention which in its boundless influence on hu- 
 man society surpasses all other inventions ever de- 
 vised by man, and which, arriving at that epoch, added 
 its own peculiar excitement to intellectual activity, 
 and in conjunction with the revival of literature be- 
 came a prodigious factor in bringing about the great 
 moral revolution of the sixteenth century. 
 
 Just at this time, too, mariners having learned the 
 use of the magnetic compass, crossed the trackless 
 oceans and made the discovery of new worlds, which 
 in turn again produced new impulses and new ideas, 
 widened the horizon of thought and endeavor, 
 prompted the initial steps of colonization, gave a vast 
 
The Reformation. 47 
 
 •expansion to commerce and international intercourse, 
 and to an incalculable extent affected the intellect- 
 ual, social and moral interests of mankind. 
 
 Simultaneously with the new learning we witness 
 .a great reaction of national feeling. Nations become 
 conscious of their rights and their power. Civil gov- 
 ernment is undergoing a proces of centralization and 
 ■consolidation. Monarchies are acquiring a firm or- 
 ganization and growing into compact state systems, 
 with rulers capable of withstanding the encroach- 
 ments of the papacy and repelling its insolent assump- 
 tions. It was of immense consequence to the Re- 
 formation that just before or simultaneously with its 
 rise, princes like Ferdinand of Arragon, Maximilian of 
 Austria, Frederick of Saxony, Charles V of Germany 
 and Henry VIII of England, were on the throne, 
 monarchs who, though they had been carefully train- 
 ed by the clergy, yet had been sufficiently enlightened 
 by the new learning to recognize the usurpations of 
 the popes and to gauge their proficiency in the basest 
 arts of diplomacy and dissimulation. Loyal sons of 
 the Church, as these princes were, they could detect a 
 scoundrel under pontifical robes, and they had no 
 scruple in opposing with all the might of secular 
 power, those Holy Fathers who were prostituting 
 their spiritual functions for political ends. 
 
 Along with the establishment of stalwart monarch- 
 ies, this era was marked also by the powerful develop- 
 ment of free cities, composed of the sturdy middle 
 •classes, communities whose diversified industry and 
 extensive commerce had sharpened and invigorated 
 their practical understanding, and who long before 
 
St**** 
 
 
 i»Wft£* 
 
 1 
 
 
 ■ssSlKssssdKSlIr 
 
 
 
 THE MARTIN LUTHER MEMORIAL STATUE, WASHINGTON, D. C. 
 
The Reformation. 49 
 
 the appearance of Luther had learned to defend their 
 rights against imperious bishops. A great revolution 
 in the Church would have been impossible without a 
 profound change in the popular sentiment toward the 
 hierarchy. The disenchantment of the masses with 
 reference to Holy Mother Church must be effected, 
 the faith of mankind in the spiritual authority of the 
 clergy must be shattered, before any success could 
 attend so radical a reformation as was called for. 
 Nothing of abiding results can be achieved independ- 
 ently of the people. And the people had gradually 
 come to open their eyes. The reactions and com- 
 plainings of a thousand years had acted upon the 
 popular mind. Men had grown familiar with the 
 idea, often broached, that the pope was, after all, a 
 mere man, sometimes even a very bad man. " The 
 people in general began to suspect that he was not 
 much holier than their own bishops, whose reputation 
 was very equivocal. The indignation of Christen- 
 dom had been excited by the immorality of the popes,' 
 and a hatred of the Roman name was deeply seated 
 in the hearts of nations." Everywhere, from high to 
 low, was heard a hollow murmur, a forerunner of the 
 thunderbolt that was soon to fall. 
 
 And surely not the most insignificant agent in the 
 providential concurrence of historic phenomena was 
 the presence of the Turk on the frontier of the Em- 
 pire. As often as the Catholic states were on the 
 verge of making deadly war upon the Protestants, a 
 sudden invasion of the Turkish legions compelled the 
 union of the German armies in a defensive campaign 
 against the common foe. 
 
50 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 An extraordinary unity of purpose is thus revealed 
 by a series of remarkable movements and the co- 
 working of the most diverse elements on the eve of 
 the Reformation — a drama of Providence that chal- 
 lenges the admiration of the philosopher, the faith of 
 the Christian and the abiding gratitude of the Pro- 
 testant world. 
 
 Think of it! Mahomet and Columbus, Charles V 
 and Henry VIII, Frederick the Wise and Ulrich von 
 Hutten, Guttenberg and Erasmus, men of the most 
 opposite character and aim, all combining to bring 
 about the same tremendous result, all unconsciously 
 moving in chorus to the same consummation, destroy- 
 ing the prestige of the Roman See, effecting intellect- 
 ual and spiritual emancipation, producing a porten- 
 tous disaffection with the existing order, and bring- 
 ing on a profound crisis in society, so that princes 
 and peoples, philosophers and peasants, stood like 
 sentinels on their watch-towers waiting for a mighty 
 revolution, listening for the first blast of Luther's 
 trumpet. 
 
 They did not listen in vain. The man for the 
 hour was at hand. The same Lord who, by sun- 
 dry agencies and in diverse manners, had marshalled 
 and equipped his forces for the great battle, had also 
 raised up and trained his servant to take the com- 
 mand of these forces and to lead them on to victory, 
 to impersonate the gigantic revolution and to con- 
 trol the introduction of a new era. 
 
 Whenever the clock strikes, the man for the hour 
 appears upon the stage. To rescue truth from its 
 enemies, to deliver a people from oppression or an- 
 
The Reformation. 51 
 
 archy, to effect beneficent revolutions in society, — 
 in each momentous crisis the very man required by 
 the occasion is sure to come to the kingdom for such 
 a time as this. Moses, David, Cyrus, Alexander, Cae- 
 sar, Paul, Charlemagne, Cromwell, Washington, Lin- 
 coln, were not evolved from a fortuitous concourse 
 of atoms. They were men sent from God, and came 
 endowed with the faculties required for their task 
 and singularly fitted by peculiar experiences to ac- 
 complish their mission. In each case the man, the 
 time, and the work coincided. 
 
 Of no one is this more manifestly true than of 
 Martin Luther, a genius "in whom was found the 
 rarest combination of all the gifts and qualities of 
 spirit, mind, character and will, requisite to the great 
 work. He was, moreover, providentially trained for 
 his high mission by the events of his life, and by 
 being made to experience in his own soul the essen- 
 tial principles of the Reformation." He must needs 
 also have such undeniable proofs of their divine 
 power as impelled him irresistably to communicate 
 to the world this most sacred and precious experi- 
 ence of his life. Bayne, an English layman, says: 
 "The persuasion, in its various degrees of strength, 
 from a mere admission of possibility up to impas- 
 sioned confidence, that Luther was a man of God 
 empowered to speak to his generation, not only per- 
 vaded the mass of his followers, already in the end 
 of 1520 an enormous multitude, but had a potent in- 
 fluence upon those who resisted him * * * The 
 sentiment of Europe, a sentiment diffused in the 
 courts of princes and penetrating to the inner cham- 
 
52. The Lutherans in America. 
 
 bers of the Vatican itself was to the effect that 
 if one went to inquire of God, a more authentic mes- 
 sage from Him might be had through this blameless 
 monk, this preacher of righteousness, than by the 
 lips of lordly cardinals, or of Leo spurred and booted 
 for the chase." 
 
 On this man was devolved the stupendous task of 
 rescuing the Christian Church from tyranny, fetters, 
 and corruption. And Rome had herself forged the 
 weapon that was destined to smite her. If there 
 ever was a devoted son of the Church, if ever the 
 papistic usurpation had ingrained itself in the soul of 
 a devotee, if ever a mortal had with all his might 
 endeavored to follow the prescribed course of seek- 
 ing salvation by works, that mortal was Martin Lu- 
 ther. 
 
 Reared in the domestic austerity, which was en- 
 forced by the legalistic rigor of the papal system, his 
 mind had early been filled with the superstitions 
 which were incorporated with a debased Christianity, 
 while he was withal possessed of the strongest in- 
 stincts of reverence and religious feeling, rendering 
 him peculiarly susceptible to the gloom and awe dif- 
 fused by the spiritual instruction of the age. All 
 sacred things had become associated with a trans- 
 cendency of terror. Even Christ, the dear Redeemer, 
 "was throned in terror, an iron-featured judge, whose 
 breath was consuming fire. Only through Mary, his 
 tender, Virgin Mother, could one safely and hopefully 
 approach Christ himself." Young Martin was, in the 
 course of time, occupied with the thought of monkish 
 holiness, and at the age of twenty-one sought refuge 
 
The Reformation. 53 
 
 from an angry God within the precincts of a cloister. 
 There, by dint of hard endeavor and cruel self-morti- 
 fications, he hoped to work out his salvation and pro- 
 pitiate that gruesome, terrific judge which Jesus 
 Christ had been represented to him in all the teach- 
 ings he had received both in school and at church. 
 Of faith in Christ, as the simple, gracious way of par- 
 don, he had positively never heard. His whole trust 
 had been placed in Mary. Although, on one occa- 
 sion, when he sank to the earth from the shock of a 
 deafening thunder-clap, he addressed another saint, 
 crying out as soon as he recovered consciousness, 
 ''Help, sweet Saint Anne; save me, save me, and I 
 will become a monk." 
 
 The liberator of the Church must needs himself 
 have endured the horrors of slavery. The deliverer 
 of his age from the wretched superstitions under 
 which it groaned, must first himself have felt their bale- 
 ful power. It was Paul's personal experience of the 
 hard Pharisaic bondage that afterwards enabled him, 
 as a freeman of- Christ, to strike its fetters from the 
 Christian conscience. So with Luther. On entering 
 the cloister the monks at once subjected their learned 
 and distinguished novice to the harshest treatment 
 and imposed upon him the most menial service. His 
 mind must be humbled, his spirit broken, by the most 
 humiliating offices. He cleans out the cells, sweeps 
 the Church, and traverses the street with a wallet beg- 
 ging bread from house to house. Returning within 
 the walls he must shut himself up in a low, narrow cell, 
 and to all this he submits willingly. He renounces 
 not only what is pleasing to the flesh, but even the 
 
54 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 books that regale the mind,' determined to be out and 
 out a monk, and perform all the works and mortifica- 
 tions, and to undergo all the outrageous severities 
 and cruelties of an unnatural and monstrous asceti- 
 cism. 
 
 At a later period, when allowed to resume his stud- 
 ies, he pursued them with such zest that he often hap- 
 pened not to repeat the daily prayers for three or 
 four weeks together. Then becoming alarmed at this 
 violation of the monastic rules, he shut himself up 
 "and began to repeat conscientiously all the prayers 
 he had omitted, without a thought of either eating 
 or drinking. Once, even for seven weeks together, he 
 scarcely closed his eyes in sleep." Nothing was too 
 great a sacrifice for him in order to secure holiness. 
 He was resolved to merit heaven by abstinence. 
 "Never," says a historian, "did the Romish Church 
 possess a more pious monk. Never did cloister wit- 
 ness more severe and indefatigable exertions to pur- 
 chase eternal salvation." 
 
 After he had entered upon his reforming work, and 
 boldly announced that heaven could not be obtained 
 by such means he adds ; "If ever monk could obtain 
 heaven by his monkish works, I should certainly 
 have been entitled to it. Of this all the friars 
 who have known me can testify. If it had continued 
 much longer, I should have carried my mortifications 
 even to death, by means of my watchings, prayers, 
 reading, and other labors." 
 
 He knew the bitterness of that cup, which Rome 
 compelled her subjects to drain, and he knew, too, 
 that it was no cup of salvation. The cloister brought 
 

 "■■UBJ! 
 
56 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 him no repose. It gave his conscience no peace. 
 The assurance of pardon, which he craved, continued 
 to be his ever-crying want, despite the fastings, watch- 
 ings, and other outward observances to which he 
 attended so faithfully. The fears and terrors which 
 had driven him within the walls of a cell pursued 
 him within and plunged him into despair. The more 
 he strove to appease the anger of God, the darker 
 became the vision of his sins, the more polluted his 
 heart, and the more frightful his agonies of contrition. 
 He says that he had recourse to a thousand methods 
 to stifle the cries of his conscience. Every day he 
 went to confession, but found it of no avail. 
 
 Discovering at last the impossibility of propitia- 
 ting God and securing salvation by his own merits, 
 realizing the impotency and worthlessness of all these 
 rigorous and irrational expedients, utterly disappointed 
 in his expectations of becoming holy, and finding that 
 notwithstanding his penances and confessions, monas- 
 tic austerities and priestly absolutions he was yet a 
 lost soul, his life became a mortal struggle. " The 
 young monk crept like a shadow through the long 
 galleries of the cloister that re-echoed with his sor- 
 rowful moanings." His body wasted away. His 
 strength began to fail. His bones could be counted. 
 His eyes were sunken. He was found lying insensible 
 on a stone floor. For days he remained like one 
 dead, exhausted by the struggles and storms through 
 which he was passing. 
 
 A truer portrait of Romanism in its error and its 
 impotence can nowhere be found. ■ Luther's personal 
 experience is the best commentary on the corrupt 
 
The Reformation. 57 
 
 teachings and the pernicious practices which then 
 universally prevailed. 
 
 But his coming to the light and peace of the gospel 
 is also the best illustration, the living embodiment of 
 the Reformation of which he was the peerless and 
 immortal hero. Luther's religious experience was 
 the mirror, the microcosm, of the Reformation. His 
 rich nature compassed all its element. Such were 
 his great talents and characteristics, and such the 
 situation of Europe at the time, "that the Reforma- 
 tion, in fact, passed from the mind of the one into the 
 mind of the other." It pleased God to reveal in his 
 earnest soul, his Son, Jesus Christ, the bearer of the 
 world's sin, and then the Reformation sprang living 
 from his heart. 
 
 While he continued to torture his bosom with vows 
 and works, and a thousand insupportable tasks, Stau- 
 pitz, the general of the Augustinians, came providen- 
 tially on a visit of inspection. Himself a subject of 
 saving grace, he not only recognized the deep unrest 
 and melancholy of Luther, with which others had 
 grown familiar, but he also clearly understood the 
 nature of the struggle through which he was passing, 
 and earnestly pointed him to the wounds of Jesus 
 Christ, to the blood shed for his sins, and urged him 
 to cast himself into the Redeemer's arms, and to trust 
 in him for righteousness. God is love and his favor 
 is not to be sought with self-torture and mortifica- 
 tions. With these instructions came sweet peace into 
 his storm-tossed breast, as when the Master calmed 
 the waves of Galilee. It seemed to Luther that 
 Jesus Christ himself was addressing to him these 
 
58 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 sweet and healing words. He is assured of the for- 
 giveness of his sins. A mighty change passed over 
 his spirit. Repentance, which had been the bitterness 
 of anguish, turned now to sweetness and delight. 
 And the Scriptures — what a new meaning they pos- 
 sess ! What an illumination has come over them ! 
 He studies them with ever-increasing zeal, and they en- 
 ter his mind like great streams of light. " His struggles 
 have prepared his heart to understand the Word. The 
 soil has been ploughed deep ; the incorruptible seed 
 sinks into it with power." He has found the Saviour. 
 He has found his gospel. He has received salvation 
 immediately from God, and on the warrant of His 
 Word. A voice of thunder resounds unceasingly 
 within his breast, "the just shall live by faith." The 
 Spirit of God kept pressing these words upon his 
 heart, until he clearly learned that a sinner's justi- 
 fication proceeds from the mercy of God through 
 faith, and then he says, " I felt born again like a 
 new man." 
 
 The Reformation was born. Luther .himself does 
 not yet perceive it, though his own experience is the 
 epitome and the prophecy of the impending crisis. 
 In its essential features it has been wrought out and 
 mirrored in Luther's soul. "What was to revolu- 
 tionize Christendom and start afresh the course of 
 history first revolutionized Luther and started him 
 in the new life." A new morning dawned upon the 
 world. 
 
 Experience is the sovereign test of truth. Here 
 was an earnest and highly gifted soul seeking its own 
 salvation, and trying all the expedients which a degene- 
 
The Reformation. 59 
 
 rate system had, from time to time, invented and sanc- 
 tioned, but only to sink deeper into the mire of his 
 sinfulness and spiritual helplessness. At last he is 
 brought to trust himself solely to the mercy of God 
 in Christ Jesus, and his conscience has peace, his soul 
 has an accession of spiritual power. 
 
 It was not a momentary thrill that passed over his 
 bosom. It was not an evanescent calm experienced 
 by a storm-tossed mind. It was a passage from dark- 
 ness to light, from helpless prostration to spiritual 
 energy, and new light and new strength continued to 
 pour into his breast. If periods of despondency 
 returned, and the dreadful nature of sin pressed again 
 heavily upon him, he made, in each instance, a fresh 
 application of the same remedy, and every time it 
 availed for the same result. He found assurance of 
 salvation. He attained the abiding joyous freedom 
 of God's children. 
 
 All the ordinances and devices of the Romish 
 Church having failed Luther in the supreme crisis of 
 his conversion, he gradually came to recognize their 
 uselessness and utter worthlessness. Of what value 
 are fasts and penance and self-mortifications, priestly 
 manipulations and all the mediatorial assump- 
 tions of the clergy, if they fail to bring the sinner to 
 his Savior? And when simple faith lands him in 
 the Savior's arms, what further need has the soul 
 of them anyhow? Turning away from all such expe- 
 dients Luther cast himself immediately upon the 
 warm bosom of his Lord. He found pardon and jus- 
 tification by faith alone. 
 
 As the light grew brighter in his soul the surround- 
 
60 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 ing darkness became to his eyes more and more ap- 
 palling. The grossness and pernicious character of 
 the abounding corruption began to weigh heavily 
 upon his mind. The vast system of works, and merits, 
 and satisfaction, and indulgences, he now discovered 
 to be at war with the central doctrine of Christianity, 
 salvation by grace. Yet everywhere the ecclesiastical 
 authorities upheld these as the requisite conditions of 
 salvation, lauded the purchasing power of human 
 merit, stamped a false value upon man's righteous- 
 ness before the divine judge, and treated the whole 
 subject of redemption as if it were a commercial 
 transaction between God and the sinner, the latter 
 furnishing from his own bankrupt store a fair equiva- 
 lent for the grace received, the priest acting as the 
 intermediate agent. 
 
 In the Bible, a copy of which, to his great sur- 
 prise, he found one day in the University library, 
 he found none of these things. The way of salva- 
 tion, as there portrayed, is the very way now reached 
 by his wandering feet. The answer which in his 
 profound distress came to Luther, " Believe on the 
 Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved," was the 
 answer of an inspired Apostle — it was, in fact, the an- 
 swer of the Lord Jesus who came into the world to 
 save sinners, and who by the shedding of his precious 
 blood has opened a new and living way unto God. It 
 is the answer throughout, of the Scriptures, which re- 
 veal the way of salvation. It is the voice of God. 
 The answer of Rome, on the other hand, was, "Sub- 
 mit to the Church, perform good works, seek priestly 
 
The Reformation. 61 
 
 mediation, do penance, make satisfaction." This does 
 not accord with that. It is the voice of man. 
 
 Thus by the stress of circumstances, and through a 
 profound personal experience, Luther came gradually 
 to doubt the infallibility of the Church, and with this 
 to question its authority. It was a hard struggle 
 with him — for, he had been a most loyal son of the 
 Church. He had most humbly and unquestionably 
 received her teachings. Even after his enlightenment 
 he clung with .obstinacy to her papal head, and it was 
 a terrible discovery for him to learn that after all she 
 was not the depositary of infallible truth, her author- 
 ity was not supreme, the fathers and bishops and 
 popes had made departures fiom the Scriptures, Coun- 
 cils were but an aggregate of fallible men, and had 
 pronounced in favor of errors ; that, in fine, the 
 only supreme and infallible authority was the in- 
 spired volume. 
 
 In this manner the two cardinal principles of the 
 Reformation came to be developed, the sinner's justi- 
 fication by faith alone, and the Word of God as the 
 sole authority for faith and life. These two funda- 
 mental truths, the condition of salvation and the war- 
 rant for it, are the poles on which the whole move- 
 ment turned and by which all its essential features 
 were determined. They formed its heart and its 
 panoply. 
 
 The Reformation, let it ever be borne in mind, was 
 an intensely spiritual work. It was in the best and 
 fullest sense of the term, a revival. A cry was going 
 up all over Christendom, what must I do to be saved? 
 With what mockery and paraphernalia Rome made 
 
62 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 answer to this cry, and how unavailing it was, we have 
 already seen. We have seen, too, the answer which 
 came to Luther out of the Scriptures, and how effi- 
 cacious it proved. Having the warrant from God's 
 Word that the just shall live by faith, and finding that 
 the ordinances and institutions of the hierarchy were 
 at war with this truth, he rested upon the authority of 
 the Scriptures and made a stand for their supremacy, 
 over against the decrees, the dogmas and tradi- 
 tions of the Church. 
 
 These two principles, called in theology the material 
 and the formal principles of the Reformation logically, 
 naturally and inevitably go together. Had not God's 
 holy Word been overlaid and buried under number- 
 less strata of human interpretation, ecclesiastical 
 authority and conciliar dogmas, the simple way of 
 life by faith in Christ could never have been obscured 
 and well-nigh closed. It has been said with striking 
 force, "the deepest curse under which the Church 
 was groaning, was the practical dethronement of 
 God's Word." Now it comes once more to its proper 
 honor and position. All appeals are taken to it, and 
 when Luther, in that immortal scene at Worms, delib- 
 erately, at the risk of his life, declares "unless I am 
 convinced out of the Holy Scriptures, or by clear and 
 distinct arguments, I may not and cannot retract; 
 here I stand, God help me," he laid the corner-stone 
 of Protestantism and defied the assembled might of 
 Hierarchy and Empire to overturn it. "That was 
 the appeal of the Church to her divine charter and 
 charter rights, against a falsifying hierarchy which 
 was not the Church." The Word thus restored to 
 
The Reformation. 63 
 
 supremacy, and all dogmas, traditions and claims 
 tested by its teachings, there was involved in it inevi- 
 tably the right and assertion for every man, especially 
 for every believer, to study and to interpret the Script- 
 ures for himself. Salvation is an individual matter, 
 the work of a personal faith resting upon the grace 
 and promises .of God. The sinner having direct 
 access to his Savior on the ground of the divine 
 Word, no power on earth can deprive him of his title 
 or wrest from him that which is to him individually, 
 as well as to the Church, the embodiment of supreme 
 authority, the infallible chart to govern his belief and 
 his conduct. With the assertion of these principles 
 the Reformation achieved its triumph. 
 
 The crisis arrived when Tetzel opened at J'ter- 
 bok his abominable market for the sale of Indulgences. 
 He was not allowed to carry on his trade in Witten- 
 berg, because the Elector Frederick was unwilling to 
 have his country drained of money. At Jiiterbok, 
 however, which was beyond his jurisdiction, the sale 
 of forgiveness could proceed without hindrance, and 
 thousands of the deluded people flocked thither to 
 invest their scanty earnings. A new impetus had just 
 been given to the traffic in Indulgences by the erec- 
 tion of St. Peter's Church at Rome. Vast sums were 
 required for the magnificent edifice, and a luxurious 
 and splendor-loving Pope, Leo X, whose very faith 
 in Christianity has been questioned, and the morals 
 of whose court was one of the numerous scandals of 
 the period, had no scruple, in raising funds, to resort 
 to this foul, soul-destroying business. " Meanwhile, 
 the popes were not ashamed to appropriate freely to 
 
64 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 their own needs and to other objects, such as the war 
 with Turkey, that Indulgence money, which was nom- 
 inally for the Church." It is, perhaps, of little mo- 
 ment in what way, or for what ends, a fund thus ac- 
 quired is expended. 
 
 For the farming of this revenue in Germany a suit- 
 able instrument was found in Albert, Archbishop of 
 Mayence and of Magdeburg — Luther's own bishop — 
 a prince of the Church, who, although drawing the 
 lucrative proceeds of two Archdioceses, had, by his 
 fondness for architectural splendor, his extravagant 
 court, and especially the heavy payment he had 
 been required to make for his appointment, be- 
 come very deeply involved in debt. So a bargain 
 was struck between him and the Holy Father by which 
 he was to retain half of the profits arising from this 
 nefarious traffic. And it is given as a sober historical 
 fact, that behind the preacher of Indulgences, who an- 
 nounced God's mercy to all who handed over the price 
 of sins, stood the agents of the Archbishop's creditors 
 collecting their principal's share of the proceeds. 
 
 Contemporary historians describe "the lofty and 
 well-ordered pomp with which such a commissioner 
 entered on the performance of his exalted duties. 
 Priests, monks, and magistrates, schoolmasters and 
 scholars, men, women and children, went forth in pro- 
 cession to meet him, with songs and ringing of bells, 
 with flags and torches. They entered the Church to- 
 gether amidst the pealing of the organ. In the mid- 
 dle of the Church, before the altar, was erected a 
 large, red cross, hung with a silken banner which bore 
 the papal arms. Before the cross was placed a large 
 
MEMORIAL LUTHERAN CHURCH, WASHINGTON, D. C. 
 
66 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 iron chest to receive the money ; specimens of these 
 chests are still shown in many places. Daily, by ser- 
 mons, hymns, processions round the cross, and other 
 means of attraction, the people were invited and 
 urged to embrace this incomparable offer of salva- 
 tion." The time for reform, one would think, had 
 certainly come. 
 
 To the atrocious and ruinous character of this sale 
 of forgiveness Luther's eyes became fully opened in 
 the confessional, where he found conscience-stricken 
 souls appealing to these Indulgences through which 
 they purchased salvation. He had for some time 
 previous warned his congregation against putting 
 trust in them and had openly avowed his hostility 
 to the system as it was being worked. He was, in 
 fact, " burning to protest against the scandal," although 
 he confessed himself not yet in the clear about all of 
 its features. He had written to some bishops, receiv- 
 ing various replies, but finding no one prepared to take 
 any steps in the matter. "Every one," said he, "com- 
 plained of the Indulgences, but nobody was willing to 
 bell the cat." 
 
 At last further silence became impossible. The ruin 
 of souls, revealed to him as he was hearing confession, 
 compelled him to rise in opposition. Accordingly, 
 on the eve of All-Saints' Day, October 31, 15 17, he 
 posted on the doors of the Castle Church, at Witten- 
 berg, ninety-five Latin theses or propositions on this 
 subject, hoping thereby to call the attention of eccle- 
 siastics and theologians to the great evil, and by sta- 
 ting his own doubts and opinions to challenge dispu- 
 tation and thus bring about public discussion. Such 
 
The Reformation. 67 
 
 a procedure was not uncommon at that day, and at 
 the Universities, and among theologians, it was the 
 practice to have such public disputations as a means 
 not only of exercising learned thought, but of elucida- 
 ting truth. 
 
 At ordinary times, therefore, the bold act of the 
 Reformer in nailing up those theses would not have 
 provoked any special notice ,or given rise to any com- 
 motion, although by announcing the doctrine of free 
 and gratuitous remission of sins he heralded the Ref- 
 ormation. But, as we have observed, these were not 
 -ordinary times. The state of mind, all over Europe, 
 was such that a very trifling incident became the note 
 of a bugle, at the sound of which all Christendom 
 sprang into action. Luther's hammer emitted a few 
 sparks. The inflammable material, which lay in masses 
 everywhere, caught fire and, as with the rapidity of 
 lightning, a conflagration spread from Wittenberg 
 to every part of the Christian world. "In a fort- 
 night," says a contemporary, "these theses were in 
 every part of Germany, and in four weeks they had 
 traversed nearly the whole of Christendom, as if the 
 -very angels had been their messengers, and had 
 placed them before the eyes of all men." "Every one 
 read them, meditated and commented on them." 
 
 Little had the humble monk dreamed of what he 
 was doing. He had hoped to bring about a simple 
 public disputation in which he proposed humbly, but 
 with all his might, to defend the fundamental doctrine 
 of the gospel, the freeness of salvation through Christ, 
 and lo ! he has awakened a discussion which is shak- 
 ing the Church to its center. All Europe is involved 
 
68 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 in the tremendous commotion, and without ever 
 having intended it, shrinking in his soul from the very 
 thought of it, Luther suddenly finds himself at the 
 head of a colossal movement against the central au- 
 thority of the Church, a movement which no power 
 on earth could now stay and which, by the irresistible 
 logic of events, he was charged under God to direct 
 and control. 
 
 The papacy was roused by the terrific noise. This, 
 monk must be silenced. He is summoned to recant 
 his teachings in the theses and in his publications, and 
 as this was not in the line of his convictions the ban 
 of excommunication is hurled against him. When no> 
 one in authority dares to pay any heed to this, and 
 as excommunication loses its terror if the subject of 
 it keeps at large prosecuting the work for which he 
 was anathematized, the congress of the Empire is 
 convoked in order to dispose of this Wittenberg monk 
 who set the world on fire. At the fiat of the Pope,, 
 the lord of the kingdoms of this world, the Emperor 
 is constrained to make effective the bull of excommu- 
 nication. He assembles, in 1521, the great Diet, at 
 that time the mightiest political body in the world,, 
 and the solitary monk is required to appear in per- 
 son before it. He makes his defense before the 
 princes and prelates. He solemnly plants himself on 
 the Word and refuses point blank to surrender his. 
 convictions and his conscience. In God's name he 
 bids defiance to priests and potentates and powers, 
 and by his firm stand marks an epoch in the progress 
 of human freedom. Ready to live or die he is placed 
 by friends under the shelter of a castle, and from, 
 
The Reformation. 69 
 
 thence he gives the word of life to the German peo- 
 in their own tongue. 
 
 A large part of the nation have already embraced 
 the evangelical faith. Great princes of the Empire 
 refuse to join in the condemnation of a man who has 
 the courage to tell the naked truth about Rome, and 
 who once more proclaims the Gospel of a salvation 
 purchased once for all by the blood of the Lamb. 
 Electoral Saxony joins the Reformation. So does 
 Brandenburg, Hesse, Pomerania, Mecklenburg, Lune- 
 burg, Friesland, and nearly all the free cities which 
 had long been impatient of Episcopal rule : Hamburg, 
 L"beck, Bremen, Magdeburg, Frankfort, Gottingen, 
 and Nurenberg. As early as the Diet of Spires, in 
 1526, the countries holding the evangelical faith had 
 become so numerous and so strong as to extort from 
 the national congress the right, for the time being, to 
 maintain the new order, to have the unrestricted 
 preaching of the Gospel and the organization of the 
 Churches in independence of the hierarchy, a right 
 which they never again surrendered, though repeat- 
 edly threatened with violent measures if all was not 
 brought back under the old papal regime. In a few 
 more years Schleswig and Holstein adopted the evan- 
 gelical faith, as did also Silesia, Prussia, Anhalt, Ducal 
 Saxony, Brunswick and the Palatinate, almost the 
 whole of northern Germany and a large part of South 
 Germany, inclusive of nearly all the powerful free 
 cities. Without doubt a majority of the people in 
 countries which remained Roman Catholic, were in 
 sympathy with the Reformation and hungering for 
 the Gospel and its life of freedom, but the intolerance 
 
7° 
 
 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 of Austria and Bavaria, and the bloody engine of 
 the Inquisition succeeded in stifling the movement in: 
 those countries. 
 
 This astounding revolution was effected within the 
 short period of ten years, marking a rapidity and a 
 radical thoroughness such as the world had never 
 before witnessed. And the only weapon employed 
 was the torch of the Gospel, which brought men. 
 to realize the surrounding darkness and revealed tc» 
 
 ST. MARK'S ENGLISH LUTHERAN CHURCH, ST. LOUIS, MO. 
 
 them the way of life. About the same time the doc- 
 trines proclaimed by Luther achieved a like triumph 
 in Denmark, Sweden and Norway, while the reforma- 
 tion wave rolled on into France and Holland and 
 England, and "to the utmost boundaries of Europe." 
 Everywhere it was welcomed as the deliverance for 
 which men had yearned through centuries of bondage. 
 From a popular historian of the Reformation, 
 D Aubigne, we transfer the following graphic picture 
 of the amazing rapidity of its course : " Luther's writ- 
 
The Reformation. 71 
 
 ings were read in the cities, towns and even villages ; 
 at night by the fireside the school-master would often 
 read them aloud to an attentive audience. Some of 
 the hearers were affected by their perusal ; they would 
 take up the Bible to clear away their doubts, and 
 were struck with surprise at the astonishing contrast 
 between the Christianity of the Bible and their own. 
 After oscillating between Rome and Scripture, they 
 soon took refuge with that living word which shed so 
 new and sweet a radiance on their hearts. While 
 they were in this state, some evangelical preacher, 
 probably a priest, or a monk, would arrive. He 
 spoke eloquently and with conviction ; he announced 
 that Christ had made full atonement for the sins of 
 of his people ; he demonstrated by Holy Scripture the 
 vanity of works and human penances. A terrible 
 opposition would then break out ; the clergy and 
 sometimes the magistrates, would strain every nerve 
 to bring back the souls they were about to lose. But 
 there was in the new preaching a harmony with 
 Scripture and a hidden force that won all hearts, and 
 subdued even the most rebellious. At the peril of 
 their goods, and of their life, if need be, they ranged 
 themselves on the side of the Gospel, and forsook 
 the lifeless and fanatical orators of the papacy. 
 Sometimes the people, incensed at being so long mis- 
 led, compelled them to retire ; more frequently the 
 priests, deserted by their flocks, without tithes or of- 
 ferings, departed voluntarily and in sadness to seek 
 a livelihood elsewhere. And while the support- 
 ers of the ancient hierarchy returned from these 
 places sorrowful and dejected, and sometimes bidding 
 
"]2 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 farewell to their old flocks in the language of anathe- 
 ma the people, transported with joy by peace and 
 liberty, surrounded the new preachers with their ap- 
 plause, and thirsting for the word of God, carried 
 them in triumph into the Church and into the pulpit. 
 "A word of power, proceeding from God, was at 
 that time regenerating society. The people or their 
 leaders would frequently invite some man, celebrated 
 for his faith, to come and enlighten them ; and in- 
 stantly for love of the Gospel he abandoned his 
 interests and his family, his country and friends. Per- 
 secution often compelled the partisans of the Ref- 
 ormation to leave their homes : they reached some 
 spot where it was as yet unknown ; here they would 
 enter a house that offered an asylum to poor travel- 
 ers ; there they would speak of the Gospel, read a 
 chapter to the attentive hearers, and perhaps obtain 
 permission to preach publicly in the Church * * * 
 If they could not preach in the Church, they found 
 some other spot. Every place became a temple." 
 
JPHI1.II* MELANCTHOIS. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH. 
 
 GOD'S providence and the preaching of the pure 
 gospel of salvation brought into being the Evan- 
 gelical Lutheran Church. It is the unanimous 
 testimony of Protestant historians that Luther shrunk 
 with holy horror from the idea of a separation from 
 the Church presided over by the Roman See. He 
 had a most profound reverence for the dogmas and 
 institutions which had prevailed through ages. His 
 attacks were leveled at first only against a few gross 
 abuses, and he was so innocent as to believe that the 
 Pope himself and all pious theologians would join 
 in their condemnation, when they became fully in- 
 formed of these evils. He could not have believed 
 that they had become so corrupted by error and so 
 poisoned by its virus, that they would resist every 
 attempt at the purification of the house of God. He 
 had no idea that the chief shepherds of the Church 
 •could brand, outlaw and burn at the stake men who 
 pointed sinners to "the Lamb of God that taketh- 
 .away the sin of the world." He had not anticipated 
 that the Holy Scriptures and the Holy Papacy stood 
 in irreconcilable conflict with each other. Having 
 planted himself on the eternal rock of truth, and con- 
 fident of the material on which he stood, he now 
 could not do otherwise than maintain his position, and 
 if Rome declared that treason, and proposed to make 
 
 73 
 
74 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 war upon him, Rome must take the consequences. 
 The truth was dearer to him than all the sacred tra- 
 ditions he had so profoundly venerated, and the truth,, 
 he well knew, was the only invincible power upon 
 earth. The Church rests upon God's Word as her 
 foundation stone. She stands or falls with the doc- 
 trines of grace and so Luther, secure of his position,, 
 went on purging and cleansing the sanctuary as God 
 led him, until a glorious anti-papal, Evangelical 
 Church arose over Europe. 
 
 God did lead him, and God did protect him. We 
 have seen how wonderfully the soil was made ready 
 for the seed of the Word, how events had conspired 
 to bring on the crisis, how the colossus of Rome was 
 tottering from its weight, how the reverence for the 
 Papacy had been shattered and the minds of men dis- 
 enchanted, how a multitude of new ideas had spread 
 over every land, how society in every grade was pul- 
 sating with a new life, how the printing press had 
 scattered its pages of light into the most distant 
 places, and the discovery of new worlds had extended 
 the horizon of human thought. Everything por- 
 tended a great revolution. All men had a presenti- 
 ment of an impending crisis. Some, judging from the 
 fearful decay in the Church, foretold the near ap- 
 proach of Anti-christ, while others cherished an ar- 
 dent expectation of a Reformation close at hand. If 
 God rules in the affairs of men, there was certainly 
 here, in this universal concurrence, a revelation of his 
 mighty providence. 
 
 And no less conspicuous is the hand of God in the 
 protection of his servant through all the perils and 
 
The Evangelical Lutheran Church. 75. 
 
 struggles which he encountered, and in the triumphant 
 issue which crowned his work. From the moment he 
 uttered truths which were at variance with the exist- 
 ing order in the Church, he jeopardized his life, and 
 it is one of the marvels of history that, with the ban 
 of the civil and ecclesiastical authorities branded 
 upon him, the Reformer escaped, unharmed from the 
 fiery furnace. How did it come about that a power- 
 ful, earthly prince, Frederick the Wise, who never per- 
 sonally met him, and who, for a long time, avowed no 
 sympathy with his views, saw fit to cast the shield of 
 protection over his person? How was it that the Em- 
 peror, who was lord of two worlds and in full alliance 
 with the papacy in every attempt at smiting Luther 
 and crushing his work, found himself paralyzed in the 
 critical juncture and compelled to let the cause ad- 
 vance until it defied repression? How was it that 
 when Luther walked right into the jaws of death at 
 Worms, and when scarcely a mortal expected to see 
 him come out of the city alive, he passed out as he 
 entered, the hero of the age? The imperial safe- 
 conduct, under which he went and came, was the fac- 
 simile of the one granted to Huss to assure his safe 
 return from Constance, but Huss was burnt by the 
 Council as a heretic, and so was Jerome, his coadjutor, 
 while Luther, who was spreading doctrines far more 
 dangerous to the papacy, went back to Wartburg 
 and from there brandished a sword which pierced the 
 vitals of his enemies. Savonarola taught in Flor- 
 ence the way of salvation, as revealed in the Script- 
 ures, and instituted a moral and religious Reforma- 
 tion, but he died at the stake as a heretic and a. 
 
76 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 -seducer of the people. Wycliffe maintained that the 
 only source and rule of faith were the Holy Scriptures, 
 and sought to inaugurate a thorough reform of 
 the Church, but, although the civil power protected 
 his person from molestation, he was stripped of his 
 offices, debarred from public teaching and kept in 
 retirement, while his principal friends were either 
 driven out of the country or forced to recant. 
 
 The penalty for the crime of murder in civilized 
 -states is death by hanging. The penalty for attempt- 
 ing the reform of the Church and for preaching a 
 pure Gospel was, at that period, death at the stake, 
 and nothing else could have been anticipated for 
 Luther who boldly bearded the lion in his den. Yet 
 from the daring Step of posting his ninety-five 
 theses, he kept on teaching, preaching, writing, dis- 
 puting, and publishing, openly, publicly, fearlessly, in 
 the university, in churches, in the presence of the 
 great and the mighty, in the palaces of kings, be- 
 fore august assemblies, his enemies having innumera- 
 ble opportunities to poison him, to kidnap, slay or 
 burn him, and never was molested, never suffered an 
 injury to a single hair of his head, lived triumphantly 
 till his work was finished and finally passed away as 
 the oracle of his age, dying peacefully in the circle 
 of his friends, with loud thanksgiving to God. 
 
 As the leader, so the cause itself received super- 
 human protection. It happens sometimes that the 
 workman falls, but his work is perpetuated ; some- 
 times, as in the case of Wycliffe, the person of the 
 leader is shielded while the issue for which he con- 
 tended is crushed. But here the leader and the revo- 
 
The Evangelical Lutheran Church. "jy 
 
 lution, inseparably united, share alike the guardian- 
 ship of heaven. That movement for a purified 
 Church and a revived gospel, which might at its bold 
 inception have been strangled by a single hand of 
 civil or ecclesiastical power, was allowed to move on 
 unimpeded until, in its advance, it had gathered such 
 momentum as to sweep before it every barrier, and 
 to overcome all opposition. The arm of the Most 
 High was stretched out for its defense, and moved 
 not only a Frederick and his successors in Saxony 
 to shelter and shield the precious cause, but also a 
 king of France and a king of England, notwithstand- 
 ing their religious adhesion to Rome, to offer armed 
 resistance to the combinations formed for the de- 
 struction of the Reformation. Even Charles V.with 
 all his hatred of Luther and Lutheranism, and his re- 
 peated resolve to extinguish both, the mighty poten- 
 tate who to the end of his life regretted that he had 
 allowed Luther's escape, found himself, just at the 
 moment when he had expected to strike the fatal 
 blow, compelled by political exigencies to recall vio- 
 lent measures, to make a sudden change of front, and 
 to allow the Reformers to prosecute their work in 
 peace. The very Turk, the mortal foe of Christen- 
 dom, whose baleful shadow cast itself from time to 
 time into the heart of Germany, became more than 
 once an instrument of Providence to shield the work 
 of purifying his Church. 
 
 In the spring of 1532, for instance, Soliman was ad- 
 vancing towards the gates of Vienna with an army of 
 three hundred thousand men. An Embassy was sent. 
 to offer him the most humiliating terms of peace, so 
 
78 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 that the Emperor's hands might be free to crush the 
 Lutherans. He at once inquired, "Has the Emperor 
 made peace with Martin Luther?" and on learn- 
 ing that no such peace had yet been made, he 
 spurned every offer, and spread such consternation 
 in Germany that all the resources of the Empire had 
 to be combined against the common foe. 
 
 The Lutheran Reformation thus achieved success, 
 and resulted in a pure Church, while all previous 
 efforts were stamped with disastrous and melan- 
 choly failure. Gerson, D'Ailly, and other French re- 
 formers, called together Council after Council, and 
 made the most sincere and strenuous efforts to purify 
 the Church in head and members, but all their at- 
 tempts proved wholly abortive. Papal tyranny, 
 hierarchical assumptions, clerical immorality and all 
 other scandals and wrongs remained as dominant 
 and powerful as before. Germany had its reformers 
 previous to the Reformation, but not a trace of their 
 work survived to give encouragement or direction to 
 Luther. In the Low Countries, nearly a century be- 
 fore Luther noble men had denied the power of the 
 Pope and held out the torch of Evangelical light, but 
 all had again vanished in the surrounding darkness. 
 Of Wycliffe's movement in England it is doubtful 
 whether any germs remained to prove seed-corn for 
 the Reformation of the sixteenth century. Huss and 
 Jerome started a reformation in Bohemia which, in 
 its advocacy of justification by faith and the su- 
 premacy of the Scriptures has been very naturally 
 regarded as the precursor of the Lutheran Reforma- 
 tion, but soon after their leaders had attested their 
 
The Evangelical Lutheran Church. 
 
 79 
 
 faith at the stake their followers disintegrated into 
 factions, became a prey to fanaticism, were dispersed 
 by the civil authorities and afterwards disappeared 
 from history. 
 
 With all these examples of direful and distressing 
 failure staring him in the face, Luther resolutely and 
 without a conscious fear advanced to the attack of 
 the mightiest bulwarks of Rome, effected the libera- 
 
 LUTHERAN HOSPITAL, MILWAUKEE, WIS. 
 
 tion of the nations from its thraldom and proceeded 
 to build up a church without pope, bishop or priest, 
 tearing down and destroying every structure which 
 man had erected within the temple of the Most High. 
 He succeeds. His work stands. It dates a new 
 epoch not only in the Church but in the world. It 
 marks the birth of modern civilization. The Church 
 reformed abides. It survives the discomfiture of its 
 foes, the storms of succeeding social commotions, the 
 wrecks of time. 
 
80 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 Abraham Lincoln was wont to remark during the 
 darkest periods of the civil war, that it had always 
 been his object to find out on which side God is and 
 then to embrace that side, for that was the side 
 that would always win in the end. So in the 
 midst of the tumult created in Jerusalem by the 
 rapid spread of the gospel, there stood up a notable' 
 philosopher of the Pharisees and put in an eloquent 
 defense for the Apostles, closing with the earnest 
 charge to "refrain from these men and let them 
 alone, for if this council or this work be of man it 
 will come to naught. But if it be of God, ye cannot 
 overthrow it ; lest haply ye be found even to fight 
 against God." 
 
 That the Reformation was of God can be shown as 
 conclusively as that the material universe is the work- 
 manship of his hand. In nothing, however, is divine 
 interposition so conspicuous as in the protection 
 which marked its progress and the abiding success 
 by which it was crowned. "When He giveth quiet- 
 ness, who then can make trouble?" The battle-hymn 
 of the Reformation was the xlvi. Psalm, and it was 
 not an expression of the lips alone but an immovable 
 conviction among its adherents that "God was in the 
 midst of her; she shall not be moved: God shall 
 help her and that right early. The Lord of hosts is 
 with us, the God of Jacob is our refuge." 
 
 But why were success and victory given to Luther, 
 and withheld from other great and true men who had 
 conceived a similar undertaking at other times and in 
 other lands? The real answer to this inquiry is not 
 the extraordinary personality of the Reformer,, trans- 
 
The Evangelical Lutheran Church. 81 
 
 cendent and unapproachable as that is acknowledged 
 to have been, " a sort of inspired apostle and prophet,'' 
 who came to the stage of history for such a time as 
 this. Luther was human and had his full share of the 
 limitations and passions and weaknesses of his kind. 
 He was but an instrument. Nor is it sufficient to say 
 that the times were ripe, that the hour had come, for 
 this, after all, does not indicate what was the decisive 
 instrumentality which brought about the result. 
 
 Compare the revolution which triumphed under the 
 Lutheran Reformers with the endeavors made so 
 often in the same line by others, and the unique- 
 ness of their reform and the secret of its success 
 become manifest. The Paris Reformers, with all 
 their zeal and energy, directed their attacks against 
 the open and glaring scandals and the accursed op- 
 pressions which were festering in the Church, while 
 its falsified faith they had no idea of disturbing, and 
 the doctrine of gratuitous justification they did not 
 so much as understand. Savanorola was not content 
 to purge the Church and its faith, but must also 
 reconstruct the government of his country. Wyc- 
 liffe formulated a theological system and developed 
 philosophical speculations of interest to thinkers, but 
 he made no impression on the people, and by denying 
 the objective validity of the ordinances, he practically 
 rendered it impossible to establish a visible Church 
 or community. Huss, though giving greater empha- 
 sis than Wycliffe to justification by faith, yet fell 
 into his error of spiritualism, which made the Church 
 the totality of the predestinate and empowered only 
 the elect to administer the sacraments, thus vitiating 
 
82 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 the nature, the import and the office of the objective 
 Church. 
 
 From all these errors the Reformation under 
 Luther was providentially preserved. Taking as his 
 guide implicitly the divine Word and sternly exclud- 
 ing from the Church one by one the false ingredients 
 which could not endure its searching test, this great 
 mind was marvelously held back from those extremes 
 into which reformers and iconoclasts almost inevita- 
 bly plunge. He, too, was encompassed by these very 
 temptations. The same insidious tendencies, which 
 had wrecked previous efforts, were present and threat- 
 ened to weaken, to divert and to vitiate the reform ; 
 but Luther, like a rock in the sea, stood firm against 
 wind and tide from every quarter, and with the 
 Romanists on the right and the fanatics and anarch- 
 ists on the left he upheld the simple truth of God 
 without wavering and without compromise. 
 
 His own inclinations often prompted him to a more 
 radical course as, for instance, on the Lord's Supper, 
 where at first he was fain to deny an objective pres- 
 ence and to accept the symbolic view, but he had so 
 completely subjected himself to the Scriptures that 
 neither the inclinations of his heart nor the argu- 
 ments of his reason could be allowed to sway his con- 
 victions or to determine his conduct. 
 
 By his profound religious experience he had been 
 made to realize that justification by faith was the 
 central doctrine, and giving this its proper position 
 in the preaching of the Gospel, in the system of doc- 
 trine, and in the Confession of faith, making it the 
 doctrine of a standing or a falling Church, he was 
 
The Evangelical Lutheran Church. 83 
 
 able to steer clear of the dangerous snags and shoals 
 by which his course was beset, and by which so many 
 others had been shipwrecked. He not only had an 
 infallible compass, but he knew the polar star whose 
 long eclipse had led to many serious errors in the 
 Church, and he knew also its exact place in the sys- 
 tem, and thus the ship of Christ outrode the terrific 
 storms and billows which it encountered, 
 
 "In the middle of the Confession, as its construct- 
 ive center," says Thomasius, "is placed the Article 
 on Justification :"" It is further taught that we can- 
 not obtain the pardon of sins and righteousness 
 before God, by our own merits, works, or reparation, 
 but that we receive forgiveness of sins and become 
 righteous before God for Christ's sake, through the 
 faith that C^nst has suffered for us, and that for his 
 sake sins are remitted to us, righteousness and 
 eternal life gratuitously given. For this faith God 
 will impute for righteousness before Him, as Paul 
 declares in Romans iii and iv." Here is the secret of 
 the power and the success of the Lutheran Reforma- 
 tion. This was its battle-cry and this truth, the heart 
 of the gospel, made it invincible. Under this banner 
 the Evangelical Lutheran Church came into distinct- 
 ive being and Jesus Christ was lifted up as the 
 Savior of sinners. Men were everywhere drawn to 
 this uplifted Savior, and those so drawn were justified 
 from their sins, were quickened by the Holy Ghost, 
 and were united in a living communion with the real 
 and divine head of the Church. Thus united with 
 him and possessed of his Spirit they formed an 
 organic part of the body of Christ. They constituted 
 
84 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 a Church of the living God, a part of that great com- 
 munity of saints who, in all lands and all ages, agree 
 concerning the Gospel, and have the same Christ, the 
 same Holy Ghost, the same proclamation of grace and 
 the same sacraments. Not a single note of the true 
 Church is wanting, not a single element or part of 
 that building which, not made by hands but being 
 fitly framed together into Christ, "groweth unto a 
 holy temple in the Lord." And such was the power 
 of the spiritual life pulsating in this company of be- 
 lievers, that within the limits of a single generation it 
 so extended its borders as to embrace nearly all the 
 peoples of the Germanic race and the entire popula- 
 tion of Denmark, Sweden and Norway. 
 
 But while a new and fresh life was throbbing with- 
 in its bosom, it was not in any sense a new Church 
 which thus spread over Europe. Though it came to 
 bear the name of Luther its inception or genesis does 
 not date from the period of the Reformer's career. 
 The Evangelical Lutheran Church is the Christian 
 Church regenerated, renewed and reformed. It is in 
 all essentials a return to primitive Christianity, a 
 restoration of gospel teaching to its ascendency in 
 the house of the Lord, a reassertion of the principles 
 which marked the Church . in the days of her apos- 
 tolic purity, when she had the Gospel and the 
 Sacraments, but had neither pope nor priest within 
 her domain. The Church is not a body of officials 
 administering elaborate ceremonies and exercising 
 outward lordship over men's souls ; it is the com- 
 munity of believers in Christ, among whom the Gos- 
 pel is preached in its purity and the Sacraments 
 
The Evangelical Lutheran Church. 85 
 
 are administered according to divine appointment. 
 These and not the former are accordingly the stamp 
 of a church's legitimacy. And these treasures of 
 grace were committed, not to an order of ecclesiastics, 
 but to the whole Church, they are the common herit- 
 age of believers, the inalienable right of the body of 
 disciples. 
 
 A set of officials may gradually usurp the govern- 
 ment of a country, claim to be the lords of a nation 
 and possess themselves of its goods and its rights. 
 For a people to cast off such a usurpation, to assert 
 their inalienable privileges, to resume the control of 
 their property and their government, is not the ruin 
 of a country, nor indeed the creation of a new country, 
 but is simply freeing the land from its tyrants and 
 from the pernicious institutions which their unholy 
 and oppressive rule had imposed upon the people. 
 The Lutherans renounced the papacy, they cast off 
 its fetters, they overturned its ruinous ordinances and 
 with their hands thus freed they grasped the Bible, 
 they pronounced the historic creed, they clasped the 
 ancient faith, they held to the ministry of the Word 
 and Sacraments. And certainly such a departure from 
 the abominable corruptions which had been wickedly 
 brought into the Church, does not involve a depart- 
 ure from the Church itself. It is a return to the true 
 Church, the pure Church. It is a new birth within 
 the old Church, which depends for its life not on the 
 Pope nor any Episcopal administration or manip- 
 ulation, but upon Jesus Christ, the risen Savior, and 
 upon the Holy Ghost, "the Lord and giver of life." 
 
 What, can I not be a member of Christ's Church 
 
86 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 without belonging to the Pope's Church ? Is the 
 Latin Church the Universal Church? Is there not 
 also a Greek Church ? Can there be no German 
 Church, no English Church? Must the Bishop of 
 Rome have jurisdiction over all, a jurisdiction co- 
 extensive with the authority of Christ, and is 
 Romanism identical with the one holy Catholic 
 Church? God forbid ! The Scriptures, reason, his- 
 tory, heaven and earth unite in denying this blasphe- 
 mous assumption and with one voice declare that 
 Christ has a glorious dominion beyond the Roman 
 barriers. 
 
 Under that dominion falls the Evangelical Luth- 
 eran Church. She recognizesno other. "For one is 
 your master, even Christ ; and all ye are brethren." 
 As there is but one Master in the Church, so there is 
 but one Priest, a great High Priest that is passed into 
 heaven, Jesus the Son of God," "who through the 
 eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God," 
 and by this "one offering hath perfected forever them 
 that are sanctified." And taking his people into liv- 
 ing union with Himself he has made all of them 
 "priests of God and of Christ." He has constituted 
 them a universal priesthood, to offer thanksgiving 
 and intercession each in behalf of the other and in 
 behalf of all. And in the exercise of that authority 
 with which the Master has clothed his Church, and in 
 accordance with apostolic practice, as illustrated both 
 in the case of Matthias and in that of the seven 
 deacons, the calling and ordaining of men to admin- 
 ister the Word and Sacraments reverts once more 
 to the entire assembly of believers, to the body of 
 
The Evangelical Lutheran Church. 87 
 
 the Church. " Every Church has lawful authority to 
 ordain ministers for itself. For wherever the Church 
 is, there is verily the command to preach the Gospel. 
 Therefore, the churches undoubtedly retain the au- 
 thority to call, elect and ordain ministers. And this 
 authority is a privilege which God has given especi- 
 ally to the Church, and it cannot be taken away from 
 the Church by any human power, as Paul testifies, 
 Ephesians iv. where he says: 'When he ascended 
 up on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts 
 unto men.' And among these gifts which belong to 
 the Church, he enumerates pastors and teachers, and 
 adds that these were given for the edifying of the 
 body of Christ. Wherefore it follows that wherever 
 there is a true Church, there is also the power to 
 elect and ordain ministers." And whether this ordi- 
 nation or appointment be conducted through the 
 laying on of the hands of the presbytery or of a 
 single bishop, matters nothing at all, since the cere- 
 mony of ordination is nothing more than the minis- 
 ter's authorization, in the name of the Church, to 
 perform official functions. 
 
 Luther and his co-laborers accordingly did not frame 
 a new Church. They are not to be considered as 
 founders of a new Church, but, as they themselves uni- 
 formly claimed, "renewers of the old Church on the 
 ancient foundations." Christian institutions had fallen 
 into frightful decay, and the work of the Lutherans was 
 that of renovation and preservation. Under God 
 they saved the Church from threatened destruction. 
 The outward organization with its officials and cere- 
 monies which they renounced, is not the veritable 
 
88 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 kingdom of God. That cometh not by observation. 
 It is a spiritual body with spiritual functions. And 
 while its life-blood had become seriously tainted and 
 vitiated it still preserved the Vital elements of a 
 restorative reaction. It had not lost the inherent 
 capacity for self-purification. Its bosom still con- 
 tained the living power of truth. 
 
 Christianity is not a splendid hierarchy, nor is it 
 a code of priestly prescriptions, but the Gospel of 
 Salvation. This is its divine, imperishable essence. 
 Those are human and may pass away without any 
 hurt to the vitality or integrity of the body of Christ. 
 The former originated with the Lord himself and 
 was preached throughout the world by his Apostles; 
 the latter came in subsequent ages when the light of 
 the Scriptures had become obscured and men no 
 longer saw clearly the way of life. And they did 
 much to obstruct and corrupt the Gospel. What 
 was needed, therefore, to heal the hurt of the 
 daughter of Zion, was that this life-current, purified 
 and reinvigorated, circulate again through every 
 part of the organism, and in this way recover its 
 apostolic purity and vivific power. The Church 
 reappeared in its original form, in its native beauty. 
 It renewed its youth. And the Reformers as they wit- 
 nessed the triumph of their endeavors, may well have 
 challenged Christendom to show that a single mark 
 was wanting to make the Church as reformed by 
 them identical with the Church of the New Testa- 
 ment. They were permitted to realize the promise 
 of an abiding Spirit wherever the Gospel is preached. 
 
 There is, therefore, no pertinence in the sneering 
 
The Evangelical Lutheran Church. 89 
 
 question, Where was the Lutheran Church before the 
 Reformation? As well ask where were your hands 
 before you washed them ? Where was the wheat be- 
 fore it was threshed from the chaff? Where was the 
 Jewish Church between the fall of Jerusalem and the 
 edict of Cyrus? 
 
 Could Paul and Peter, the reputed founders of 
 the Church at Rome, have returned to it in the six- 
 teenth century, nothing short of a special revelation 
 from heaven could have made them recognize that 
 Church as identical with the Church which they had 
 planted. But had they entered a church of the Ref- 
 ormation they must have rejoiced to hear there the 
 very doctrines of grace which they had proclaimed, 
 to behold the simple observance of the same Sacra- 
 ments which they had celebrated, and to witness that 
 the Gospel from the lips of reformers, as it had been 
 from their own lips, was still the power of God unto 
 salvation to all them that believe. 
 
 The Evangelical Lutheran Church is therefore the 
 revival and the perpetuation of the Apostolic Church. 
 It is the Church of the Bible. Its roots stretch away 
 back into the New Testament. Thence it draws its 
 life. There it beholds its model, with which it stands 
 ready to be compared and tried by any competent 
 tribunal. And if it require any other warrant for its 
 existence, it is its supreme purpose to have the voice 
 of Christ and his Apostles re-echoed within its 
 walls, to countenance no other gospel than what they 
 proclaimed, and to submit to no other dominion over 
 the faith or the consciences of redeemed men. 
 
 It has given occasion for much regret that a body 
 
go 
 
 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 of Christians, bearing the unchallenged stamp of 
 Apostolic Christianity, and proving their identity 
 with it by "receiving nothing in doctrine or cere- 
 monials contrary to Scripture or to the Universal 
 ' Christian Church," should be designated by the name 
 
 I'RINITY LUTHERAN CHURCH, CANTON, OHIO. 
 
 of a man, and one at that whose great labors and 
 services for the Church were rendered fifteen hundred 
 years after its foundation. It seems to detract from 
 her glory, if not to discredit her legitimacy, or in some 
 quarters to impede her progress, as if her name 
 
The Evangelical Lutheran Ckurch. 91 
 
 pointed to a human originator, or as if Luther were 
 held in any other light than that of a mighty witness 
 for the truth. 
 
 Just how much there is in a name may be gathered 
 in part from the specious and lofty sounding titles 
 appropriated by certain religious organizations whose 
 errors, fanaticism and warfare upon the historic 
 denominations allow them a very dubious claim to 
 recognition as a part of the Christian Church. The 
 most sectarian of the sects, the bigots who manifest 
 a malicious hostility towards the great Christian com- 
 munities that have forages borne the indelible signa- 
 ture o f God, the multiplying divisions of narrow zealots 
 which form the greatest obstacle to the Church's 
 mission, arrogate to themselves such names as " Church 
 of God," "Disciples of Christ," "New Jerusalem," 
 " Christians," etc., as if they constituted the veritable 
 fold of the redeemed, while the most exclusive and 
 intolerant of all sects persists in holding on to the 
 glaring misnomer "Catholic." 
 
 It is not often that the representatives of a cause 
 are allowed to select the name for it, especially not 
 when such a cause is unpopular, and every new moral 
 movement is unpopular. Even the felicitous and 
 appropriate name of "Christians" came, no doubt, 
 at first from their enemies and by way of reproach. 
 "Methodists" was the expression of the prevailing 
 contempt which was directed against the earnest ritu- 
 alists and revivalists of the last century in England. 
 And so the Lutherans are not responsible for the 
 name which attaches to their Church. It was em- 
 ployed as a stigma by the malice of their enemies. 
 
92 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 The term was first used by Eck, when he published 
 the Bull against Luther. And afterwards all who fol- 
 lowed Luther in accenting the doctrines of the Gos- 
 pel and renouncing the supremacy of the Pope were 
 in derision called "Lutherans." Even where they 
 stood in remote connection with Luther's course or 
 departed widely from his most pronounced views, 
 wherever men turned away from priestly tutelage and 
 mediation to the free salvation offered in the Script- 
 ures, they were scorned and condemned as " Luther- 
 ans," just as in the previous century persons holding 
 similar views were branded as " Wycliffites " or "Huss- 
 ites." The reformers in England bore this title, so 
 did those in Holland and in France, and even papist- 
 ical Italy had its " Lutherans."" The saving doctrine," 
 says Melancthon, "the precious, Holy Gospel, they 
 call Lutheran." Little wonder then that they should 
 thus designate the Church he represented and guided. 
 What was originally meant as a designation of 
 reproach becomes a title of glory. The despised 
 "beggars" of Holland resolutely emblazoned this 
 epithet upon their banners and taught their haughty 
 oppressor that the "beggar" with God on his side is 
 more than a match for the wealth and power of Spain. 
 The Methodists reared an enduring monument from 
 the reproaches heaped upon them in the early days 
 of their movement. And though all who love the 
 Church that bears his honored name join with Luther 
 in disapproving of such a title, and protest against the 
 significance which such a designation was meant to 
 convey, as if Luther were in any sense either the 
 object or lord of their faith, yet if its repudiation im- 
 
The Evangelical Lutheran Church. 93 
 
 plies the rejection of what Luther maintained, the 
 way of salvation he proclaimed, the Scriptures he de- 
 fended, then will we glory in this word as indicating 
 and illustrating the most beneficent and far-reaching 
 advance that Christianity has witnessed since its first 
 planting by the Apostles. 
 
 The name has, it may be, become a historic neces- 
 sity. It must be tolerated "to avoid the misappre- 
 hension and confusion which would arise if it were 
 laid aside." "We do not call ourselves Lutherans," 
 says Gerhard, " but are so styled by our enemies, and 
 we permit it as a token of our consent with the pure 
 teaching of the Word which Luther set forth. We 
 suffer ourselves to bear his name, not as one who has 
 invented a new faith, but of one who has restored the 
 old, and purified the Church." Luther had mani- 
 festly received a mission from God to lead back the 
 Church into God's Word and to cleanse it from its 
 gross defilements and deformities. If this great work 
 and the purified and reformed Church which crowns 
 and perpetuates it, happen, by the logic of events, to 
 be called Lutheran, so be it, we are ashamed neither 
 of God's truth nor of his servant. But this in no 
 sense implies that this Church rests her faith on 
 Luther's authority. 
 
 "She has been known," says Dr. Krauth, "by vari- 
 ous titles, but her own earliest and strongest prefer- 
 ence was for the name Evangelical, and many of her 
 most devoted sons have insisted on giving her this 
 title without any addition. No title could more 
 strongly express her character, for pre-eminently is 
 her system one which announces the glad tidings of 
 
94 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 salvation, which excites a joyous trust in Christ as 
 a Savior, which makes the Word and Sacraments 
 bearers of saving grace. In no system is Christ so 
 much as in the Lutheran ; none exalts so much the 
 glory of his person, of his office, and of his work. 
 * * * The name Evangelical is now given, out of 
 the bounds of the Lutheran Church, to the Christian- 
 ity of the heart everywhere, to all that makes much of 
 Christ in the right way. Our Church to which it 
 belongs in the great historic sense, has a claim in her 
 actual life, second to none, to wear it. She is the 
 Evangelical Church." 
 
 In another connection the same author maintains: 
 -"Our Church is Reformed as against all corruptions; 
 Protestant as against the assertion of all false princi- 
 ples in Christian faith, life and church government; 
 Evangelical as against legalism and rationalism, 
 against all restricted atonement and arbitrary limita- 
 tion of God's love; and and by a historical necessity, 
 created not by herself but by her enemies, she is 
 Lutheran, over against all perversions, mutilations, 
 and misunderstandings of the Word under whatever 
 name they may come, though that name be Reformed, 
 Protestant, Evangelical, Catholic or Christian." 
 
 It was a common distinction during the Reforma- 
 tion, to speak of the Catholic and the Evangelical doc- 
 trine, and historians frequently retain this distinction. 
 All careful writers among Lutheran divines, let it be 
 noted, invariably employ the historic title of the 
 "Evangelical Lutheran Church." 
 
 Martin Luther holds, by universal recognition, the 
 position of the hero of the Reformation. A never-to- 
 
The Evangelical Lutheran Church. 95 
 
 be-forgotten testimony to this fact was witnessed by 
 the universal and enthusiastic commemoration of the 
 four hundreth anniversary of his birth, by the Protes- 
 tant world. The great revolution was, under God, 
 made conspicuously dependent upon his personal 
 action, and he rises incomparably above all the re- 
 formers of that or any other era, sustaining a respon- 
 sibility such as never before rested upon any other 
 man, and achieving triumphs absolutely without a 
 parallel. Yet the briefest sketch of the Lutheran 
 Church would be glaringly incomplete without some 
 allusion to the noble company of his coadjutors, a 
 circle of men whose attainments, character and serv- 
 ice would have rendered them illustrious at any time 
 and on any stage, and whose contributions to the 
 results of the Reformation are not obscured but 
 lighted up by the close and cordial relation they sus- 
 tained to their peerless leader. 
 
 Foremost in this galaxy stands Philip Melancthon, 
 the inseparable companion, the noble complement of 
 the great Reformer, a man small of stature but of 
 gigantic intellect, a child in simplicity and sweetness of 
 temper, but a master in theology. Learning was his 
 passion and he was proficient in the wisdom of Homer, 
 of Plato, of Cicero and of Pliny. His brilliant lectures 
 In the university were attended by fifteen hundred to 
 two thousand students and he was named the Preceptor 
 of Germany. Yet with all his literary attainments he 
 bowed with the docility of childhood to the Divine 
 Word and was himself so penetrated with the savor 
 of Christ that the sweet aroma exhaled from all his 
 writings. The amiability and refinement of his na- 
 
g6 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 ture.are reflected in all his theological productions, 
 which are marked with a grace and a perspicuity 
 which charm all readers and which attest the truth of 
 his own belief that retirement and silence furnish the 
 best opportunities for the illuminating action of the 
 Holy Spirit. From him we have the first Protestant 
 work on Systematic Theology, the Loci, and it was 
 his hand that penned the immortal Agustana, the 
 pioneer and the paragon of Protestant confessions. 
 Never did two hearts beat in fuller unison than those 
 of these two great men, the marked diversity in their 
 constitution harmonized into a perfect unity. 
 
 No one of his contemporaries or successors could 
 be so capable as was Luther himself of appreciating 
 the character and the merits of his accomplished 
 lieutenant and invaluable supporter. He estimated 
 him as an indispensable factor of the Reformation, 
 and he repeatedly thanked God for the gift of Me- 
 lancthon, and on the occasion of his extreme and des- 
 perate illness he offered for him the boldest and most 
 memorable prayer to be found in uninspired records. 
 "Melancthon is a wonder," says Luther: "All men 
 confess it. He is the most formidable enemy of 
 Satan and the schoolmen, for he knows their foolish- 
 ness and Christ the rock. The little Grecian sur- 
 passes me even in divinity ; he will be as serviceable 
 to you as many Luthers." " I prefer," said he on 
 another occasion, " Melancthon's books to my own 
 and would rather have them circulated than mine. I 
 was born to battle with conspirators and devils, there- 
 fore my books are more vehement and warlike. It is 
 my work to tear up the stumps and dead roots, to 
 
The Evangelical Lutheran Church. 97 
 
 clear away the briers, to fill up the marshes and pools. 
 I am the rough woodman who has to prepare the 
 way and smooth the road. But Philip advances 
 quietly and softly; he tills and plants the ground; 
 sows and waters it joyfully, according to the gifts 
 that God has given him with so liberal a hand." 
 
 During the long contest few men stood so near to 
 Luther as Nicholas Amsdorf, a man of illustrious 
 birth, of a sturdy personality, of an ardent, impetuous 
 temper, blended with a sincerity of mind, piety, 
 straightforwardness and courage that rendered him 
 infinitely dear to the Reformer. 
 
 The two mutually understood and loved each other 
 from the time they became colleagues in the Uni- 
 versity of Wittenberg, some years before the out- 
 break of the Reformation. Amsdorf was one of the 
 first to fall in line with the Reformer when he took 
 his decisive stand, possessing then already clear con- 
 victions concerning salvation through the unmerited, 
 gratuitous mercy of God, a heart aflame with love for 
 the truth and a firm faith in its invincible character 
 and perpetuity. It cost him comparatively little hesi- 
 tation to break absolutely with the Pope, and Rome 
 knew in reality no more decided or incisive opponent 
 than the man whom friend and foe called "a second 
 Luther." 
 
 The Reformer gratefully recognized in him as he 
 did in Melancthon a special gift of Providence for the 
 crisis. He regarded him as a born theologian and 
 reposed such boundless confidence in his character 
 and his opinions that he readily devolved on him the 
 responsibility of representing him on important pub- 
 
98 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 lie occasions, knowing with what blows he would 
 smite the papacy. In the event which seemed often 
 imminent, of himself being cut off, he reckoned Ams- 
 dorf among the faithful number of those who would 
 successfully maintain the contest with the enemies of 
 the gospel. Luther calls him "my special friend," and 
 it may be questioned whether any of his co-workers 
 shared his confidence so unqualifiedly. 
 
 The fact that with his independence of spirit and 
 bluntness of speech he did not hesitate to administer 
 reproof even to Luther himself when it was required,, 
 may have contributed momentum to the Reformer's 
 exalted estimation of this man. He was Luther's 
 companion to the Diet at Worms, never leaving his 
 side during that terrible ordeal. He was his confi- 
 dant in regard to the latter's capture and exile, and 
 was the preacher whom Luther desired to supply his 
 Wittenberg pulpit during the period of his absence. 
 The sphere of his reformatory labors was for a long 
 time the free and tumultuous city of Magdeburo-. 
 His services were, however, in demand in various 
 quarters of Germany, but he deferred to Luther's 
 judgment and remained at that post, while offers of 
 promotion to very lucrative positions under the hie- 
 rarchy he peremptorily spurned as incompatible with 
 his conscience. 
 
 The most influential co-laborer in the development 
 and spread of the Lutheran Reformation was, next 
 to Melancthon, undoubtedly Johann Bugenhagen, an- 
 other of those wonderfully constituted characters 
 whom natural endowments and providential training 
 had prepared for co-operation in the great work. 
 
The Evangelical Lutheran Church. 99 
 
 He sprang from a senatorial family, and was com- 
 monly named the Pommern, after his native country, 
 Pomerania. 
 
 From early childhood he was acquainted with the 
 Scriptures but, held under the spell which the legal- 
 ism and Pharisaism of Rome had cast over the 
 Church, he, like many of his day whose hearts were 
 groaning for the salvation of the gospel, was kept in 
 darkness until he heard Luther's proclamation of the 
 grace of God received through faith alone. He is 
 described as a charming and imposing personality, 
 blending in his character the virtues of gentleness 
 and firmness. By his knowledge of men and an ex- 
 tensive experience in various positions of responsi- 
 bility, he had gained clear conceptions of the circum- 
 stances and real needs of the people, and by his 
 humanistic education and his long career as a teacher 
 he had become such a master of philology as to afford 
 the most valuable assistance in the translation of the 
 Scriptures. Fleeing from the persecution of the 
 Catholics he took refuge at Wittenberg, immediately 
 won the confidence and esteem of Luther and Me- 
 lancthon, and was constrained to join the corps of 
 professors at the University. On seeing his exposi- 
 tion of the Psalms which he delivered shortly after,. 
 Luther enthusiastically pronounced him the first man 
 on earth who deserved to be called an expositor of 
 the Psalms. Declining the most inviting and splendid 
 ecclesiastical positions to which he was called from 
 time to time, he took a self-denying, energetic and 
 most important part in all the varied activities rend- 
 ered necessary for the reformation of the Church. 
 
st. Paul's German evangelical Lutheran church, Chicago, ill. 
 
The Evangelical Lutheran Church. iar 
 
 But his peculiar and pre-eminent qualification for 
 the Reformation lay in the sphere of administration- 
 He was the Reformer who knew how to give the new- 
 evangelical life in the Church an organic body, ta> 
 reconstruct the outward constitutional form in accord- 
 ance with the newly won principles. He has been 
 properly called "The Pastor" of the Reformation. 
 In England he would have been called "The Bishop'" 
 For thirty-six years he stood at the head of the 
 Wittenberg Parish, and was during a portion 
 of this period also General Superintendent of the 
 Electorate. 
 
 But his organizing faculty, so rare among a people 
 who had for ages been deprived of all share in the 
 government of the Church, was everywhere in demand, 
 and, obtaining leave of absence, he effected the organ- 
 ization of the Evangelical Church in Brunswick, in 
 Hamburg, Luebeck, and in his native Pomerania. He 
 also gave its constitution to the Church of Den- 
 mark, and with such admirable results that he is to 
 this day claimed by the Danes as the Reformer of 
 that country. On him devolved the honor of deliver- 
 ing the funeral sermon of Luther, but his emotion 
 rendered it often impossible to proceed, while yet he 
 comforted himself and the great throng of his hearers 
 that the doctrine of this precious man continued and 
 would abide forever. 
 
 One of the most faithful, zealous and worthy asso- 
 ciates of Luther in bringing a new spiritual life into> 
 the Church was Justus Jonas. He had, at an early 
 period in his career, been recognized by Erasmus as "a. 
 vessel chosen of God to glorify his Son Jesus Christ.'* 
 
102 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 He first met Luther as the latter was nearing Erfurt 
 on his famous journey to Worms, and exacted his 
 permission to accompany him to that den of lions. 
 From that time on till he watched over the death 
 struggle of the Reformer at Eisleben, the most inti- 
 mate relation and co-operation bound the two souls 
 together. 
 
 Jonas had for awhile followed the profession of 
 law and his experience as a jurist served him often in 
 good turn in the varied contests and negotiations 
 that form so large a part of Reformation history. 
 His regular official labors at Wittenberg were divided 
 between preaching and teaching theology, but like 
 his companions he was indefatigably occupied amid 
 the stirring scenes and countless problems of the 
 hour, and on each momentous public occasion, at 
 Worms, at Marburg, at Augsburg and, in 1538, at the 
 Frankfort Conference, Justus Jonas forms one of the 
 heroes of the imposing drama. 
 
 He rendered valuable services in the translation of 
 the Bible, and also translated a number of the most 
 important writings of Luther and Melancthon from 
 the Latin into German, and others from the German 
 into Latin. But his pre-eminent gift was that of elo- 
 quence "in speech and in writing." He was the orator 
 of the Reformation. "No preacher ever surpassed 
 him in the power of captivating his hearers." "Pome- 
 ranus is a critic," said Melancthon; "I am a dialecti- 
 cian, Jonas is an orator, from whose lips flow words 
 of wonderful beauty and an eloquence full of power." 
 
 A historian exclaims : " Divine Providence gathered 
 around Luther men who were destined to be the light 
 
The Evangelical Lutheran Church. 103 
 
 of Germany, Melancthon, Amsdorf, Bugenhagen and 
 Jonas." But a host of worthies are entitled in almost 
 equal measure with those spoken of, to rank among 
 the conspicuous gifts of Providence for the devel- 
 opment and maintenance of Luther's work. What 
 cause ever had, since the days of the Apostles, such 
 sturdy, stalwart, self-denying partisans ? 
 
 It is to be seriously regretted that space fails 
 here to speak of Spalatin, the pious scholar, the trusty, 
 sapient adviser of three Saxon electors, the intimate 
 friend of Luther and his immediate colleagues, the 
 courtier who, in his close relation to the sovereign, 
 and especially as the inter-mediary between Luther 
 and the elector Frederick, was able to exert an incal- 
 culable influence upon the Reformation, whose prin- 
 ciples he shared with his whole heart. 
 
 Of Myconius, the Reformer of Thuringia, the his- 
 torian of the Reformation, who had implored Tetzel 
 to grant him an Indulgence gratis, and who having, 
 like Luther, agonized for years in the struggle for 
 justification by means of penances and mortifications, 
 fell at last into despair over his salvation. From this 
 he was delivered by the proclamation of grace in the 
 ninety-five theses, and afterwards, often at the peril 
 of his life, he consecrated far and near all his powers 
 to the service of the Reformation. As theologian 
 he accompanied the embassy of the Elector to Henry 
 VIII, in 1538, for the furtherance of the Reformation 
 in England. He is always spoken of as " Luther's 
 friend." 
 
 Of Cruciger, one of the mildest and purest char- 
 acters that adorned the Evangelical revolution, who 
 
ro4 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 was won to it " quietly " at the Leipsic Disputation. 
 He was held in such esteem by Luther that the 
 latter had at one time fixed upon him as his successor 
 in the event of his decease. His knowledge of medi- 
 cine and of the natural sciences, as well as of He- 
 
 LUTHERAN HOSPITAL, JACKSONVILLE, ILL. 
 
 brew, proved of great service in the translation of 
 the Bible. 
 
 Of Brenz, the reformer of Wurtemburg, distin- 
 guished equally as an author, an organizer, an admin- 
 istrator, and a confessor who suffered for Lutheran 
 convictions. Of Osiander, Agricola, and Blaurer ; of 
 Frederick the Wise, John Frederick the Magnani- 
 mous, John the Constant, Ernest of Luneberg, Mar- 
 grave George of Brandenburg, Wolfgang, Prince of 
 Anhalt, Gustavus Vasa, and other great potentates, 
 men who counted not their lives dear, men who placed 
 
The Evangelical Lutheran Church. 105 
 
 their persons and property, their country and their 
 all in jeopardy for the Gospel, men so deeply pene- 
 trated by evangelical truth and so confident of its 
 triumph, that they rivalled the theologians and the 
 preachers in their zeal for its unhindered proclama- 
 tion among the people and for the renovation of 
 the Church. 
 
 On Melancthon objecting to his Elector signing 
 the Augsburg Confession lest it would involve him in 
 danger: "God forbid," he replied, "that I should be 
 excluded. I am resolved to do my duty without 
 being troubled about my crown. I desire to confess 
 the Lord. My Electoral hat and robes are not so 
 precious to me as the Cross of Jesus Christ." An- 
 other prince voicing his deep convictions declared: 
 "If the honor of my Lord Jesus requires it, I am 
 ready to leave my goods and life behind me." 
 "Rather would I renounce my subjects and my 
 states," exclaimed the prince of Anhalt, "rather would 
 I quit the country of my fathers, staff in hand ; rather 
 would I gain my bread by cleaning the shoes of 
 foreigners, than to receive any other doctrine than 
 that which is contained in the Confession." This is 
 the language, not of theologians, not of preachers 
 educated and trained, who had made a special or 
 professional study of the sacred science, but of po- 
 litical lords, of great men of the world, of princes 
 arid laymen, who felt that every precious interest was 
 involved in the restoration of the pure gospel. 
 
 The part enacted by the laity in the Reformation 
 would, indeed, make a large and telling volume, ac- 
 centing, as it would, the fact that this movement was 
 
106 The Ltitherans in America. 
 
 largely a revolt against the clerical order, a renun- 
 ciation of all priestly usurpations, and a return to 
 the simple constitution of the primitive church, which 
 knows of no essential distinction between clergy and 
 laity, but embraces all men in a Christian brother- 
 hood. And, excepting a few prominent leaders, who 
 like Luther had, under the old regime, taken orders, 
 the Reformation may justly be said to owe its success 
 mainly to an aroused, intelligent, and consecrated 
 laity. Luther, it is well-known, taught at an early 
 stage that even Christian women, and every one who 
 has been baptized, were, in truth, as much priests as 
 the pope, bishops and priests of the hierarchy, and 
 that men are "to put no faith in any other oracle 
 than the Holy Scriptures." 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE EARLIEST LUTHERANS IN AMERICA THE DUTCH. 
 
 TO the devout historian it was a notable coinci- 
 dence that just at the time that Martin 
 Luther was born into the world, Christopher 
 Columbus was seized with the conviction that Heaven 
 had commissioned him to discover a new world, and to 
 find a new domain for the Christian Church. It de- 
 volved upon him, he believed in his heart, to plant the 
 standard of the cross upon shores, concerning 
 whose existence men had then as little knowledge as 
 as they had of the possibility of a Church of Christ 
 outside the barriers of the Roman hierarchy. It was 
 in 1483, the year of Luther's birth, that the discoverer 
 of America found for the first time an opportunity of 
 laying his daring and visionary enterprise before a 
 European court. And nine years later, while Luther 
 was being taught in the schools of Mansfeldt the Ten 
 Commandments, the Apostles' Creed and the Lord's 
 Prayer, and was often unmercifully beaten by the 
 schoolmaster, Chistopher Columbus, after breaking 
 the silence of ages over the trackless waters, offers the 
 first Christian worship in this western world, falling 
 upon his knees, and with tears of joy, giving thanks to 
 God, kissing the new earth which He had given him, 
 and consecrating it to His glory by naming the first 
 islands discovered San Salvador and Santa Trinidata. 
 And just as all Europe is quaking from the commo- 
 tion which the revived faith of the Gospel had pro- 
 
 107 
 
io8 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 duced, Cortez is marching his little band of heroic 
 Spaniards into the gates of Mexico, overthrowing 
 the most powerful tribes of the Aborigines, and 
 opening the way for the conquest of the New World 
 by the Missionaries of the Cross. 
 
 But heaven could not consent that the debased 
 type of Christianity, which was represented by the 
 bigoted and cruel Spaniards, and which was about to 
 be overwhelmed in Europe by the outburst of a new 
 life in the Church, should appropriate this virgin soil. 
 This must be reserved for the spread and the sway of 
 a purer faith. The inestimable treasures of truth, 
 which had just been recovered from the debris of 
 ages, were destined to find here a theater for their 
 fullest expansion and for the unfolding of their 
 noblest products. What a miscarriage of history it 
 would have been, had a system, staggering under the 
 fatal blows of the manifest hand of Providence, seized 
 at the very crisis a new continent for its baleful tri- 
 umphs. God never meant America to become Roman 
 Catholic. This land was to be the home of the free. 
 That powerwhich has always been the enemyof free- 
 dom was not to acquire here an opportunity for strang- 
 ling the genius of liberty when it took refuge in this 
 western world. 
 
 The gospel, in the glorious revelation it makes of 
 the dignity of the human soul and the equality and 
 brotherhood of all men, is the mighty liberator, and 
 here it was foreordained to have a sphere, untram- 
 melled by chains or bars, for creating a nation of 
 freemen. It is from these shores that liberty is des- 
 tined to enlighten the world. Roman Catholic gov- 
 
The Earliest Lutherans hi America — The Dutch. 109 
 
 ernments, with their maritime ascendency at the time, 
 might serve as agents in the discovery and explora- 
 tion of this vast continent, they might open the way 
 across the sea for the grand march of colonization 
 and immigration, but the establishment of institu- 
 tions must be left to the hands of men who had 
 learned in the school of Luther, who had imbibed 
 the doctrines of the Reformation, and who knew 
 to lay- the foundations of a republic in which the 
 freedom of conscience and the rights of the indi- 
 vidual should be forever secure. An insolent and 
 infamous Pope, Alexander VI., by a solemn decree 
 gave, indeed, the whole New World to Spain, but 
 one greater than the Pope gave it to a people who 
 along with Luther had renounced all papal authority. 
 Alexander's infallibility must, about this time, have 
 been nodding. 
 
 It is certainly noteworthy that while for a period 
 of more than a hundred years after the discovery of 
 this continent, the Roman Catholics of Spain and 
 France and Portugal were planting their settlements 
 and missionary stations over a vast area, extending 
 from Florida to California, they were not permitted 
 by Providence to lay the foundation on which the 
 permanent institutions of a mighty Empire were to 
 be erected. Their ideas and principles so far from 
 leaving a permanent impress upon this country, con- 
 tributed so little to the formation of its government 
 that even the existence of these settlements is un- 
 known except to the student of history. 
 
 Speaking of the Spaniards Bryant, in his history, 
 remarks : " Fortunately for the progress of the human 
 
no The Lutherans in America. 
 
 race and the future history of North America, all 
 their efforts to gain a permanent foothold north of 
 the Gulf of Mexico were in the main unsuccessful." 
 And another eminent American historian, Dr. Dor- 
 chester, observes: "While thirst for gold, lust of 
 power and love of daring adventure served the provi- 
 dential purpose of opening the New World to papal 
 Europe, and Roman Catholic colonies were success- 
 fully planted in some portions, the territory- origi- 
 nally comprised within the United States was mysteri- 
 ously guarded and reserved for another — a prepared 
 people," — a people brought forth in the pangs of the 
 Reformation, possessed of new ideas and loftier aims 
 and intended by Providence to found in the New 
 World a great Christian Republic, one of the might- 
 iest agencies in human progress. 
 
 While the first Protestant colonists owed their re- 
 ligious faith and their convictions of civil polity to 
 the Lutheran Reformation, the true adherents of the 
 Lutheran Church could not, in the nature of things, 
 take the leading part in the early settlement of this 
 country. England and the Netherlands, and in some 
 measure Sweden, were in the seventeenth century the 
 only maritime nations among the Protestants of 
 Europe, the only powers, accordingly, that were pre- 
 pared to establish colonies beyond the sea. "The 
 Reformation," says Bancroft, "followed by collisions 
 between English Dissenters and the Anglican Hie- 
 rarchy colonized New England. The Reformation 
 emancipating the United Provinces, led to European 
 settlements on the Hudson." 
 
 But although debarred through lack of commercial 
 
The Earliest Lutherans in America — The Dutch. 1 1 1 
 
 equipments from having the ascendency in the origi- 
 nal colonization of America, it was in accordance 
 with the fitness of things that Lutherans should form 
 an element in some of the earliest Protestant settle- 
 ments. Providence has in many instances employed 
 them as the leaven where others held the more con- 
 spicuous place of the loaf. Their scriptural faith, 
 their intelligence, their industry, thrift and sturdy 
 moral principles constitute, it is well known, invalua- 
 ble factors in a liberal and prosperous state, and it 
 may be attributed to Providence that the earliest 
 settlement of Lutherans in this land is almost coinci- 
 dent with its permanent settlement. 
 
 The first representatives of the Lutheran Church 
 in this country came notably, not from Germany, the 
 home of Lutheranism, but from Holland, the land 
 which during the Reformation furnished the first mar- 
 tyrs for the evangelical faith, an event which called 
 forth Luther's well-known hymn " Ein neues Lied wir 
 heben an," said to have been his earliest hymno- 
 logical composition. Although the Reformation as- 
 sumed there at an early period an extreme Calvin- 
 istic type, prosperous congregations of Lutherans 
 maintained themselves in different parts of the 
 country, the strongest of them being the Church at 
 Amsterdam which afterward became "the foster- 
 mother of the Dutch Lutheran congregations in New 
 York and New Jersey." There is no evidence of 
 their suffering persecution from the State Church 
 prior to the rise of the Arminian party. From that 
 time on, although they had no sympathy with Armin- 
 ian doctrines, yet as they had along with their 
 
H2 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 brethren in other lands always stoutly repudiated the 
 extreme tenets of Calvinism, they became involved 
 in the bitter and relentless persecution of the Armin- 
 ians which followed the Synod of Dort in 1618. 
 Intolerance did not stop to make any distinctions 
 among the opponents of rigorous Calvinism, and 
 Lutherans fell a prey to the same religious fury which 
 beheaded a Barneveldt and imprisoned a Grotius. 
 
 To what extent their sufferings for conscience' sake 
 had a part in leading them to embark with others of 
 their countrymen for the New World is not known, 
 neither have we any evidence of opposition being 
 offered to their coming. It seems quite probable 
 that the religious oppressions as well as the political 
 commotions which held sway in their native land, 
 prompted them to go beyond the seas in quest of 
 peace and worldly prosperity, if not primarily for the 
 sake of religious freedom. Some of them appear, 
 at all events, to have come with the first Dutch colony 
 which in 1623 occupied Manhattan Island, the terri- 
 tory now comprised in the city of New York. 
 
 The prospect of commercial advantages had led 
 the Holland West India Company to found this 
 colony, and but little concern was consequently mani- 
 fested for the religious interests of the settlers. At 
 least five years elapsed before the first minister of 
 the Reformed Church, Jonas Michaelius, came over 
 and assumed pastoral care at New Amsterdam. 
 
 How early the Lutheran settlers took steps to or- 
 ganize a congregation or to celebrate worship accord- 
 ing to the order of their Church, cannot be clearly 
 determined, but when they moved to have the service 
 
The Earliest Lutherans in America — The Dutch. 113 
 
 of their own precious faith they at once encountered 
 strong and persistent opposition from the Reformed, 
 who represented the State Church of the fatherland. 
 
 I 
 
 o 
 a 
 
 < 
 
 a 
 
 j 
 o 
 o 
 a 
 u 
 
 
 o 
 
 a 
 
 a 
 
 And the first picture of Lutherans in America is that 
 of a noble band suffering persecution.. Lutherans in 
 the Netherlands having been the first Protestants to 
 
H4 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 obtain the crown of martyrdom, Lutherans from the 
 same country were now destined to be the first Prot- 
 estants in America to have the honor of suffering 
 solely for their religious opinions. For although the 
 English Calvinists in Massachusetts were engaged in 
 whipping and hanging Quakers and banishing Bap- 
 tists at the same time that the Dutch Calvinists were 
 fining and imprisoning Lutherans on the Hudson, it 
 is pretty clearly established now that Roger W illiams 
 Ann Hutchinson, and the Quakers generally, who 
 were so obnoxious to the Puritans, were not made to 
 suffer for their religious views so much as, for their 
 disturbance of civil order, their menace to the peace 
 and stability of the colony, their dangerous political 
 tenets and their wanton defiance of the constituted 
 civil authority. The Lutherans, on the other hand, 
 never in all history employed their religious teach- 
 ings for the subversion of government. They never 
 figured as political agitators, and the little band 
 on Manhattan Island sought only the enjoyment 
 of their spiritual rights under their own vine and 
 fig-tree. 
 
 The first distinct mention of the Lutherans at New 
 Amsterdam is from the pen of the Jesuit Missionary, 
 Jogues, whom the Dutch had rescued from captivity 
 among the Iroquois, and who spent the time from 
 August, 1642, to November, 1643, in tne colony. He 
 says: "No religion is publicly exercised but the Cal- 
 vinist, and orders are to admit none but Calvinists, 
 but this is not observed, for there are bcjide Calvin- 
 ists, in the colony, English Puritans, Lutherans, Ana- 
 baptists, here called Minists" (Mennonites). 
 
The Earliest Lutherans in ylmerica — The Dutch. 115 
 
 The opposition to Lutheran worship appears to 
 liave been for awhile not so inexorable as to drive 
 them from the colony or to prevent their assembling 
 in private dwellings where religious services after the 
 Lutheran form were conducted by one of their num- 
 ber. The little band in the wilderness, without 
 bishop or priest, formed with God's Word a true 
 Church of Christ. They had a bitter grievance in 
 connection with the baptism of their children. This 
 sacrament had ' to be administered by the Reformed 
 pastor who required of sponsors a profession of faith 
 which to a Lutheran conscience must have been, to 
 say the least, unsatisfactory and compromising. 
 
 The settlement of Rev. John Megapolensis as pas- 
 tor of the Reformed Church of New Amsterdam, in 
 1649, was the signal of more rigorous measures 
 against the Lutherans and all non-conformists. The 
 congregation considered itself capable of maintain- 
 ing a pastor and desired to call one from Holland, 
 formally petitioning Governor Stuyvesant for the 
 privilege of worshipping publicly in a church by them- 
 selves. The resistance offered by the Reformed pas- 
 tors against this petition was so strenuous, that the 
 Governor, who was himself a zealous Calvinist, re- 
 fused his permission " for the reason that he was 
 bound by his oath to tolerate openly no other re- 
 ligion than the Reformed." 
 
 The Lutherans hereupon addressed themselves to 
 the West India Company and to the Home Govern- 
 ment. The Reformed Pastors made a counter-ap- 
 peal to the Classis of Amsterdam, to which had been 
 entrusted the office of supervision of ecclesiastical 
 
n6 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 affairs in America, urging the dangerous conse- 
 quences of making such concessions to the Lutherans, 
 and entreating them to prevent their being made. It 
 would be a dangerous precedent. 
 
 The instructions which came from Holland in re- 
 sponse to these appeals, were " that they would encour- 
 age no other doctrine in New Netherlands than the 
 true Reformed." No violence, indeed, was sanctioned,, 
 but it was made incumbent on the Governor "to use 
 all moderate exertions to allure the Lutherans to the 
 Dutch Churches and to matriculate them in the Pub- 
 lic Reformed religion." The tolerance granted. them 
 in the fatherland is to be denied in free America, and 
 this document, bearing date February 26, 1654, ex- 
 presses the hope that the Reformed Religion would 
 now "be preserved and maintained without hinderance 
 from the Lutherans and other errors." 
 
 The Lutherans have somehow always been consid- 
 ered a "hinderance" by their sister churches. They 
 have always stood in their way. Their presence has 
 been dreaded as a menace to sectarian ascendency 
 and an obstruction to sacerdotal power. Their popu- 
 lar worship, their evangelical doctrine, their childlike 
 faith and spiritual freedom can never hope for a 
 welcome among those who are still partial to the 
 bonds of legalism and who look to works as well as 
 to faith as a condition to salvation. Standing mid- 
 way between the sensualizing ceremonials and dogmas 
 of Rome and the pronounced subjectivity of the Re- 
 formed system, a position rendered impregnable by 
 history as well as by the Scriptures, the Lutheran 
 Church is no more likely to command favor with the 
 
The Earliest Lutherans in America — The Dutch. 1 1 7 
 
 denominations of the Reformed type than with the 
 papal communion. Happily she has vitality enough 
 not to be dependent on this favor. Woe to her if 
 she ever courts it at the expense of her principles. 
 
 Sustained by the ecclesiastical authorities of the 
 mother country the Calvinist Governor of New- 
 Amsterdam and his intolerant preachers now resolved 
 on crushing out the Lutherans. Failing in the effort 
 "to allure" them into the Dutch churches, and by this 
 means to absorb them, as they had been instructed 
 by the Directors, they resolved that resort must be had 
 to penalties and imprisonments. Persecution must 
 be tried where persuasion failed. Parents were 
 henceforth required on presenting their children for 
 baptism to profess their belief in the doctrines of the 
 Synod of Dort, the most extreme deliverances ever 
 put forth by Calvinism, and they must even promise 
 to train up their children in the same — that is, to 
 teach their offspring tenets which in their hearts they 
 abhorred, knowing them to be contrary to the Gos- 
 pel. Rome never did greater violence to the con- 
 science, never showed stronger determination to force 
 ■error into the minds of the unwilling. Resistance to 
 these oppressive and sinful demands was followed by 
 arrest, by fines, and in default of payment the recu- 
 sants were thrown into prison. They must by force 
 be made to conform to Calvinism. 
 
 Steadfast in their convictions and with the courage 
 of martyrs the Lutherans persisted in having their 
 assemblies for worship, and as their numbers, in spite 
 of their persecutions, were continually increasing and 
 their spirit growing more resolute and defiant, the 
 
1 1 8 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 wrath of the Reformed Pastors became more bitter 
 and violent. They lodged complaint with the Gov- 
 ernor against their "Conventicles," as meetings for 
 worship not authorized by the government were then 
 called. Such meetings, they claimed, were sure to 
 breed disorder in Church and State, and they suc- 
 ceeded in having him issue a proclamation "for the 
 promotion of the -glory of God, the increase of the 
 Reformed Religion," etc., forbidding the holding of 
 conventicles not in harmony with the established 
 religion, as set forth by the Synod of Dort. A fine of 
 one hundred Flemish pounds was imposed for every 
 violation of this ordinance by the preaching of a ser- 
 mon, and twenty-five pounds on all persons guilty of 
 meeting in private dwellings for the purpose of wor- 
 shipping together. The penalty for preaching the Gos- 
 pel was accordingly one hundred pounds, the penalty 
 for hearing it twenty-five pounds. Lutheran services- 
 even in private houses were thus absolutely sup- 
 pressed. Mennonites and Quakers shared with Lu- 
 therans the honors and the horrors of these persecu- 
 tions, but the published placard at Albany (then 
 Beverswycke), specifically singled out the Lutheran 
 congregation there as the particular object of this 
 prohibition of worship. 
 
 The Lutheran people were not dismayed, nor dis- 
 posed to surrender their precious rights to worship 
 God according to the faith of their Church. They 
 now had recurrence to their brethren in Holland and 
 sought especially their intervention with the authori- 
 ties of the established Church, with the Directors of 
 the West India Company and with the States General, 
 
The Earliest Lutherans in America — The Dutch, i ig 
 
 in regard to their grievances, entreating that there 
 might be granted them, "the united members of the 
 Church of the unaltered Augsburg Confession," the 
 same tolerance and right of worship here which the 
 Lutherans enjoyed in Holland, and that an ordained 
 minister of their faith might be sent over " to instruct 
 them and take care of their souls." A more favora- 
 ble response was now vouchsafed. The " overprecise" 
 and oppressive measures of Stuyvesant were rebuked, 
 a more liberal policy was enjoined as being indeed 
 indispensable to the promotion of emigration. The 
 doctrine of the unaltered Augsburg Confession should 
 have the same toleration in the New Netherlands 
 which was accorded it in the fatherland and a pastor 
 for them, it was promised, would arrive the following 
 spring. After this these persecuted people certainly 
 had reason to hope that they would no longer be 
 denied the privileges of their religion, and in most 
 humble terms they implored Stuyvesant to allow 
 them at least the service of sacred reading and sing- 
 ing. But the Reformed pastors were only exaspera- 
 ted by the orders of the West India Company to 
 adopt a milder and more Christian course of conduct. 
 They were inexorable, and in defiance of these orders 
 secured the continuance of oppressive measures and 
 the further prohibition of conventicles until they 
 could once more communicate with the home author- 
 ities. . And they forthwith renewed their "importuni- 
 ties with their friends in the Classis of Amsterdam, to 
 save them from so terrible an evil as the establish- 
 ment of a Lutheran Church in the pious colony of 
 New Netherlands." 
 
WOMAN'S MEMORIAL LUTHERAN CHURCH, DENVER, COL. 
 
The Earliest Lutherans in America — The Dutch. 121 
 
 Notwithstanding the implacable and indefatigable 
 -opposition of the clerical bigots in New Amsterdam, 
 -and to their infinite chagrin and dismay, the long-suf- 
 fering Lutherans had in June, 1657, the inexpressible 
 joy of welcoming their promised pastor. It was the 
 Rev. John Ernest Goetwater, who was the first Luther- 
 ran minister to visit the banks of the Hudson. He 
 had been sent out by the Lutheran Consistory of 
 Amsterdam to minister to their suffering brethren in 
 the New Netherlands, two congregations having been 
 by this time organized, one at New Amsterdam 
 (New York), and one at Beverswycke (Albany). 
 
 The reception accorded by the civil and ecclesias- 
 tical authorities to this servant of Christ, coming into 
 this vas.t wilderness on the sole peaceful mission of 
 dispensing the Gospel to humble souls whose cry had 
 gone across the sea, was infamous not to say inhu- 
 man, and, even for that day, without the shadow ot an 
 excuse or extenuation. And it is strange that while 
 every popular history expatiates on the wrongs en- 
 sured by the Quakers and Baptists of Massachusetts 
 about this same time, so little reference is made to 
 the more cruel, unrelenting and utterly indefensible 
 persecutions inflicted upon the Lutherans on the Hud- 
 son. This anomaly may in a measure be accounted 
 for by the quiet patience with which, according to the 
 spirit of Christianity, they bore their sufferings, seek- 
 ing redress with the general government rather than 
 resorting to reckless agitation or revolution. 
 
 An impartial historian, O'Callaghan, gives the fol- 
 lowing account: "Religious excitement now took the 
 place of political. * * * The Dutch clergymen 
 
I2i The LiUherans in America. 
 
 immediately informed the authorities. Dominie Goet- 
 water was cited before them and forbidden to exer- 
 cise his calling. Messrs. Megapolensis and Drisius 
 demanded that he should he sent back to Holland in 
 the same ship in which he had arrived. He was 
 ordered to quit the province accordingly. Sickness,, 
 however, prevented his compliance with this harsh 
 and unchristian mandate. He was therefore put ' on 
 the limits of the city,' and finally forced to embark for 
 Holland," which decree went into execution October 
 16, the Lutherans protesting in vain. 
 
 Though not a.llowed to conduct any public services,, 
 the presence of a pastor for several months among 
 the distressed and desolate flock of Lutherans, must 
 have in various ways proved a blessing to them. It 
 is doubtful, as he was not allowed to exercise his call- 
 ing, whether he could even baptize their children, as- 
 the law required these to be presented by their pa- 
 rents in the Reformed Church, and he was closely 
 watched with the suspicion and fear bred of bigotry,, 
 yet he could not be prevented from visiting the peo- 
 ple at their homes, holding domestic worship with, 
 them and in personal ministrations offering them the-. 
 counsels and consolations of the Gospel. For even 
 this boon the hearts of Lutheran confessors would 
 feel unutterably grateful. 
 
 Their bitter persecutors were neither ashamed of 
 their heartless procedure, nor content with the suc- 
 cess of the efforts they had instigated to prevent the. 
 settlement of a Lutheran Pastor. An exulting report 
 of it must be forwarded to the home authorities. In 
 this they glory in their shame and gloat over the tri- 
 
The Earliest Lutherans in America — The Dutch. 123: 
 
 umph by which it was crowned at the hands of the 
 provincial government. No Lutheran minister should 
 be allowed to preach the faith of the Reformation 
 within the limits of their jurisdiction, nor even by 
 his presence to pollute this soil sacred to Calvinism. 
 This report, dated August 6, 1657, is preserved in. 
 Volume III. of the " Documentary History of New 
 York," pages 103-108, and is an interesting specimen 
 of the malignant spirit of persecution. It is addressed 
 to the Classis of Amsterdam, "fathers and brothers 
 in Christ Jesus." It acknowledges their fatherly care 
 "and the trouble taken by them to prevent the in- 
 juries which threaten this community from the en- 
 croachments of heretical spirits." "We being ani- 
 mated and cheered by your letters," it proceeds to 
 state, "hoped for the best, though dreading the worst, 
 which even now has arrived, to the especial discon- 
 tent and disapprobation of the congregation of this 
 place, yea of the whole land, even of the English." 
 "We have already the snake in our bosom."They cer- 
 tainly had not warmed it. ''We demanded also that. 
 the noble Lord's Regent should send the Lutheran 
 minister back in the same ship in which he arrived 
 * * * in order to put a stop to their work, which 
 they seemed disposed to push forward with a hard 
 Lutheran pate." To their credit be it recorded these 
 malign zealots had some appreciation of the qualities- 
 of a Lutheran head, which may have been one cause 
 of their consternation when a Lutheran minister set- 
 foot on Manhattan. 
 
 The Dutch West India Company, whatever may 
 have been its previous concessions or promises to the 
 
1 24 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 Lutherans, evidently approved of the expulsion of 
 Pastor Goetwater, and absorbed as they were in com- 
 mercial pursuits and caring little for the interests of 
 religion, they now declined to allow them any other 
 privileges beyond "permission for individuals to pray 
 and read the scriptures," — a slight improvement on 
 Romish persecution — and the pastors of the Reformed 
 were enjoined to so modify the baptismal formulary 
 as to remove the greatest grievance complained of by 
 the Lutherans, and to adopt in general a policy of 
 moderation so that they might in time be "gained 
 •over." The real ground of hostility to the Lutherans 
 was apparently the fact that they would not unite, 
 with the dominant Church, an objection to them that 
 has possibly not yet lost its force in some communi- 
 ties. Warning was, however, also given to these over- 
 zealous pastors that " if their present course were per- 
 sisted in, a separate Church must be allowed to the 
 Lutherans." 
 
 The death blow must have fallen upon the Lutheran 
 Church in New Netherlands, one would suppose, 
 when their pastor immediately upon his arrival was 
 forcibly driven from the country. But with an irre- 
 pressible faith and that " hard Lutheran pate " they 
 maintained some form of an organization despite the 
 severe disabilities and oppressions under which they 
 labored. In November, 1660, we read that "the 
 Lutherans were promoting a subscription for a cler- 
 gyman of their own." A petition addressed to Gov- 
 ernor Colden, in 1763, affirms that at the time New 
 Amsterdam passed under English control, in 1664, 
 "the Lutheran congregation was in organized exist- 
 
The Earliest Lutherans in America — The Dutch. 1 25, 
 
 ence and enjoyed the benefits of the terms of the 
 compact made," — a claim which was admitted by the: 
 Colonial authorities. They based upon this their 
 right to a charter and perfect toleration, in accord- 
 ance with the terms of capitulation made by the 
 English with the Dutch governor, whereby all their 
 religious privileges were guaranteed to the inhabit- 
 ants of the province. 
 
 The Directors of the West India Company, real- 
 izing that the oppressive measures which had been 
 employed were proving detrimental to the prosperity 
 of the colony, resolved in April, 1663, on pursuing a 
 more liberal and Christian policy. They adminis- 
 tered a severe rebuke to Stuyvesant for the violence 
 which had been offered to the consciences and rights. 
 of subjects in his colony and put an end once for alii 
 to persecution in New Netherland. About a year 
 after the arrival of this decree, a British fleet appeared 
 before New Amsterdam and the rule of the doughty 
 Knickerbocker himself, as well as of persecution, 
 came to a sudden termination. 
 
 It is the judgment of Dr. W. M. Reynolds that the 
 Lutherans proceeded with the erection of a house of 
 worship in 1663, immediately upon learning of the 
 changed policy of the Directors, but Dr. B. M. 
 Schmuckersays: " The first proof I have found of any 
 action connected with the erection of the first church 
 is in June, 1671, when certain dissatisfied members 
 were compelled to pay subscriptions made for that 
 purpose." These subscriptions, it is more than likely 
 had been made some years previous, the protracted 
 delay quite naturally giving rise to dissatisfaction. 
 
126 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 Whenever it was built, this first church stood, for 
 some reason, "on ground without the gate of the city" 
 and, of a piece with the singular succession of adver- 
 sities which so long harrassed and tried the Lutheran 
 Church in New York city, there came subsequently, 
 during the brief restoration of the power of Holland, 
 1673-74, an order from Governor Colve that it must 
 be torn down. The pretext offered for this destruc- 
 tion was that this building along with some others 
 outside the wall interfered with the necessary de- 
 fences of the place, and this plea would, perhaps, not 
 be disputed, but for the inflexible hostility which the 
 Reformed colonists had for half a century borne to 
 their Lutheran brethren. The property so destroyed 
 was to be valued by impartial persons, lots of equal 
 value within the city were to be conveyed to the 
 owners, and reimbursement allowed for the loss of 
 buildings. Of the exact location of this first church 
 no evidence is to be found. 
 
 Soon after the whole colony had passed into the 
 hands of the English government, application was 
 made by the Lutherans to Colonel Nicholls, the gov- 
 ernor, for permission to call a minister of their Con- 
 fession from Europe, which application was promptly 
 granted "by an act under his hand and seal." The 
 successor of Nicholls, Lord Lovelace, made subse- 
 quently public proclamation that James, the Duke of 
 York, had communicated to him by letter his pleas- 
 ure that the Lutherans should be tolerated, but added 
 .also "as long as his Royal Highness shall not order 
 otherwise." 
 
 For some reason, unknown to us, a number of 
 
The Earliest Lutherans in America — The Dutch. 127 
 
 Dutch Lutherans saw fit to withdraw from Manhat- 
 tan Island, shortly after it passed under the govern- 
 ment of the British, and they formed a settlement on 
 James Island, southwest of the Ashley River, in South 
 Carolina. They were at that time the only adherents 
 of the Lutheran Church in the Carolinas. Their in- 
 dustry is said to have triumphed over incredible hard- 
 ships, but of their spiritual progress nothing is known 
 beyond their sturdy protest against the impious and 
 impudent bigotry, which in 1704, established the 
 Church of England in the two Carolinas and provided 
 for its support from the public treasury. The shame- 
 less injustice of such legislation, when the Episco- 
 palians had but a single church in the province, while 
 the " Dissenters " had three in Charleston and one in 
 the country, was resented by the people of other 
 creeds, and they made common cause in endeavoring 
 to obtain its repeal, the Lutherans bravely uniting in 
 transmitting a statement of their grievances to the 
 Lords-proprietors. 
 
 The Lutherans of New York, having obtained from 
 the newly established English authorities permission 
 to call a preacher of their faith, they forwarded 
 their petition to the Classis of Amsterdam — the Dutch 
 being still the dominant party in the congregation, 
 though Lutherans from other countries had in the 
 meantime united with it, — but four long and gloomy 
 years were yet to pass by before their earnest en- 
 treaties for a shepherd were granted. 
 
 And when, at last, in 1668, more than forty years after 
 the first Lutherans had settled in New York, and ten 
 years after the banishment of Rev. Goetwater, they 
 
128 
 
 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 were to see their petitions granted and their hopes- 
 realized, they alas ! found the fruit of all their efforts 
 to be like the apples of Sodom, a most grievous 
 
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 disappointment. A more unhappy selection could 
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 Consistory must have been ignorant not only of the: 
 
The Earliest Lutherans in America — The Dutch. 129 
 
 peculiar requirements of the situation in this New- 
 World, but they must have been totally unacquainted 
 with the character of the man whom they commis- 
 sioned. It would have been a sad day for the the 
 early Christian Church, if the congregation at An- 
 tioch had made a similar mistake when they sent 
 forth Barnabas and Saul on the mission to the Gen- 
 tiles. The man's name was Jacob Fabricius. He was 
 a sorry excuse for the spiritual head of a congrega- 
 tion that had languished so long without pastoral 
 oversight, and had suffered so much from adversity 
 and persecution. He proved to be utterly unadapted 
 to the position. 
 
 He had received university training and was a man 
 of uncommon talents and eloquent as a preacher. 
 But he was of a haughty and violent temper, had 
 neither tact nor prudence, and, saddest of all, was a 
 victim of intemperance. 
 
 At Albany, where, as well as in New York, Governor 
 Lovelace had given him permission to exercise his 
 office, he became seriously involved with the civil 
 authorities and also with his congregation. Refus- 
 ing to sanction civil marriage, which was at that time 
 the law of the province, he proceded, whether from 
 conscience or from covetousness, to impose a fine of 
 one thousand rix dollars upon one of his members 
 whose marriage had been solemnized by a civil offi- 
 cial. The party complaining to the governor, the 
 latter suspended the arbitrary preacher from his func- 
 tions in Albany for one year, allowing him still to 
 continue his ministrations in New York, though in 
 
130 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 the course of another year he was there also author- 
 ized to preach his farewell sermon. 
 
 The work of erecting a church building in the latter 
 place, which had been inaugurated prior to his com- 
 ing, received at first, naturally, quite an impetus from 
 his presence, but he soon became an element of dis- 
 cord in the congregation and his offensive, domineer- 
 ing, behavior threw everything into confusion. The 
 people became so much dissatisfied that they not 
 only refused to contribute to his support but they even 
 declined to pay their subscriptions to the building of 
 the church. The civil authorities had to be invoked 
 and it was ordered by the magistrates, that the sub- 
 scriptions made for the church building and those for 
 the salary of the pastor should be paid "up to the 
 time of their late public disagreement." Compliance 
 with this order was of course inevitable, but shortly 
 afterward certain members of the church, doubtless 
 its trustees or office bearers, petitioned the governor 
 to have their accounts settled, adding that they wished 
 to have nothing more to do with the pastor Fabricius. 
 His brief and most unfortunate pastorate came to an 
 abrupt close on August 11, 1671. 
 
 Surely God must have watched over this strait- 
 ened and struggling little band holding to the faith of 
 the Augsburg Confession, or the infant would cer- 
 tainly have been strangled in its cradle. Cast down 
 but not in despair the congregation proceeded to peti- 
 tion for a new pastor, and to their heartfelt joy they 
 were in a short period permitted to greet him wel- 
 come. His name was Rev. Bernardus Antonius Aren- 
 sius. He is described as "a gentle personage, and of 
 
The Earliest Lutherans in America — The Dutch. 131 
 
 a very agreeable behavior," the exact reverse of his 
 predecessor. It is not known by whose authority he 
 was sent across, nor is the date of his arrival settled, 
 but as the same order of Governor Lovelace which 
 granted permission to Fabricius to preach his fare- 
 well sermon empowered him also "to instal the new- 
 come minister, according to the custom used by those 
 of their religion," he must presumably have arrived 
 shortly before that date. 
 
 He served the congregation at Albany as well as 
 the one in New York. But his career was of that 
 peaceable, noiseless tenor which seldom attracts the 
 attention of the historian, and hence but few notices 
 of this servant of God appear in the contemporary 
 records. Governor Dongan's report of the state of 
 the province, April 13, 1687, mentions a Dutch Luth- 
 eran among the ministers then living in New York, 
 and the editor of the Historical Documents, III., 
 page 41 5, speaks in a note of Rev. Bernardus Arsenius 
 who "succeeded Dominie Fabricius and was minister 
 of the Church in 1688." 
 
 What the membership of his two congregations 
 numbered is nowhere reported, but from a letter dated 
 September 28, 171 5, and written by one of his succes- 
 sors, Rev. Justus Falckner, we learn that at that time 
 four small congregations existed in the province of 
 New York, " and all these four consist in all of about 
 one hundred constant communicants, besides strangers 
 going and coming in the city of New York." The 
 second church was erected in 1684, on the corner of 
 Broadway and Rector Street, on the lot which had 
 been allotted for this purpose by Governor Colve, in 
 
132 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 lieu of the one on which the first Church had stood 
 without the wall. 
 
 How long Pastor Arensius continued to live and 
 minister to these congregations has not, up to this 
 time, been ascertained, but as there is no trace of the 
 presence of any other Lutheran minister in the prov- 
 ince prior to the year 1700, it is probable that he 
 continued until about the close of the century. He 
 was succeded for a short period by the Rev. Andrew 
 Rudman, Provost of the Swedish Churches on the 
 Delaware, but this calls our attention to a settle- 
 ment of Lutherans in another section, who came from 
 a different country, and whose early history is irradi- 
 ated with brighter scenes than those through which 
 the devoted band in New York was called to pass. 
 
GUSTAVUS ADOtPHIIS. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE EARLIEST LUTHERANS IN AMERICA THE SWEDES. 
 
 IN the seventeenth century the eyes of all Europe 
 were fixed upon this continent. Its rulers, in 
 particular, cast longing glances toward these 
 shores as offering extraordinary openings for colonial 
 enterprise and commercial interests. None of them 
 had a clearer and fuller appreciation of this prospect 
 than the illustrious hero and martyr of Lutheranism, 
 Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden, whose hardy 
 and adventurous kinsmen were the first- to discover 
 America five hundred years in advance of the Spanish 
 and English navigators, and whose subjects could still 
 rove the seas. The intuitions of his far-seeing and 
 comprehensive genius, one of the foremost of his time, 
 were quick to recognize the advantages offered here 
 by climate, soil and other natural resources for the es- 
 tablishment of colonies, and promptly devised and 
 developed a scheme, which contemplated an extensive 
 emigration from the different countries of Europe. 
 
 The primary consideration which moved the royal 
 heart to this broad and bold undertaking, was the 
 planting of the Christian religion among the wild in- 
 habitants of the country. While it was proposed, as 
 with prophetic eye, to provide an asylum for the de- 
 fenseless of every land, and particularly to promote 
 the common interests of the Protestant world ; while 
 the commercial interests of his subjects and the exten- 
 sion of his power were elements inherent in the pur- 
 
 133 
 
134 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 pose of the king, the movement was inspired by Chris- 
 tian zeal and Christian humanity. 
 
 Preparations on a wide scale for carrying out this 
 project were at once set on foot. All classes — the 
 royal family, the nobles, the military chieftains, the 
 clergy, and the people generally, caught the enthu- 
 siasm. The Estates in the year 1627 gave their ap- 
 proval to the measure and perfected its plans ; an 
 admiral with a number of officials and a body of 
 soldiers was charged with the execution of the enter- 
 prise. 
 
 Just at this juncture the genius and devotion of 
 Gustavus were imperatively demanded on another 
 stage. The very life of that Protestantism, which was 
 so dear to his heart, was in danger on the continent, 
 and the peaceful purpose of Christianizing America 
 had to be suspended, in order to save evangelical 
 Christianity in its home. The Thirty Years' War was 
 raging, and the great Lutheran King, constrained by 
 sympathy for his suffering brethren and zeal for the 
 faith of Luther, carried his legions across the Baltic, 
 stayed the tide of Catholic victory, and by pouring 
 out his life's blood on the field of Liitzen in 1632 be- 
 came the savior of Germany, and preserved the fruits 
 of the Reformation to posterity. 
 
 The American project had taken such hold of the 
 Swedes, that although the original undertaking had to 
 be foregone, it was one of those conceptions which do 
 not die with their author. In fact, amid the fury and 
 storm of the terrible war in which he was engaged, the 
 king, himself, never abandoned or forgot his purpose. 
 Only a few days before that glorious victory at Lutzen 
 
The Earliest Lutherans in America — The Swedes. 135 
 
 he recommended to the people of Germany the colo- 
 nial project, which he still regarded as "the jewel of 
 his kingdom." His enlightened and famous Chancel- 
 lor Oxenstiern, who ruled the country during the 
 minority of Queen Christina, keenly appreciated the 
 wisdom of the king's original design, and earnestly set 
 to work to prosecute the measure for a colony, "with 
 the intelligence of a statesman and the zeal of a 
 Christian." 
 
 A ship of war and another s*maller vessel, laden 
 with people, with provisions, with merchandise for 
 traffic with the Indians, and with manuals of devotion 
 and instruction in their holy faith, set sail in 
 August, 1637, to found a New Sweden on the banks 
 of the Delaware. The Rev. Reorus Torkillus accom- 
 panied the colony as pastor. They landed early in 1638, 
 near Cape Henlopen, in the neighborhood of what is 
 now Lewes, in the State of Delaware. 
 
 Land was immediately purchased from the Indians, 
 who were regarded as the proper owners and posses- 
 sors of the country, and one of the first houses erected 
 after the fort was the church, which was inclosed by the 
 same walls, both church and fort being rude structures 
 and very properly combined into one fortress, a place 
 of defense against both the foes of the body and those 
 of the soul. This was the first Evangelical Lutheran 
 Church erected on > this continent. The fort was 
 called Christina, after the virgin Queen, who reigned 
 at the time over Sweden. The land occupied lay on 
 the western side of the river, extending from the mouth 
 of the Delaware Bay to the Falls of Trenton, and "was 
 ceded to the Swedish crown forever." Later, by pur- 
 
136 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 chase and by treaty, the boundaries of this tract were 
 expanded westward to the great Falls of the Susque- 
 hanna, near York Haven, so that they embraced the 
 present State of Delaware and a large portion of 
 Southeastern Pennsylvania. A formal deed was drawn 
 up and signed by the hands and marks of the natives. 
 It was written in Dutch, because no Swede was yet 
 able to interpret the language of the heathen. 
 
 Thus, nearly fifty years before the historic treaty made 
 by William Pennwi'th the Indians under the Shaka- 
 maxon elm, the Swedish Lutherans had made honora- 
 ble purchase of their lands from " the lords of the 
 country," and it is making a modest but just claim to 
 maintain that the friendly attitude of the savages 
 toward William Penn, was in great measure due to the 
 Christian labors and exemplary lives of pious Luth- 
 erans, who for nearly half a century previous had been 
 teaching and practicing among them the righteous 
 principles and the brotherly love of the Gospel, 
 in close proximity to the very spot laid out by 
 Penn for his right-angled city. A strong bond of 
 sympathy had been formed at an early day between 
 the Swedes and the Indians, and these cordial rela- 
 tions which were never interrupted, proved very 
 effectual in subduing the passions and conciliating 
 the feelings of the savages. Thus to the Lutheran 
 Church " belonged the part of pioneer in the manage- 
 ment of a treaty which, for its purity and integrity has, 
 above all others, a world-wide and everlasting fame." 
 
 Finding the Dutch laying claim to all the land be- 
 tween the Delaware and their city of New Amsterdam, 
 the Swedes confined their settlement to the west side 
 
The Earliest Lutherans in America — The Swedes. 137 
 
 of the river. The Dutch, evidently afraid of being 
 crowded, raised objections even to their occupancy of 
 the west bank. These greedy Hollanders, who had 
 never purchased a square yard of the land, and who 
 bore no special love for Lutherans, claimed the whole 
 river, claimed pretty much everything, and they made 
 a wordy protest against " the Swedes building forts 
 upon our rivers and coasts and settling people on the 
 land," threatening to protect their rights " in such 
 manner as we may find most advisable." In those 
 days it has been expressively observed " the times 
 gave him the best right who had the most strength." 
 
 A second company of emigrants from Sweden with 
 Lieut. Col. John Printz, under appointment as Gover- 
 nor of New Sweden, and Magister John Campanius 
 (Holm) as Government Chaplain and pastor of the 
 congregation, came over in 1642. Three vessels con- 
 veyed the heroic and devout band, and it required six 
 months to make the voyage. These were shortly suc- 
 ceeded by other ships carrying additional people and 
 valuable freight, each new company of emigrants 
 bringing additional clergymen. The colony soon en- 
 joyed a high degree of prosperity. The banks of the 
 Delaware were dotted with pleasant hamlets. The 
 people were happy, intelligent and virtuous. They 
 were animated by the spirit of their holy religion, not 
 by the spirit of adventure or the lust for gain. 
 
 The planting of the Christian Church was, as we 
 have seen, the first object contemplated by Gustavus 
 Adolphus. How prominent the religious interest and 
 consideration for the heathen continued in the coun- 
 sels of those who ultimately carried his project into 
 
138 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 execution, may be seen in the instructions given by 
 the Swedish Council of State to Governor Printz : 
 
 "The wild nations the Governor shall understand 
 how to treat with all humanity and respect, that no 
 violence or wrong be done to them by her Royal 
 Majesty or her subjects ; but he shall rather, at every 
 opportunity, exert himself, that the same wild people 
 may gradually be instructed in the truths and worship 
 of the Christian religion, and in other ways brought 
 to civilization and good government, and in this man- 
 ner properly guided." 
 
 That the Swedish statesmen and the colonists 
 whom they sent to these shores, were not wholly in- 
 sensible to motives of worldly policy, is seen from the 
 charge given thelatterto "allow the wild people to ob- 
 tain such things as they need at a price somewhat more 
 moderate than they are getting them of the Hollanders 
 at Fort Nassau, or the adjacent English, so that said 
 wild people may be withdrawn from them, and be so 
 much the more won to our people." 
 
 " Above all things," says section 26 of the Council's 
 instruction, " shall the Governor consider and see to 
 it that a true and due worship, becoming honor, laud 
 and praise be paid to the Most High God in all 
 things, and to that end all proper care shall be 
 taken that divine service be zealously performed ac- 
 cording to the Unaltered Augsburg Confession, the 
 Council of Upsala and the ceremonies of the Swedish 
 Church, and all persons, but especially the young, 
 shall be duly instructed in the articles of the Christian 
 faith ; and all good Church discipline shall, in like 
 manner, be duly exercised and received." 
 
The Earliest Lutherans in America — The Swedes. 139 
 
 The famous compact drawn up in the "Mayflower" 
 may have "borne the germs of the republican institu- 
 tions of the United States," but as a charter of relig- 
 ious principles it admits of no comparison with this. 
 That contemplated a state, as in fact those Puritans 
 were political agitators quite as much as they were 
 religious zealots. Here is a body of Lutherans per- 
 fectly content with the civil power to which they were 
 subject, but contemplating primarily a missionary 
 movement, the establishment of the Church of God 
 
 FIRST LUTHERAN CHURCH, PHILADELPHIA. BUILT A. D., 1669. 
 
 among the heathen by the colonization among them 
 of a Christian people. And the Lutherans may hon- 
 estly claim the glory of being the first Protestants to 
 settle in the unpruned forests of America impelled 
 by the missionary idea as the chief inspiring cause. 
 
 And so they were undoubtedly the first to advance 
 here the principle of religious tolerance. These 
 same instructions, given at Stockholm, August 15, 1642, 
 declare : " So far as relates to the Holland colonists that 
 
140 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 live and settle under the government of her Royal 
 Majesty and the Swedish crown, the governor shall 
 not disturb them, in the indulgence granted them as 
 to the exercise of the Reformed religion." 
 
 This has a ring somewhat different from the pro- 
 ceedings of the Dutch Calvinists in New Amsterdam, 
 who, as noticed in the previous chapter, a few years 
 later, resorted to fines, whippings and imprisonments 
 for the suppression of the Lutheran Church. That 
 these liberal instructions were faithfully carried out 
 by the colonists we have every reason to believe. 
 
 Pastor Campanius, who arrived with the second 
 colony, labored not only with enlightened zeal and 
 marked efficiency over the little congregation with 
 whose spiritual oversight he was charged, but he took 
 a deep Christian interest in the welfare of the natives. 
 He maintained "a constant intercourse with the wild 
 people," and applied himself eagerly to the mastery of 
 their language, for which his scientific attainments 
 stood him in good stead, in the hope that he might 
 thus be able to proclaim in their own tongue the won- 
 derful works of God. 
 
 "His intimacy with the neighboring tribes and their 
 several chiefs was promoted by the successive gov- 
 ernors of the colony; and with the simplicity and 
 tenderness of one who is dealing with babes, he un- 
 folded before them the great mystery of the Gospel," 
 and succeeded by patient assiduity in making them 
 understand many of its cardinal truths. 
 
 If these missionary efforts of Campanius did not 
 precede those of Eliot in Roxbury, they were at least 
 contemporaneous with them, and Lutherans share the 
 
The Earliest Lutherans in America — The Swedes. 141 
 
 glory of being among the first Protestant missionaries 
 to the Indians. Certainly in Pennsylvania they were 
 the first; and before any literary undertaking of the 
 kind received attention elsewhere, Campanius con- 
 ceived the difficult task of translating Luther's Small 
 Catechism into the Delaware language. Through 
 some unaccountable delay in the printing of this work 
 at Upsala, it did not appear until some time after the 
 publication, in 1661, of Eliot's translation of the New 
 Testament into the Mohegan dialect; but the work of 
 translating preceded it by some ten or fifteen years, 
 and the inimitable Catechism of the Lutheran Church 
 was beyond question the first Protestant book to be 
 translated into a heathen tongue. 
 
 Unhappily, the gathering of the natives into the 
 Christian fold, which had been commenced so zeal- 
 ously and so wisely, was destined soon to be checked 
 by great trials, and the little bands of Lutherans had 
 to experience bitter destitution and overwhelming 
 calamities. 
 
 The first minister, Torkillus, ended his life at Fort 
 Christina (Wilmington, Del.), September 7th, 1643, 
 shortly after the arrival of Pastor Campanius. The 
 latter departed from New Sweden in May, 1648. The 
 Rev. Israel Holgh and the Rev. Peter came over 
 some years later; but their stay was evidently brief, 
 since the home authorities followed the unwise policy 
 of recalling, after a few years' service, the devoted 
 servants of the Church, who had labored here among 
 the aborigines as well as among the settlers, so that, 
 while at times these colonial communities enjoyed the 
 ministrations of two pastors, they often for a consid- 
 
142 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 erable while were left without any. Of the four 
 who succeeded Pastor Torkillus, the Rev. Lars Lock 
 (Lockenius) was the only one who remained in the 
 country till his death, which occurred in 1688. For 
 the period of twenty-two years he labored alone 
 among these people scattered through the wilderness, 
 preaching at Fort Christina and at Tenacon (Tini- 
 cum), twelve miles below Philadelphia, where a second 
 church, "a handsome wooden building," had been 
 erected shortly after the arrival of Governor Printz, 
 who fixed his residence in that locality. Of this pas- 
 tor it is said that he was "certainly an instrument in 
 the hands of God for sustaining these Swedish 
 churches /or so long a time." The Tenacon Church 
 consecrated in 1646, in what is now Delaware County, 
 was the first Evangelical Lutheran house of worship 
 in Pennsylvania. 
 
 Most unfortunately for the interests of these first 
 Lutheran churches in America, the encroaching and 
 more powerful Dutch in New Amsterdam succeeded in 
 the conquest of the colony in the year 1655 — less than 
 twenty years after the first settlement. The Swedish 
 Governor was expelled from the country, the people 
 passed under the control of the Dutch, much of their 
 property was taken from them, the principle men and 
 families were violently removed, intercourse with the 
 mother country was entirely broken off, and the little 
 congregations on the Delaware were left in complete 
 isolation. Bringing with them the same intolerance 
 which would allow no Lutheran worship in New Am- 
 sterdam, these Dutch conquerors managed to have 
 two of the pastors at once sent out of the country 
 
The Earliest Lutherans in America — The Swedes 143 
 
 with the Swedish garrison, the third one, Pastor 
 Lock, being permitted to remain according to the 
 articles of capitulation, but to the great disgust of 
 Dominie Megapolensis, the Dutch Reformed pastor 
 at Manhattan. 
 
 Not knowing that their countrymen and brethren 
 in the faith had been subjugated to a foreign yoke, 
 a fresh accession to the colony came sailing into 
 the river in March, 1656, bringing as usual a Luth- 
 eran minister, the Rev. Mr. Matthias. But the Hol- 
 landers forbade the ship which had on board a large 
 number of people, to ascend the river. This af- 
 forded the Indians, who were wont to call the Swedes 
 their brothers, an opportunity for showing their con- 
 tinued devotion to them, notwithstanding the fact 
 that the government had passed into the hands of 
 the conqueror. Impelled by their friendship "the In- 
 dians united together, went on board the ship, and 
 in defiance of the Hollanders, conducted the ship 
 past Sandhook, or Fort Casimir (now Newcastle, Del.), 
 without its daring to fire a shot, and conveyed it up 
 to Christina." What proportion of the passengers 
 remained in this country, now that it was no longer 
 New Sweden, is not known, but for some reason the 
 Rev. Mr. Matthias immediately returned to Sweden, 
 and with him doubtless went some others. Perhaps 
 the Dutch did not appreciate the solid character of 
 these people who had come to swell a flourishing 
 colony which was now under their rule. They would 
 have made excellent reinforcements to the com- 
 munity, for it had been forbidden in Sweden under a 
 
1^4 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 penalty to take to America " any persons of bad 
 fame." 
 
 After this no more ships came from Sweden. No 
 word, even, ever came across the sea. Communica- 
 tion was absolutely impossible between these isolated 
 Lutherans and their brethren or their government at 
 home. There was of course at that period no mail 
 service between Sweden and America, and even if 
 they could have written to England no one had any 
 acquaintance there who could in the least degree 
 further their cause. It came in course of time that 
 these Swedes knew no more of their mother country 
 than what they heard through traditions. A long 
 period of trial and spiritual destitution followed. All 
 the outward circumstances of the people were un- 
 favorable to their spiritual growth and the prosperity 
 of the churches. They were not only deprived of the 
 protection and support of the Swedish government, 
 which in those days was of so much importance to 
 religion, but they had among other cruel ordeals to 
 suffer pitiless wrongs from the haughty wife of the ex- 
 governor, who remained in the country some years 
 after her husband's expulsion, and who had so little 
 sympathy with her people and with their religious 
 interests that she is reported to have sold, along with 
 her farm at Tenacon, the church which was built upon 
 it. How the church was recovered for them is not 
 known, but it was certainly used by them without 
 hindrance till 1700. The bell, however, we are told, 
 "they had to buy back again by two days' reaping in 
 harvest time." 
 
 The Dutch authorities gave themselves little con- 
 
The Earliest Lutherans in America — The Swedes. 145 
 
 cern about public worship. Though in some respects 
 they were very tyrannical, and though they required 
 all the Swedes, who desired to remain, to take the 
 oath of allegiance, they had in the capitulation guar- 
 anteed to the Lutherans the liberty of "adhering to 
 their own Augsburg Confession, as also to support a 
 minister for their instruction." The Hollanders were 
 not slow to intermarry with them, and as they erected 
 no churches they soon coalesced with the Lutherans 
 in church association. 
 
 Some of these Hollanders may, indeed, have been 
 Lutherans. A small wooden edifice was erected at 
 Tranhook which was, by nearly two miles, more con- 
 venient for the Hollanders. The only clergyman in 
 the whole district was the Rev. Lars Lock, and his 
 faithful ministrations were extended alike to Swedes 
 and Dutch, to Lutherans and Calvinists. But when his 
 faithless wife involved him through a second marriage 
 in an unseemly scandal, "he drew upon himself the 
 severe animadversion of the presiding Governor and 
 his Commissary, who required him to intermit his min- 
 istry for some time. In the meanwhile, through the 
 favor of Stuyvesant, the legal requirements were com- 
 plied with " and the Rev. Lars was again vested with 
 his gown." 
 
 As the earnest little Christian colony had now been 
 wrested from Sweden and cut off entirely from inter- 
 course with the mother country, the noble purpose of 
 its founding would seem to have been lamentably 
 prostrated. And the preservation of the Lutheran 
 Church under these circumstances may well be set 
 down among remarkable providences. Their friendly 
 
146 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 relations with the natives remained uninterrupted and 
 doubtless they continued their missionary labors 
 among them. A century later the Indians still told 
 of the treaties between their forefathers and the 
 Swedes. But this very friendship with the Indians 
 brought them under the cruel suspicion of the Hol- 
 landers, who charged them with secret plottings, 
 and under this most unjust imputation arrested and 
 transported beyond the colony some of the worthiest 
 men among them. While their ships had enabled the 
 Dutch to force the surrender of their forts, they seem 
 to have constantly dreaded the strength of the Swedes 
 who as late as 1660 numbered but one hundred and 
 thirty families, and who. never exceeded the aggre- 
 gate of one thousand souls. 
 
 In September, 1664, the Dutch rule in America 
 came, as was noted above, to a sudden and inglorious 
 close, the authorities at New Amsterdam without of- 
 fering any resistance surrendering the country to an 
 English squadron "three hundred men strong." This 
 change of government, which at last brought toler- 
 ance to the Dutch Lutherans on the Hudson, could 
 bring no harm to the Swedes on the Delaware. It 
 proved in various ways of great advantage to them. 
 It gave them at least a better prospect of communi- 
 cating with their countrymen at home through the 
 assistance of the English than had been afforded by 
 their Dutch rulers. In the terms of surrender it was 
 stipulated that they should "remain undisturbed in 
 their religion as Lutherans, and in the public serv- 
 ice of God, as they particularly insisted." 
 
 When the Dutch, nine years later, reconquered the 
 
The Earliest Lutherans in America — The Swedes. 147 
 
 country, the first article of the instructions given to 
 Peter Alrich, who was made Commandant over the 
 South or Delaware river, required him to "uphold the 
 true Christian doctrine in accordance with the de- 
 crees of the Synod of Dordt, and admit of no other 
 doctrine in conflict therewith." The Augsburg Con- 
 fession was thus to be suppressed by force and the 
 Lutherans of New Sweden were to share with their 
 brethren in New Amsterdam the sufferings and the 
 honors of persecution. Fortunately for them and 
 for the future of this whole country, the English 
 in little more than a year recovered control of 
 the Dutch possessions in the New World, and the 
 little congregations of Lutherans were henceforth to 
 enjoy the solace and support of their precious faith 
 without molestation from a hostile government. 
 
 Their lot was indeed distressing, and through their 
 isolation from the Church of Sweden they were cut 
 off from the source of spiritual supply, and soon ex- 
 perienced lamentable destitution, deprived as they 
 were both of ministers to serve at the altar and of 
 manuals of devotion to nurture their souls at the 
 fireside and illumine their pathway in the wilderness. 
 But their Christian zeal and their devotion to their 
 Church nobly survived their bitter trials. Instead of 
 growing cold or lukewarm in the absence of pastoral 
 ministrations, they yearned for the preaching of the 
 Gospel and made every possible exertion to secure' 
 the services of new pastors, as their aged ones were 
 stricken down by disease or death. 
 
 In 1672 they extended a call to Pastor Fabricius, 
 who, some years before, had made an unenviable 
 
148 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 record as pastor of the churches on the Hudson, and 
 who through his misfortunes there had evidently 
 become a wiser and better man. Although he again 
 repeatedly came into collision with the authorities,, 
 who on several occasions suspended him, he fulfilled 
 a long career of usefulness among the Swedish 
 Lutherans. He preached mostly in the Dutch lan- 
 guage, but he so far mastered the Swedish that he 
 could intelligibly hold service also in that tongue. 
 He preached alternately at Tenacon and at Wicacoa,. 
 a mile below the southern limits of Philadelphia 
 where a block-house was turned into a church in 
 1669. It was a wise measure which more than once 
 in our early history converted those structures which 
 had been erected for the defense of men's bodies into 
 fortresses where spiritual weapons could be employed 
 for the salvation of their sov.ls. The Indians, it was 
 possible, might fall upon the congregation while at 
 worship and capture the whole flock. The churches 
 were accordingly so constructed that "after a suitable 
 elevation, like any other house, a projection was made 
 some courses higher, out of which they could shoots 
 so that if the heathen fell upon them, which could not 
 be done without their coming up to the house, then 
 the Swedes could shoot down upon them continually, 
 and the heathen who used only bows and arrows,, 
 could do them little or no injury." The Swedes have,, 
 however, never been charged, as were their Puritan 
 neighbors, with falling first on their knees, then fall- 
 ing on the Aborigines. 
 
 After the accession of Fabricius an arrangement 
 was effected by which the work of the whole district 
 
The Earliest Lutherans in America — The Swedes. 149 
 
 was amicably divided so that the Lutherans living 
 above a certain point were placed under the care of 
 Rev. Lars Lock, and those below this point remained 
 under the pastorate of Rev. Jakobus Fabricius. The 
 latter resided at what is now Kensington and made 
 the trips to the Wicacoa and Tranhook churches as 
 also "down into Maryland" by means of a canoe. 
 He became blind a few years after he had entered 
 upon his pastorate here, but this affliction did not pre- 
 vent him from watching over his congregation ac- 
 cording to his ability. His associate, Pastor Lock, 
 was likewise burdened in his old age with many 
 troubles, so that in the touching phraseology of a 
 subsequent letter to Sweden "though there were two 
 ministers in the churches, yet their infirmities made 
 them hardly equal to one." 
 
 William Penn arrived on the shores of the Dela- 
 ware October 24, 1682, having with him twenty ships 
 filled with people who were to settle the province of 
 Pennsylvania under him as proprietary and governor. 
 Although strenuously opposed to his coming, since 
 they were really the owners of the soil, the Swedes 
 received the new comers "with great friendliness, car- 
 ried up their goods and furniture from the ships, and 
 entertained them in their houses without charge," show- 
 ing a Christian hospitality which continued to be grate- 
 fully recalled by the Quakers for a century later. Penn 
 was delighted with them and appreciated especially 
 their kind offices for him with the Indians. Theyacted 
 as his interpreters. He relates that he found them 
 quite as cordial toward him as were the few English- 
 men who lived among them, and he commends their 
 
150 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 respect for authority as well as their kind behavior to 
 the English. "As they are a proper people and 
 strong of body," he adds, "so have they fine children 
 and almost every house full. And I must do them that 
 right — I see few young men more sober and industri- 
 ous." Abundance of children and habits of sobriety 
 and industry — from the days of Penn to the present 
 hour there has never been, in this country a genera- 
 tion of Lutherans who did not merit and receive this 
 encomium. 
 
 These thrifty and intelligent people so won the es- 
 teem and friendship of their new Quaker fellow-citi- 
 zens that they soon held a place both in the General 
 Assembly of the Province and in the Governor's 
 Council. There is a tradition that about this time 
 an impostor came among them gathering followers 
 and creating considerable disturbance, and that he 
 would have brought his countrymen into evil report 
 and suspicion "had not the honesty of these people 
 in general been well known by so many proofs 
 before." 
 
 But worldly station, earthly prosperity, and the con- 
 fidence and good will alike of the natives and of 
 Europeans, were no substitute for the ordinances of 
 the sanctuary and the ministrations of the Gospel. 
 These were no means of grace to them and to their 
 children. Well might they have said : 
 
 " Thanks to thy name for meaner things, 
 But these are not my God ! " 
 
 Two generations before, their ancestors had come 
 to these wild shores with their ministers and their 
 
The Earliest Lutherans in America — The Swedes. 151 
 
 Bibles, with the Church and the Sacraments and the 
 Catechism, but the precious books could not last for- 
 ever nor suffice for the multiplying population, and 
 the ministers had either been recalled to Sweden, 
 ended their labors in death, or become disqualified 
 by age and infirmities for the pastoral oversight of the 
 people. Pastor Lock, after having been for years 
 incapacitated for the work of his calling, ended a 
 life of many sorrows in 1688, Pastor Fabricius to 
 whom, while blind and decrepit he yet lingered among 
 them, his congregations could pay the tribute: "He 
 has faithfully and zealously taken care of us in ac- 
 cordance with the teachings of the Unaltered Augs- 
 burg Confession, in pure doctrine and exemplary life;" 
 and of whom after sixteen years of labor among them 
 they said : "He is an admirable preacher but, God's 
 blessing on him, he is so aged, and has lost his sight 
 for so long a time ; yet is he one who has taught us 
 God's pure and true Word, and administered the 
 Holy Sacraments among us." This devoted man 
 passed away about the year 1693. 
 
 Then followed some years during which not a 
 single clergyman ministered to these Lutheran con- 
 gregations. But though destitute of the regular 
 ministry the churches were not closed. The people 
 continued to assemble in the place of prayer on the 
 Lord's day, united in singing the Songs of Zion, and 
 listened to the voice of some pious and competent 
 layman who read to them the Epistle and Gospel 
 for the day, offered up prayers and frequently also 
 read a sermon from Moller's Postilla. Thus while 
 left like sheep without a shepherd and with many 
 
152 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 severe trials of their faith, these Lutherans on the 
 Delaware present touching evidences of love for the 
 Church, devotion to her ordinances and an abiding 
 spiritual interest in her doctrines. They could accord- 
 ingly not content themselves without the regular 
 dispensing of the Word. They kept hungering and 
 thirsting for the spiritual refreshment of the preached 
 gospel. They knew that Christ's cause must languish 
 without the services of men appointed to its over- 
 sight, and accordingly they left nothing undone to 
 open communications with the Church in Europe 
 and to secure laborers for the vineyard of the Lord. 
 
 Their earnest efforts in this behalf met again and 
 again with the bitterest disappointment. No answer 
 was received to their touching importunities, not 
 an echo, even, came back to them when they sent 
 piteous appeals to Sweden for pastors and for relig- 
 ious literature. Evidently, with the sea swarming 
 with pirates and the circuitous routes of transporta- 
 tion in that day, their letters depicting the distress of 
 their churches never reached their destination. Re- 
 maining firm and undaunted in their determination 
 to obtain pastors, they conceived of another plan by 
 which it was hoped they might succeed. Through 
 the assistance of New York merchants who traded 
 regularly with Amsterdam, they conveyed an appeal 
 to the Lutheran Consistory of that city to procure 
 for them a Swedish clergyman, either one who might 
 be known to them as being without charge, or some 
 one from Sweden who might be reached through the 
 interposition of this ecclesiastical body. 
 
 After stating that their faithful Pastor Fabricius, 
 
The Earliest Lutherans in America — The Swedes. 153 
 
 ""considering his advanced age, his blindness and his 
 infirmities " had been constrained to lay down his 
 office as a minister of the Gospel, they described 
 their " most deserted condition in regard to their holy 
 religion," they were "as chickens without the hen, as 
 sheep without a shepherd, as sick without a physician, 
 verily in the greatest danger." They urged their 
 "blessed fellowship" in the faith with this Lutheran 
 Consistory, their fervent zeal for the honor of God 
 and the maintenance of their Christian faith, and 
 pleaded for "the spiritual refreshment alike of the old 
 and of the young for their eternal salvation." And 
 as a further and striking evidence of their estimation 
 of pastoral ministrations, their letter contained the 
 offer of what must be considered for that day a liberal 
 support, a salary of one hundred rix dollars with a 
 house and glebe. But all was in vain. The melan- 
 choly result is told in one brief but affecting sentence : 
 "The people waited, but no clergyman came." 
 
 Equally fruitless were the kindly and zealous en- 
 deavors of William Penn, who, Quaker that he was 
 and therefore inimical to a regular ministry, imme- 
 diately after his return from America applied to the 
 Swedish Ambassador at London for his assistance in 
 obtaining for these people, clergymen and books from 
 Sweden, assuring him that he would take care to have 
 them forwarded from London. Penn himself is said 
 to have sent them "a box of Catechisms and other 
 books, together with a Bible in folio, for use in the 
 church, though all in English." 
 
 Souls have never cried in vain for the bread of 
 life. Man's extremity is God's opportunity. Deso- 
 
154 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 late and famished, doomed to cruel disappointment 
 in every attempt to obtain pastors, they were to wit- 
 ness, when all human help had failed, the wonderful 
 intervention of divine help. No Christian people 
 anywhere have so often and so vividly experienced, 
 as the Lutherans in this country, that the vefy hour 
 which marks the deepest distress of the church is 
 wont to strike the signal for its deliverance. Human 
 counsel, wisdom and strength are brought to naught 
 that no flesh should glory, and then when the hearts 
 of men are fully prepared for such a revelation, they 
 learn that "the foolishness of God is wiser than men, 
 and the weakness of God is stronger than men." 
 There are in fact nowhere to be found brighter in- 
 stances of a heroic and all conquering faith in God 
 and of singular and manifold interventions of Provi- 
 dence than are presented in the successive chapters 
 of Lutheran history in this land. 
 
 A Swedish gentleman by the name of Printz hap- 
 pened to come hither on an English ship. It was in 
 those days a rare pleasure for the Swedes to behold 
 one of their countrymen, and they gave Printz a cor- 
 dial welcome and soon made him acquainted with 
 their spiritual condition. On returning to Stock- 
 holm he communicated their desire to have ministers, 
 bibles, hymn-books and other manuals of devotion, to 
 certain pious laymen in whom their spiritual destitu- 
 tion awakened profound sympathy and a sincere zeal 
 for the Church of God. They succeeded in bringing 
 the sore need of these far distant Lutherans to the 
 notice of the king, Charles XL, who was deeply affected 
 by their condition and at once gave especial attention 
 
The Earliest Lutherans in America — The Swedes 155 
 
 to their relief, cherishing " a Royal grace and care for 
 their eternal salvation and welfare, and for the up- 
 holding of the pure and uncorrupted Lutheran re- 
 ligion." 
 
 A letter of inquiry was at once dispatched, assur- 
 ing them that as soon as definite and circumstan- 
 
 S^ijp/-'-",.^^ 
 
 OLD SWEDES' CHURCH, WICACOA, (GLORIA DEI). DEDICATED JULY 2, 170O. 
 
 tial information concerning their spiritual necessities 
 could be received from them, His Majesty, would 
 most graciously send them not only ministers but also 
 all sorts of religious books. The letter implored 
 them to give information " on every particular of their 
 
156 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 condition in the least as well as in the greatest," and 
 requested them to send back their response as speed- 
 ily as possible, since "this may lead to your soul'swel- 
 fare and salvation," and it closed with the entreaty 
 " Be not negligent in the matter which pertains to 
 your eternal welfare, for you can certainly see that 
 the great God doth just as speedily help through 
 lowly friends as through the great." 
 
 This letter was in due season received in America 
 and occasioned the greatest joy. It was looked upon 
 in the light of a message from heaven, it was cer- 
 tainly a messenger of divine Providence. The response 
 to it, we may feel assured, was not long delayed. It 
 bears the date of May 31, 1693, just eight days after 
 the reception of the letter from Sweden. The writ- 
 ing of it devolved upon Charles Springer, a Swede 
 who through singular personal trials had found his 
 way to his countrymen in. Pennsylvania. He was a man 
 of education. He had been appointed a magistrate 
 among the Swedes at Christina, and was one of those 
 pious laymen who in default of pastors conducted 
 religious services in the Lutheran churches, " a God- 
 fearing man, who spared neither labor nor expense 
 for the establishment of the Lutheran Church in the 
 American wilderness." It overflows with gratitude, 
 rejoicing, and praise to "the great God who, we verily 
 and in our hearts believe, has and will continue to 
 have His hand in the completion of this work which 
 has been begun in so Christian a manner. For we 
 do not believe that God will forsake us, although we 
 are in a strange and heathen land, far away from our 
 own dear fatherland." 
 
The Earliest Lutherans in America — The Swedes. 157 
 
 Complying with the request of their friends in 
 Sweden for full details of their situation, stating 
 among other circumstances that "our wives and 
 daughters busy themselves much in spinning both 
 wool and flax, many also with weaving, so that we 
 have great reason to thank Almighty God for the 
 support of our daily life," and that "we live in great 
 amity with the Indians, who have not done us any 
 harm for many years," the burden of this communica- 
 tion is of course their spiritual situation, their desire 
 to "obtain faithful pastors and watchmen for our 
 souls, who may feed us with that spiritual food which 
 is the preaching of God's Word, and the administra- 
 tion of the Holy Sacraments in their proper form. 
 We therefore beg," the letter proceeds, "that there 
 may be sent to us two Swedish ministers, who are 
 well learned and well exercised in the Holy Scriptures, 
 and who may well defend both themselves and us 
 against all the false teachers and strange sects by 
 whom we are surrounded, or who may oppose us on 
 account of our true, pure and uncorrupted service 
 to God and the Lutheran religion, which we shall 
 now confess before God and all the world, so that 
 if it should so happen, which, however, may God avert, 
 we are ready to seal this with our own blood. We 
 beg also that these ministers may be such as live a 
 sedate and sober life, so that we and our children, 
 led by the example of their godly conversation, may 
 also lead lives godly and well pleasing to God." 
 
 It certainly forms no mean element in the glory of 
 which Lutherans boast, that their Church was first 
 planted in this country by men of heroic faith, of a 
 
158 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 martyr's devotion to pure doctrine, and of apostolic 
 zeal for holiness ! To the plea for ministers was 
 added the request for twelve Bibles, three volumes of 
 Sermons, forty-two devotional Manuals, one hundred 
 Hand-books and spiritual Meditations, and two hun- 
 dred Catechisms, for all of which they proposed to 
 "pay and make satisfaction in all honesty and up- 
 rightness," engaging even in the event that these 
 books might by some accident be unfortunately lost 
 on the way, "even then honestly to pay for them." 
 
 Of this letter which arrived safely and promptly, it 
 is said many copies were made in Sweden. It was 
 circulated from hand to hand and drew tears from 
 many eyes. The king personally took prompt and 
 active measures to answer and even exceed their 
 prayer, and displayed in fact a most royal and pious 
 zeal to assure the fullest success to the enterprise. 
 He called to his counsels the Archbishop and other 
 high dignitaries of the Church, and charged them zeal- 
 ously to exert themselves "to seek out and provide 
 such learned and godly men as were desired by the 
 Swedish colony on the South River in America, to 
 procure faithful laborers for that vineyard of the 
 Lord," promising that as soon as the men were ready, 
 proper arrangements should be made for their journey 
 with generous provisions for their outfit and travel- 
 ing expenses. 
 
 The first man chosen by the Consistory was An- 
 drew Rudman, a candidate for the degree in Philoso- 
 phy, who was urged by the most pressing reasons to 
 enter upon this work, and who after some days' reflec- 
 tion consented. His academic degree was conferred 
 
The Earliest Lutherans in America — The Swedes. 159 
 
 upon him before his departure. Rudman, with ad- 
 mirable considerateness on the part of the authorities, 
 was himself allowed to make choice of a fellow-laborer 
 in his office, and he selected Mr. Eric Bjork, who was 
 well known to the Provost of the Cathedral in Up- 
 sala. To these two clergymen a third, Mr. Jonas 
 Auren, was added by the king's command. It was to 
 be his chief errand to make a map of the country with 
 a description of its character and the condition of its 
 inhabitants ; then to come home immediately and 
 communicate it to His Majesty. Yet that he might 
 accomplish the more good, he was also ordained 
 along with Mr. Bjork in Upsala, Rudman having pre- 
 viously taken orders. 
 
 All the preparations for the departure of the three 
 missionaries seemed to have been completed. They 
 had already taken leave of their friends and were about 
 to set sail, when to their great sorrow it was discov- 
 ered that the printer had failed to furnish the Indian 
 Catechism, copies of the translation of Luther's Small 
 Catechism, which, as noticed above, Campanius had 
 fifty years previously made into an Indian tongue. 
 As the evangelization of the heathen was a leading in- 
 centive for their braving the perils of the sea and of the 
 wilderness, they would not consent to sail until they 
 were supplied with these precious text-books for their 
 Christian instruction. They refused to go abroad 
 and labor among their brethren unless they could at 
 the same time enjoy the privilege of teaching the way 
 of salvation to the wild Indians, an example which 
 commends itself to-day with especial emphasis to such 
 Lutherans as hold that they have so great a task in 
 
160 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 churching the vast emigrant population, that they do 
 not feel called upon to engage in missionary labors 
 among the heathen of our own or of other lands. 
 
 At last the printer's work was finished and an edi- 
 tion of five hundred Indian Catechisms "in the Amer- 
 ican Virginian language" was placed on board along 
 with all the other books which had been asked for, 
 the king graciously donating these to the congrega- 
 tions, with the assurance that it gave " especial grati- 
 fication to His Majesty to hear of the well-being of 
 said congregations, and of their zeal and constancy in 
 the pure and evangelical doctrine." On every copy 
 of these books, even on the Catechisms, were stamped 
 the king's initials in gilt letters. The party sailed for 
 London, August 4, 1696, after an affecting farewell 
 from the king, who sent his orders to the captain of 
 the vessel directing him "to pay these persons the 
 kindest attentions." The Secretary of the Swedish 
 Embassy in London was also advised to forward 
 them in their voyage from that pl.ice, a measure 
 which proved to be by no means superfluous, for the 
 English government was not disposed to allow them 
 the continuance of their voyage, but after consider- 
 able delay this was accorded " in respect for the 
 Christian work which they had undertaken." The 
 delay in granting this permission and issuing the 
 proper passport, turned out to be one of those kind 
 providences which at the time of their occurrence ap- 
 pear so mysterious and so trying to faith but turn 
 out so happy in the issue. The ship in which they 
 had engaged passage and which left port without 
 them, encountered serious disaster at sea and with 
 
The Earliest Lutherans in America — The Swedes 161 
 
 great difficulty reached a port in Portugal, and did 
 not reach America until a year after the arrival of 
 these missionaries in Pennsylvania. 
 
 After a voyage of ten weeks they landed in Vir- 
 ginia in April, 1697, and thence proceeded to Mary- 
 land whither the ship was bound. "Then after the 
 Governor of Maryland, Francis Nicholson, Esq., had 
 hospitably entertained them for two weeks, and made 
 them a donation of twenty-six dollars for their trav- 
 eling expenses, they continued their journey on a 
 yacht to Elk River, and there they landed on Mid- 
 summer's day, (June 24). Some Swedes dwelt in that 
 place, who welcomed their countrymen most heartily, 
 and immediately sent word- to their brethren in Penn- 
 sylvania, who came without delay, and with tears of 
 joy conducted their much longed-for countrymen 
 overland to their homes. 
 
 The first official action of the ministers was to col- 
 lect the congregations together and present their com- 
 mission from the King and Archbishop. This was 
 done in the Church at Wicacoa on the first Sunday 
 after their arrival, and at Tranhook one week later. 
 While ordinarily congregations choose their teachers, 
 in this case the teachers chose their congregations. 
 It was agreed that Rudman, having been first called, 
 should have the privilege of choosing his congregation. 
 He selected Wicacoa and Mr. Bjork took Tranhook. 
 "Then they separated with thanksgivings, prayers and 
 tears, and each one remained with his own flock, 
 which he must now gather up, as it were, out of the 
 wilderness." Of the Tenacon Church nothing is re- 
 ported in this connection, and of Mr. Auren it is 
 
1 62 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 simply stated that he remained for some time with 
 Pastor Rudman "before he entered upon his travels 
 over the country." 
 
 Settled over their regular flocks the two pastors 
 did not forget the claims of the surrounding heathen. 
 They labored unweariedly to bring these also to the 
 marvellous light of the Gospel, and the line of spirit- 
 ual sympathy which had been formed by the enlight- 
 ened activity of Campanius in the preceding genera- 
 tion was greatly strengthened by the labors of these 
 earnest missionaries. 
 
 The care of their own flocks required, of course, 
 their assiduous attention. The old buildings being 
 found in a dilapidated condition, one of their first 
 movements was to agitate the subject of church erec- 
 tion. With little money and large faith, a substantial 
 building was commenced at Christina in May, 1698. 
 The ground for it, "together with two fathoms of 
 ■ground on the West and South sides for free ingress 
 and egress," was presented by John Stalcop, an officer 
 of the congregation. The edifice was built of granite, 
 sixty feet long, thirty broad and twenty high. The 
 wall was six feet thick in the foundation, and three 
 feet at the windows as well as above them. Five 
 large arched windows admitted the light and there 
 were three arched doors. Considering the times and 
 the circumstances this was a magnificent church build- 
 ing, a monument of Lutheran liberality, zeal and 
 energy. 
 
 There was great difficulty in obtaining mechanics 
 and day laborers. "The cost amounted to eight hun- 
 dred pounds. When the accounts were settled, the 
 
The Earliest Lutherans in America — The Swedes. 163 
 
 congregation fell in debt to the pastor to the amount 
 of one hundred and thirty-five pounds, which he after- 
 wards donated. Money, it is remarked was at that 
 time more abundant in the country than for a long 
 time since, which may indeed be taken as a strong 
 proof of God's providence." One gentleman had ad- 
 vanced a loan of three hundred and twenty pounds, 
 and had taken a note at ten per cent, interest, which 
 was two per cent, more than the law allowed and it 
 consequently exposed him to a penalty of one hun- 
 dred pounds. He took the precaution to get under 
 cover and presented this one hundred pounds to the 
 congregation which thereupon honored him with"the 
 front pew in the church and also with a burial place." 
 Public thanks were afterwards offered to God "who 
 had moved him to make such a gift," and happiness 
 and blessings invoked upon him and his children. 
 These prayers do not seem to have received the an- 
 swer sought, for at a later day the man got into 
 financial straits and showed his true character "by de- 
 manding anew the whole debt with accrued interest." 
 
 The consecration of the church was an occasion of 
 great solemnity and overflowing festal joy. Gov- 
 ernor Markham was invited to be present, but could 
 not attend. A public dinner, for which the mem- 
 bers respectively had furnished "all sorts of meat and 
 drink," was partaken of by nearly the whole congrega- 
 tion. "All rejoiced and praised God for His gracious 
 care in raising up his Church in this wild land. The 
 same day, which was Trinity Sunday, was for a long 
 time after annually celebrated by an evening service 
 of praise and thanksgiving. Matins were held on 
 
1 64 
 
 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 Christmas, Easter and Pentecost, as also throughout 
 the summer. Garlanded lights and side lights were 
 made of pine wood, for use in the Christmas service. 
 A belfry was project- 
 ed, but never com- 
 pleted. The bell was 
 hung upon a walnut 
 tree in the church-yard. 
 Simultaneously with 
 the erection of a church 
 edifice at Christina a 
 similar undertaking 
 was started at Wica- 
 coa, the membership 
 of which parish lived 
 partly in Philadelphia 
 which had been 
 founded in 1682, and 
 which Pastor Bjork 
 called in 1697 "a clever 
 little town," and partly 
 in the various sur 
 rounding districts, 
 some even on the 
 other side of the Del- 
 aware, and in many 
 cases quite remote 
 from one another. Of 
 the necessity for a new 
 church there was but 
 one mind, and four 
 hundred pounds were promised by subscriptions for 
 
 Rod Hxzpo'i WeAly.— Ou yyilghA . M89,b7 Hsiper & Bra&cak 
 
 GUSTAVUS ADOLPHCS SWEDISH LUTHERAN 
 
 CHURCH, XEW YORK. 
 
The Earliest Lutherans in America — The Swedes. 165 
 
 commencing the work. But when it came to fixing 
 the locality for "a new Mother Church" a terrible con- 
 troversy broke out. The "settlers below" the Schuyl- 
 kill contended for a site at Passayungh, where the 
 congregation had bought a piece of land for a par- 
 sonage and glebe. The "upper settlers" wished to 
 have it again at Wicacoa, upon the same ground 
 on which the old church stood. A third party pro- 
 posed that as Tenakon was the oldest church in the 
 country, it should be kept up as long as possible, and 
 then another one should be afterwards erected at the 
 same place. 
 
 Each of the parties became more determined and 
 at the same time, as is wont to be the case in church 
 quarrels, "more lukewarm in the Christian work." The 
 pastor felt himself greatly hindered in his calling by 
 the turbulence of faction, and became so distressed in 
 mind and so weary of the protracted strife, that he 
 relinquished the care of the congregation and threat- 
 ened to return at once to Sweden, though but a few 
 months before he had written to a friend, that he did 
 not "know of any place in the world where a Christ- 
 ian minister could live happier or more beloved than 
 here." He betook himself to Christina and sought 
 the sympathy and good offices of his friend and 
 faithful fellow-laborer Bjork, who went over to the 
 assembled congregation and preached to them a ser- 
 mon on " The Tears of Christ," with a direct reference 
 to the existing state of things. "And as a part of 
 them were not present he presently put his admoni- 
 tions and reproofs in a written form, which was sent 
 around to be read from house to house. The effect 
 
1 66 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 of this was all that could be desired — the tears of 
 Christ ought to settle every quarrel between breth- 
 ren. "They all became humble and penitent on 
 account of their folly, and bound themselves to 
 commit the matter wholly and entirely to the judg- 
 ment of the three ministers, as well in regard to the 
 choice of the place as to the plan and cost of the 
 church edifice ; and also agreed that there should be 
 a fine of ten pounds imposed upon any who should 
 find fault with what was done therein." Both parties 
 also gave a written pledge to pay their old subscrip- 
 tions to the church edifice, wherever it should be lo- 
 cated, and also " to send down their representatives to 
 Christina to beg their pastor's forgiveness and be- 
 seech him that he would not forsake them," — an edify- 
 ing spectacle of the saving common sense with which 
 the Gospel inspires the minds of its subjects. 
 
 The ministers finally concluded to build at Wicacoa, 
 close by the old church. Among the reasons as- 
 signed for this determination were that by the casting 
 of lots this site had once before been selected for this 
 purpose ; that a graveyard was already arranged 
 there ; that the site commanded a very fine prospect ; 
 that the value of the property would increase by its 
 proximity to the city, and that "the name of the 
 Swedes would ever be held in remembrance, as their 
 church thus stood in view of vessels as they sailed 
 upon the river." The difficulty which the lower set- 
 tlers would have in coming over the Schuylkill was to 
 be relieved by a flat-boat which the congregation 
 should maintain at its own expense. 
 
 The quarrel had delayed the work for an entire 
 
The Earliest Lutherans in America — The Swedes. 167 
 
 year, but it was now prosecuted with the greatest zeal, 
 Pastor Rudman being architect, superintendent and 
 paymaster, the same masons and carpenters who had 
 been employed on the Christina church doing the 
 work also on this one, the dimensions of which were 
 exactly the same. The foundation was of stone, and 
 the walls of brick, "every other one glazed." In the 
 course of a year the church was nearly completed, a 
 cross-wall at the west end being left intentionally unfin- 
 ished, "until it could be seen whether some bells could 
 be obtained from Sweden." On the second of July, 
 1700, on the first Sunday after Trinity, the building 
 was dedicated to the worship of God, under the name 
 of Gloria Dei,-w\th solemn and imposing services, in the 
 presence of a numerous and promiscuous assembly, a 
 part of whom whom were English people from Phila- 
 delphia, "on whose account the conclusion of the ad- 
 dress was translated into English." 
 
 The Christian zeal, the enterprise, liberality and 
 good taste displayed by the Lutherans in the erection 
 of these two large, costly and beautiful churches, com- 
 manded the admiration of their English neighbors 
 far and wide. " The fame of them was noised abroad 
 to neighboring provinces," and confirmed the high 
 estimate which had long been formed of these com- 
 munities. "The English inhabitants having been in- 
 terested in the progress of the building both at Wi- 
 cacoa and Christina, continued long after their conse- 
 cration, to gaze upon them with wonder. Strangers 
 visiting the region of the Delaware walked round 
 about their walls and with respectful mien were 
 pleased to enter their sacred courts. Even the gov- 
 
1.68 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 ernors of Maryland and Virginia, — Nicholson and 
 Blackstone, — attended by their respective suites, were 
 gratified on the occasion of seeing with their own 
 eyes these noble monuments of Christian zeal and 
 Lutheran enterprise." 
 
 Fully consecrated to the work of saving souls, fired 
 with a loyal devotion to the pure doctrines of grace, 
 and manifesting continually the spirit of progress and 
 of an enlightened zeal, it need not surprise us to find 
 that these earnest and cultured ministers, whose char- 
 acter and learning commended them to the foremost 
 persons of the country, soon found their work appre- 
 ciated by the people of other nationalities. Not only 
 Hollanders who had long intermingled with the 
 Swedes as one people became identified with their 
 congregations, but also many English, Scotch, Irish 
 and German families, all using the Swedish language. 
 Great as was the simplicity of these primitive Ameri- 
 can Lutheran divines it never occurred to them that 
 they had been entrusted with the Gospel for the 
 preaching of it solely to Lutherans and their children. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE EARLIEST LUTHERANS IN AMERICA THE GERMANS. 
 
 IT is noteworthy that, while the Reformation had its 
 cradle in Germany, and the Evangelical Lutheran 
 Church is popularly regarded as the Church of 
 the Germans and their descendants, Lutherans had 
 occupied this country for several generations before 
 any distinct traces of their German brethren are to be 
 found here. The first Lutheran settlers in America were, 
 undoubtedly, Hollanders, and the first to be regularly 
 organized under the care of a pastor were Swedes. 
 It is likewise to be noticed that, while the Portuguese, 
 Spaniards, French, Dutch and English planted their 
 standards and founded their colonies on these western 
 shores, the governments of the great German nation 
 did not enter upon any such colonial enterprises. 
 The Hanseatic cities miVht have furnished the neces- 
 sary transports, but Germany lay prostrate and deso- 
 late from the results of the Thirty Year's War. 
 Towns and villages lay in ashes, its fairest districts 
 had become deserts, and even where prosperity and 
 political power began once more to revive, the re- 
 morseless wars and aggressions of Louis XIV. quelled 
 all ambition for the extension of territory or power 
 and rendered it impossible for German princes to un- 
 dertake any projects beyond the seas. 
 
 Hence, to the few of their subjects who found them- 
 selves in a condition to emigrate to the New World, 
 
 there remained no alternative but to seek a home 
 
 169 
 
170 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 among the communities which had been founded here 
 by other nations. Along time seems to have elapsed 
 before much of a disposition to leave the fatherland 
 showed itself. The emigration mania had not, at that 
 time, seized the German mind. No considerable 
 body of Germans found their way to America until 
 1683, almost two hundred years after its discovery. 
 Such individuals or famlies as had previously come 
 hither became dispersed almost imperceptibly among 
 the Dutch, Swedes and English. They were sporadic 
 pioneers, who were followed by no immediate 
 re-enforcements or regular accessions. Of a German 
 Lutheran Church or pastor we have no record 
 until the eighteenth century. Destined to be the 
 strongest element in the development of the Evan- 
 gelical Lutheran Church, they were the last in 
 coming. 
 
 When the stream of German emigration began 
 at last to flow in some force, it brought not Lutherans, 
 but Quakers, the fruits of Penn's missionary activity 
 in Germany for several years before he founded his 
 famous colony. Along with those who had avowed 
 the peculiar tenets and practices of the Quaker relig- 
 ion prior to their crossing of the Atlantic, came a 
 number of others who had no small measure of sym- 
 pathy with them, and who had been carried away by 
 the tide of religious extravagance and fanaticism 
 which marked the close of the seventeenth and the 
 beginning of the eighteenth centuries : Mennonites, 
 Mystics, Chiliasts, representatives of the "Awakened" 
 and of the " Inspired," Ultraists and Separatists of 
 every kind. It was a motley Babel-host, with singu- 
 
The Earliest Lutherans in America — The Germans.iji 
 
 lar and strong affinities, — malcontents who had these 
 features in common, that, like the Quakers and New 
 England Puritans, they were hostile to the dominant 
 confessional orthodoxy, were identified with the con- 
 venticles of the " Awakened," and repudiated the State 
 Churches, from which they, in turn, suffered cruel per- 
 secutions. Unquestionably, a mixture of these fanat- 
 ical sects and sectaries formed the preponderating 
 element in the earliest German emigration to this 
 country. Some of them had been roaming from 
 place to place in their native land, and having learned 
 that in the trans-atlantic Province of William Penn no 
 one was molested for his religious faith, they hastened 
 to this asylum in the wilderness, destined to be the 
 Paradise of all extravagances, and the fertile nursery 
 of all " isms." 
 
 Somewhat later, in 1734 and 1735, these were fol- 
 lowed by the Schwenkfeldians and Herrnhuter, 
 the Separatists, thus, for some time, especially in 
 Pennsylvania, outnumbering the adherents of the 
 Lutheran and Reformed Confessions. But little trace 
 of these is to be found until they had attained suffi- 
 cient numbers and strength to call pastors. The Re- 
 formed had, in this respect, the start of the Lutherans, 
 a pastor, Rev. George Michael Weiss, having been 
 sent to them by the Palatinate Consistorium in 1727. 
 The first Lutherans who came from Germany, either 
 as individuals or in bodies, were evidently scattered 
 over a wide extent of territory, and it is doubtful 
 whether they contributed directly to the establish- 
 ment of the Church. The formation of congregations, 
 it is certain, proceeded slowly and gradually, and in 
 
172 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 the beginning of the eighteenth century they were both 
 "few and weak." 
 
 The first German Lutheran congregation organ- 
 ized within the limits of the present area of the United 
 States, was, undoubtedly, that of Falckner's Swamp 
 (New Hanover), on the Manatawney, in Montgomery 
 County, Penn. Its first pastor was Rev. Justus Falck- 
 ner, a man around whose name clusters more than 
 ordinary interest. He belonged to a family of clergy- 
 men in Germany, his grandfathers on both sides and 
 his father being Lutheran ministers, and he had him- 
 self been educated at Halle, under Francke, for the 
 sacred office. On the completion of his studies, he 
 turned away from it with strong aversion, and in 1700 
 accompanied his brother to America, where both of 
 them held a power-of-attorney as land-agents for 
 William Penn. It was while making a sale of some 
 lands to the Swedes that he came to regret his decis- 
 ion against entering the ministry, — a change trace- 
 able no doubt to the Christian zeal and spiritual in- 
 fluence of his Swedish brethren in the faith. 
 
 Thus by the guiding hand of a gracious Providence 
 this gifted and learned man, who had fled from his 
 father's house to escape from the ministry to which 
 he had been consecrated by parents and friends, now 
 voluntarily assumes its responsibilities, and devotes 
 his talents to the saving of his countrymen whom he 
 found languishing in spiritual destitution. His name 
 is honored as that of the first pastor of the first Ger : 
 man Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. He 
 was likewise the first Lutheran minister ordained in 
 this country, his ordination being conducted in the 
 
The Earliest Lutherans in America — The Germans. 1 73 
 
 Swedish Church at Wicacoa, November 24, 1703, by 
 the three Swedish Pastors, Rudman, Bjork and Sandel, 
 who, although they had unquestionably inherited the 
 boon of Apostolic succession — whatever that may be 
 — held it in so little estimation, that they proceeded to 
 the ordination of a man to the sacred office without any 
 imposition of Episcopal hands. The Archbishop of 
 Upsala had wisely authorized these Presbyters to per- 
 form such ordinations in his absence. Had the Pres- 
 byters of the Anglican Church been similarly empow- 
 ered by their Bishops, the growth of the Episcopal 
 Church in the colonies would have made a showing 
 very different from that which has passed into his- 
 tory. Pastor Falckner proved a zealous and worthy 
 minister, one of the purest and most efficient of the 
 earlier ministers in the American Lutheran Church. 
 He went after a brief pastorate to New York where 
 he ministered to many people, and in 1723 closed his 
 earthly labors with congregations which he had or- 
 ganized in New Jersey. 
 
 The settlement known as Falckner's Swamp was 
 probably founded before 1700. The date of the erec- 
 tion of the first house of worship is unknown. In 
 1 719 fifty acres of ground were donated for the use 
 of church and school, but buildings for these pur- 
 poses may have been previously erected. 
 
 A considerable tide of Lutheran emigration from 
 Germany began to pour into these shores early in the 
 eighteenth century. Large numbers came hither in 
 171 1, 1 71 7 and the years immediately ensuing, and the 
 whole period from 1702 to 1727 was marked by large 
 accessions to the Lutheran population. On June 13, 
 
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The Earliest Lutherans in America — The Germans. 175 
 
 1 710, as many as four thousand landed in ten vessels 
 at New York, after a voyage of frightful hardships 
 from which several hundred had perished on the way. 
 These were fugitives from the Palatinate for whom 
 the sympathies and munificence of Queen Anne had 
 provided not only shelter, clothing and food in Eng- 
 land, but also free transportation to the New World 
 with subsistence on the way and princely domains for 
 their occupation. These Palatines were the first 
 Lutherans whom religious persecution drove to these 
 shores. 
 
 Their history is one of tragic interest. Within a 
 single generation their beautiful country, one of the 
 fairest and most fertile regions of Europe, had been 
 thrice devastated by the armies of Louis XIV., who 
 laid claim to the succession on behalf of his brother 
 the Duke of Orleans. In these persistent and ruth- 
 less aggressions of a foreign and Catholic sovereign, 
 the country was overrun by a barbarous soldiery that 
 knew no pity for old men or delicate women or suck- 
 ing children ; and when it was found impossible to 
 hold what had been conquered Louis gave command 
 to have the country turned into a desert. "The 
 French commander," says Macaulay, "announced to 
 near half a million of human beings that he granted 
 them three days of grace. Soon the roads and fields 
 which then lay deep in snow, were blackened by in- 
 numerable multitudes ot men, women and children 
 flying from their homes. Many died of cold and hun- 
 ger ; but enough survived to fill the streets of all the 
 cities of Europe with lean and squalid beggars, who 
 had once been thriving farmers and shopkeepers. 
 
1 76 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 Meanwhile the work of destruction began. The 
 flames went up from every market place, every ham- 
 let, every parish church, every country seat, within the 
 devoted provinces. The fields where the corn had 
 been sown were ploughed up. The orchards were 
 hewn down. No promise of a harvest was left on the 
 fertile plains where had once been Frankenthal. Not 
 a vine, not an almond tree, was to be seen on the 
 slopes of the sunny hills round what had once been 
 Heidelberg." Mannheim, Worms and Spires met the 
 same fate. They were reduced to ashes. The very 
 hospitals and orphanages were sacked. The provis- 
 ions, the medicines, the pallets on which the sick lay, 
 were destroyed. Protestant worship was broken up 
 and the churches were turned over to Roman Catho- 
 lic priests. 
 
 These atrocities and horrors which extended over 
 the whole Rhine region, threw Germany into frenzy 
 and called forth the execration of Europe. But the 
 universal cry for vengeance brought no relief. A few 
 years later the Duke of Lorges, invading the country 
 found that, after its two merciless devastations, there 
 was still something left to destroy, and the work of 
 demolition, the butchery of peaceful citizens and the 
 outrage of their wives and daughters were once more 
 resumed. The treaty of Ryswick (1697) stipulated 
 that the French must evacuate the country, but also 
 that the ecclesiastical usurpations of the Catholics 
 should be maintained throughout the portion of 
 country which they held. Hence the Catholic princes 
 who now ruled the country denied the Protestants 
 the free exercise of their religion, robbed them of their 
 
The Earliest Lutherans in America — The Germans. 177 
 
 churches and through Jesuit intrigue, armed force and 
 inhuman cruelties, threatened the very existence of 
 the Evangelical Churches, Reformed as well as 
 Lutheran. 
 
 Under the stress of their misery many thousands of 
 the inhabitants, in many cases entire villages, the pas- 
 tor and flock, farmer, vine-dresser, merchant, me- 
 chanic and miner, stripped of their all and forced by 
 their sufferings to snap every bond that held them to 
 their native land, fled to the hospitable shores of 
 Protestant England. They were joined by numbers 
 from Baden, Wiirtemberg, Hesse and the surround- 
 ing countries. The arrival of such a host of impov- 
 erished refugees created some alarm and dissatisfac- 
 tion with the government which had quartered them 
 in a camp like an army. But English beneficence 
 and humanity triumphed. The Queen took them 
 under her personal protection and in course of time 
 they cheerfully accepted Her Majesty's munificent 
 proposal for their transportation and settlement in 
 America, where it was confidently expected their 
 thrifty and peaceable habits would render them a 
 valuable accession to her colonies. A large fund col- 
 lected for them through private contributions in Eng- 
 land was afterwards forwarded, and for this we may 
 assume they found ample use. 
 
 They had been preceded both in England and 
 America by some of their own countrymen, who had 
 been moved to emigrate from the Rhine countries, 
 both by the torn and wretched condition of the fath- 
 erland and by the alluring prospects which vague 
 reports and American emigration agents held up be- 
 
178 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 fore their eyes. A Lutheran minister by the name of 
 Joshua von Kocherthal, accompanied by his family 
 and sixty-one others, had under great difficulties suc- 
 ceeded in making his way to England. They were 
 made subjects of the British crown and then shipped 
 to America, supplied with mechanical implements and 
 with one year's subsistence, while the Queen do- 
 nated twenty pounds for the support of the pastor 
 and five hundred acres of land " for the mainte- 
 nance of a Lutheran minister and his successors for- 
 ever." They arrived in New York near the close of 
 the year 1708 and were settled on the West shore of 
 the Hudson in the vicinity of what is now Newburg, 
 where more than two thousand acres of land were 
 divided between them. 
 
 The peculiar and indescribable trials which such a 
 colony must inevitably experience in temporal inter- 
 ests, were aggravated in this case by religious discord. 
 When nineteen of the little congregation withdrew as 
 Pietists, the others proposed to withhold from them 
 the relief which the authorities had provided for them 
 in their poverty, but when the Reformed pastors of 
 New York had by an official investigation ascertained 
 that this Pietism was no damnable heresy, the gov- 
 ernment ordered them to be also included among its 
 beneficiaries. In 1709 Pastor Kocherthal obtained 
 free passage to England in order that he might lay 
 the distress of the people upon the heart of the 
 Queen, who accorded him a favorable reception and 
 granted him substantial aid for the material pros- 
 perity of his people. The measure of their religious 
 prosperity can be judged, in part at least, by the char- 
 
The Earliest Lutherans in America — The Germans. 1 79 
 
 acter of the pastors, who served them with more or 
 less regularity after the decease of Kocherthal in 
 1719. Falckner had charge of them for some time in 
 connection with the Dutch churches at New York and 
 Albany. Rev. W. Christopher Berkenmeier, a man 
 of ability, learning and excellent character, ministered 
 to them between 1725 and 1732, and after that, Rev. 
 Michael Christian Knoll visited them three times a 
 year, receiving as compensation for this service thirty 
 bushels of wheat. Of their valuable church property 
 they were, in later years, fraudulently dispossessed by 
 the Episcopalians, who fifty years afterwards suffered 
 similar treatment at the hands of the Presbyterians. 
 Upon the arrival of the large body of South Ger- 
 mans in 1 710, the greater portion of them went north- 
 ward, where Governor Hunter allotted to them some 
 six thousand acres of land, which he had purchased 
 from Livingston's Manor, a large tract now embraced 
 in Dutchess and Columbia counties, and also an equal 
 area on the West bank of the Hudson immediately 
 opposite. This land, heretofore unimproved, they 
 were to hold and cultivate as tenants, and the govern- 
 ment expected large returns from their thrifty toil. 
 They soon found themselves in the clutches of hard 
 masters and their condition was but little better than 
 the Egyptian slavery of the Israelites. They were 
 placed under overseers, and in order to satisfy the in- 
 ordinate selfishness and rapacity of Livingston they 
 were subjected to cruel and most unrighteous extor- 
 tions. These wrongs and hardships drove them to 
 discontent and resistance. They might as well have 
 endured in their native land the swoj-d of the French 
 
180 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 and the oppression of the Jesuits. Under the tyranny 
 of the unprincipled men who held them in their 
 power no development or improvement was possible. 
 Insupportable trials offered them no future. The 
 boasted asylum of the oppressed became to them a 
 land of hard bondage. 
 
 Soldiers were called out to reduce them to measures. 
 But they knew to oppose force with force, and with 
 weapons in their hands demanded a removal of their 
 grievances. From this time on they were treated like 
 rebels. Wearying of their wrongs and their slavery, 
 the majority, preferring the wilderness inhabited only 
 by savages to the pitiless maltreatment of their Anglo- 
 Saxon oppressors, abandoned in the course of three 
 years the soil which they had redeemed from the wild. 
 In the dead of winter and amid terrible exposure 
 and sufferings, they moved farther northward into 
 the Schoharie region where a large and fertile tract 
 had been ceded to them by certain Mohawk Indians 
 with whom they had held a conference in London. 
 Governor Hunter sternly forbade their removal to 
 this section, threatened to punish them as rebels, pur- 
 sued them with threats of vengeance and attempted 
 even to excite against them the Indians, who had 
 given them a cheering welcome and who remained 
 their constant and devoted friends. Long ago, they 
 urged, this land had been surrendered by them to 
 Queen Anne expressly for the occupation of the Ger- 
 mans. When citizens of Albany sought to hem them 
 in by buying up the land around them, the Indians 
 quickly sold the whole of it to the Palatines for three 
 
The Earliest Lutherans in America — The Germans. 1 8 1 
 
 hundred dollars, and in other ways, as far as in them 
 lay, these heathen natives came to their relief. 
 
 The people encountered for awhile in their new set- 
 tlement difficulties and privations that beggar descrip- 
 tion. They were wanting in everything necessary for 
 keeping house or cultivating the soil, clothing, furni- 
 ture, implements, cattle. A number of them suc- 
 ceeded in buying jointly an old gray mare which had 
 to make the round of the colony. Salt had to be 
 brought from Schenectady, nineteen miles, and from 
 the same point was carried on the shoulders of one of 
 their number the first bushel of wheat. This bushel 
 it is said, brought forth the following year the incredi- 
 ble yield of eighty-three bushels. It is a type of the 
 prosperity which rewarded their hunger, exposure and 
 toil. They lived at peace with each other and with 
 their wild neighbors, but the few Reformed Holland- 
 ers, who in considerable affluence resided here and 
 there close to them, showed for a long while great 
 contempt for these poor Lutheran Palatines and 
 Swabians. Although blest with the sight and the 
 services of a minister only once or twice a year, they 
 assembled on Sundays and edified one another as 
 well as they could through God's Word and the Songs 
 of Zion. They were of course without any civil ruler. 
 "Every one did what was right in his own eyes; they 
 hunted with the Indians, they attempted also to 
 teach their wild neighbors the arts of peace; the for- 
 est fell and yielded its place to the waving grain ; the 
 busy streams were employed in advancing the useful 
 operations of the mill ; seven villages, small but 
 thrifty, rose beneath their industry and ministered to 
 
1 82 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 their social enjoyment, whilst the long seasons of 
 labor were occasionally relieved by manly sports, by 
 innocent and temperate amusements. They felt se- 
 cure, too secure, in the possession of their ground. 
 The law of nature, the law of nations, they said, would 
 protect them in the enjoyment of the territory they 
 had redeemed from the wilderness and improved at 
 the cost of their own sweat and blood." 
 
 Alas ! for their simplicity, their ignorance of the 
 ways of the world, and their blind confidence in the 
 supposed promises and engagements of the Queen. 
 The cunning and greed alike of the Dutch and the 
 English soon subjected them, both under the pretense 
 of law and in open violation of it, to a series of out- 
 rages and robberies which dismembered this their sec- 
 ond settlement, and sent many of them adrift again 
 into a more distant wilderness. 
 
 Supposing the Indians to have been the sole posses- 
 sors of the soil, they were satisfied with the convey- 
 ance executed by the tribe. It never occurred to 
 them that it was necessary to obtain patents or title- 
 deeds from the Royal Governor of New York, and the 
 absence of these proved fatal to their security and 
 their hopes, and without any previous intimation of 
 the crafty designs of the rapacious speculators who 
 dispossessed them, the very soil which they had 
 purchased and with severe toil and self-denial had 
 made productive and habitable, was fraudulently sold 
 beneath their feet, 
 
 Smarting under a sense of great wrongs and out- 
 right robbery they at first threatened resistance by 
 force of arms. At last they concluded to deputize 
 
The Earliest Lutherans in America — The Germans, 183 
 
 three of their number to carry their appeal to the 
 home government at London. Arriving there after 
 a succession of most trying experiences and finding 
 themselves helpless, without friends or advisers, they 
 had to see two years pass by before they succeeded, 
 through the assistance of the German Lutheran court 
 preachers, in getting their cause before the ministry for 
 the colonies. They pleaded that at least some indem- 
 nity should be allowed them. But all was in vain. 
 Their grasping enemies had anticipated them and 
 secured a favorable decision. Their case was lost. 
 They were wantonly deprived of their property, their 
 homes, their all. Avarice, fraud, cunning, triumphed 
 over simplicity, uprightness and honest labor. 
 
 Some of the unfortunate people, yielding to the in- 
 evitable, contented themselves with leasing their own 
 farms from those who now had to be recognized as 
 the lawful proprietors, and remained accordingly in 
 Schoharie. A large company set out further west, 
 and as if fleeing from the robberies and violence of 
 civilization plunged once more into the depths of the 
 wilderness. Led by an Indian guide we find them in 
 1723 following the course of the Susquehanna and 
 amid terrible ordeals penetrating the heart of Penn- 
 sylvania, going southward as far as the mouth 
 of the Swatara, a few miles below what is now 
 Harrisburg. From thence they made their way 
 by irregular wanderings up the waters of that 
 stream till they came to the Tulpehocken region, a 
 few miles northeast of the present Reading where, in 
 a beautiful valley, in fair and free and fruitful Penn- 
 sylvania, though still among. the Indians, they found 
 
184 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 rest for their feet. They were soon followed by 
 others and in 1729 they were joined by Conrad Wei- 
 ser, whose father had been their chief leader in Scho- 
 harie, and who himself was to play a conspicuous and 
 honorable part in the progress of the Germans and 
 the development of the Church in Pennsylvania — not 
 to speak of his memorable services as an interpreter 
 for the Indians with whom he had spent a year of his 
 youth in the Mohawk valley. 
 
 The outrages suffered by the Palatines were ru- 
 mored abroad and the tide of German emigration 
 was in consequence turned away from New York. 
 To this it is doubtless owing, in a measure at least, 
 that the Church never attained in that state the 
 growth and strength that have long marked it in 
 Pennsylvania, which on account of various attractions 
 remained for years the desired haven for the Ger- 
 mans, who are ever seeking a better country. 
 
 Of the large host that arrived in New York in 1710 
 numbers went directly to Pennsylvania, drawn thither 
 by the kindness, peaceableness and worldly thrift of 
 the Friends. Some of them "with a capacity for easy 
 adaptation to their new circumstances assumed the 
 garb, the manner, and at length even the faith of the 
 Quakers." A considerable colony of Palatines set- 
 tled New Berne, N. C, in the same year. 
 
 Thus by a variety of circumstances, personal prefer- 
 ences, disappointments, disasters, providential deal- 
 ings, it happened that these four thousand Germans, 
 with their natural increase, were scattered broadcast 
 throughout the land. " They grow with the growth of 
 New York and Philadelphia; they cultivate the soil 
 
The Earliest Lutherans in A merica — The Germans. 185 
 
 on the flats of the Hudson; they are faithful tenants 
 in Schoharie; they subdue and enliven the wilderness 
 of Pennsylvania along the Tulpehocken and Swatara." 
 To the establishment of the Church they could under 
 the circumstances contribute directly but very little. 
 Unlike their Swedish brethren they came without pas- 
 tors and religious teachers to watch over their souls, 
 they lived in constant uncertainty and insecurity, 
 they were harrassed by pinching poverty and by the 
 continual aggressions of unprincipled men who had 
 the countenance of the authorities. Amid their perils, 
 their unsettled state, and their helplessness, it must 
 have been impossible for them to erect sanctuaries in 
 the desert, and although they came hither as the bene- 
 ficiaries of a munificent and Christian Queen, those 
 along the Hudson and in Schoharie were not permit- 
 ted for twenty years to welcome amongst them a pas- 
 tor of their own, or "to unite in public worship within 
 any enclosure more dignified than a barn or a hovel 
 of frame work." 
 
 There was here undoubtedly a will, but no way. 
 How could they build churches when wandering to 
 and fro year by year and fighting against hunger and 
 wild beasts, against the oppressions of those in power 
 and the brutalities of their spoilers? That some of 
 these South Germans did not remain constant in their 
 faith and either became indifferent to religious princi- 
 ple or were merged into some of the sects which then 
 already swarmed here, may be taken for granted. A 
 number of them, as was noted above, were drawn in 
 Philadelphia into the meeting of the Quakers. For 
 the most part, however, they were firmly established in 
 
1 86 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 Lutheran doctrine and at heart desirous of transmit- 
 ting it, pure and complete, to their children. Those 
 who remained in New York, where the Dutch Luther- 
 ans now had their own worship unmolested, united 
 promptly with their brethren though of a different 
 language, and joined heartily and actively in the ef- 
 forts to build up the Lutheran Church. Opportunity 
 alone was wanting for those who settled temporarily 
 along the Hudson and elsewhere, to give substantial 
 expression to their faith and zeal. We have reason 
 to believe that the devotion of the closet was not neg- 
 lected, that with many, in default of public religious 
 privileges, there was maintained a church in the house 
 and the children were reared in the nurture and ad- 
 monition of the Lord. In the traditions that have 
 been preserved we see the young man thirsting for 
 God in the desert, prizing his Bible above all worldly 
 treasures, and drawing solace and sustenance from 
 its promises while suffering cold and hunger in an 
 Indian wigwam. And along side of this is the scene 
 of the sire in extreme old age extolling the grace of 
 God in Christ Jesus and moving others to tears by 
 his attestation of the quickening power of "the old 
 Evangelical Lutheran doctrine," and the effectual 
 connection of the Spirit of God with his Holy Word. 
 We know also that Christian friends in England 
 had generously furnished them with Bibles, hymn- 
 books and copies of Arndt's " True Christianity," — 
 that incomparable volume which has for generations 
 served as a daily chaplain in thousands of Lutheran 
 homes — and herein they found the spiritual nourish- 
 ment which they craved in their hearts, the means of 
 
The Earliest Lutherans in America — The Germans. 187 
 
 refreshment in their hours of rest and devotion. 
 Along with these household ministrations of grace, 
 the instincts of Christian consciousness led them often, 
 even in the absence of preachers, to assemble for gen- 
 eral edification and for united prayer and praise. 
 
 Considerable streams of German Lutheran immi- 
 gration continued, during successive years, to flow into 
 the country. But the experience of former settlements 
 in the province of New York diverted the main cur- 
 rent towards Pennsylvania, although some subsequent 
 arrivals again went northward and joined themselves 
 to the remnants of the Palatine communities. For 
 the most part these were people of religious earnest- 
 ness and of devoted attachment to the Lutheran 
 Church'. "From the Palatinate, from Wiirtemberg, 
 from Darmstadt, and other portions of Germany, they 
 came, having one Lord, one faith, one baptism. Many 
 of them sought and found a home in Philadelphia and 
 vicinity, and. although unable in their poverty either 
 to build church or schoolhouse, or even to secure the 
 ground for such an object, they nevertheless main- 
 tained the unity of the faith, and hopefully awaited a 
 more prosperous day." 
 
 One of the most interesting and clearly determined 
 colonies of Lutherans, that were founded during the 
 colonial period in America, was that of the Salzburg- 
 ers.who were settled in what is now Effingham county, 
 Georgia, just a year after the first English settlement 
 under General Oglethorpe. They had been driven 
 from their native land by remorseless persecution. 
 Their story touched the heart of Europe and it has 
 furnished pathetic and tragic material to the historian 
 
1 88 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 and the poet, who vie with each other in describing 
 the journey of their exile "under God's free sky, as 
 they move along over the roads which his good 
 angels have thrown up for them." 
 
 The evangelical doctrines of the Reformation had 
 at an early period penetrated the mountainous terri- 
 tory of the Archiepiscopal See of Salzburg. Staupitz, 
 the spiritual father and noble friend of Luther, had 
 there ended his days. Eminent Lutheran preachers 
 had zealously proclaimed the Gospel among the peo- 
 ple, and many copies of the German Bible, the Augs- 
 burg Confession and Luther's Small Catechism, had 
 made their way into the valleys and cottages of that 
 region. The tortures of religious persecution were 
 employed to suppress these innovations. Preachers 
 were driven off or imprisoned. One was beheaded. 
 Yet the revived faith of the Gospel continued to grow 
 and to spread, sometimes strengthened by the resist- 
 ance it encountered, sometimes advancing peaceably 
 while the barbarous procedures for the repression 
 of Lutheran " heresy " were for a season suspended. 
 "About the end of 1684, the Archbishop Grandolf 
 issued an edict, driving out of the country in mid- 
 winter all Protestants refusing to be converted, and 
 requiring fathers and mothers to leave behind them 
 all children under fourteen years of age, that they 
 might be brought up in the Roman Catholic religion." 
 Several of his successors had resort to less rigorous 
 measures. 
 
 In 1727, Leopold Anton, an avaricious, reckless, 
 hardened sensualist, ascended the Archiepiscopal 
 throne. In the heat of a drunken fit, he one day 
 
The Earliest Lutherans in America — The Germans. 189 
 
 swore that he would drive the heretics out of the land, 
 even if thorns and thistles should overgrow their 
 fields. He was equal to Herod in keeping his oath. 
 The cunning arts of the Jesuits were first employed 
 to ferret out such as privately held to the evangelical 
 faith, and then by all kinds of persuasives, by "every 
 theatrical art," it was sought to attract them peace- 
 ably back to Catholicism. The policy of cunning 
 passed imperceptibly into one of violence. Bibles 
 and other devotional books were taken from them 
 and the rosary and scapulary forcibly put in their 
 place. Such as refused them were treated as rebels, 
 punished by fines, dragged about in irons, and thrown 
 into horrible prisons, and many hundreds of them 
 forced to fly from house and home. 
 
 The Protestant powers of the empire were invoked 
 in their behalf, but notwithstanding their tardy inter- 
 vention, insult, outrage and violence continued to be 
 heaped upon them. The distress of their situation at 
 last forced them to unite in a compact for life and 
 death. On a certain Sunday in August, 1731, about 
 one hundred men, from every mountain defile, wended 
 their way over rocky paths to a market village, where 
 they seated themselves around a table on which was 
 placed a vessel of salt. "Each man, with earnest 
 prayer, dipped the wetted fingers of his right hand 
 into the salt, and lifting them toward heaven took a 
 a solemn oath. To the true, Triune God they swore 
 never to desert the evangelical faith, and then swal- 
 lowed the salt as if it had been sacramental bread." 
 This of course exasperated the Archbishop yet more. 
 The Lutherans were charged with conspiracy, and 
 
190 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 Austrian troops were brought into the country and 
 quartered upon them. At the same time all the 
 passes were guarded and emigration was made a 
 crime. 
 
 Two months later this policy was reversed. Emi- 
 gration was made compulsory and that under circum- 
 stances of inhuman cruelty. All persons in the coun- 
 try not permanent residents, all farmers without 
 political rights, and all day-laborers and house-ser- 
 vants who adhered to the Augsburg Confession or to 
 the doctrine of the Reformed, were required under 
 heavy penalties to leave the country within one week. 
 Such as were owners of houses or land were allowed 
 from one to three months, at the end of which they 
 were to be outlawed and declared stripped of all right, 
 both of property and citizenship. "Only those who, 
 within fifteen days, should repent of their errors and 
 abjure them, and should formally return to the Rom- 
 ish Church were offered mercy." There was no help 
 against these atrocious proceedings. All the protests 
 and threats of Protestant Europe were unavailing. 
 From December, 1731, to November, 1732, the exiles, 
 aggregating probably thirty thousand souls, might be 
 seen in numerous companies and at various inter- 
 vals fleeing from the land of their birth, and wander- 
 ing, many of them knew not whither. Though meet- 
 ing with opposition and insult wherever they touched 
 on Catholic territory, this abuse was more than 
 equalled by the kindness and sympathy shown them 
 everywhere by their Lutheran brethren. 
 
 "Men came to honor in them the martyrs of the 
 truth, the instruments of God who were called again 
 
The Earliest Lutherans in America — The Germans. 1 9 1 
 
 to awaken a dead Christianity, a leaven to move the 
 sluggish mass of Evangelical Protestantism ; and the 
 more favorable the reports concerning the patience 
 with which they bore their fate, the beautiful, quiet 
 order of their marches, their exemplary deportment 
 in the cities and in their quarters, and the evangelical 
 spirit which they everywhere displayed, the higher 
 rose the common enthusiasm for them, and the 
 stronger became the desire to provide for them and 
 to do them good. Their march, therefore, through 
 Germany," continues Hagenbach, "assumed the form 
 of a triumphal procession. When they approached a 
 city, the clergy, the youth of the schools, and repre- 
 sentatives of the burghers went out to meet them, and 
 in procession escorted them into the city amid songs 
 and the ringing of bells. Divine service was cele- 
 brated, addresses and sermons were delivered in 
 honor of them; they were celebrated in poems, medals 
 were struck in their memory, and feasts, simple but 
 hearty, were prepared for them. Men strove for the 
 honor of having them in their houses and entertain- 
 ing them. Each person wanted one or more of the 
 Salzburgers under his own roof, and wished to hear 
 him at his own fireside recount the wonderful leadings 
 of God and the adventures which he and his compan- 
 ions had experienced ; and then to what a height did 
 wonder rise when the host and his family, in these 
 conversations, perceived how deeply these unlearned 
 people were versed in the Bible, and how skillful they 
 were in the explanation of doctrine, and in reproof, 
 and edification." 
 
 It was in fact their familiarity with the divine Word 
 
1 92 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 and their steadfast faith in its Author that had 
 marked them for the fires of persecution. And it 
 was not only in their flight from the oppressor that 
 men saw a parallel to the exodus of Israel from Egyp- 
 tian bondage, but in the marvellous deliverances and 
 preservations which the hand of Jehovah so mani- 
 festly accorded them, and which to their devout im- 
 agination were as clearly miraculous as the manna in 
 the desert and the fountain bursting from the rock. 
 
 Various countries opened their gates to welcome 
 these fugitives, but the greater portion accepted the 
 royal invitation of Prussia, whose noble king, Freder- 
 ick William I., after having satisfied himself of their 
 agreement in faith with the Augsburg Confession, 
 "from royal Christian pity and heartfelt sympathy 
 extended them a loving hand" of welcome into his 
 country in the day of their trouble and banishment- 
 Berlin became accordingly their general rendezvous. 
 Their reception was indeed most friendly and cheer- 
 ing. They were greeted with acclamations of joy and 
 well provided for both spiritually and temporally. 
 "The king met them at the Leipsic gate, bade them 
 be of good courage, and gave them a hearty welcome 
 as beloved children of his country." The queen enter- 
 tained them in the castle-garden and presented them 
 with Bibles and money. It is said that King William 
 was greatly surprised at the definite scriptural an- 
 swers he received when addressing to them religious 
 questions. "He asked a boy of fourteen years of 
 age, who on account of his faith had left his father 
 and mother, how he could answer for his conduct. 
 The boy said, "He that loveth father and mother 
 
The Earliest Lutherans in America — The Germans. 193 
 
 more than me is not worthy of me." The king then 
 asked how he expected to get along without his pa- 
 rents. The boy answered promptly, "When my father 
 and mother forsake me, then the Lord will take up." 
 
 Some of the Salzburg exiles passed on to Holland, 
 some sought a home in Sweden, some in England, 
 while others in their wanderings looked with longing 
 eyes beyond the Atlantic for a land of promise. 
 There the Trustees for establishing the colony of 
 Georgia "were providing a home for the indigent 
 population of Great Britain. The distress of the 
 Salzburgers moved this body to extend to them also 
 a refuge, and their benevolent consideration pro- 
 voked " the Society for the Propagation of Christian 
 knowledge to take an active interest in their removal 
 to Georgia. They were provided with free passage 
 across the sea. Parliament voted a liberal grant to 
 the Georgia colony and a fund of several thousand 
 pounds was raised by contributions to enable the 
 "Trustees to carry out their generous designs for the 
 Salzburgers." 
 
 These noble expressions of Christian humanity and 
 liberality were largely brought about through the 
 agency of the Senior Lutheran pastor at Augsburg, 
 the Rev. Samuel Urlsperger, who had himself been a 
 sufferer for conscience' sake, and who, after showing 
 them great personal kindness when on their march, 
 they halted and refreshed themselves among the 
 Lutheran people of that city, exerted himself to bring 
 their cause to the attention of the London Society 
 above named. And let it here be noted with empha- 
 sis that Urlsperger of Augsburg, G. A. Francke of 
 
J 94 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 Halle, who was a member of the London "Society de 
 Propaganda," etc., and the Court Chaplain Ziegen- 
 hagen, at London, were not only largely instrumental 
 in securing the assistance which brought the Salz- 
 burgers across the Atlantic, but that, to their Chris- 
 tian piety and missionary zeal, more than to any 
 other human agency, is due the founding of the 
 Lutheran Church in this country. Of the noblest ex- 
 amples of Hallean pietism, bound together by the 
 ties both of personal friendship and of the strongest 
 spiritual affinity, they alike had a heart for the trials 
 of their countrymen and brethren in the faith who 
 were separated by the sea from the communion of 
 their Church, and an enlightened forecast of that 
 Church transplanted to the American wilderness. 
 Their apostolical interest in these feeble American 
 communities and their co-operation with each other 
 secured not only substantial aid from Germany 
 and England for successive emigrations, but also 
 a number of spiritually-minded, cultured and faith- 
 ful shepherds to care for the exposed and forlorn 
 flocks in the desert. Without this patronage and the 
 unity of spirit and action which it prompted, they 
 might have sunk into utter spiritual destitution and 
 oblivion. 
 
 Under the promise of liberal grants of land and of 
 support until they could derive subsistance from the 
 soil, a company of ninety-one Salzburgers embarked 
 for America, landing at Charleston, in March, 1734. 
 They were accompanied by two pastors, John Martin 
 Bolzius and Israel Christian Gronau, both of whom 
 had been pupils at Francke's Orphan House in Halle, 
 
The Earliest Lutherans in America — The Germans. 195 
 
 and had been educated for the pastoral office at the 
 university. They were chosen for this mission by 
 Francke and Urlsperger, and proved wise, efficient 
 and faithful bishops, rich in the personal experience 
 of grace, fervent in Christian zeal, and abundant in 
 labors. 
 
 General Ogelthorpe, a name which Bancroft pro- 
 nounces a synonym for "vast benevolence of soul," 
 gave them a cordial welcome to his colony, offered 
 them kindly and valuable counsel, and became their 
 constant benefactor and patron, so that these pastors 
 subsequently testified : "He bears great love to the 
 servants and children of God." A " corps of observa- 
 tion " selected for them a district in the interior, thirty 
 miles from' Savannah, a choice which was altogether 
 satisfactory to the exiles. " Arriving upon the ground 
 with their wives and their little ones, they set up a 
 rock; they broke the silence of the wilderness as they 
 sang a hymn of praise ; they sought the blessing of 
 the Lord with the earnest voice of prayer; and they 
 erected a memorial to the goodness of God displayed 
 in their deliverance by naming their settlement 'Eben- 
 ezer,' or 'Hitherto the Lord has helped us.'" 
 
 Accessions came from time to time, enlarging the 
 settlement and strengthening its spiritual condition. 
 A second company, numbering fifty-seven, arrived 
 early in 1735. The favorable reports concerning the 
 Salzburgers stimulated the enterprise of the "Trus- 
 tees," and in October, 1735, they fitted out two ships 
 for Georgia laden with emigrants. Among these 
 were about eighty Salzburgers. Their voyage has 
 become famous from the presence of Oglethorpe and 
 
196 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 the two Wesleys in the company, and the profound 
 impression which was made upon John Wesley by the 
 calmness, the childlike confidence, the heroic spirit 
 and the joyful singing of these Lutherans during a 
 storm when every other heart was quaking and some 
 were almost dead with terror. Wesley's religious 
 experience had not reached the stage of filial faith 
 and joy, and the fortitude and cheerfulness of these 
 people, manifested in calm or tempest alike by men 
 and women and children, were a revelation to Wesley 
 which became a blessed factor in the development of 
 his own spiritual life and of the society he founded. 
 
 The majority of this company united at once with 
 the community at Ebenezer. Others followed year 
 after year, until they numbered, in 1741, a population 
 of more than twelve hundred. They were generally 
 characterized by fervent piety and governed by lofty 
 Christian principle. "No sooner did they take pos- 
 session of the wilderness than a tabernacle is set up 
 for the Lord. This is speedily followed by provision 
 for the education of the children : then an asylum for 
 the lonely orphan succeeds." It is doubtless for the 
 latter institution that Whitfield, who was greatly 
 touched by the spirituality of these people, is said 
 to have collected money in different parts of the 
 country. 
 
 Their pastors justified the wisdom that had selected 
 them. They possessed admirable administrative 
 qualities. They well understood the responsibilities 
 of their position and maintained a careful oversight 
 of the flock. "The fruits of their labor, as they grew 
 and ripened at Ebenezer in peace and industry, in 
 
The Earliest Lutherans in America — The Germans. 197 
 
 moral purity and Christian love, presented to the 
 eyes of strangers and visitors all the appearance of a 
 
 
 25 
 w 
 m 
 w 
 
 5 
 
 D 
 
 N 
 O 
 
 g 
 
 § 
 
 field which the Lord hath blessed." "Their town was 
 marked by neatness and pleasantness. No drunken, 
 
198 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 no idle, no profligate people were amongst them; in- 
 dustry and harmony prevailed, souls were converted 
 by the word of God, and believers were edified." Ban- 
 croft says of them : "They were indeed a noble army 
 of martyrs going forth in the strength of God, and 
 triumphing in the faith of the Gospel under the 
 severest hardships and the most rigorous persecu- 
 tions. They were marshalled under no banners save 
 that of the cross, and were preceded by no leaders 
 save their spiritual teachers and the great Captain of 
 their Salvation." 
 
 Pennsylvania continued to be the " Land of Prom- 
 ise " for German immigrants. Their numbers began 
 to excite serious apprehensions on the part of the 
 civil authorities. The colonial records of that prov- 
 ince in 1 71 7 contain an official communication from 
 Governor Keith, stating that great numbers of foreign- 
 ers, strangers to our language and constitution, are 
 spreading themselves over the country, and warning 
 against the danger o f so large an influx of aliens. An- 
 other large accession reached the same province in 
 1727 from W " rtemberg, the Palatinate, Hesse-Darm- 
 stadt and other German Principalities. No wonder 
 the English settlers and the government became 
 alarmed. These strangers threatened to overwhelm 
 them and were likely soon to gain the ascendency in 
 the government. Logan, the Secretary of William 
 Penn, complained that the Germans were arriving in 
 such masses that they would ere long form a German 
 colony, and the story of the Saxon Conquest of Brit- 
 ain might repeat itself in the hitherto peaceful do- 
 main of the Quakers. The legislative branch of the 
 
The Earliest Lutherans in America — The Germans. 199 
 
 government took fright over the same spectre, and 
 addressed, in 1 728, an official warning to the Governor, . 
 reminding him that this vast immigration was endan- 
 gering the peace and security of the state and propos- 
 ing the inauguration of measures either to prevent or 
 restrict the further importation of foreigners. The 
 Governor sharing their fears, a law prohibiting further 
 immigration was enacted. Not that there was hos- 
 tility to these people themselves, many of whom it was 
 admitted were industrious, peaceable and well-dis- 
 posed, but it was the purpose to prevent an English 
 settlement from becoming a colony of foreigners with 
 the predominance of their laws and language. These 
 astute Pennsylvania legislators were however not 
 long in discovering that their fears had gotten the 
 better of their wits. Their attempt to tackle the emi- 
 gration problem discovered them to be a set of fools. 
 Their enactment against foreigners proved a terrible 
 blow to the prosperity of the infant colony. One 
 year sufficed to abolish all restrictions excepting those 
 against persons who would become a public burden. 
 And but a few years later the very authorities that 
 had been frightened into hostile procedures against 
 their further immigration publicly attested the bene- 
 fits which the colony was deriving from these indus- 
 trious Germans who had changed the wild forest into 
 a fruitful garden. The prosperous condition of the 
 colony, Governor Thomas declared, was for the most 
 part due to the industry of the "oppressed protest- 
 ants from the Palatinate and other parts of Germany " 
 — a testimony which voiced the general estimate of 
 the German settlers of Pennsylvania. 
 
200 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 The restrictions to their coming being removed, 
 thousands kept pouring into the colony. In the au- 
 tumn of 1749 twenty-five ships brought 7049 souls, 
 and for that whole summer the German immigrants 
 numbered 12,000. The following year witnessed an- 
 other large influx and so succeeding years, especially 
 
 i755-_ 
 This great influx from Germany was brought about, 
 
 alas, not by any missionary colonizing of the Church, 
 nor even by any projects of colonial expansion on the 
 part of the State. It was the work of ship companies 
 and their cunning and voracious agents, who carried 
 on a traffic in human souls which was attended with 
 nearly all the abominations and cruelties of the Afri- 
 can slave trade. These agents, known as Neulander, 
 overran Germany, preaching up emigration to the 
 "New Land" which flowed not only with milk and 
 honey, but with gold and silver, where men could reap 
 without having sown, where the maid-servant became 
 a lady and the ploughman a lord. Operating with 
 such representations upon the simple-minded peas- 
 antry, especially upon the poor and oppressed classes, 
 they prevailed upon large numbers to make their way 
 to the ports of Holland where, before sailing, they 
 were compelled to sign a contract in the English lan- 
 guage, the purport of which they did not comprehend. 
 They were crowded and packed into vessels even to 
 the verge of suffocation and subjected to such inhu- 
 man experiences that during a single year over two 
 thousand of these wretched people died during the 
 passage. Such as survived the untold miseries of the 
 voyage found themselves, on landing at Philadelphia, 
 
The Earliest Ltitherans in America — The Germans. 201 
 
 at the disposal of the captain of the vessel, who under 
 the hammer of the auctioneer, sold husband, wife, 
 parent, child, to the highest bidder, who in turn held 
 them in servitude according to age and strength, 
 three, six, ten or more years, the proceeds of their 
 sale covering the expense of their transportation. 
 
 "Many hardy Germans, having money enough to 
 pay their fare, preferred to sell themselves for a term 
 ■of years, in order to learn the language and the ways 
 of the country. Others paid half the fare and were 
 sold for the remainder; and some paid the passage of 
 the family by selling one or two of their surplus child- 
 ren into bondage during minority." This unhappy 
 traffic was of course not restricted to the German 
 population. The number of such bond-servants even 
 in New England is said to have been quite large, 
 while in Pennsylvania every kind of business depended 
 upon the labor of indentured servants. " Many of these 
 were of excellent character and rose to good positions. 
 Some bond-maids were married to those who pur- 
 chased them. Through industry and frugality some 
 servants acquired wealth and founded families that 
 rose to respectability and honor." 
 
 The papers of the day abound in advertisements 
 offering for sale German immigrants. And the Eng- 
 lish, Dutch and German residents of Philadelphia, 
 and even some from other colonies, repaired to the 
 newly arrived vessel and selected from the healthy 
 passengers such as they deemed best adapted to their 
 employment. As each member of a family upon their 
 arrival was liable to be purchased by a different party, 
 they often became widely scattered, were kept asunder 
 
202 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 through long and weary years of bondage, and doomed 
 in many cases never to see each other's face again. 
 Great masses of helpless people coming hither under 
 such circumstances, evoked the deepest commisera- 
 tion of their countrymen. Their wrongs and suffer- 
 ings led to the formation of "the German Society of 
 Pennsylvania," which aimed to provide such legal as- 
 sistance as might be needed by these foreigners on 
 their arrival to secure their rights, and especially to 
 protect them against the injustice and inhumanity of 
 the sea captains and the shameless treachery of the 
 emigration sharks. 
 
 History thus records a rapid increase of the Ger- 
 man element in Pennsylvania. About the middle of 
 the century the whole population of the province is 
 set down between 175,000 and 220,000, and of this 
 number fully one-half were Germans. Among these 
 the Lutheran element outnumbered the Reformed two 
 to one. It may safely be asserted that the Lutheran 
 population of Pennsylvania alone, in the year 1750, 
 aggregated the enormous figure of 60,000. 
 
 Before the arrival of the Salzburgers, German 
 Lutherans, evidently Palatines, had settled in Charles- 
 ton, S. C, then a flourishing town. Pastor Bolzius 
 administered the Lord's Supper to them and he and 
 his colleague gave probably the impulse to the forma- 
 tion of a congregation, although with some, their love 
 for the Word and the Holy Sacraments was so great 
 that they concluded to remove to Ebenezer as soon 
 as possible. They were without a regular pastor un- 
 til 1755, when the Rev. Joh. G. Friederichs was for 
 some years in charge, laying the corner-stone of a 
 
The Earliest Lutherans in America — The Germans. 203 
 
 church in 1759. He withdrew shortly after this time 
 and the church was not built till 1763. 
 
 The earliest settlement of Germans in that colony 
 falls in the reign of Queen Anne. They occupied 
 various districts in the interior, at the forks of the 
 Saluda and Broad rivers, on the banks of the Con- 
 garee and Wateree and along the Savannah, and re- 
 ceived large grants of land from the Queen for church 
 and school purposes. Of the Dutch Lutherans on 
 James Island mention has already been made. About 
 1735, colonies of Germans and Swiss settled in 
 Orangeburg, and organized a Lutheran congregation, 
 the first one in the two Carolinas. With fresh acces- 
 sions in 1737 came also a pastor, J oh. Ulrich Giesen- 
 danner, a native of Switzerland, who had presumably 
 been ordained in that country, but was engaged for a 
 time as teacher of the Halle Orphanage. He was the 
 first Lutheran minister in the Carolinas and served 
 this congregation for a period of ten years, laboring 
 amid great difficulties. A house of worship, built of 
 wood and clay, was erected some time before 1743. 
 Immigration from Germany continued and the entire 
 district was colonized almost exclusively by Germans 
 and Swiss. 
 
 Another colony settled, in 1737, in a district form- 
 erly called Saxe-Gotha, now Lexington county, about 
 one hundred miles form Charleston. Its numbers 
 were increased by a large influx of their countrymen 
 especially in the years 1744 and 1750. A Reformed 
 preacher had the spiritual oversight of them for some 
 time, but Lutheran settlers, like others in different 
 parts of the same colony, made application to their 
 
204 
 
 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 brethren at Ebenezer for Lutheran ministrations and 
 for a Lutheran shepherd. The best these could do 
 
 for them was to send them books for devotional pur- 
 poses and for the instruction of the young. Still 
 another settlement of German Lutherans was founded 
 
The Earliest Lutherans in America — The Germans. 205 
 
 in Abbeville County, S. C, about 1763 and 1764. In 
 some of these districts the Lutherans erected the first 
 churches. 
 
 In 1 710 two ship-loads of Palatines, numbering alto- 
 gether six hundred and fifty souls, were colonized by 
 the beneficent Queen Anne in North Carolina, at the 
 confluence of the Neuse and Trent, where in conjunc- 
 tion with a considerable body of Swiss they formed a 
 settlement which was called New Berne. A year later 
 a terrible Indian massacre, instigated by some white 
 wretches, almost exterminated the colony and applied 
 the torch to their humble dwellings. Such as re- 
 mained suffered, like their countrymen in New York, 
 greater outrages from the white savages than they 
 endured after this time from the Red men. They 
 were for the most part of the Lutheran faith, but they 
 had no pastoral servcies and no house of worship, 
 and appear to have been gradually absorbed by the 
 Episcopal denomination, which was the religion estab- 
 lished by law in the Carolinas. 
 
 Some German Protestant families, aggregating fifty 
 in number, settled in 1714 along the Rappahannock 
 river, in what is now Madison County, Va. They 
 were fugitives from the New Berne settlement where 
 the Indians had spread terror and desolation. 
 Twenty families were added to them in 171 7. The 
 latter came from the neighborhood of Alsace and the 
 Palatinate, fleeing from the extreme distress which had 
 overtaken those fair countries. The Rev. John Cas- 
 par Stoever found there, in 1733, about three hundred 
 people with an organized congregation, the Hebron 
 Church, of which he reports himself the first pastor, 
 
206 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 and says that for sixteen years it had been without a 
 pastor and without the ordinances of public worship. 
 
 The seeds of Lutheranism, it seems, were destined to 
 be scattered, even in the earliest period of American 
 history over every portion of the country — a proph- 
 ecy and a pledge that the Lutheran Church was ulti- 
 mately to reap a harvest here co-extensive with the 
 length and breadth of this vast domain. On the wild 
 and forbidding coast of Maine a few German emi- 
 grants were located in 1739. An accession of forty 
 families from Brunswick and Saxony was welcomed 
 by them in 1740. They entered the harbor of Broad 
 Bay and effected a settlement where the present town 
 of Waldoboro' stands. They had been tempted away 
 from their homes by the siren allurements which cun- 
 ning speculators offered them in the form of free 
 homes, fertile acres, salubrious climate, governmental 
 protection and provision for the support of their re- 
 ligion — promises which were kept, to the ear but 
 broken to the heart. They found a sterile soil, an 
 unbroken forest, savage beasts and more savage men. 
 They suffered incredible hardships and almost per- 
 ished of starvation. The Indians fell upon them in 
 1746, reduced their rude but peaceful habitations to 
 ashes, murdered many of the settlers in cold blood, 
 carried the remainder into captivity and turned the 
 whole region into a dreary waste. 
 
 Strange to tell, a few years later the flattering rep- 
 resentations of General Waldo succeeded in drawing 
 to this same inhospitable region another body of Ger- 
 mans, as if "the soil that had drunk in the blood of 
 their martyred brethren, was to them consecrated 
 
The Earliest Lutherans in America — The Germans. 207 
 
 ground." Some twenty families landed on the bleak 
 coast of Maine late in November, 175 1, and public 
 and private charity had to be invoked to provide for 
 their necessities through a New England winter. 
 With the opening of spring they journeyed inland 
 and joined the remnant of their brethren who, after 
 the massacre, had returned to their old possessions at 
 Broad Bay. Moved by the magnificent offers and 
 promises of the "hereditary Lord of Broad Bay," sixty 
 more families soon followed, and it is claimed by the 
 historians of Maine that altogether as many as fifteen 
 hundred Germans emigrated from time to time and 
 settled on the patent of this self-styled "hereditary 
 lord." They were doomed for the most part to a 
 miserable fate. The promises of their so-called pa- 
 tron were left wholly unfulfilled. Numbers arriving 
 in the fall of the year, "they dragged out a winter of 
 almost inconceivable suffering. Many froze to death, 
 many perished with hunger or diseases induced by 
 their privations." 
 
 Instead of large tracts being assigned to them sev- 
 erally on the coast, they were taken into the heart of 
 the wilderness, they were left defenceless against 
 the tomahawk and scalping-knife of the Indian. 
 They came into extreme destitution. It is said of 
 one family that they subsisted a whole winter on frost- 
 fish, with only four quarts of meal, " and many a wo- 
 man did a hard day's work at planting or hoeing for 
 a quart of butter-milk." At last, when under dread- 
 ful hardships they had cleared the forest, when they 
 had brought the land under cultivation, when they had 
 ■erected comfortable shelter for their families, and 
 
208 
 
 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 their improvements had made the property valuable; 
 these pious, unsuspecting Lutherans discovered that 
 the title to their lands was not valid, and thus what 
 the Indians had spared was to be taken from them by 
 their Christian friends. In this dilemma a number of 
 them repurchased their lands, receiving other deeds, 
 only to be harassed again by the harpies of the law 
 and the greed of inhuman peculators, contrary to 
 every principle of justice and good faith, with no rem- 
 edy for their grievances and without the least remun- 
 eration or indemnity for their losses. 
 
 Although some of the colony were adherents of the 
 
 ONE OF THE FIRST DANISH LUTHERAN CHURCHES IN AMERICA. 
 
 Reformed worship, and some were Moravians, they 
 united with the Lutherans, as soon as they had erected 
 huts for themselves, in building a humble church in a 
 central position. Though without an ordained pas- 
 tor, they assembled every Lord's Day for public wor- 
 ship. One of their principal men, John Ulmer, took 
 the lead, acted as their minister and really received 
 pay as such from the patron of the colony. 
 
The Earliest Lutherans hi America — The Germans. 209 
 
 In the first quarter of the eighteenth century Ger- 
 man and Dutch Lutherans were found in New Jersey. 
 Congregations were organized at Hackensack, where 
 Dutch Lutherans had settled somewhere about 1680 
 or 1690, and in Bergen, Hunterdon and Salem Coun- 
 ties, where also the Dutch and German Lutherans 
 were combined. 
 
 These churches were for the most part organized by 
 Falckner, for some time the only Lutheran minister 
 in New York and New Jersey. He labored some 
 twenty years in this section, diligently hunting up the 
 settlements of Lutherans and faithfully ministering to 
 them. He was succeeded by Rev. Berkenmeier, who 
 from 1725 to 1732 served all the congregations in that 
 region, bringing some of them to marked prosperity. 
 He in turn was followed by Knoll, Wolf and the ever 
 faithful pastors of the Swedish churches on the Dela- 
 ware, who though living a hundred miles remote, and 
 overburdened with the cares of their own churches, 
 kept a watchful eye on the German and Dutch con- 
 gregations in both these provinces, and again and 
 again are seen kindly ministering, in whatever lang- 
 uage was required, to these brethren in the faith. 
 
 No traces have been found of a Lutheran settle- 
 ment in Maryland during this period, but a recently 
 discovered letter of Lord Baltimore, written to his 
 agent in 1732, offers in his free colony an asylum to 
 the Palatines and Salzburgers. The reasons for de- 
 clining this invitation are unknown. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE CHURCH OK THE DISPERSION. 
 
 THE Apostle Peter addressed his first epistle "to 
 the elect who are sojourners of the Dispersion 
 in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bythi- 
 nia," (Rev. Vers.) We can have no better definition 
 for the Lutherans who during the first half of the eigh- 
 teenth century were scattered throughout the "divers 
 provinces and regions" of the New World, all the 
 way from Maine to Georgia. The Germans especially 
 had become numerous. The Palatines had multiplied 
 rapidly both by natural increase and by large rein- 
 forcements from the father-land, and they had become 
 dispersed over nearly all the colonies. The German 
 Lutherans, who kept pouring into Philadelphia by 
 thousands upon thousands, were scattered far into the 
 interior, having strong and flourishing communities in 
 Montgomery, Berks, Lancaster and York Counties. 
 Their entire number throughout the country at the 
 middle of the century fell probably but little short of 
 100,000. The great majority of these lived in Penn- 
 sylvania, where they were recognized as a large and 
 notable element of society. In other colonies likewise 
 they made their presence felt, and both by their thrifty 
 ways, their pure morality and their ardent piety at- 
 tracted the admiration of their neighbors. Dr. Dor- 
 chester says : "The German emigration was not only 
 extensive but very pure, and almost wholly Protestant, 
 with a high standard of morality and distinguished for 
 
The Church of the Dispersion. 2 1 1 
 
 Christian virtues." They consisted, however, for the 
 most part, not of the great ones of the world. 
 
 As among the early Christians " not many wise men 
 after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble," 
 were among them. They sought in this land refuge 
 from the political and ecclesiastical oppressions which 
 had kept them in poverty and misery. It was largely 
 the extremity of their distress, the desperation of 
 souls whom religious persecution and the ravages of 
 war had stripped of their earthly all, that drove them 
 to these hospitable shores. Their coming was em- 
 phatically a struggle for existence. And existence is 
 about all that many could boast of for the first gene- 
 ration of their settlement here, numbers of them be- 
 ing content with the servitude of years for their pas- 
 sage which put the sea between them and their op- 
 pressors. 
 
 There were indeed among them persons from the 
 higher classes, men of influence, of culture and of 
 means, who rendered to their brethren in the faith 
 great services both for their temporal and spiritual 
 welfare. In the case of not a few, industry and fru- 
 gality gradually brought prosperity and wealth, but 
 the masses of them were not landed proprietors or 
 wealthy merchants. On their arrival they found 
 themselves in an almost unexplored wilderness, in a 
 state of absolute destitution, and a long period must, 
 in the nature of things, elapse before their laborious 
 toil would yield them more than the necessities of a 
 livelihood. Besides the ordinary trials in a wild dis- 
 trict which they were the first to settle and subdue, 
 they were subjected to unrighteous maltreatment by 
 
2 1 2 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 neighbors and officials into whose clutches they had 
 fallen ; the tenure to their lands, which their labor 
 and indescribable hardships had cleared and brought 
 under cultivation, was in a number of cases pro- 
 nounced invalid. Princely domains allotted to them 
 by royal munificence were in turn wrested from them 
 after their improvements had made them valuable. 
 The emigrant runner and the real estate shark, then, 
 as now, seem to have formed an infernal partnership, 
 by which they first lured these people into the desert, 
 and then, after by their pains it had been made to 
 blossom as the rose, they dispossessed them of their 
 homes and despoiled them of their property. One 
 shrinks from portraying the cruelties, the wrongs, the 
 robberies, the harrowing sorrows which were endured 
 by those in whom the doctrines and treasures of our 
 church were first translated into this country. 
 
 Although these trials were such as most fully tested 
 her vitality, yet to look for a vigorous upbuilding of 
 the Church under such circumstances would be, to say 
 the least, to expect moral miracles. Such miracles 
 are indeed not unknown, and the depth of her poverty 
 has more than once coincided with the period of the 
 Church's bloom. Yet it is unwarrantable to cite here 
 the rapid development of primitive Christianity; for 
 then the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit supplied those 
 resources which are indispensable to the maintenance 
 of religious ordinances and institutions. A cer- 
 tain proportion of this world's goods is ordinarily 
 necessary for the supply of an adequate ministry, for 
 the provision of places of public worship, and forthe 
 education of youth. Inevitably therefore the estab- 
 
The Church of the Dispersion. 213 
 
 lishment and growth of the Church was sadly retarded 
 by the necessitous circumstances and miserable con- 
 dition of those Lutherans who settled the primeval 
 forests of America. Of material there was no lack. 
 There never has been. Fields white to the harvest 
 are ever calling for Lutheran reapers. The very 
 abundance of the material staggered and overwhelmed 
 the heroic men who sought to rear out of it a 
 Christian church. With all their zeal for their spir- 
 itual mother and their love and sympathy for her peo- 
 ple, they seem to have deplored and deprecated the 
 continuous streams pouring in, "because they were 
 calculated by their very dependence and helplessness 
 to divide the attentions of the pastors, already over- 
 burdened with labors, and to cramp the energies of 
 congregations already established." 
 
 A few of the colonies, like fhe Swedes and Salzburg- 
 ers, had brought pastors with them, and they organ- 
 ized flourishing congregations immediately upon their 
 arrival, and wherever there were Lutheran congrega- 
 tions served by Lutheran pastors, a church-building 
 and a school-house would soon rise out of the earth. 
 On the shores of the Delaware and in the savannas of 
 Georgia the silence of ages was broken by the songs 
 of Zion, and the joy and prosperity which marked 
 those godly communities show what might have been, 
 had all the Lutheran settlements been supplied from 
 the very first with earnest and faithful ministers. 
 Alas! what might have been in every period of our 
 church in this country, had the supply of the minis- 
 try been at all times equal to the demand, had the 
 number of workmen been commensurate with the 
 
214 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 work ? Here has been the fatal drawback to the 
 growth of the American Lutheran Church. This has 
 been her vital hurt, her festering sore. From the 
 time, two centuries ago, that her wandering fugitives 
 were scattered over the bleak mountains and trackless 
 forests of this wide new world, down to the closing 
 decade of the nineteenth century, there has never 
 been a period in the Lutheran Church which did not 
 reveal vast numbers of her neglected children over 
 whom the heart must sigh as over lost sheep that 
 have no shepherd. The Church's wants appear always 
 to be multiplying faster than the means of supplying 
 them, the laity increasing in more rapid proportions 
 than the ministry. At the close ot the year 1888 sta- 
 tistics show that the average yearly gain of new 
 churches during the last four years is four hundred 
 and sixteen • that of ministers only one hundred and 
 sixty-six. 
 
 The temporal condition of these early Lutherans was 
 then but equalled by their melancholy spiritual desti- 
 tution. The great body had come over the water 
 without any religious instructors, without any organ- 
 ization or formal bond between them, and without any 
 pecuniary means with which either to erect houses of 
 worship or to employ ministers had it been possible 
 to procure any of their language. There was no mis- 
 sion board to care for them. There was no charita- 
 ble organization in the fatherland to interest the pub- 
 lic in their behalf. They had come, too, from the 
 numerous different principalities and governments of 
 Germany, in one of the most gloomy periods of its 
 history, and they were therefore without any bond of 
 
The Church of the Dispersion. 215 
 
 national sympathy or co-operation, but rather alien-. 
 ated from each other and divided by traditional ani- 
 mosities and antipathies, while not a single govern- 
 ment in Germany is known to have given either aid, 
 comfort or protection to a solitary company of its 
 suffering emigrants. 
 
 Sweden, with the hearty encouragement of its sov- 
 ereign, forwarded generous assistance to the Lutheran 
 congregations of its American colonists on the Dela- 
 ware, and supplied them with a continuous succession 
 of able pastors, who brought their churches to a high 
 degree of prosperity. The Dutch, the English and 
 the Scotch extended a large measure of support to 
 the missionaries and congregations of their respective 
 churches in the New World. But the thousands of 
 Germans in Pennsylvania and the adjacent provinces 
 had not a single state government, nor a single church 
 organization to look after their spiritual welfare, and, 
 excepting the active Court-chaplain Ziegenhagen in 
 London, and the noble Francke at Halle, and a few 
 more of their Pietist brethren, there seems to have 
 prevailed universal and absolute indifference among 
 the civil and ecclesiastical authorities of Germany 
 toward the spiritual welfare of their brethren who had 
 emigrated to America. 
 
 There were laboring among the dispersed Luther- 
 ans of this country, about the year 1730, eight regular 
 ministers. Two of these cared for the flock at Eben- 
 ezer. Two Swedish pastors ministered to their coun- 
 trymen in the little nook around Philadelphia, now 
 embraced partly in the State of Delaware, partly in 
 Pennsylvania. In the province of New York was 
 
The Church of the Dispersion. 217 
 
 stationed since 1725 Rev. William Christopher Berk- 
 enmeier, serving congregations at New York, Albany, 
 Athens, Newberg (Quassaik), and West Camp, besides 
 three in New Jersey, preaching in Dutch, German and 
 English as circumstances required. The congregation 
 in New York was large and prosperous. Although 
 thousands of Lutherans were settled along the Hud- 
 son and the Mohawk, and in other parts of the colony 
 and of New Jersey, there was no other regularly or- 
 dained minister in all that district. Rev. John Cas- 
 par Stoever was with the little colony on the Rappa- 
 hannock, and another Stoever, a relative of the above, 
 bearing exactly the same name, who came to this 
 country in 1728, was residing at New. Holland, Lan- 
 caster County, Pa., having for a brief time served the 
 congregations at Philadelphia, Providence and New 
 Hanover. Rev. J. U. Giesendanner was the spiritual 
 shepherd of one of the South Carolina communities. 
 Between these few laborers intervened distances ex- 
 tending hundreds of miles, with no roads connecting 
 the different localities, with no possible means of 
 travel save on horseback, with no protection against 
 the wild beasts that prowled through the forests and 
 no security against the savage who was ever lying in 
 ambush for the white intruder into his hunting- 
 grounds. The large province of Pennsylvania, with a 
 Lutheran population of sixty thousand, had in all its 
 area one solitary German pastor. 
 
 Long before this period the Puritans of New Eng- 
 land had an average of more than two ministers to a 
 congregation, and all of them men of education, for 
 the most part voluntary exiles from England where 
 
2l8 
 
 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 they suffered for their convictions. So far as the care 
 of their own laborious parishes and their knowl- 
 edge of the language 
 permitted, the Swed- 
 ish pastors ministered 
 to the little German 
 congregation in Phila- 
 delphia and dispens- 
 ed the gospel occa- 
 sionally to the numer- 
 ous surrounding settle- 
 m e n t s, preaching i n 
 groves and barns, and 
 founding churches at 
 Lancaster and German- 
 town (1730) and at 
 York (1733). From 
 the beginning the most 
 cordial relations ob- 
 tained between the 
 Swedes and the Ger- 
 mans. The Salzburg 
 pastors extended their 
 ministrations to some 
 of the struggling com- 
 munities in South Car- 
 olina. The Dutch con- 
 gregation in New York 
 reached out a hand to their destitute German breth- 
 ren. As far as in them lay, and with as close sympa- 
 thy as the state o f the country permitted, there was co- 
 operation between these sporadic Lutheran beginnings. 
 
 TRINITY E. L. CHURCH, LANCASTER, PA. 
 
The Church of the Dispersion. 219 
 
 With almost superhuman labors and hardships minis- 
 ters traveled from one field to another, most of them 
 able to preach in Dutch, German, Swedish and Eng- 
 lish. But it was like throwing an occasional crumb to 
 souls at the point of starvation. Irregular services 
 at long intervals are little better than none. The 
 ministrations are too limited and too hasty to leave 
 permanent impressions. The life of a Christian so- 
 ciety cannot be maintained by a casual religious serv- 
 ice. No church can be established without constant 
 pastoral oversight. No flock can be folded unless it 
 be regularly fed and watched and tended. 
 
 It suggests a miracle when we read of one congre- 
 gation that survived although the Lord's Supper had 
 not been administered in it for eight years. What 
 progress was possible in a case like that of N(-wberg 
 on the Hudson, whose contract with the pastor stipu- 
 lates : "We do call, constitute and receive Mr. Wm. 
 Christopher Berkenmeier, for our lawful teacher of the 
 parish of Quassaic, to minister unto us twice a year, as 
 well in the preachingof the Holy Gospel purely accord- 
 ing to the Holy Scriptures and the Symbolical Books 
 of our Lutheran Church, as in administering the Holy 
 Sacraments according to Christ's institution, and 
 practicing the usual ceremonies of the fellow-believers 
 of the unalterable Confession of Augsburg." The 
 purest doctrine and the most complete sacramental 
 service twice a year would hardly be adequate for the 
 building up of a live and vigorous Christian congre- 
 gation. Effective organization under such circum- 
 stances was impossible. With others the situation 
 was still more forlorn. They did not for years have 
 
220 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 a single service. The children grew up in ignorance, 
 except where parents of extraordinary piety would 
 instruct them in the way of salvation. Whole families 
 in great numbers were left without baptism or relig- 
 ious teaching. Many moved to and fro in the hope 
 of having the advantages of churches and schools. 
 
 Besides this absolute lack of Christian institutions 
 and schools, every outward circumstance and influ- 
 ence, as is the case in frontier life to-day, was unfa- 
 vorable to morality and religion. Where such bul- 
 warks as the church and school are wanting, the forces 
 of evil are sure to become bold and aggressive, and 
 irreligion and immorality overgrow the neglected and 
 uncultivated soil. Because of abounding iniquity the 
 love of many waxed cold. Childhood's instructions 
 were forgotten, the hold of ancestral traditions and 
 influences was weakened, faith for the want of nourish- 
 ment languished, and many of the lost sheep of the 
 house of Israel, wandering and forlorn, fell a prey to 
 devouring worldline.ss and ungodliness. Among the 
 Palatines in particular there was a sad declension in 
 spiritual life, and numbers became indifferent to relig- 
 ious principles. In the absence of the Church and 
 the Gospel the knowledge of God faded from their 
 minds. 
 
 On others the severe trials to which they were ex- 
 posed and the sorely felt spiritual privations which 
 they endured, wrought out a very different result. 
 Some had been so deeply rooted and grounded in the 
 doctrines and experience of the Gospel, that the very 
 extremity of their distress only revealed to them the 
 preciousness of their faith and begot in them the pur- 
 
The Church of the Dispersion. 221 
 
 pose of transmitting it uncorrupted to their children. 
 They had not suffered in their native land the loss of 
 all things for their holy religion, now to despise its 
 precepts or its principles in the land of their exile. 
 The consciousness of their salvation in Christ, which 
 sustained them under the horrors of persecution, 
 nerved and cheered them in their poverty and strug- 
 gles where no one molested them for conscience' sake. 
 
 They were mighty in the Scriptures. They had a 
 daily preacher in the large quarto of Arndt's "True 
 Christianity." They could enliven their daily toil 
 with the songs of salvation. They turned their rude 
 homes into a joyful Bethel. 
 
 A people grounded like the Salzburgers in the faith 
 of the Gospel, who, amid the most cruel outrages of 
 persecution, were ever occupied with thanksgiving, 
 praises and prayer; whose glowing earnestness and 
 spiritual joy so melted the heart of Germany that 
 their passage through the country was welcomed as 
 the medium for the regeneration of its formalistic 
 and dead churches ; who, as they passed down the 
 Rhine " between the castled crags, the vineyards and 
 the white-walled towns that adorn its banks, con- 
 versed amid hymns and psalms, of justification," were 
 not in serious danger now of departing from the liv- 
 ing God. 
 
 The fire upon the altar was kept burning so 
 brightly, and it received such nourishment from the 
 study of God's Word and the use of devotional manu- 
 als at the fireside, and from the public services con- 
 ducted by the laity in many localities, that the cold 
 winds of adversity only heightened and strengthened 
 
222 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 the flames. The dreary and cheerless forests of 
 Pennsylvania were lighted up and warmed by the 
 sunbeams of the Gospel and the fervor of Lutheran 
 Pietism. 
 
 Such spiritural nutriment as they enjoyed but deep- 
 ened the craving for a fuller supply. The imper- 
 fect administration of divine service, the very oc- 
 casional delivery of a sermon by a preacher from a 
 remote locality, by one who was perhaps an utter 
 stranger to them and to the very Gospel he pro- 
 claimed, kindled in them an ardent craving for the 
 stated enjoyment of the sanctuary, the full fellow- 
 ship of their church, and the regular dispensation 
 of God's pure Word and the holy sacraments by resi- 
 dent pastors. And they knew whence to look for 
 help. In their distress they called upon the Lord. 
 And they persisted in their prayers with a confidence 
 that is sure of being ultimately heard. 
 
 But the preachers of the Word, though receiving 
 their commission from Heaven, never fall from the 
 skies. To organize congregations, build churches and 
 maintain Christian schools, ministers are indispensa- 
 ble. To raise up ministers here in advance of Semi- 
 naries or Professors for their training, and where the 
 people were absolutely without means either to found 
 the Seminaries or maintain their instructors, was sim- 
 ply impossible. 
 
 In the meanwhile, with nothing in the nature of 
 pastoral care, with no one to direct or defend them, 
 the very fervor of their piety exposed these colonial 
 Lutherans to the greatest spiritual danger. Their 
 eager hunger for the Word prompted them to run for 
 
The Church of the Dispersion. 223 
 
 it where it had been poisoned by heresy and fanat- 
 icism, or to accept it from polluted hands. "Where- 
 soever the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered 
 together." Sectists and impostors know their prey, 
 and they know, too, their opportunity. Given, a 
 body of earnest Christian people, disorganized, scat- 
 tered over vast reaches of country, famishing for the 
 bread of life and weary with toil and privation, and 
 the cunning of the fox and the rapacity of the wolf 
 offer but a feeble comparison for the craft and avidity 
 with which these pounce upon their victims. One of 
 the strongest features which marked the early colo- 
 nial history of America was that the land was swarm- 
 ing with "innumerable sects." "There is not a sect 
 in the world which is not fostered here," wrote a faith- 
 ful observer. This was particularly true of Pennsyl- 
 vania, which was not only founded by a fanatic, but 
 which was avowedly and consistently established as a 
 home for the unconditioned and illimitable freedom 
 of all sects, opinions and parties — a liberty which in 
 our day is celebrated as the ideal state of society, but 
 for which the people of that day, after enduring for 
 ages the restraints of force and authority, were as lit- 
 tle prepared as was the French nation in 1789 for the 
 free institutions of a Republic. While, therefore, it 
 is the fashion to laud the principles of tolerance 
 which prevailed throughout the province of the 
 famous Quaker, it serves on the other hand as a dark 
 background, putting in strong relief the terrible havoc 
 produced in the Lutheran and other churches by the 
 rage of rampant and reckless fanaticism. Teaching 
 things which they ought not, perverting the way of 
 
224 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 life, rooting up the saving doctrines of grace, clothing 
 error in the garb of sanctimoniousness so as to 
 seduce the simple-minded — they not only "sub- 
 verted whole houses," but large communities, mislead- 
 ing the unwary, confounding the unstable, and wrest- 
 ing the Scriptures to the destruction of many souls. 
 
 What the wild beast of the field did not devour 
 was wasted by the boar out of the wood. The 
 absence of true pastors, faithful shepherds who give 
 their life for the flock, furnished the opportunity for 
 the thief and the robber, who for filthy lucre's sake 
 usurp the sacred office. With the melancholy and 
 protracted dearth of men properly fitted for the min- 
 istry and regularly ordained, we need not wonder 
 that the land was overrun with clerical vagabonds, 
 irresponsible and wretched pretenders, crafty impos- 
 tors, ignorant schoolmasters, persons who for scandal- 
 ous crimes had been deposed from the office in Eu- 
 rope, and others, who, without any concern for the 
 salvation of souls, intruded themselves into this call- 
 ing from the vilest motives, creating disturbance and 
 confusion among the simple-minded and confiding 
 people, and spreading havoc and desolation every- 
 where. Instead of gathering together and strength- 
 ening what they found, they only tore asunder and 
 scattered such organizations as had been formed, and 
 by their scandalous lives they brought such reproach 
 upon the Lutheran name as to delay — indefinitely, in 
 many communities — the practicability of establishing 
 the Church. In some cases, as the last of a long series 
 of calamities, these wily and wicked impostors entered 
 
The Church of the Dispersion. 225 
 
 in where disorder and confusion already prevailed, 
 and so made that disorder and confusion absolute. 
 
 One of the earliest documents on Lutheran history 
 in this country contains the following melancholy 
 passage : " From the very beginning of this century 
 (the eighteenth), and even until the present day, it 
 has been the misfortune of Pennsylvania that many 
 men who had never studied at all, or who had never 
 had any thorough instruction in Christianity and 
 science, or who, even having once occupied the pas- 
 toral office in Germany, were deposed and thrust out 
 for their bad conduct, resorted to that fine country, and 
 by flattering speeches and insinuating ways imposed 
 upon private persons and even whole congregations, 
 and so stole into the office of pastor. It is easy to 
 see what a miserable service must be rendered to 
 souls by men who seek only their own profit, and who, 
 as soon as greater gains invite them elsewhere, at 
 once forsake the congregation they had professed to 
 serve. Such hirelings have spread great disorder," 
 etc. (Halle Reports). And another historian, Rev. 
 C. W. Schaeffer, D.D., LL.D., observes: "The Luth- 
 eran faith was exposed to reproach by the infamy of 
 those who had forced themselves — uncalled and un- 
 qualified — into the pastoral office; and reflecting 
 minds and believing hearts both saw and felt that 
 what ought to be done must be done quickly." 
 
 In the depth of their distress they not only made 
 supplication to the Lord, but a piercing cry for help 
 went across the waters. They pleaded most earnestly 
 that faithful and suitable pastors and teachers for 
 themselves and their children might be sent over, and 
 
The Church of the Dispersion. 227 
 
 in most moving terms laid before their friends in the 
 fatherland the lamentable spiritual condition of the 
 people in this country. They sighed for deliverance 
 from the wretched impostors who were laying waste 
 the congregations, from the scheming fanatics who 
 were alluring the unwary and the unstable into the 
 pitfalls of error, and from the strife and distraction 
 which are so natural and so destructive to a people 
 without leaders and without proper organization. 
 Letters of this kind were despatched, from time to 
 time, by different parties to Holland, to Hamburg and 
 elsewhere. Dr. Ziegenhagen, writing in 1734, concern- 
 ing the Lutherans in America, says; "It is, alas! too 
 true that the Evangelical churches scattered here and 
 there in America, especially in Virginia, Philadelphia, 
 Pennsylvania, etc., (American Geography was then in 
 its infancy), are in a very deplorable conditition, par- 
 ticularly in regard to the Word of God and the Holy 
 Sacraments, and such appointments as are necessary 
 for proper instruction in the Divine Word and the 
 right administration of the Sacraments. I have re- 
 ceived many mournful communications from several 
 of these churches, in which they make the most touch- 
 ing appeals for Bibles, Prayer-books, Catechisms, Pas- 
 tors and other tokens of our Christian sympathy. 
 They even assert that in consequence of the great lack 
 of the means of grace there is danger that they and 
 their children may relapse into heathenism. I am 
 greatly distressed for the reason that I hardly know 
 what to do by way of relief." 
 
 Aye, there was the rub ! what to do by way of relief. 
 Here was required wisdom, a knowledge of men, and 
 
228 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 a knowledge of the real condition of America. Organ- 
 ization was needed, system, authority. Who was to 
 be sent? and who could say to this one, "go, and he 
 goeth, and to another come, and he cometh ? " There 
 were imploring letters, urgent appeals, voluminous cor- 
 respondence which required months to pass over the 
 sea and then was often overshadowed by distrust and 
 personal ignorance between the correspondents — but 
 how under such circumstances could deliverance be 
 sent to the children of Israel, groaning in Egyptian 
 darkness if not in Egyptian bondage? Thus, only to 
 add another chapter to the story of their distress, it 
 need not be wondered at that once and again men 
 were sent over who were either wholly unadapted to 
 the peculiar needs of these churches, or who, so far 
 from building up the feeble congregations, did much 
 to destroy and exterminate them — to extinguish what 
 was ready to die. 
 
 An example of the former class was the Rev. Mich- 
 ael Christian Knoll, whom the Lutheran ministers of 
 London ordained as a successor to Rev. Berkenmeier 
 in the churches at New York and Hackensack, a man 
 who neither personally nor as preacher could com- 
 mand respect, and under whose ministry the congre- 
 gations gradually dwindled away. A sorry example 
 of the latter class was Magister August Wolf, who 
 was sent by the Ministerium of Hamburg to the Rari- 
 tan churches in New Jersey. A regular blank call for 
 a pastor was made out by these congregations, and, 
 along with money for his passage, forwarded through 
 the kind offices of Berkenmeier, leaving the selection 
 of a " German Studiosus theologian " to this body. 
 
The Church of the Dispersion. 229 
 
 "A more unsuitable individual could not have been 
 palmed off upon the Raritan congregations. Of his 
 orthodoxy there was no doubt. He had not even the 
 faintest semblance of Halle Pietism, so much abhorred 
 by the adherents of the orthodox party, to which in 
 these times the Hamburg ministry, and on this side of 
 the Atlantic William Christopher Berkenmeier and 
 Michael Christopher Knoll belonged." He is credi- 
 ted with fine classical and literary attainments. His 
 congregations received him with joy and the most 
 kindly prepossession, only to experience more keenly 
 the bitterness of disappointment and the ruination of 
 the church. Capricious, conceited, arbitrary and un- 
 principled, he was positively without any gifts or char- 
 acter for the ministerial office. The first shock his 
 conduct gave the people was the close reading of his 
 sermon from manuscript, a practice of which they had 
 possibly never heard, but they contrived to bear with 
 this because he claimed to have lost his memory dur- 
 ing the voyage across the ocean, although he at the 
 same time gave them to understand that he considered 
 read sermons good enough for such rustics. An inju- 
 dicious marriage soon brought him into discredit, and 
 the brutal maltreatment of his wife, a divorce from her 
 by the civil courts, and other scandalous procedures 
 made his further pastoral ministrations insufferable. 
 But he had recourse to the civil magistrate, and for 
 ten or more years kept harrowing these people before 
 the courts, and compelling them to pay him the salary 
 for which they had contracted — to pay him, in fact, for 
 the misery which he had brought upon them and for 
 the approximate annihilation of the congregations. 
 
230 
 
 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 The result of this ministerial adventure is set down 
 as follows : The sacred office was brought into re- 
 proach, the Sacraments were no longer observed, there 
 was no instruction of youth, no pastoral care for the 
 sick, the congregations were dispersed, their members 
 reduced to a few families, and their general devasta- 
 tion was so noised abroad over the land that it be- 
 came a by-word and a proverb, even a street song, in 
 every German community. 
 
 Worse and worse, more and more wretched grows 
 the condition of the Lu- 
 theran Churc h — if a 
 church it may be called — 
 at this time. Lutherans 
 were here — a multitude 
 o f them — b u t, properly 
 speaking, this great and 
 dispersed mass did not 
 constitute a Lutheran 
 Church. There was no 
 organism. The church 
 was void and without 
 
 , ill i_ j WARTBURG COLLEGE, WAVERLY, IOWA. 
 
 form, and darkness brood- 
 ed over the chaotic elements ; and the darkness was 
 steadily deepening, and to many it was verging on 
 despair. Deliverance seemed impossible. A prey to 
 fanatics, a prey to false brethren, a prey to strife and 
 distraction among themselves, these Lutheran sheep, 
 widely scattered and wofully straitened, were " helpless 
 and sick and ready to die." Destitute of all spiritual 
 care and protection, with no bond of union between 
 them for mutual strength and support, and with no 
 
The Church of the Dispersion. 231 
 
 ecclesiastical connection with the fatherland to yield 
 them relief, the wild beasts that prowled round their 
 dwellings and the savage Indians ever lurking in am- 
 bush to butcher the white intruder, were but the 
 symbolic figures of a more deadly foe — the arch- 
 adversary who compasses the camp of the saints, and 
 whose prey is the Church of the living God. Surely, 
 arguing from human premises, men must have con- 
 cluded that the Lutheran Church could have no field, 
 no mission, no history in America. 
 
 But is it not always the darkest hour before the 
 dawn ? Is not the very brooding of the darkness over 
 the face of the deep the pledge of a coming world ? 
 Does not the night always precede the day? Has any 
 good cause ever been founded except through great 
 tribulations? Is not the cross the emblem of Christ's 
 Church, and have the disciples such an advantage 
 over the Master that they can attain the crown with- 
 out the endurance of suffering and shame? Has 
 God ever granted victory to his people before he has 
 made them submit to the fiery trial of their faith and 
 the testing of their character by placing them for a 
 season "in heaviness through manitold temptations?" 
 Has our Lord's fasting for forty days and forty nights 
 no significance or suggestion for his Church? Must 
 the forty years' wandering through the desert by 
 God's chosen race be divested of its lesson for all 
 who walk by faith, though we are so clearly told that 
 all these things happened unto them for types, and 
 that "they are written for our admonition?" "Be- 
 loved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial 
 which is to try you, as though some strange thing hap- 
 
232 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 pened unto you. But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are par- 
 takers of Christ's sufferings." 
 
 The God of Luther was still alive — the Hearer of 
 prayer was still on the eternal throne. His interposi- 
 tion was long delayed ; it always is, in our view. 
 "Gottes Muhlen mahlen langsam." But his counsels 
 were ripening. A great and glorious church was to 
 overspread this land with the faith of the Reformer 
 and the priceless and uncorrupted treasures of the 
 Reformation, but her birth in the New World, like her 
 birth in the old, must be amid pains and anguish and 
 travail, through a long night of sorrow and gloom. 
 The morning was sure to come. Beyond the dark- 
 ness faith descried the glimmer of a better day, A 
 .new epoch was at hand. 
 
iflfflfflJ orfk/cfcw crfUL$de%6tir9 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 MUHLENBERG AND HIS COLLEAGUES. 
 
 THE faith of Luther animated many of his sorely- 
 tried spiritual children in the New World. A 
 faithful God, they felt assured, could not forsake 
 them in their deep distress. And they waited patient- 
 ly for his salvation. Yet they must bestir themselves. 
 Many who were pining for the ordinances and minis- 
 trations of their Church, and praying with many tears 
 that God would awaken in the hearts of their Euro- 
 pean brethren an interest in their condition, felt moved 
 also to leave nothing undone to bring their destitution 
 before the eyes of those brethren. 
 
 Their repeated letters, however urgent and affecting 
 had proved unavailing. No letter or number of letters 
 could properly or adequately describe their spiritual 
 misery. The results of their correspondence were 
 totally unsatisfactory. Ministers who came over osten- 
 sibly in response to these piteous appeals, and who 
 were welcomed as servants of God come to advance 
 the interests of the Church, had turned out to be in 
 reality its destroyers. 
 
 Some of the people finally determined that a living 
 delegation should personally represent to influential 
 Lutheran divines in Europe the extremity of their needs, 
 and by travelling about excite general sympathy in their 
 behalf, solicit contributions towards the erection of 
 church buildings and school-houses, and especially seek 
 for a proper and competent man for the pastoral office 
 
 233 
 
234 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 and teachers for the instruction of the young. This ac- 
 tion was taken in the year 1733 by the congregation of 
 Philadelphia conjointly with that at New Providence 
 and the one at New Hanover, or Falckner's Swamp r 
 situated respectively some twenty miles from Philadel- 
 phia. 
 
 The latter congregation was founded by Pastor 
 Falckner in 1703. He was succeeded by Rev. Gerhard 
 Henkel and after him the neighboring Swedish clergy 
 occasionally preached there and rendered pastoral ser- 
 vices. At Philadelphia Pastor Fabricius while serving 
 the Swedish Churches preached in the years 1 688-1 691 
 also for the German Lutherans, who appear, however, 
 at that day to have had neither church-building nor 
 organization, and held their worship for a long time 
 in the Swedish Church at an early hour. In 1734 
 Lutherans and Reformed conjointly rented for \£ "a 
 weatherboarded house " for the use of divine worship — 
 the first instance probably of a Union Church. The 
 first trace of Lutheran services at New Providence 
 (The Trappe) is in 1732, when a certain John 
 Christian Schultz officiated there and at New Han- 
 over and Philadelphia. There is no proof that he was 
 an ordained clergyman, yet he proceeded to grant 
 ordination in 1733 to John Caspar Stoever, the cere- 
 mony being conducted in a barn which served for many 
 years as a Bethel. The organization of a congregation 
 with constitution and officers dates doubtless from the 
 year 1733. 
 
 These congregations, two of but recent organiza- 
 tion, and said to embrace each 500 families, more or 
 less, "having joined together in the name of God and 
 
Muhlenberg and his Colleagues. 235 
 
 with prayer for his gracious help," felt constrained to 
 commission two of their number, Daniel Weisiger and 
 Johann Daniel Schoner, accompanied by the above 
 named Schultz, to plead their cause with the 
 Lutherans of Europe. 
 
 The oral representations, which this deputation was 
 to make abroad, were supported by an open letter in 
 which it was shown that the condition of the people 
 was in the highest degree deplorable, that they were 
 " in a land full of sects and heresy, without ministers 
 and teachers, schools, churches and books," and that 
 their children and descendants were in danger of slid- 
 ing back into heathenism. It contained entreaties for 
 help in the propagation of " the pure Evangelical 
 doctrine, seeing that upon this depends the salvation 
 of so many souls," and closed with the prayer that "in 
 America also, by the preaching of the Word of God, 
 the way of life may be made plain to those who con- 
 fess the Christian faith ; and also, by that Grace which 
 extends towards all men, be opened up to the heathen 
 tribes who occupy the land. May He the Good Shep- 
 herd, who is not willing that any should perish, 
 graciously watch over his poor forsaken sheep whether 
 among Christians or heathen, and all for his love and 
 mercy's sake. Hallelujah!" 
 
 The commissioners made their way first of all to 
 Dr. Ziegenhagen, Court-preacher in London, who 
 furnished them with letters of recommendation 
 especially to Halle, that focus of spiritual influence, the 
 fires of whose altar were just then rekindling and reani- 
 mating a formal Christianity, some 6000 of its 
 preachers having already borne the flames of living 
 
236 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 piety into as many congregations. The first to inaugu- 
 rate the work of heathen missions and the diffusion of 
 the Scriptures, pietistic Halle was now destined to 
 become the fountain of unspeakable blesssings to 
 America, the agency for establishing over that new and 
 vast domain what it had re-awakened in Germany, a 
 church in which pure doctrine and holy living, ortho- 
 dox faith and evangelical piety should blend and har- 
 moniously reflect the glory of the Gospel. 
 
 It was well, perchance, that the proper organization 
 of the Lutheran Church in this country was deferred 
 until its foundation could be laid by men who were 
 reared in the school of Pietism, and who had become 
 grounded in the true faith and at the same time imbued 
 with its glowing zeal and its practical activity. For 
 although Lutherans had been for a century found in 
 considerable numbers, it cannot be said that outside 
 of the Swedish Churches there had been up to this 
 time any definite organism or any real progress. 
 
 The representation of the condition of the Lutherans 
 of America made a deep impression at Halle, where 
 Dr. Gotthelf August Francke, "atypical representative 
 of Pietism in its first and purer form," who in relig- 
 ious earnestness and practical talents was a worthy 
 son of his renowned father, Augustus Herman Francke, 
 now stood at the head of the university and its affili- 
 ated benevolent institutions. Of one mind with Ziegen- 
 hagen, he was ready at once to co-operate in mea- 
 sures for the relief of their distressed brethren. His 
 services to this end proved of inestimable advantage to 
 the Lutheran Church in America. It was in accord- 
 ance with eternal fitness when, on the occasion of the 
 
Muhlenberg and his Colleagues. 
 
 237 
 
 first Jubilee of the Halle Institutions in 1748, Francke 
 felt constrained to commemorate among other things 
 the great blessings which proceeding from Halle 
 had "so richly refreshed the Lutheran congregations 
 in North America." "The Lutheran Church of the 
 New World," says Dr. Mann, " owes its best support 
 in external means and spiritual forces in the last cen- 
 tury, to the men of the Franckean Institutions, the 
 
 THE OLD TRAPPE CHURCH, NEAR PHILADELPHIA, PA. 
 (Dedicated October 6th, 1745.) 
 
 Hallean Pietists. It was apparently a small force but 
 its efficacy continues to this day." And Halle, after 
 many years, saw the bread which it had so generously 
 cast upon the American waters, floating back to its 
 source, returning to revive and strengthen its institu- 
 tions in the time o f their distress. During the devastat- 
 ing wars of Napoleon these institutions were almost 
 wholly destroyed, and in response to the appeal of 
 their directors the American churches which had 
 
238 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 been founded by the Halle missionaries forwarded to 
 them liberal pecuniary aid. 
 
 While Halle at once became and ever after re- 
 mained the center for affording succor to America, 
 many people in all parts of the fatherland were deeply 
 moved as they learned of the affliction of Joseph. A 
 widespread sympathy was excited which took the form 
 of generous contributions for the erection of church- 
 buildings and schools and for the support of pastors, 
 to which were added, of course, many Bibles and 
 other devotional manuals. Encouraged by the ap- 
 probation and patronage of Halle, "they met with 
 warm hearts and fervent prayers and material aid 
 everywhere." 
 
 But above all things was this commission charged 
 to procure a true and faithful pastor. This was the 
 matter of greatest solicitude. This was the critical 
 and pivotal feature of the situation. In gathering 
 material supplies for the aid of congregations little 
 discrimination is required, and funds may be col- 
 lected with the dispatch demanded by the urgency of 
 those who are crying for aid, but when a personality 
 is required, a leader, and a ruler, only one in a thous- 
 and may possess the requisite qualifications. Dr. 
 Franckewith the warmest sympathy for these destitute 
 congregations in Pennsylvania, and prepared from love 
 to God and his Word to do the utmost in his power, 
 had likewise a clear, practical discernment of the pe- 
 culiar requirements of such a field, the appalling diffi- 
 culties by which it was beset and the great lack of 
 persons whose training and individuality would com- 
 
Muhlenberg and his Colleagues. 239 
 
 mend them for the position. He exercised, therefore, 
 the greatest caution. 
 
 The Lutheran churches in Germany had at the time 
 no dearth of ministers, some of whom it could have 
 spared to the feeble flock this side the Atlantic. There 
 were numerous candidates ready to receive appoint- 
 ments, and there were doubtless some whose studies 
 had not been completed, who would gladly have 
 accepted a commission to travel to America and 
 try their gifts and their fortunes here. But there 
 must be no experiments where Christ's cause is at 
 stake. The policy of putting up with anything had 
 been sufficiently tried. There must be no more dis- 
 appointments, no more mistakes, such as had already 
 overwhelmed these struggling churches with disaster 
 and brought dishonor on the Lutheran name. "We 
 are willing," writes Francke, in 1734, "to co-operate 
 according to our ability and with God's grace," but 
 whatever is undertaken, he maintained, must be done 
 intelligently and wisely, with mutual understanding 
 and pledges, and upon a firm and sure foundation. 
 
 A formal request was accordingly forwarded to 
 the congregations to communicate the fullest inform- 
 ation on all particulars. Assurances must be given 
 that the minister or ministers sent would be accorded 
 becoming reverence and submission. Proper order 
 must be observed in every particular. The clergy- 
 man suited for this work must be a man of ripe ex- 
 perience, of sound judgment, of executive capacity, 
 "a man of solid commanding character, and one who 
 could be depended on to do his utmost in labor and 
 sacrifice for the welfare of the churches and the youth 
 
240 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 committed to his charge." Such a person, again, 
 must receive ordination in Germany and as a pre- 
 requisite — according to Lutheran usage, a regular 
 and formal call must be made out for him by the 
 churches seeking his services, a call accompanied by 
 pledges not only of financial support distinctly speci- 
 fied, and to be paid in current funds and promptly, 
 but also of that love and submission which are due 
 to the sacred office. It was further required of these 
 congregations "not to make any unreasonable de- 
 mands upon the pastors, or such as may be in con- 
 flict with the Word of God, or with the doctrine of the 
 Evangelical Lutheran Church." 
 
 All this involved a protracted correspondence, — a 
 correspondence which has been largely preserved in 
 Hallische Nachrichten, and which is replete with affect- 
 ing interest in bringing out the enlightened and delib- 
 erative zeal of Ziegenhagen and Francke, and the 
 earnest piety, the undaunted faith, the touching im- 
 portunity and the sturdy American good sense of 
 these long-suffering people. Weisiger, "whose name 
 deserves to be held in remembrance for his intelligent 
 devotion and laborious enterprise in behalf of the 
 church," had to return without a pastor, though not 
 without hope, and his final appeal once more urged : 
 "Send us pastors who will teach us and our children 
 in the Word of God, who will administer the holy Sac- 
 raments in our congregations." 
 
 Years of waiting had thus to be added to the long 
 and gloomy years through which our Lutheran ances- 
 tors had already passed. But they were years of 
 prayer and of hope, supplications going up unto God 
 
Muhlenberg and his Colleagues. 241 
 
 not only from the Sorely-tried, languishing and shep- 
 herdless flocks of America, but also from the warm, 
 earnest and believing hearts of Germany, " that the 
 Lord Himself may designate the right man, — the man 
 who confiding in the strength of the Almighty, has the 
 courage and capacity to gather together the lost sheep 
 of the scattered flock, and bring them back to the 
 Great Shepherd." 
 
 And He who sent Moses to his people groaning in 
 Egypt, who sent out Paul far hence to the Gentiles 
 sitting in darkness, who raised up Luther with the 
 light of His Word for those who were watching for 
 the dawn, now also, in answer to many prayers, brought 
 forth a deliverer and an apostle for America, a man 
 combining in himself to a marvellous extent the quali- 
 fications indispensable for the work to be accom- 
 plished, a man deeply penetrated by the Pietistic 
 Spirit, and who as a manifest instrument of Provi- 
 dence was destined to build from the precious, but 
 chaotic and scattered elements, the foundations of the 
 Lutheran Church, in a new world. 
 
 His name was Heinrich Melchior Muhlenberg. He 
 was born at Eimbeck, in Hanover, on the 6th day of 
 September, 171 1. According to good Lutheran cus- 
 tom he was baptized on the day of his birth, and was 
 confirmed in his twelfth year. His early youth re- 
 vealed liberal endowments, thirst for knowledge, in- 
 dustrious and successful study, a predisposition to 
 independence of thought, serious religious convictions, 
 and a benevolent heart. Such was his fondness for 
 learning, that while as a lad he was engaged in some 
 ordinary vocation he clandestinely " devoted every 
 
242 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 spare moment to his books ; spent his evenings at 
 study, exercised his voice, and attained such pro- 
 ficiency from private instruction, that when admitted 
 to the highest classical school of the place, he took at 
 once the front rank, and distinguished himself by his 
 rapid progress in Latin, Greek and other branches. 
 By means of beneficiary aid and by rendering personal 
 services to one of the professors he was enabled to 
 obtain a thorough education, entering the University 
 of Gottingen in 1735. His moral fibre and the spirit- 
 uality of his character he showed at this stage by sur- 
 mounting the temptations and perils of university 
 life, and by choosing for his companions fellow-stu- 
 dents of a positively religious turn. Through these 
 he came for the first time into immediate contact with 
 the Pietistic movement, experiencing great spiritual 
 benefits from this association, and learning among 
 other vital truths, that the baptism of the Holy Ghost 
 is the indispensable prerequisite for a preacher of the 
 Gospel. Upon his graduation he was happily ap- 
 pointed teacher in the Orphan House at Halle, and 
 thus came directly under the influence of its earnest, 
 spiritual and practical Christianity. His evangelical 
 zeal, his aptness in teaching, and his missionary ardor 
 pointed him out as a suitable man to labor among the 
 heathen, and prompted the Halle leaders to send him 
 out to India. 
 
 But God was reserving him for another field, and 
 circumstances accordingly arose which prevented the 
 execution of this plan. Christopher Frederick Schwartz 
 was chosen for the India Mission, while Muhlenberg 
 was, in the course of a few years, to follow the star 
 
Muhlenberg and his Colleagues. 243 
 
 of empire westward. In the meanwhile he was ap- 
 pointed to the Pastorate of Gross Hennersdorf, in 
 Saxony, a few miles south of Herrnhut, the head- 
 quarters of Moravianism. In the autumn of 1739 he 
 was solemnly ordained a minister of the Lord Jesus 
 Christ. His situation was not meant to be enchant- 
 ing, and occasions for stirring up his nest were not 
 wanting. Finding himself one evening at Halle, the 
 guest of Francke, the latter at supper brought to his 
 notice the subject of the " Call to the dispersed Luth- 
 erans in Pennsylvania," and proposed to him "to make 
 a trial of a few years." Without any hesitation and 
 to the joy of the Francke household, Muhlenberg re- 
 plied, that if he could see in it the will of God he 
 would go, and that he felt bound to go wherever 
 Providence called him. Yielding to the first impulses 
 of a heart loyal to Christ, the issue was at once de- 
 cided. The prospect of such an undertaking might 
 have dismayed the most heroic spirit It could be 
 easily foreseen that it was beset with innumerable ob- 
 stacles, hardships and perils, but so far from being 
 appalled by these the devotion of an apostle exclaims : 
 "None of these things move me, neither count I my 
 life dear." And thus while feeling keenly the sepa- 
 ration from his native land and beloved friends, the 
 love of Christ and his precious church prompted him 
 to surrender cheerfully home, friends, country, associ- 
 ations, comforts, studies, everything dear to nature, for 
 what was then materially and morally a howling wil- 
 derness. 
 
 That memorable scene at Francke's supper table 
 transpired September 6, 1741. On December 9. 
 
244 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 Muhlenberg, " under considerable emotion," preached 
 his farewell sermon, and eight days later he took his 
 departure, going out with Abraham's faith, and like 
 him not really knowing whither he went. Having 
 completed the necessary preparations for the long 
 journey, he made his way to London. His stay in that 
 city was for various reasons protracted for nine weeksi 
 but this delay proved to be very fortunate. He de- 
 rived especially great spiritual benefit from his daily 
 intercourse with Ziegenhagen, who received him with 
 thanks and praises to God. 
 
 It was the 13th of June 1742 that his vessel set sail 
 from Gravesend. With a profound feeling of the 
 responsibility he had assumed and of the difficulties 
 he would have to encounter, and with serious mis- 
 givings about his own ability for the work, he 
 combined a strong and heroic faith by which he 
 always committed himself implicitly into the hands of 
 the Lord. Knowing that besides the ordinary perils- 
 of the deep, the ship that was bearing him was both 
 unseaworthy and overloaded, and that she would 
 probably be attacked by pirates, he exclaimed on 
 hearing a poor Salzburger mother singing " Ein 
 feste Burg": "that is a better protection than the 
 ten iron cannon with which the vessel is provided." 
 
 The passage to Charleston, S. C. required no days, 
 and was one of " unusual peril and exhaustion." The 
 prophet on board was, however, this time no Jonah 
 fleeing from duty and exposing the ship to danger, 
 but a most faithful servant of God cheerfully sacrific- 
 ing himself to the call of duty. He proved not a 
 curse but a blessing to his companions. The ship be- 
 
Muhlenberg and his Colleagues. 245 
 
 came a church, his fellow-passengers, the crew and 
 several negro slaves, a mission field for this ambassa- 
 dor of the Cross. Although suffering exceedingly from 
 sea sickness he is seen daily instructing in intellectual 
 and spiritual things the children on board. Sunday af- 
 ter Sunday he preaches, in the morning German to the 
 few Salzburgers on board, in the afternoon with blun- 
 dering attempts at an English discourse, using Latin 
 terms where his limited vocabulary failed him and 
 having the captain put them into English. Everyone 
 was taken under his pastoral supervision. To the 
 negroes especially he gave the kindliest attention, 
 endeavoring to plant in them the germs of religious 
 knowledge. Excepting the few Salzburgers there 
 was not one on board who could enter into his relig- 
 ious views and feelings or even afford him social 
 companionship, yet he commanded by his Christian 
 demeanor and official faithfulness the high personal 
 esteem of the whole ship's company. 
 
 Arriving at Charleston, September 23, 1742, Muh- 
 lenberg made his way to Ebenezer. This was in ac- 
 cordance with the wishes of Ziegenhagen, who hoped 
 that a visit to these brethren would be serviceable 
 to this pioneer for Pennsylvania, and that one of the. 
 pastors might accompany him to that province and 
 assist him in the work of organizing the Lutheran 
 Church there. 
 
 Muhlenberg's brief sojourn among these brethren 
 whose Halle training gave them the fullest sympathy 
 with his views, brought him bodily and spiritual 
 refreshment. He came here for the first time in con- 
 tact with a German-American congregation, freed from 
 
246 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 the stifling pressure of state authority, and its success, 
 was most instructive and encouraging. But sweet as- 
 were the days of repose, the call of his Lord is to 
 Pennsylvania and although it was late in the fall and 
 an almost unbroken wilderness of 900 miles stretched 
 between him and the goal of his journey, he must 
 hasten onward. 
 
 With a spirit of brotherly kindness and great self- 
 denial, Bolzius having obtained the magnanimous con- 
 sent of his congregation accompanied him. But upon 
 reaching Charleston, and finding themselves in great 
 perplexity as to the time and manner of proceeding 
 on their journey, Bolzius felt constrained to return to 
 Ebenezer. Muhlenberg is once more left absolutely 
 alone. 
 
 Ready to die or to live he gave his soul into the 
 hands of God and, notwithstanding the protestations, 
 of men knowing the season and the sort of craft on 
 which he engaged passage, committed himself to a 
 frail and wretched bark and endured a terrible voyage 
 to Philadelphia. His fortitude if not his faith at one 
 time gave way to such an extent that he piteously 
 begged the captain to be put ashore. Still he would 
 preach to the ship's company whose profanity made 
 his hair stand on end, and when too weak to stand he 
 preached from his bed in a sitting posture. 
 
 But in spite of waves and tempests and perils of 
 every kind, the vessel which bore the founder of the 
 American Lutheran Church could not perish, and at 
 last it bears its precious freight quietly and serenely 
 up the Delaware, passing here and there the thriving 
 homesteads of Swedish Lutherans and, as it nears 
 
Muhlenberg and his Colleagues. 247 
 
 Philadelphia, offering a view of Tinicum Island, on 
 which just about one hundred years before the first 
 Lutheran house of worship in the New World had 
 been erected. 
 
 It was on the 25th of November 1742 that Muhlen- 
 berg set foot in Philadelphia. He was in the prime 
 of life, in vigorous health, possessed of a robust con- 
 stitution capable of enduring exposures and hard- 
 ships, and was eminently qualified for his peculiar and 
 momentous task, by an extraordinary versatility of 
 talents, by general culture, by theological soundness, 
 a benignant disposition, a penetration of human 
 nature, a faculty for administration, a resolute will 
 and prodigious energy, a world conquering faith and 
 absolute consecration. Combining the highest qual- 
 ities of pastor, preacher and leader he seems to have 
 been specially endowed by the Holy Ghost with the 
 charisms vouchsafed to the Apostolic Church. He 
 was without doubt a man sent of God to the Lutheran 
 Church of America, its heaven-ordained Bishop. His 
 coming was the signal of a new era. It was like the 
 arrival of a captain in the midst of a scattered, 
 dispirited and demoralized host. It was to the 
 Church what the advent of spring is to the earth after 
 a long, dreary and stormy winter. It was the instru- 
 ment of her firm establishment and her organic life. 
 Finding himself a stranger in Philadelphia, without 
 even a letter of introduction, and falling in with a 
 German who belonged to the New Hanover Church, 
 he set out on horseback that very day for his desti- 
 nation. 
 
 The following Sunday found him in the rude pulpit 
 
248 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 of "a log building not yet finished within," and the 
 Sunday after he addressed large audiences in Phila- 
 delphia, preaching in the forenoon in the old butcher- 
 shop in which the Lutherans and the Reformed held 
 their services alternately, — we have no proof that a 
 regular normal Lutheran organization existed, — and 
 in the afternoon in the Swedish Church located be- 
 yond the southern limits of the city. Its pastor, Rev. 
 Dylander, had died the year before. The pastor of 
 the Church at Christina, (now Wilmington, Del.) Rev. 
 Tranberg, gave Muhlenberg a hearty welcome and 
 every encouragement in his mission. The third Sun- 
 day he officiated at New Providence (The Trappe) 
 preaching in a barn. 
 
 Muhlenberg's reception by the congregations to 
 which he was sent, was determined in large measure 
 by the state of things which he found prevailing. No 
 announcement of his coming anticipated him and but 
 for Ziegenhagen's testimonials, he would likely have 
 been regarded as one more impostor, although there 
 must have been, to some at least, a different ring in 
 his preaching. Some, like famished sheep, were so 
 hungry for the food of life that they received him 
 with profound thanksgiving. Long neglected, and 
 denied the stated ministrations of the Church, they 
 now received them joyfully and with their whole 
 hearts. But there were others whom hope deferred 
 had made sick at heart. And as pretenders one after 
 another continued to affect pastoral services, some 
 adhered to one and some to another. A number 
 had gone off to the Moravians, whose leader, Count 
 von Zinzendorf, claimed " ecclesiastical authority over 
 
Muhlenberg and his Colleagues. 249 
 
 ■all the Lutherans in the Province ; " not a few had 
 ^witnessed so much of the disorder and the distraction 
 -which had long prevailed, that they were unwilling 
 to have anything further to do with churches or par- 
 •sons, while of course there were not wanting those 
 -wary and selfish ones who mean to wait and see what 
 turn things will take. 
 
 Happily for the Church, Muhlenberg came hither 
 :not seeking his own but another's cause, not for filthy 
 lucre but for the sake of souls, and he stood prepared 
 to endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. 
 Nor was it long before he had cheering evidences 
 that humble as was the beginning, and dark as was 
 the outlook, the hand of God was with him. 
 
 Although meeting with bitter opposition from both 
 the disorderly and the fanatical elements that were 
 disposed to maintain the field they had preoccu- 
 pied, he was very soon acknowledged by the three 
 congregations as their legitimate and sole pastor, and 
 bis faithfulness, dignity and the irresistable charm of 
 bis manner soon commanded universal love, esteem 
 and sympathy. Multitudes came to hear him wher- 
 ever he preached. Many cheered his heart by proofs 
 •of deep spiritual earnestness, others became awakened 
 under his searching discourses, movements of the new 
 life in Christ succeeded the paralysis of indifferentism 
 and worldliness, the congregations submitted to 
 formal reorganization, Church discipline was intro- 
 duced, peace, concord and order triumphed over the 
 reign of lawlessness, division and strife, schools were 
 opened, the catechisation of the young was prosecuted, 
 Muhlenberg personally attending not only to the lat- 
 
250 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 ter, but throughout the week teaching also the child- 
 ren the simplest rudiments, youths nineteen and 
 twenty years of age coming to him "with their ABC 
 book." 
 
 The field of labor to which he was called consisted 
 of the three congregations already named, and situ- 
 ated many miles apart, and the extent of his labors 
 here, especially when the erection of churches and 
 school-houses began, was sufficient for two or three- 
 ordinary men. But with vast fields white unto the 
 harvest stretching in remote distances on every side,, 
 his missionary ardor could not be confined to this 
 territory. It soon overleaped these limits and in a 
 few years the boundless continent became his parish. 
 Lutheran centres with various stages of organization 
 were to be found in all directions, and, although they 
 had but little prospect of regular pastoral services 
 they continued with the constant increase of immigra- 
 tion to spring up everywhere. Muhlenberg felt con- 
 strained to visit these one after another, not only 
 such as were adjacent, but those lying more remote 
 like Lancaster, York, Hanover, and the churches in 
 New Jersey and New York. This required him to 
 travel hundreds of miles through pathless forests.. 
 over declivitous mountains, across swollen streams,, 
 under pitiless rain and snow and storm, to ride often 
 for many hours through the darkest night unattended,, 
 and in imminent peril of his life from the savages, 
 from the wild beasts and from sheer exhaustion. 
 
 On reaching a Lutheran community, he would pro- 
 ceed with preaching, often even in the depth of winter 
 under the open sky, administering the sacraments, 
 
Muhlenberg and his Colleagues. 251 
 
 teaching and confirming the young, establishing 
 order, reconciling antagonisms, excluding incongru- 
 ous elements, exposing the errors and tricks of the 
 sects, kindling afresh the love for the Church and her 
 services, strengthening everywhere the things that 
 remained and were ready to die, and restoring once 
 more confidence and respect for the sacred office. 
 With all these arduous and almost superhuman 
 labors for the general interest, he never forgot the 
 essential office of the true shepherd, the care of the 
 individual sheep. His remarkable wisdom in leading 
 such as were troubled and awakened to unburthen 
 their souls to him, his rare tact in pointing out to 
 them the way of salvation, and his burning zeal in 
 this direction, are among the greatest secrets of 
 his wonderful power over men. " My saddest con- 
 cern," he mournfully exclaims, " is that to the special 
 care of each soul there is too little time and opportu- 
 nity given." And notwithstanding that roads, rivers 
 and storms were such that " one would not like to 
 driv<°. his dog out of the house, yet willingly do I go, 
 at any day or any time left free to me, and visit souls in 
 whom the Spirit has begun his work." It was a com- 
 mon practice with him at the close of the Lord's Day 
 to spend hours in private with awakened and penitent 
 individuals, directing inquirers to the Lamb of God. 
 His biography narrates many striking cases of spir- 
 itual awakening, and shows that the renewal and 
 salvation of the individual was the unquenchable pur- 
 pose of his ministry. 
 
 His concern for the individual soul was only 
 equalled by his conscientious solicitude for the spir- 
 
.252 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 itual life of the congregation. In illustration of this, 
 note his requirement of the Church Council, on the 
 occasion of his first administration of the communion 
 to testify to the moral character of the people who 
 had handed in their names. With the same spirit, 
 when for the first time he visited York and the congre- 
 gation asked to have the Holy Supper, he declined to 
 administer it to them, on the ground that they first 
 needed repentance and the application of God's 
 Word. 
 
 Not the least of Muhlenberg's cares nor the least 
 of his achievements, was his conflict with the legion of 
 scandalous impostors that had intruded into the 
 feeble and defenseless folds and by their infamous 
 conduct had, in many localities, brought reproach 
 upon the Lutheran Church and on the pastoral office. 
 Though they assailed him with the poisoned shafts of 
 calumny, though they employed every weapon of cun- 
 ning and malice to counteract his influence, and to 
 prevent the progress of Christ's kingdom, they were 
 constrained to flee before this resolute ambassador, 
 who came to the defense of the churches with the 
 scathing weapon of God's truth and with the divine 
 principle of order and organization. Not one of 
 them could withstand him — not even Count von Zin- 
 zendorf, who was, indeed, no impostor, but a danger- 
 ous intruder into Lutheran congregations. 
 
 For several years he labored solitary and alone. 
 A certain Rev. Tobias Wagner had, indeed, arrived 
 shortly after Muhlenberg, and exercised a brief and 
 desultory ministry respectively in some half dozen 
 ■congregations in Pennsylvania, but intimate fellow- 
 
Muhlenberg and his Colleagues. 
 
 2 53- 
 
 ship and effective co-operation with a man of his turn 
 of mind were out of the question. Berkenmeier and 
 Knoll entertained strong prejudices against Muhlen- 
 berg's Pietism, and persistently sought to undermine 
 his influence by impugning his orthodoxy and his 
 
 ^™K^j![| i *i^,«^v.v : siri^'j-:';,. ~m 
 
 .■ , |, '.r. : : : : ji 
 
 .-.':;.!■.■.;" 
 Kim n,' ? if 
 
 ttfei 
 
 
 o 
 
 s 
 
 w 
 
 in 
 
 a 
 
 loyalty to the Lutheran Church. "Mr. Berkenmeier," 
 says Dr. B. M. Schmucker, "claimed for himself and 
 the men from Hamburg, a more positive Lutheran 
 orthodoxy than he conceded to Hartwig, Muhlenberg 
 
254 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 and the others trained at Halle. He earnestly warned 
 the congregations against them." This distrust was 
 as unfortunate as it was unwarranted. As Pastor 
 Berkenmeier was a man of ability, learning, unim- 
 peachable conduct and widely extended influence, 
 especially among the Lutherans of New York, one 
 may, in some degree, imagine what might have been 
 the effect upon the Lutheran Church of that genera- 
 tion and of succeeding generations, had not the un- 
 warranted suspicion of Confessional unsoundness kept 
 these two excellent men from uniting their counsels, 
 their strength and their influence for the gathering, 
 the organization and the advancement of the Lu- 
 theran Church. 
 
 With his practical insight and his prophetic and 
 hopeful foresight, Muhlenberg very soon recognized 
 the great work to be accomplished here for and by 
 the Lutheran Church, and he at once sent urgent peti- 
 tions to Halle for co-laborers. In January, 1745, his 
 heart was cheered by the arrival of three men whom 
 the Halle Fathers had sent out to his assistance. 
 Their advent was the occasion of such joy that the 
 anniversary of it was for a number of years cele- 
 brated in the circle of this devoted brotherhood as a 
 grateful memorial serving for the spiritual refresh- 
 ment of all. 
 
 Their names were Peter Brunnholtz, John Nicol. 
 Kurtz, and John Helfrich Schaum. The first one 
 alone had been ordained. He was "a man of dis- 
 tinguished moral worth, and of extraordinary de- 
 votedness to the, cause of Christ." The latter two 
 had reached a certain stage of preparation, but they 
 
Muhlenberg and his Colleagues. 255 
 
 were expected to prosecute their studies under their 
 superiors, while they served as catechists and teach- 
 ers in the congregational schools, a sphere in which 
 they were needed quite as much as in the pulpit. 
 
 Sensible of the strength which comes from union, 
 the two pastors made an amicable distribution of their 
 work, extending their ministrations to outlying sta- 
 tions in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, accessible by 
 a day's journey, and most heartily and to the fullest 
 extent co-operated with each other. As a reminder 
 of the rivalries and strifes which had marked the re- 
 lations of the numerous impostors and pretenders, 
 these co-laborers became known everywhere as "the 
 united ministers," and the effect of such union was 
 soon visible in every quarter. The upbuilding of 
 Zion progressed at a wonderful rate, the desert be- 
 gan to blossom as the rose. The catechists besides 
 their work of catechising the young and conducting 
 schools, were much occupied also in preaching, were 
 authorized to baptize infants and in cases of emer- 
 gency to administer the communion to the sick, thus 
 faithfully testing and improving their ministerial quali- 
 fications until each was deemed worthy of ordination 
 and settlement over his own parish. 
 
 The fame of the blessed work of these pastors was 
 not long in spreading over the colonies and from 
 every quarter, even away up in the Mohawk valley, 
 came earnest petitions for the services of "the united 
 ministers." And whenever Muhlenberg learned of 
 German Lutherans, destitute of pastoral ministrations, 
 and this was true of scores of communities, he was 
 ready to render assistance as promptly as possible, 
 
256 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 and so were his associates, all having the same spirit,, 
 all laboring for one end. Their missionary work ac- 
 cordingly branched out rapidly both east and west,, 
 north and south, and Muhlenberg especially, with in- 
 defatigable application and with an astounding capac- 
 ity of endurance, made frequent journeys on horse- 
 back for a distance of fifty and even a hundred miles, 
 traversing terrible roads, dangerous swamps and deep 
 streams, in the fiercest weather, and at the hazard of 
 his life. On one occasion he and a companion after 
 riding all day, were compelled for want of finding a 
 house at which to lodge, "to continue riding through 
 the wilderness, with the rain pouring down heavier,, 
 and the poor horses wading up to their knees through 
 water and mire, until at two o'clock in the morning,, 
 totally worn out and half dead, they reached their 
 quarters." 
 
 We meet him at Lancaster, at York, at McAllister- 
 town (Hanover), where in 1746 he found a considera- 
 ble congregation, and passing beyond the Maryland 
 boundaries, he is on the Monocacy and at Frederick. 
 Journeying in another direction hevisits the churches 
 on the Raritan, at New York, up the Hudson, and late 
 in life he undertakes the laborious journey to Ebene- 
 zer, Georgia, to exercise his mediating powers and 
 quiet the serious disturbances which had broken out. 
 
 No earthly remuneration could be any considera- 
 tion for such hardships, exposures, toils and conflicts 
 in the service of Christ's Church, but a mind like his 
 must have enjoyed the recompense he found in the in- 
 estimable privilege of preaching repentance and faith 
 in the Lord Jesus to listening multitudes, many of 
 
Muhlenberg and his Colleagues. 257 
 
 whom had traveled ten and even twenty miles to hear 
 him, some with hot tears lamenting to him their priva- 
 tion of the means of grace, while others were awakened 
 under the power of his earnest sermons. With extra- 
 ordinary readiness the congregations submitted them- 
 selves to his counsel and to his authority, bound them- 
 selves to the observance of order and discipline, and 
 pledged their adhesion to "the holy Word of God as 
 given by prophets and apostles, in the Unaltered Augs- 
 burg Confession and the other Symbolical Books." Al- 
 though the churches which he visited had, one by one, 
 been seriously disturbed by persons playing the role of 
 Lutheran ministers, and many had been led into error, 
 the people promptly recognized the voice of a Lutheran 
 shepherd, as he discoursed on the nature of true repent- 
 ance, and on the person and offices of Christ. Under 
 the light of his instruction and preaching and in virtue 
 of the stable organization which he effected, the demon 
 of confusion was summarily dispelled. Congregations 
 that had become " deplorably demoralized," felt the in- 
 vigoration of a new life, with the return of order and 
 union they became conscious of strength, and although 
 it was impossible at once to supply them with regular 
 pastors, schools were established, the youth were cate- 
 chised, a sermon was read each Lord's day to the assem- 
 bled people, church-buildings began to be erected and 
 everything was done to make ready for the advent of 
 an ordained preacher. 
 
 Another co-worker, the Rev. J. Fr. Handschuh, who 
 like his colleagues was a man of deep personal relig- 
 ious experience and of glowing zeal for practical god- 
 liness, was sent over by Francke in the spring of 1748. 
 
258 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 He served successively the churches at Lancaster, 
 Germantown and Philadelphia. 
 
 Soon after his arrival Muhlenberg and Brunnholtz 
 in conjunction with Handschuh made provision for 
 the proper ordering of the public worship, the admin- 
 istration of the sacraments and the unification of the 
 congregations by formulating a common liturgy. A 
 short formulary had heretofore been used but it was 
 not " in all its parts harmonious," and the preparation 
 of a more complete order had been deferred until 
 there should be more laborers on the ground, and "a 
 better knowledge of the condition of things in this 
 country " should be obtained. The Swedish Liturgy 
 was found to be unsuited to the German Churches 
 because it required the chanting of the collects, which 
 Germans from the Rhine and Main districts con- 
 sidered " papal." And it was also deemed inexpedient 
 to adopt any of the numerous German Agenda, since 
 the members of the churches had come from so many 
 different localities, each of which had its own formu- 
 lary. They accordingly took the Liturgy of the 
 Savoy congregation of London as the basis, making 
 such abbreviations, modifications and additions "as 
 after due consideration of the circumstances in which 
 we are here placed appeared advisable and calculated 
 to edify, and adopted it tentatively until we had a 
 better understanding of the matter, and determined 
 to use it with a view of introducing into our congre- 
 gations the same ceremonies, forms and words." 
 
 A step of yet greater importance and more far- 
 reaching in results was the formation during the same 
 year, August 14 and 15, 1748, of a Synodical organi- 
 
Muhlenberg and his Colleagues. 259 
 
 zation. The bonds of affection and faith which united 
 these German pastors extended also to their Swedish 
 brethren, who were men of a kindred spirit, unceas- 
 ingly active in preaching, and caring for the spiritu- 
 ally destitute, and who in conformity to the instruc- 
 tions of the Archbishop of Sweden stood ready for 
 the most intimate fellowship and co-operation. Dif- 
 erences of language and nationality were sunk in the 
 desire to make common cause for the maintenance 
 of the Gospel, the development of the Church, and 
 especially for the exclusion of the fanatical •' Zinzen- 
 dorfers," who were everywhere intruding into Lu- 
 theran congregations, creating disturbances and di- 
 visions. 
 
 The first proposal for a union came from an active 
 and wealthy layman, Peter Koch, an officer in the 
 Swedish congregation at Wicacoa. He elaborated a 
 "Regulation " forever uniting the two branches of the 
 Church. But his scheme was deemed impracticable 
 and several further attempts of a similar kind were 
 likewise frustrated. Both parties felt more and more 
 the need of such an alliance in counsel and action. 
 An annual conference including a few of the elders 
 of the German and Swedish congregations, it was felt, 
 would impart greater efficiency to the efforts of the 
 ministry and promote the general good of Zion. The 
 Swedish pastors had in fact been closely identified 
 with the German communities before the arrival of 
 the Halle ministers, having been instrumental in 
 founding congregations in localities which to-day are 
 among the strongest centres of Lutheranism, and sup- 
 plying, with great considerateness and zeal, some of 
 
260 The Lutherans in America 
 
 the older congregations on the Hudson and elsewhere' 
 with preaching. They and their churches stood ready 
 therefore for a union. 
 
 The churches served by the " United Ministers " 
 had come to be known generally as "The United 
 Evangelical Congregations." Here was the nucleus 
 for a permanent and compact organization. And it 
 was reasonable that other German congregations 
 should desire to share the advantages of such an 
 association, and gladly entrust their well-being into 
 the hands of men who had gained their confidence 
 and esteem by " their elevated character as servants 
 of God, and their firmness in holding fast to the Un- 
 altered Augsburg Confession." It was, in particular, 
 a petition of this character from the congregations at 
 Tulpehocken and Northkill that led to the decisive 
 step. 
 
 There were present at this meeting Muhlenberg, 
 Brunnholtz, Handshuh, Kurtz, Hartwig and the Swed- 
 ish Provost Sandin, with his colleague Naesman, and 
 the delegates from their respective congregations- 
 Muhlenberg, by common consent presided, but to the 
 Swedes was accorded a general precedence, and all, 
 longing "with united hearts and God's grace to ad- 
 vance the welfare of our poor Church in America," 
 took an active part in the solemn deliberations. 
 
 The effect of this first organization was to merge 
 the pastors and congregations into a joint body, in 
 which each congregation or pastoral district became 
 an organic part, surrendering its independence to the 
 general authority, and receiving in turn through lay- 
 representation a voice in the government of the 
 
Muhlenberg and his Colleagues. 261 
 
 Church, as a whole, and of its constituent parts. 
 The decisions of the united body had binding force 
 with the congregations, and even the call for a pastor 
 from any one of them was henceforth addressed to 
 Muhlenberg, and by him submitted to the assembled 
 ministerium. 
 
 The proceedings of this convention embraced, first, 
 the ordination of the catechist, J. N. Kurtz, a request 
 for which was presented by his congregations. He 
 was subjected to a very rigid examination concerning 
 his awakening, course of life, attainments, library, 
 motives for seeking the ministry, Lutheran ortho- 
 doxy, and the exercise of the pastoral office in public 
 and private. Francke, to whom these ministers for- 
 warded regular reports, " thought too much was ex- 
 pected of the young candidate," and observes that 
 the questions "were answered better than they would 
 have been by one out of ten preachers before our 
 German consistories." This was the first case of 
 synodical ordination, and administered at the first 
 synodical convention in this country. J. H. Schaum 
 was ordained at the meeting of the synod in Lancas- 
 ter the ensuing year. 
 
 Secondly, the dedication with imposing ceremonies 
 of St. Michael's Church in Philadelphia. The Synod 
 attended in procession, the Swedish Provost Sandin 
 and Hartwig in the lead. A congratulatory address 
 in English, written by the oldest Swedish minister, 
 Tranberg, was read, after which followed a historical 
 address, which among other thing stated that the 
 building had been erected "that the doctrines of the 
 Evangelical Lutheran Church might be preached in it 
 
262 
 
 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 according to the prophets and apostles, and in agree- 
 ment with the Unaltered Augsburg Confession and 
 all the other Symbolical Books." After this the 
 whole building and its parts, the pulpit, baptismal 
 font, altar, were formally dedicated to the preaching 
 of the saving Word and the administration of the 
 Holy Sacraments according to the Symbolical Books 
 of the Lutheran Church. The representatives of the 
 congregation solemnly promised for this purpose to 
 preserve the building for the use of their children and 
 
 ft: 'm 
 
 ■i 2» 
 
 
 st. Michael's church, Philadelphia. (Dedicated Aug. 14, 1748.) 
 
 children's children. After some further singing, " all 
 the ministers and delegates kneeling around the altar t 
 each minister, except Muhlenberg, offered a short 
 prayer, Sandin and Naesman in Swedish, the others 
 in German." After another hymn and the baptism 
 of a child, Handschuh delivered the dedication ser- 
 mon, which was followed by the administration of the 
 Lord's Supper. 
 
 Another day was occupied in ascertaining through 
 the delegates the relation between the pastors and their 
 
Muhlenberg and his Colleagues. 263 
 
 congregations, the condition and wants of the parochial 
 schools, and the ratification of the Liturgy, the lay del 
 egates expressing their satisfaction with the form which 
 had been prepared, and with the plan to introduce the 
 the same form in all the congregations, " though they 
 thought that during cold winter days the service would 
 be somewhat too long." 
 
 Before adjourning, the synod resolved to meet an- 
 nually, alternating between Lancaster and Philadelphia, 
 each congregation at its own expense to send two el- 
 ders. Thus were laid the foundations of the Evangeli- 
 cal Lutheran Church in this country. How wisely and 
 how firmly, may be judged from the fact that this body, 
 under the name of the "Evangelical Lutheran Minis- 
 terium " of Pennsylvania and adjacent states, after the 
 lapse of a century and a half is not only still in exist- 
 ence, but embraces to-day an aggregate of 265 minis- 
 ters, 442 congregations and more than 100,000 commu- 
 nicants, notwithstanding that more than fifty synodical 
 organizations with half a million of communicants have 
 directly or indirectly sprung from it. 
 
 The most salutary results began at once to De appar- 
 ent. With the hearts of the pastors beating in unison 
 their hands were now also united, and they felt girded 
 for their task, while the congregations peaceful within 
 themselves and in vital fellowship with one another, 
 became conscious of improved spiritual life, of renewed 
 strength and of the most encouraging prospects. The 
 establishment of order, authority and discipline was fol- 
 lowed not only by a steady and rapid growth of the 
 congregations already founded, but by the gathering of 
 new congregations, and the development of new centers 
 
264 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 in every direction, rendering re-enforcements to the 
 ranks of the clergy imperative. Francke found it now 
 relatively easy to meet this demand, so that in a few 
 years a considerable force was added to those already 
 named. 
 
 Among the most eminent and worthy of these was 
 Rev. J. D. M. Heintzelman, whose services at the 
 Francke schools pointed him out as especially fitted 
 for missionary work in Pennsylvania. His career as 
 pastor of the Philadelphia congregation was one of 
 great usefulness but cut short by an early death. 
 Another excellent co-laborer arrived shortly after 
 from Halle in the person of Christopher Emanuel 
 Schultze, who so commanded the respect and love of 
 Muhlenberg that he secured his eldest daughter in 
 marriage. He possessed extraordinary gifts as a 
 preacher and as a catechist had no superior. He was 
 most conscientious and indefatigable in the discharge 
 of his office, and " overwhelmed with labors beyond 
 his strength." One of his sons, after serving for 
 awhile as pastor, was obliged to relinquish the office 
 on account of bodily infirmities, and this grandson of 
 Muhlenberg was twice elected Governor of Pennsyl- 
 vania, serving from 1823 to 1829. Justus H. Chr. Hel- 
 muth came in 1765. He had been reared in the Halle 
 Orphanage and had also passed through the Univer- 
 sity. He combined superior talents for teaching and 
 preaching, labored for awhile and with great success 
 at Lancaster, then followed a call to Philadelphia, 
 where he became a member of the Philosophical 
 Society and was for eighteen years Professor of the 
 Oriental Languages and of German in the University. 
 
Muhlenberg and his Colleagues. 265 
 
 With him arrived his bosom friend, John Fr. Schmidt, 
 who was pastor at Germantown during the Revolution, 
 and during the brief English occupation of Philadel- 
 phia became a refugee, his congregation likewise have- 
 ing been dispersed. Later he became Helmuth's co- 
 laborer in Philadelphia. 
 
 Another true son of Halle was the Rev. J. L. Voigt 
 a person of marked individuality, of pronounced lit- 
 erary tastes, and always sustaining close personal 
 relations to Muhlenberg whose successor he became 
 at the Trappe. His devotional meetings there" among 
 those of his membership who felt a deeper spiritual 
 interest " were viewed with disfavor by some who were 
 not friendly to the man. With him arrived another of 
 like spirit, John Andrew Krug, the two having been 
 ordained at the same time. Of the latter, Dr. Mann 
 says : "His unaffected humility, his sincere piety, and 
 his zeal for the welfare of those who were entrusted 
 to his care, could not fail to gain for him the esteem 
 and the affection of those who were spiritually bene- 
 fitted by his pastoral services, with whom, as a true 
 Hallensis, he held private devotions in addition to the 
 usual public service." He began his pastoral career at 
 Reading, declined subsequently a call to Baltimore, 
 and removed in 1771 to Fredericktown, Md. from 
 whence a year later he made an extended missionary 
 tour into Virginia. 
 
 Muhlenberg had sent his three sons while yet quite 
 young to Halle for their education and in due time 
 these returned and entered upon the active duties of the 
 ministry. With them came John Christopher Kunze, 
 " the most gifted and the most scholarly " of all the 
 
2.66 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 missionaries sent from Halle to Pennsylvania. Im- 
 mediately upon his arrival he became the associate of 
 Muhlenberg in Philadelphia. Later he removed to 
 New York where he succeeded in uniting the German 
 congregation and the old Dutch church. 
 
 To these may be added names like Gerock, sent 
 hither by the Church authorities of W'rtembergr 
 who, though not sustaining intimate relations to the 
 Halle pastors, connected himself with the Synod, and 
 had long pastorates in Lancaster, New York and 
 Baltimore ; Hartwig, who, after having finished his 
 University course in Germany, and having for a short 
 time missionated among the Jews, was sent by the 
 Hamburg ministry to the congregations on the Hud- 
 son, and identified himself with Muhlenberg and his 
 colleagues ; and especially the Swedish pastors, pre- 
 eminent among whom were the Provosts Acrelius and 
 von Wrangel, whose active co-operation over the whole 
 field of the German Lutheran Church, and whose 
 affectionate and beautiful attitude toward the Ger- 
 man pastors, entitles them to the lasting gratitude of 
 all Lutherans ; and Bager, another Hallean pupil, who 
 arrived in 1752, served for awhile the church in New 
 York, and for many years the churches at York, Han- 
 over and neighboring localities. 
 
 Besides these may yet be mentioned Weygant,. 
 Raus and Schrenk. There were yet others who had 
 pursued a course of study in Europe, or served as 
 teachers, and who were here for a season employed 
 in catechising and occasional preaching under super- 
 vision, and after a fair and thorough trial were ad- 
 
Muhlenberg and his Colleagues. 267 
 
 mitted to ordination upon the presentation of a call 
 for their services. 
 
 Exclusive of those who would not fellowship these 
 Hallean Pietists, and of the few Georgia and Virginia 
 pastors, with whom the great distance rendered co- 
 operation impossible, the Ministerium embraced in 
 1768 twenty-four members, and it would be no easy 
 task to find in this country, at that time, another 
 group of men measuring up to the standard of these 
 in piety, in culture, in devotion to the Church and her 
 Creed, and in self-sacrificing activity for the exten- 
 sion of Christ's Kingdom and the upbuilding of the 
 waste places of Zion. 
 
 Measureless praise has been bestowed in our litera- 
 ture upon the "Pilgrim Fathers " for their abandon- 
 ment of native land and their attachment to the truth 
 and to their forms of worship, yet it has been truly 
 said, "in genuine piety, Christian heroism, and ener- 
 getic devotion to the cause of the Redeemer, the men 
 who planted the Lutheran Church in this Western 
 Hemisphere, will not suffer in comparison with them. 
 Their history presents a most beautiful example of 
 patient endurance and untiring zeal in the service of 
 God. Their indefatigable and self-denying efforts, 
 their earnest and faithful life, illustrating the doc- 
 trines of the Church they loved, and for whose ad- 
 vancement they were toiling, made a deep impression 
 upon their contemporaries, and secured the confi- 
 dence and sympathy of all with whom they were 
 brought in contact. The prevalence of the German 
 language among them, and the preservation of their 
 records in their native tongue, have deprived them of 
 
268 
 
 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 the position in the early history of our country to 
 which their acknowledged literary' character, their 
 virtues, and their influence justly give them a claim." 
 
 And, although the marvellous triumphs of Christi- 
 anity largely make up the history of the Church, the 
 sound and rapid progress of the Evangelical Lu- 
 theran Church under the labors of Muhlenberg and 
 his colleagues has but rarely had a parallel. With a 
 consecration to the cause that recoiled from no self- 
 sacrifice, with an extraordinary sagacity and adapta- 
 
 MBH 
 
 ZION'S CHURCH, PHILADELPHIA. (Dedicated June 25, 1769.) 
 
 tion to circumstances, with a co-operation that was 
 apostolic in spirit and statesmanlike in policy, with a 
 heroism seldom eclipsed in the field of missions or on 
 the field of battle, and with a superhuman endurance 
 of toils and burdens, these men were everywhere pre- 
 paring the soil and sowing the seed of God's truth. 
 And the Lord and Head of the Church was mani- 
 festly working with them and confirming the Word. 
 Extraordinary and powerful results followed their 
 activity. A general awakening prevailed through all 
 the vast region surrounding their labors. A high 
 
Muhlenberg and his Colleagues. 269 
 
 standard of spirituality was maintained, and the ear- 
 nestness and the fervent prayers of the pastors were 
 reflected in the active zeal and the Christian virtues 
 of a devout people. There was a steady increase in 
 members, efficiency and influence. In Philadelphia, 
 St. Michael's Church, which at the time of its conse- 
 cration in 1 748 was regarded by many as too large 
 and too costly a structure for so small a congre- 
 gation, was found to be too contracted, the communi- 
 cants alone numbering some seven hundred. By 
 unanimous consent of the congregation, accordingly, 
 the vestry purchased a valuable lot of ground on the 
 corner of Fourth and Cherry Streets, and began the 
 erection of Zion Church, laying the cornerstone at 
 the meeting of the Synod in 1766, and consecrating it 
 June 25, 1769, before an immense concourse of 
 people, the Ministerium, the pastors of the Swedish 
 and Reformed congregations, the Commissary of the 
 Episcopal Church, the Provost and faculty of the 
 academy, the Mayor of Philadelphia and other digni- 
 taries, participating in the solemn festivities. This 
 church was for many years regarded the largest and 
 finest house of worship in America. 
 
 The wave of a quickened church life spread far and 
 wide in every direction. From the Delaware to the 
 Susquehanna and the region west of it, congregations 
 arose and multitudes of various nationalities flocked 
 to their altars. The tide extended over into Mary- 
 land, along the Monocacy and down into the heart of 
 Virginia, and northward into the interior of Pennsyl- 
 vania, while numerous flourishing churches were scat- 
 tered over New Jersey, and those far up on the Hud- 
 
270 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 son were not only strengthened but multiplied. The 
 power of the Most High was shown to be still inher- 
 ent in the Gospel mustard seed, and this mighty 
 growth of it, with the songs of praise in its branches, 
 proceeded in the face of the most adverse influences, 
 and at a period, too, when both the ministers and con- 
 gregations were constantly harassed by the devasta- 
 tions of the long raging struggle between the English 
 and the French for the possession of the country, 
 many being cruelly murdered, and numbers compelled 
 to fly from their harvests and their homes. 
 
REV. JOHN O. KUNZE, ». ». 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE RAVAGES OF WAR. 
 
 IT has been well said that moral deterioration is a 
 concomitant and a consequence of war. Destruc- 
 tion and waste in every department of society at- 
 tend the shock of arms. The saddest havoc is seen 
 in the sphere of religion. No other calamity is so 
 apt to extinguish the kindly light of the Gospel, or 
 undermine the foundations of virtue. 
 
 The long and exhaustive conflict of the Revolution 
 is a most lamentable illustration of this. It is a well 
 attested truth that the twenty years following the war 
 was "a time of the lowest general morality in Amer- 
 ican history." Those familiar with the ravages and 
 sufferings of the war in general will ask no proof of 
 this. Some fifteen cities and numerous villages were 
 reduced to ashes. Thousands of the best citizens 
 perished on the field of battle. Many were held in 
 captivity or compelled to flee from their homes to 
 find, on returning, their dwellings blotted out and 
 their households hopelessly scattered. Places of wor- 
 ship were in many localities either burnt or converted 
 into hospitals, prisons, or even stables, their pews and 
 galleries cut up for fuel. Out of nineteen church- 
 edifices in New York only nine could be used for 
 worship when the war was over. The ministers had 
 in numerous cases to flee for their lives. During the 
 siege of Boston all but two of the Boston pastors 
 
 fled from the city. Mr. Schmidt, the Lutheran pastor 
 
 271 
 
272 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 at Germantown, was obliged to do the same while 
 the enemy occupied that place; the English posses- 
 sion of New York drove F. A. C. Muhlenberg away 
 from his church, and on their approach to Philadel- 
 phia his brother, Henry Ernest, was compelled to flee 
 with his family. Returning for a season he was again 
 forced to retire. '' Disguised under a blanket, with a 
 rifle on his shoulder, he nearly fell into the enemy's 
 hands, through the treachery of a Tory innkeeper." 
 
 Whole congregations were dispersed and in numer- 
 ous cases absolutely extinguished. The attendance 
 of hundreds before the war was reduced sometimes to 
 less than a dozen after its close. Of the ninety-five 
 Episcopal parishes in Virginia, twenty-three had 
 during the progress of the war become "extinct or 
 forsaken, and of the remaining seventy-two, thirty- 
 four were destitute of ministerial services, while of the 
 ninety-one clergymen, twenty-eight only remained 
 who had lived through the storm." One of the two 
 Lutheran congregations in New York city disappear- 
 ed altogether during this period, while those in New 
 Jersey and Pennsylvania suffered severely. 
 
 "At Ebenezer, in Georgia," says Dr. Hazelius, "the 
 war and its detrimental consequences to the cause of 
 religion were felt more than in any other part of our 
 Church. The people were in general attached to the 
 principles of our revolution. From the very com- 
 mencement they took an active part in favor of 
 liberty. They argued : ' For the sake of liberty we 
 have left home, lands, houses, estates, and have taken 
 refuge in the wilds of Georgia; shall we now again 
 submit to bondage? No, we will not.' Upon this 
 
The Ravages of War. 273 
 
 principle they acted throughout the contest and on 
 account of their devotion to it they were driven from 
 their homes by the British forces. One of their min- 
 isters had unfortunately embraced the other side, and 
 actually went so far in his Tory zeal and unnatural 
 wickedness, as to lead the enemy to Ebenezer, to aid 
 in the destruction of the settlements, and in driving 
 the inhabitants to the inhospitable wilderness. Their 
 beautiful house of God was turned into a stable for 
 the horses of the British soldiers, and sometimes 
 served as a Lazaretto for the sick and wounded." 
 When the victorious close of the war permitted the 
 poor exiles to return they found their beloved Eben- 
 ezer destroyed. They now erected, buildings on their 
 farms and plantations and thus became scattered over 
 a distance of from two to ten miles from the former 
 town of Ebenezer. The congregation was virtually 
 broken up and was without a pastor. And the his- 
 tory of this community is but a picture of the general 
 distress that overwhelmed many hitherto flourishing 
 congregations. 
 
 The ministers were in large part seized by the 
 martial spirit and rushing to the defense of their 
 country abandoned their suffering and exposd flocks. 
 Some went forth as chaplains, others exchanged the 
 sword of the Spirit for the carnal weapon. The old- 
 est son of the Patriarch Muhlenberg, John Peter 
 Gabriel, who served both Lutheran and Episcopal 
 churches in Virginia, fired by the general political and 
 patriotic excitement, gave notice to his congregations 
 of his farewell sermon. A large audience assembled. 
 At the conclusion of divine service, he exclaimed, 
 
274 The Lutherans in America . 
 
 " There is a time of war and a time of peace, and now 
 the time to fight has come," and throwing back his 
 clerical robe he stood before them in a colonel's 
 uniform and the next day was off for the war. 
 
 Others, conversant with public affairs, gave up, like 
 the younger Muhlenberg, F. A. C, the pulpit for the 
 forum, the office of spiritual shepherd of the people 
 for that of their political representative in the halls 
 of legislation. 
 
 Thus while the preaching and the general influence 
 of the clergy had been for some time " rather martial 
 than sanctifying and spiritual," their sermons sound- 
 ing the notes of freedom and the tocsin of war, and 
 promoting, in this way, the tendency to indifferentism 
 and worldliness, many now became entirely secular- 
 ized. Their spiritual warfare was doomed to a truce. 
 "In many localities the means of grace were wholly 
 suspended for a long time, and the religious safe- 
 guards were broken down." The ministrations of 
 the Gospel ceased just when the need for them was 
 sorest. The churches generally throwing all their in- 
 fluence in support of the cause of independence, expe- 
 rienced retroactively almost total paralysis, especially 
 throughout the Middle States, in which the Lutheran 
 congregations were mainly found. "Religion suf- 
 fered serious decay, and the churches presented a wide 
 scene of desolation." The revolution in government 
 was attended by a revolution in the Church, which 
 was as baneful in its fruit as the former was bene- 
 ficent. 
 
 The war for independence lasted eight years. 
 Surely the agitations and the immoralities of this 
 
The Ravages of War. 275 
 
 long period, the neglect of the ordinances and the 
 virtual suspension of spiritual activity in many com- 
 munities, attended often by the unhappy division of 
 sentiment' regarding the war, which separated families 
 and broke up many prosperous congregations, would 
 sufficiently account for a state of profound spiritual 
 apathy, worldliness and disorder, from which it 
 seemed for years after the conclusion of peace impos- 
 sible to rouse the churches. 
 
 But the devastations of the Revolution had been 
 preceded by the devastations and harassments of a 
 nine years' struggle, 1 754-1 763, between the English 
 and the French for the possession of the country. 
 And they were followed by a series of national diffi- 
 culties and political dissensions, which with the uni- 
 versal financial distress and the grinding taxation be- 
 came a severer strain on patriotism and on morals 
 than the war itself had been. That was the critical 
 period of our country's history, "the era of bad feel- 
 ing," the dark age of American Christianity. 
 
 Thus for more than a generation, from the outbreak 
 of the French-Indian war to the inauguration of Pres- 
 ident Washington, the whole country was torn and 
 swept by the ravages of war, and the churches, besides 
 sharing in the general suffering, were rent and deso- 
 lated by the greater ravages of party violence and 
 passion. A period of endless antagonism and irrita- 
 tion, a state of restlessness, recklessness and insecur- 
 ity, brought the public mind to the verge of despair, 
 the Church to the borders of destruction. 
 
 The two bloody contests had introduced a more 
 terrible and murderous enemy than even grim-visaged 
 
276 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 war itself. War slays its' thousands, Infi.de.lity its tens 
 of thousands. During the. French arid ^Indian war 
 English officers and soldiers introduced'. deistical sen- 
 timents among our people. Young Americans in the 
 army readily imbibed these new ideas, drank deeply 
 of the poisoned cup and on their return home spread 
 the contagion among the circles in which they moved, 
 producing everywhere a relaxation in morals as well 
 as a defection in religion. 
 
 . The Revolution brought us the generous and mem- 
 orable assistance of the French arms, but the very 
 gratitude of our people for this timely and priceless 
 intervention, and the peculiarly friendly relations 
 which bound the two nations together, served only to 
 predispose many of our leading minds to French ideas 
 of religion. Our sense of indebtedness assumed the 
 form of an infatuation for everything represented by 
 the French, so that Americans became easy victims to 
 their specious theories. Our statesmen, fired with en- 
 thusiasm over France, came under the spell of its 
 atheism. A. frightful apostasy from religion ensued. 
 Skepticism and reckless blasphemy became common. 
 Infidelity was never morerampantand more aggressive 
 and bitter, never more prevalent among influential 
 citizens and professional men, never more deleterious 
 in its work. Revelation was decried as without 
 authority or evidence, moral obligation as a cobweb. 
 " The clergy were a laughing stock or objects of dis- 
 gust." Young men, especially, became enamored of 
 the new ideas. Bishop Meade of Virginia wrote that 
 scarcely a young man of any literary culture believed 
 in Christianity. 
 
The Ravages of War. 277 
 
 In 1795 Yale College had but four or five students 
 who made profession of the Christian faith. Prince- 
 ton a few years earlier reported two, and its President, 
 Dr. Smith, complained grievously of the mischievous 
 and fatal effects which the prevalent infidelity had 
 wrought in the moral and religious character of the 
 students. 
 
 The rninds of multitudes had become unsettled. 
 There was a general breaking away from the old 
 moorings of faith and life. " Wild and vague expec- 
 tations were everywhere entertained especially among 
 the young, of a new order of things about to com- 
 mence, in which Christianity would be laid aside as an 
 obsolete system, would altogether disappear." 
 
 The Christian Church, stricken and suffering from 
 the desolations of nearly twenty years of war, with 
 many of her watchmen, like the Muhlenberg brothers, 
 permanently detached from the pastoral office, was in 
 no condition to stem this dark tide of unbelief with its 
 attendant decay of piety and moral degeneracy. But 
 this was not the worst. The Church feeling the 
 assaults of her enemies, and fully alive to her perils 
 and responsibilities, might even in the face of all these 
 untoward circumstances, have withstood this onset of 
 the powers of darkness and achieved a glorious vic- 
 tory by that faith which overcometh the world. But 
 her sword had become blunted, the temper of her 
 weapons sadly vitiated. An eviscerated creed sapped 
 her energy and made her impotent against the attacks 
 of a determined and panoplied foe. 
 
 Coincident with the revolutionary struggle and the 
 ensuing, internal conflicts, and doubtless in a measure 
 
278 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 growing out of and stimulated by these, a wave of ra- 
 tionalism came into the land and gradually passed over 
 all denominations. The spirit of independence was 
 abroad, and along with the renunciation of the old 
 forms of government men were ready to cast off the 
 old forms of faith, to repudiate a strict spiritual au- 
 thority as well as an oppressive political rule. With 
 freedom of religion made a part of the organic law of 
 the land men advocated the broadest toleration, the 
 utmost liberty of thought, within the pale of the 
 churches. Along with the strong revulsion against the 
 rigorous Calvinism of New England, came a general 
 reaction against all "human " systems of faith. Ortho- 
 doxy was unfashionable. "Creeds and Confessions 
 were abhorred, and freely denounced in sermons." It 
 was even claimed that they were " outworn " and had 
 been "generally laid aside." A few fundamentals were 
 all that was needed. And doctrines that had always 
 been deemed fundamental received the sneer and sar- 
 casm of the pulpit. Reason was made the arbiter Of 
 faith. Rationalistic methods and contrivances were 
 applied to all phases of Christian revelation and life. 
 The Church, the pillar and ground of the truth, nur- 
 tured and sheltered the spirit of doubt until she became 
 verily the bulwark of unbelief. Instead of staying the 
 tide of infidelity and its concomitant dissipation and 
 materialism, she contributed to swell its volume. And 
 it is not without significance that along with the dark 
 picture given of the low morality of the people, it is 
 generally claimed that that of the clergy was not much 
 higher. Laxity of moral and religious sentiment 
 among all classes was the feature of the age. 
 
The Ravages of War. 279 
 
 Thus the influences from every quarter combined 
 for the corruption of society, for the alienation of the 
 people from the sanctuary, for the depravation of the 
 faith and the paralysis of all forms of Christian ac- 
 tivity. In the crisis that called for the Church's most 
 earnest exertions and the marshaling of her spiritual 
 powers, she was found despoiled of her best armor, her 
 energy sapped, her right arm palsied. What remained 
 in her pale from the desolations of war was taken pos- 
 session of by rationalism, and rationalism extinguishes 
 Christian zeal and cuts the nerve of Christian action. 
 
 This defection from the faith extended to all denom- 
 inations. Some of the pulpits openly espoused Unita- 
 rianism, others proclaimed Universalism, while many 
 others gave voice to kindred forms of rationalism, all 
 agreeing in their hostility to the the theology of the 
 Reformation. 
 
 It was therefore impossible for the Church to fulfil 
 her mission. Her enemies were intensely active, she 
 herself was lukewarm, and her resistance to the mighty 
 foe was feeble and desultory. The degeneracy of 
 morals in society had a correlative in the lamentable 
 decay of piety in the Christian community. The 
 Church was conformed largely to the lax and worldly 
 elements outside of it. Discipline was out of vogue. 
 The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, 
 after similar deliverances in previous years, declared 
 in 1798: "We perceive with pain and fearful appre- 
 hension a general dereliction of religious principle 
 and practice — an abounding infidelity — a dissolution 
 of religious society seems to ha threatened. Formal- 
 ity and deadness, not to say hypocrisy, visibly per- 
 
280 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 vade every part of the Church. The profligacy and 
 corruption of public morals have advanced with a 
 progress proportioned to our declension in religion." 
 
 The Evangelical Lutheran Church had her full 
 share of these disastrous experiences. Rev. Storch 
 writing from North Carolina, in 1803, says: "Party 
 spirit has risen to a fearful height. The prevalence 
 of infidelity, the contempt of the best of all religions, 
 its usages and servants, the increase of irreligion and 
 crime, have occasioned me many sad hours." She had 
 fearful trials in addition to those which threatened the 
 extinction of other denominations that had advanced 
 beyond her in organization and growth. She was 
 subjected to fiery ordeals which once more and to the 
 last degree tested her vitality and her inherent powers 
 of endurance. 
 
 The discontinuance of aid from the mother Church 
 in Germany which coincided with the war between 
 England and the colonies, was no calamity. Com- 
 merce was rendered precarious, and neither pastors 
 nor literature nor any other contributions to the 
 maintenance of the Church any longer flowed in, but 
 this was one of those blessings that come disguised in 
 the garb of adversity. Rationalism, now at its height, 
 had poisoned the heart of Germany. Even pietistic 
 Halle, had become the center of that "Illuminism" 
 which made war upon the old faith in the creeds and 
 liturgies and hymns of the Reformation. It was a 
 sovereign mercy to the Lutheran Church of America 
 that intercourse with Germany was broken off just at 
 this juncture, and that young, feeble and exposed as 
 she was, she escaped the full force of that destructive 
 
The Ravages of War. 281 
 
 rationalism, which reigned in the latter country and in 
 many localities uprooted the institutions of the Gos- 
 pel. It was enough that she became a prey to the 
 dominant laxity of faith in this country and to the in- 
 direct influences of unbelief which from time to time 
 were borne to her bosom in her own language from 
 across the sea. 
 
 A peculiar trial involved in the development of the 
 Lutheran Church in America, scarcely less serious 
 than the temporary defection of doctrine and as wide 
 reaching and pernicious in its consequences, was the 
 conflict of language. This ordeal, relatively unknown 
 to other communities, she had unfortunately to en- 
 counter in this critical period. The three large 
 Dutch Reformed congregations in New York, in 
 whose services an English note had never been 
 heard before the Revolution, readily accepted the in- 
 evitable, and surrendered the dialect of the Stuyve- 
 sants, but the great body of our German ancestors 
 had no idea of making such a concession to the lan- 
 guage of their adopted country. 
 
 To say nothing of the much greater preponderance 
 of Germans in comparison with the Dutch, or of the 
 steadfastness and tenacity which characterizes the 
 German mind, it is certainly not to the discredit of 
 those people that they clung with a religious and pas- 
 sionate devotion to their mother tongue, the tongue 
 of their fatherland and of their holy mother Church. 
 To part with a language means far more than the sur- 
 render of forms of expression, grammatical structure 
 and linguistic idioms. It is almost equivalent to the 
 immolation of a people on the altar of a foreign and 
 
282 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 unfriendly race. Their past is to be severed from their 
 future. The ideas, the modes of thought, the literary 
 and devotional treasures, the usages and the habits of 
 a people, their most sacred traditions, their very his- 
 tory, must sooner or later be given up and lost, when 
 once their language is no longer the vehicle of their 
 daily intercourse and of their public worship. The 
 fear has often been voiced that the very faith of a 
 people loses its identity and individuality by being 
 transferred to another tongue. 
 
 It is the refinement of cruelty as well as the height 
 of political sagacity when tyrants compel the con- 
 quered races in their dominion to use the language of 
 the conqueror in every department of education. A 
 province is not subdued until it surrenders its vernac- 
 ular. To what extent the fathers in this country com- 
 prehended the significance of the change we do not 
 know, but they contended against it with a violence 
 and a persistence as if the loss of their language in 
 public worship was tantamount to the extinction of 
 their Church and the loss of all that was dear. 
 
 The Lutheran Church of America glories to-day in 
 her polyglot character and rejoices in the Providence 
 that enables her ministers, like the Apostles on the 
 day of Pentecost, to declare to all the diversified na- 
 tionalities that flock to these shores, " in their own 
 tongues, the wonderful works of God." This certainly 
 emphasizes the world-wide reach of her mission and 
 the golden harvests that await her sickle in all com- 
 munities and localities. But the language problem 
 has also proved to her the occasion of untold calam- 
 ities. The fierce opposition to the introduction of 
 
The Ravages of War. 283 
 
 English services, the unprotestant attempt to confine 
 her worship to a foreign tongue, became in all the 
 great centres of population the most serious obstacle 
 to her success, lost multitudes to her fold, limited her 
 sphere, cramped her spirit, confined her influence, and 
 placed her at such disadvantage to the other Churches 
 of the land that even to this day, after bleeding and 
 suffering from it for a hundred years, the Lutheran 
 Church still feels the consequences of this policy. It 
 was as ruinous in results as it was irrational in theory. 
 It was essentially a blow at her life. The effort to 
 make the Lutheran Church a church for the Germans 
 only was a stab at her evangelical and apostolical 
 character, which devolves upon her the mission of 
 giving the restored Gospel to the world and preach- 
 ing it in every tongue. It was the renunciation of her 
 birthright. It was casting aside her crown. No won- 
 der that in some localities it almost caused her extinc- 
 tion and in all places it inflicted on her irreparable 
 injury. 
 
 This opposition to English did not manifest itself 
 in the earlier colonial period. Muhlenberg conducted 
 English services before he was in the country a year, 
 and in New York he officiated in Dutch and English 
 as well as in German. So his colleagues and his sons 
 eagerly mastered the language of the country that they 
 might extend the area of their ministrations, recogniz- 
 ing the duty of providing the young as well as their 
 unchurched fellow-citizens with the word of life, and 
 doubtless foreseeing the inevitable disasters which 
 must follow the neglect of opportunities and the fail- 
 ure to meet responsibilities. An English address was 
 
284 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 delivered at the dedication of St. Michael's in 1748. 
 Handschuh, who became pastor at Germantown in 
 1 751, officiated there occasionally in the English 
 language. Their Swedish contemporaries were capa- 
 ble of using the English tongue and preached it not 
 only in their own churches but very frequently also in 
 the churches of their English neighbors. Pastor Rud- 
 man early in the eighteenth century supplied regular- 
 ly two Episcopal churches in and near Philadelphia 
 during the vacancy of their pulpits. Hesselius in 1721 
 received ten pounds per annum from the " Society for 
 the Propagation of the Gospel " for preaching twenty 
 times a year in the vacant English churches. 
 
 The Episcopal Church in its feeble infancy in Penn- 
 sylvania was nursed by the Swedish pastors, who at 
 various places and for considerable periods preached 
 in its pulpits while the congregations were destitute 
 of a pastor of their own order. And this they did, too, 
 not for any worldly gain, for they often received no 
 compensation for their labor, not even the payment of 
 their expenses. They were in fact instructed by the 
 Archbishop of Sweden "to attend no vacant English 
 congregations for a salary or for the sake of gain." 
 Should they find time from their arduous labors among 
 their own congregations to visit the destitute English 
 population, they should do this from the promptings 
 of Christian charity, and such services as they con- 
 ducted for them, they were further charged, must be 
 "according to our Evangelical Lutheran doctrine and 
 discipline." 
 
 They ministered in this way, from time to time, to 
 quite a number of Episcopal congregations and, in fact 
 
The Ravages of War. 285 
 
 asthe Episcopalians were then but few and in mean 
 circumstances in this province, kept some of them from 
 extinction. Their services were in demand by the 
 English residents in every quarter, the people entreat- 
 ing their administration of the ordinances, as "other- 
 wise their children would become unchristened heath- 
 en, or Quakers, and their churches would be changed 
 into stables alongside of Ouaker meetine-houses." 
 Their "ready assistance and substantial services "were 
 acknowledged by Episcopal clergymen. Although 
 their preaching and their ministrations gave them 
 great influence with these Episcopal congregations, and 
 they are said to have been as popular with them as 
 with their own people, they were so devoid of the sec- 
 tarian spirit that it never occurred to them to alienate 
 these congregations from their denominational body, 
 though this might no doubt have been easily accom- 
 plished. When the situation was in after years unfortu- 
 nately reversed, and these very Swedish churches had 
 to seek supplies from the Episcopal clergy, the spirit 
 which dominated this assistance was also the reverse 
 of that which prompted the Lutheran ministers with 
 great personal sacrifice to dispense the Gospel to their 
 Anglican brethren. How such ignoble sectarianism 
 succeeded in wresting those churches from the parent 
 trunk need not here be detailed. 
 
 Most of the pastors who served the Swedish churches 
 and rendered so much assistance to the Episcopalians 
 were men of liberal education and quite acceptable 
 preachers, and as a rule could officiate very satisfac- 
 torily both in German and in English. Their own con- 
 gregations were at an early period quite willing to 
 
286 The Lutherans in America 
 
 have the English introduced, the English services 
 being regularly conducted in the afternoon, sometimes 
 at night. Some churches had "generally double 
 preaching, first in German, then in English, almost 
 every Sunday." This was felt to be necessary not 
 only for the sake of some of the Swedish descendants 
 who did not understand Swedish, but also for the sake 
 of so many English living around, who although con- 
 nected with the English Church would otherwise have 
 had no church service. At the funeral of pastor Tran- 
 berg in 1748 an English discourse was delivered. In 
 1763 Von Wrangel delivered a series of lectures in St. 
 Michael's Church in the same language. 
 
 Sometimes the newly arrived Swedish pastors felt 
 constrained to attempt preaching in English before 
 they had a sufficient command of the language. But 
 they made rapid progress in its acquisition and soon 
 delighted their English auditors. One of them, the 
 Rev. Dylander, whose Christian zeal and fluency in 
 the German enabled him to found German churches 
 at Germantown and Lancaster, regularly conducted 
 an early morning service in German in his church at 
 Wicacoa, preached at the usual hour in Swedish and in 
 the afternoon in English, and his English was so ele- 
 gant and his address so engaging that he captivated 
 the English population, and he became so popular 
 with that element that he was called upon to solem- 
 nize most of their marriages. This so excited the Eng- 
 lish Episcopal clergyman that he lodged a complaint 
 against him before the Governor, who, however, de- 
 clined interfering, declaring that the people had in this 
 country the right to get married wherever they pleased. 
 
The Ravages of War. 287 
 
 Von Wrangel also drew such crowds that he was 
 obliged often to preach in the open air. 
 
 No serious disturbance seems to have been caused 
 by the use of several languages in public worship 
 prior to the Revolutionary war. Even amid the 
 storms of the great conflict Rev. Streit introduced it 
 in South Carolina. Pastor Knoll, who withdrew from 
 the New York church in 1750, was accustomed to hold 
 English services there. The patriarch Muhlenberg 
 during his brief pastorates in that city in 1 751 and 175,2 
 held an English service each Sunday evening, which 
 was more largely attended than any other service. 
 " The descendants of the Dutch families, who could no 
 longer speak or understand the tongue of their fathers, 
 and many of the surrounding community crowded the 
 church." Many Episcopalians were in attendance. 
 This may have been the real ground for the complaint 
 that his loud preaching disturbed the worship in Trin- 
 ity Church just across the street. It was the first even- 
 ing service of any kind ever held in the church and 
 as no fixtures for lighting the building had been pro- 
 vided, candles were fastened on top of the pews. 
 " There was but one copy of the Hymn Book used on 
 hand and Mr. Muhlenberg was wont to give out the 
 lines and lead the singing. When he found that the 
 German chorals were unfamiliar to the English audi- 
 ence he selected hymns with metres found also in 
 English hymns and used familiar English tunes, when 
 the whole congregation united heartily." Dr. B. M. 
 Schmucker further observes: "However Mr. Berken- 
 meier may have disliked the pietists, there were many 
 earnest Christian souls in the surrounding congrega- 
 
288 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 tions who were drawn to the services by the fervent, 
 pungent, practical and evangelical preaching of Muh- 
 lenberg. The English urged the erection of galleries 
 in the church to accommodate the numerous attend- 
 ants." , 
 
 The impulse thus given to the prosperity of that 
 congregation, the large attendance of such as were not 
 identified with the Lutheran Church or with the Ger- 
 man population, indicate what might have been had 
 the language of the country at the right juncture been 
 everywhere introduced into Lutheran worship. It ad- 
 mits of no question that if Muhlenberg could have 
 remained at New York, Trinity Lutheran Church 
 would not only have become united and very strong 
 but would at an early day have grown into a flourish- 
 ing English Lutheran congregation. Nor can there 
 be any doubt that such a congregation in New York 
 a century ago would have immeasurably affected the 
 development of Lutheranism in that city, and that the 
 Mother of Protestantism would hold there to-day a 
 commanding and influential position second to no 
 other communion. 
 
 This liberal policy of the patriarch and his col- 
 leagues, so consonant with the Protestant character of 
 the Church, so well adapted to her mission and so full 
 of promise, was unhappily and completely reversed at 
 the close of the Revolution. And the excitements, 
 animosities and convulsions of that protracted strug- 
 gle had no little share in bringing about this ill-fated 
 change, which seriously arrested the progress of the 
 Church and for a long period crippled her activity 
 and confined her influence. The spirit which had 
 
WITTENBERG COLLEGE, SPRINGFIELD, OHIO. 
 
290 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 been raised for the purpose of exciting and sustaining 
 the revolt did not subside when the contest was over. 
 It remained to plague the land as the demon of strife 
 and of party spirit in all the relations of society. The 
 people had been long habituated to contend for their 
 rights, to resent the slightest infringement of them, to 
 chafe against all forms of government and to resist 
 everything that savored of authority. They were 
 irritable, contentious, ready to quarrel over any trifle, 
 with no respect for magistrates and no consideration 
 for the rights of others. Political excitement kept the 
 public mind at the highest tension and domestic 
 commotions often threatened greater calamities than 
 a foreign foe had inflicted. 
 
 That the Germans had a serenity of temper and 
 pacific instincts which kept them out of the general 
 turmoil, is not to be expected. It is not their nature. 
 Nay their communities had some additional and pecu- 
 liar causes of irritation and bad feeling. The people 
 had been lamentably divided in their attitude toward 
 the war. "Many of the old German settlers, who had 
 on their arrival taken the oath of allegiance to the 
 British Crown, conscientiously entertained the opinion 
 that they ought not to act contrary to their sworn 
 promise, while the majority of their brethren in the 
 faith adopted without hesitation the new order of 
 things, and cheerfully defended the cause of liberty 
 and independence with their blood and treasure." 
 This difference of sentiment was the occasion of great 
 bitterness of feeling and caused not only blighting 
 divisions in families but in many cases destroyed 
 flourishing congregations. 
 
The Ravages of War. 291 
 
 Such was the state of mind in which the people 
 were found when the German churches had to meet 
 the problem of introducing the English language, a 
 problem on which was suspended the life or the death 
 of the Church in this country. For its solution there 
 was needed pre-eminently a spirit of conciliation, a 
 supreme purpose to harmonize by concessions, to 
 effect unity and promote the general good by the sur- 
 render of individual preference and rights. But these 
 golden virtues were unhappily absent and the respec- 
 tive congregations were so charged with contentions, 
 factions, and arbitrary elements, that the proposal to 
 introduce the language of the nation was the signal 
 for the outbreak of strife and bitter dissensions, and 
 the temporary triumph of the opposition paralyzed 
 the energies of the Church and arrested her normal 
 development. 
 
 How much German conservatism may have contrib- 
 uted to this conflict, how far those tardy and unpro- 
 gressive national characteristics, which never hurry 
 to conform to new conditions and never change 
 merely for the sake of change, may have united with 
 the stormy passions of the period in the fixed opposi- 
 tion to the use of English cannot now be determined. 
 German became the party clamor. German literature, 
 German education, German character, was all the cry, 
 and blinded by prejudice and passion, possibly too re- 
 strained in some measure by reverence for ancestral 
 institutions and the mother tongue, these people mor- 
 bidly failed to understand that the founding of a new 
 nation meant inevitably the obliteration of national 
 distinctions, to which the Church, according to her 
 
292 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 own genius and mission, must at every cost except the 
 sacrifice of truth adapt herself. 
 
 The contention was sharp, violent and protracted. 
 In some places, as in Philadelphia, the parties were 
 pretty equally divided and the annual election of 
 officers turned on this question and witnessed scenes 
 more becoming a political convention than the house 
 of God. As many as 1400 votes were polled in the 
 joint congregation in the year 1806, and when the Ger- 
 man party once more won the day a colony withdrew 
 and founded St. John's, the first exclusively English 
 church in Pennsylvania, which for more than fifty years 
 had for its pastor Rev. Philip F. Mayer, D. D., one of 
 the most accomplished and useful men that have hon- 
 ored the Lutheran pulpit. 
 
 So fixed was the determination of many to have the 
 German tongue not only during their natural lives but 
 to perpetuate it at any cost, that the civil law was in- 
 voked and the congregations adopted charters requir- 
 ing the exclusive and permanent use of the German. 
 The language of worship must be as unalterable as the 
 laws of the Medes and Persians. Even the Ministe- 
 rium " must remain a German-speaking body," and it 
 was enacted that " no proposition can be entertained 
 which would render necessary any other language 
 than the German in synodical meetings and business 
 transactions." 
 
 Education, literature, legislation, courts, ordinary 
 trade and public intercourse, were conducted in the 
 English language, whereas the Church called of God 
 to permeate, purify and sanctify all these, was by a 
 strange infatuation decreed to be German. That she 
 
The Ravages of War 293 
 
 survived such a suicidal policy is another proof that 
 her life is from God, and that notwithstanding the per- 
 versity and unfaithfulness which at times are opposed 
 to her progress, the gates of hell cannot prevail against 
 her. Only a divine institution can survive the follies 
 and passions of its adherents. 
 
 While this hostility to using the language of the 
 country in public worship proved exceedingly detri- 
 mental to the general interests of the Church, its ruin- 
 ous effects were especially glaring in the large cities of 
 New York and Philadelphia. In the former city the 
 Anglicized descendants of the Dutch as well as 
 the rising generation of the Germans were constrained 
 to separate by hundreds and even thousands from the 
 Church of their fathers, and in Philadelphia a similar 
 withdrawal of the educated and progressive elements 
 went on for years. Many who remained became in- 
 different to sanctuary services of which they under- 
 stood but little, and lost their interest in a church that 
 refused to them and their children the Gospel in the 
 language of their country. And these serious losses 
 aggravated in turn the strife between the parties who 
 favored and those who opposed the introduction 
 of English, rendering peace and prosperity impos- 
 sible. 
 
 This insane policy opposed to the providence of 
 God and the universal practice of Protestants, as well 
 as to the dictates of reason, caused immeasurable in- 
 jury to all the best interests of the Church. Its most 
 far-reaching and disastrous consequence was the insur- 
 mountable barrier it raised to the establishment of 
 schools for higher education and for the training of 
 
294 The Ltitherans in America. 
 
 candidates for the sacred office. The Synod as well 
 as the principal congregations being divided into war- 
 ring factions, harmony of operation, so essential to 
 success in any project, was out of the question. The 
 Germans could not favor the founding of an institu- 
 tion which would inevitably give prominence to Eng- 
 lish and strengthen that element. The English party 
 had no mind to contribute to an academy or college 
 designed to perpetuate the German as the language 
 of their Church. Thus for nearly half a century all 
 educational movements were frustrated. And that 
 church which is the parent of modern education as 
 surely as she is the mother of Protestantism, was left 
 without a single educational agency except her paroch- 
 ial schools, and a large portion of her ministry and 
 especially her laity sank to a level of intelligence that 
 became as much of a reproach as it was a calamity. 
 
 In spite of the unhappy condition of the Lutheran 
 Church in this period, in spite of the overwhelming 
 obstacles which she encountered and which cast their 
 portentous shadows far into the future, there was some 
 advance, some extension of her borders. But it did 
 not have the proportions which the faithful labors and 
 the bright prospects of the previous period had antici- 
 pated and which the golden opportunities now war- 
 ranted. Contrasted with the activities and progress 
 of the Church before the war, this has been very prop- 
 erly regarded an era of declension. Yet there was 
 life. The word of the cross resounded from many 
 Lutheran pulpits and silently wrought as the power of 
 God unto salvation. Many of the ablest preachers 
 were indeed heard no more. Schaum, after a faithful 
 
The Ravages of War. 295 
 
 ministry of thirty-three years, entered into his rest in 
 1778. The elder Muhlenberg, after a career of un- 
 surpassed usefulness and apostolic power, extending 
 over a period of forty-five years, passed away amid 
 the most touching expressions of his faith and love on 
 October 7, 1787. His two gifted sons, Frederick A. 
 C. and John Peter Gabriel, who had begun their min- 
 isterial labors before they had reached their majority, 
 and had early developed eminent capacity for the 
 sacred calling, had been swept by patriotic enthu- 
 siasm, the one into the arena of politics, the other 
 into the field of battle. And they never returned to 
 the ministrations of the altar, but filled spheres of 
 usefulness and distinction in the service of their 
 country. Frederick was elected to the Continental 
 Congress in 1779, was re-elected a number of times, 
 and in the first and third Congress after the adoption 
 of the Constitution was chosen Speaker of the House. 
 Peter became a Major-General in the army, sustained 
 intimate relations to General Washington, was elected 
 Vice-President of Pennsylvania in 1785 when Frank- 
 lin was chosen President, was a member of the First 
 Congress, the Third and the Sixth. In 1801 he be- 
 came a United States Senator, which post he resigned 
 to accept the appointment from Jefferson of Collector 
 of the Port at Philadelphia. His statue in the National 
 House of Representatives is one of the two contribu- 
 ted by Pennsylvania to that illustrious collection of 
 patriots and statesmen. 
 
 But what was gain to the state was loss to the 
 church. The glorious achievements of such men in 
 political life show what they might have accomplished 
 
296 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 had they returned to the Church which needed their 
 services even more than the young republic. And it 
 is an example of the ordeal which the Church had to 
 sustain at that time, through the diversion of much of 
 her most serviceable material to the paths of civil life. 
 The Muhlenbergs undoubtedly illustrate the general 
 tendency of the age. The interests of the Church 
 were sacrificed to the urgent and all-engrossing po- 
 litical and material issues. 
 
 Provost Von Wrangel of the Swedish churches, the 
 loving and sweet friend of Muhlenberg, who had been 
 personally a source of great encouragement to him, 
 who had rendered invaluable services to the Church 
 in general and guided many souls to the experience 
 of grace, had been recalled to Sweden, and had pre- 
 ceded his noble friend to the heavenly reward. Ger- 
 ock, who had preached fourteen years at Lancaster, 
 had served as its first pastor and for six years the 
 new and spacious Christ Church in New York, died 
 as pastor of the church in Baltimore, in 1787, after a 
 pastorate of fourteen years. Other devoted and faith- 
 ful men, having in less conspicuous scenes rendered 
 the full measure of their strength to the cause, were 
 from time to time summoned to their rest, and there 
 were but few of equal capacity and devotion to take 
 their places. No more laborers were sent over by 
 the Halle Directors, the Rev. J. F. Weinland, who 
 arrived in 1783, being the last. Nor were there any 
 further arrivals from Sweden, the last being Nicholas 
 Collin, sent over in 1 771. Before the close of the 
 Revolution the Swedes had to seek supplies from the 
 Episcopal churches. 
 
The Ravages of War. 297 
 
 To reinforce the ministry to any extent from the 
 native population was out of the question. The 
 schools of the country had been almost everywhere 
 broken up by the war, and the youth who should have 
 been acquiring their education for the ministry were 
 either called into the military service or, in the absence 
 of the father in that service, required to take his place 
 on the farm or in the shop. 
 
 Yet the Lord of the harvest did not suffer his fields 
 to be wholly desolate. Good and worthy and able 
 men labored with marked efficiency in various parts 
 of the land. Helmuth and Schmidt, as joint pastors, 
 had charge of the large congregation in Philadelphia, 
 worshiping in the two churches of St. Michael's and 
 Zion. The former was one of the most eloquent 
 men of his day, and adhering strictly to the orthodox 
 faith and speaking with the unction of spiritual fervor, 
 he held and swayed his large audiences as with a 
 spell. Schmidt was inferior to him in the gift of elo- 
 cution, but was uniformly instructive in the pulpit and 
 was most admired by his most intelligent hearers. 
 He, too, was strictly orthodox and firmly opposed to 
 the growing latitude which began to prevail among 
 his brethren. Both of them were uncommonly faith- 
 ful in their pastoral ministrations, and manifested in 
 every way the deepest concern for the spiritual life of 
 their congregation. During the prevalence of the 
 yellow fever in Philadelphia, in 1793, they displayed 
 heroic self-sacrifice in ministering to the sick and 
 burying the dead. On one occasion when six hun- 
 dred and twenty-five of his members had already been 
 buried, Dr. Helmuth said from the pulpit, " Look 
 
298 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 upon me as a dead man," and immediately went forth 
 again to attend the sick and the dying. 
 
 F. D. Schaeffer, D. D., a devout and holy man, a dis- 
 ciple of the Arndt and Spener school, labored with 
 notable zeal and success at Germantown, and when 
 subsequently transferred to Philadelphia as the suc- 
 cessor of Schmidt, actively urged that provision be 
 made for those who understood only the English lan- 
 guage, a position which is said to have caused him 
 great suffering and the issue of which deeply grieved 
 him. Besides his personal labors which are held in 
 perpetual remembrance by his congregations he gave 
 to the Lutheran ministry his four sons, all men of solid 
 gifts and of eminent worth. 
 
 Dr. David Frederick Schaeffer, a man "almost un- 
 rivaled for general personal attractions, who labored 
 in season and out of season; in town and in the coun- 
 try; on the Sabbath and during the week; in the pul- 
 pit and out of the pulpit ; beside the sick-bed and in 
 the catechetical class ;" and held an intimate and influ- 
 ential relation to all the leading movements of his own 
 denomination, and with many important public enter- 
 prises out of it, began preaching at Frederick, Md., at 
 the age of twenty-one and continued his indefatigable 
 labors there for thirty years. He was the founder of 
 the first English periodical in the Church. Frederick 
 Solomon was pastor at Hagerstown and died at the 
 age of twenty-five. Dr. Frederick Christian during 
 his three years pastorate at Harrisburg succeeded in 
 introducing English services. In 1815 he accepted a 
 call to Christ Church in the city of New York, where 
 he preached in two languages until the erection of St 
 
The Ravages of War. 299 
 
 Matthew's church in 1823, from which time he preached 
 exclusively in English. Dr. Charles Frederick Schaef- 
 fer, whose noble, intellectual and moral qualities made 
 him a man of mark throughout the Church for fifty 
 years, and whose labors as author, and as professor 
 successively in the three principal theological institu- 
 tions maintained by the Church in his time, secured 
 him an influence not surpassed by any of his contem- 
 poraries, entered the ministry in 1832. 
 
 Dr. J. C. Kunze's extensive culture constituted him an 
 "ornament of the American Republic of letters." He 
 was one of the most profound men of his day, and he 
 has always been considered one of the brightest lights 
 that ever shone in the American Lutheran Church, 
 which in turn he regarded with an enthusiastic devo- 
 tion. He spent fourteen years as the associate of 
 Helmuth in Philadelphia, and twenty-three years in 
 laboring under great discouragements and trials for 
 the upbuilding of his beloved Church in the city of 
 New York. He belonged to the strict confessional 
 party but was tolerant towards slight departures. He 
 rejoiced with Helmuth over the fire which was kindled 
 in their congregation in the year 1782, and later at 
 New York. Those were precious hours to him when 
 a penitent in tears came seeking help in the interests 
 of his soul. His fearless rebuke of the desecration of 
 the Lord's day exposed him to scurrillous attacks 
 from his German countrymen. When the political 
 and atheistical ideas of the French Revolution be- 
 gan to pervade the community to an alarming ex- 
 tent, he entered the lists along with such eminent 
 divines as Mason, Linn and Livingston, "to sound 
 
300 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 the alarm of danger then threatening our firesides 
 and our altars." 
 
 Henry Ernest Muhlenberg, D. D., the youngest son 
 of "the Patriarch," was a profound theologian and an 
 original thinker, who held to the great truths of Chris- 
 tianity with much tenacity, but " could allow very 
 considerable latitude on minor points." He was 
 pastor of the Church at Lancaster for thirty-five 
 years and maintained the most watchful oversight of 
 the spiritual state of his flock. Rev. Benjamin Kel- 
 ler, one of his spiritual children, speaks of him as a 
 "'model pastor " and among other things states that 
 "he appointed two days in the week immediately pre- 
 ceding the Communion for private conversation with 
 those who intended to join in it. This gave him an 
 opportunity of finding out the spiritual state of the 
 communicants, and of counseling, admonishing, en- 
 couraging, comforting as the respective cases might 
 require." Was it the prevalence of lax views of the 
 Sacrament that led to the discontinuance of this prac- 
 tice, which at one time was general in the Church and 
 which must commend itself to every pastor as reason- 
 able and proper? 
 
 Rev. J. N. Kurtz, after experiencing almost un- 
 paralleled exposures and hardships at Tulpehocken 
 for twenty-two years, labored till nearly the close of 
 the century in and around York. He ardently es- 
 poused the cause of the colonies but was for a time 
 seriously embarrassed 'by his oath of allegiance to 
 King George. While the Colonial Congress sat at 
 York, its chaplain, Rev. (afterwards Bishop) White, 
 lodged in his house. He was one of the best Latin 
 
The Ravages of War. 301 
 
 scholars then in this country. In the pulpit he was a 
 " son of thunder," a man of extraordinary moral cour- 
 age, proclaiming the truth with indomitable boldness, 
 yet he possessed withal such tact and tenderness, that 
 the Lutheran churches lying far beyond his parish 
 made continual requisition for his services for the al- 
 laying of strife, and the reconciliation of disaffected 
 members. He was for the Lutheran churches in that 
 region what Muhlenberg was for the churches in the 
 eastern part of the State, in New Jersey and New 
 York, their pacificator. 
 
 His son, Dr. J. Daniel Kurtz, "a man of much more 
 than ordinary powers, an evangelical, impressive and 
 earnest preacher, and an eminently faithful and affec- 
 tionate pastor," had charge of the church in Baltimore 
 for nearly fifty years, assisting for a while and finally 
 succeeding his father's friend, Rev. Gerock. 
 
 After the retirement of Rev. J. N. Kurtz from 
 York, that congregation was served by his son-in-law, 
 the Rev. Jacob Gcering, who preached Jesus Christ 
 and him crucified in such a way that "no one could 
 listen to him without being convinced that he had a 
 deep inward experience of every sentiment that he 
 uttered," and whose ministry of twenty-five years was 
 blest with extensive awakenings, which brought large 
 numbers into the church, and gave an impetus to its 
 prosperity which continues to this day. Although he 
 had never entered the precincts of a college he mas- 
 tered the Latin and Greek languages, the Hebrew and 
 its cognates, became quite proficient in Church History 
 and Patristics, and gathered a vast amount of infor- 
 mation on almost every branch of science. When 
 
3° 2 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 strongly urged for nomination to the office of 
 Governor of Pennsylvania, he declined on the ground 
 that the kingdom which he served was not of this 
 world, and that he coveted no higher honor than 
 that of being a faithful minister of the Lord Jesus. 
 
 Among the representative ministers of the day a 
 prominent rank was held by Dr. Christian Endress, 
 who after holding for six years the position of princi- 
 pal of the large congregational school of Zion and St. 
 Michael's in Philadelphia, took charge, in 1801, of the 
 church at Easton, and in connection with it served for 
 some years at intervals not less than a dozen localities 
 on both sides of the river. In 18 15 he succeeded the 
 Rev. Dr. Henry E. Muhlenberg at Lancaster and in 
 the face of powerful opposition and violent personal 
 abuse succeeded in introducing the English language. 
 He was an able and faithful minister of Christ, one 
 that " you could never hear without feeling that you 
 were in contact with a discriminating, powerful and 
 earnest mind." He is classed with the " liberal party," 
 and was "a decided Arminian." He was a diligent and 
 independent student of the Scriptures. 
 
 Dr. John George Schmucker went to Hagerstown 
 in 1794, a charge which then embraced eight congre- 
 gations, and though he, like most of his Lutheran 
 contemporaries, entered upon his work when quite a 
 youth, he speedily acquired hoth in and out of the 
 pulpit an influence which falls to the lot of compara- 
 tively few ministers. In 1809 he succeeded Gcering 
 at York, where with unremitting assiduity and great 
 success he labored for twenty-six years. He passed in 
 his early years through profound religious experience 
 
REV. PAIII. HENKEL, 
 
The Ravages of War. 303 
 
 and he reached an advanced stage of spiritual life. 
 He was, besides being a faithful pastor, a voluminous 
 author. As a preacher he was earnest and impres- 
 sive, fearless in exposing vice, unfaltering in his advo- 
 cacy of moral reforms, and warmly attached to the 
 American Bible and Tract Societies, which he regarded 
 as "grand instrumentalities for the conversion of the 
 world." Besides the eminent services he rendered 
 the Church in founding and promoting some of her 
 most important institutions, he is deserving of grate- 
 ful remembrance, like Muhlenberg, Kurtz and Schaef- 
 fer, as the progenitor of successive generations of min- 
 isters that have added largely to the efficiency and 
 glory of the Lutheran communion. 
 
 Among the most learned and laborious of the Lu- 
 theran divines of this period was the Rev. George 
 Lochman, D. D., who from the year 1794 served the 
 congregation at Lebanon with a number of affiliated 
 congregations, extending his pastorate over twenty- 
 one years and frequently declining invitations to more 
 eligible fields of labor. In 1815 the peculiar circum- 
 stances of the congregation at Harrisburg constrained 
 him to accept a call to that place, where his ministry 
 continued to the close of his life in 1826, "with fre- 
 quent and signal tokens of the divine favor." He gave 
 his support to every measure that promised to advance 
 the public welfare and, like Muhlenberg, Von Wrangel 
 and others, maintained a fraternal attitude toward 
 other evangelical bodies. But in his estimation the 
 Lutheran Church was the one pre-eminently loved of 
 Christ, and the only thing that could at any time dis- 
 turb his unmeasured kindness of heart was " some in- 
 
304 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 vasion of what he esteemed the rights and prerogatives 
 of the good old Lutheran Church, for which he enter- 
 tained an affection next in strength and devotedness 
 to that he felt for his divine Master." 
 
 A man of eminent attainments of character was the 
 Rev. F. W. Geissenhainer, D. D., who completed his 
 theological studies at several German Universities be- 
 fore the age of eighteen, and who, on account of his ex- 
 traordinary qualifications for the office, was ordained 
 at twenty, in a country where the rule was twenty-five. 
 Coming to America in 1793, he labored in Montgom- 
 ery county, Pa., until he was called to New York on 
 the death of Dr. Kunze in 1808. Returning some 
 years later to his former charge in Pennsylvania, he 
 was recalled to New York in 1822, and remained 
 pastor of St. Matthew's Church until the close of his 
 earthly life in 1838. 
 
 In North Carolina the war reduced the churches to 
 a feeble and impoverished condition. Rev. Adolphus 
 Nussman, whom the Consistory of Hanover had sent 
 as a missionary to that province in 1773, was still 
 laboring there. Through him an appeal for help was 
 forwarded to a mission society founded in connection 
 with the University of Helmstsedt for the purpose of 
 extending aid to the brethren in that region. Besides 
 other substantial forms of relief for their spiritual des- 
 titution, this society sent over in 1788 a young minis- 
 ter by the name of Charles Augustus Gottlieb Storch. 
 He had received University training, possessed a wide 
 range of knowledge, and besides his familiarity with 
 Hebrew, Greek and Latin, was able to converse flu- 
 ently in five or six languages. His preaching was 
 
The Ravages of War. 305 
 
 interesting and edifying to all classes ; "for his thoughts 
 were presented with such admirable perspicuity that 
 the most illiterate could comprehend them ; and yet 
 they were so rich and elevated, and often powerful, 
 that the best educated minds could not but admire 
 them.'' He located at Salisbury and served from the 
 first, in connection with that, two other places ; but he 
 soon established other congregations in Rowan, Lin- 
 coln and Cabarras counties, and paid several visits to 
 destitute churches in South Carolina, Tennessee and 
 Virginia. In the pastoral relation he is said to have 
 been a model of tenderness, diligence and fidelity. 
 Repeatedly invited to occupy other and more eligible 
 fields, he declined them all in view of the great dearth 
 of ministers from which that region was suffering, 
 though his learning and eloquence would have fitted 
 him for the most cultivated and refined communities. 
 His son, Rev. Theophilus Stork, D. D., the founder of 
 St. Mark's, Philadelphia, and of St. Mark's, Baltimore, 
 was an eloquent and polished divine; and his grand- 
 son, Charles A. Stork, D. D., who succeeded his father 
 in Baltimore and who was cut off in the prime of his 
 usefulness while Professor of Theology at Gettysburg, 
 was a brilliant example of sanctified culture. 
 
 Frederick Henry Quitman, D. D., the father of Ma- 
 jor-General Quitman, studied at Halle during the 
 period of "Illumination," under such lights as Semler, 
 Gruner and others of the Rationalistic School. He 
 arrived in this country from Holland in 1795. For 
 thirty years he divided his labors among a number of 
 churches on the Hudson, often preaching seven or 
 
3o6 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 eight times a week, either in the German, Low Dutch 
 or English language. 
 
 Rev. Christian Streit served for some time as chap- 
 lain of the Army of Independence, and was taken pris- 
 oner by the British while he was pastor at Charleston, 
 S. C. He took charge of the church at Winchester, 
 Va., in 1785, and also of the one at Strasburg, for- 
 merly included in Rev. (Gen.) Peter Muhlenberg's 
 pastoral district. He continued to labor in this field 
 until summoned to his reward in 181 2. He acted as 
 bishop of all the churches in that part of the Valley of 
 Virginia, and laid the foundations of numerous con- 
 gregations throughout that whole region, preaching 
 at first in both English and German ; but the views 
 and circumstances of his people allowed him in his 
 later years to officiate exclusively in English. 
 
 Another minister "to whom both the nation and 
 the Church, in their early and feeble day were alike 
 indebted," was the Rev. John Nicholas Martin, who, 
 while pastor at Charleston, S. C, during the Revolu- 
 tion, endured great sacrifices and sufferings on ac- 
 count of his ardent patriotism. 
 
 Such were the leading men who presided over the 
 Evangelical Lutheran churches during the closing 
 decades of the eighteenth century and the earlier 
 years of the nineteenth. No other denomination 
 could, at the time, boast of a ministry that surpassed 
 them in intellectual culture, in pastoral aptitude and 
 fidelity, and in the highest qualities of pulpit elo- 
 quence. 
 
 A Presbyterian clergyman, the Rev. William R. De- 
 witt, D. D., who had an intimate personal acquaint- 
 
The Ravages of War. 307 
 
 ance with some of these fathers, says of them : " They 
 were but one generation removed from those who 
 first came to this country from Germany. They, for 
 the most part, pursued their theological studies with 
 them, and while doing so resided in their families. 
 From them they imbibed much of that pastoral sim- 
 plicity and kindness, which so greatly distinguished 
 them as a class, and which contrasted so favorably 
 with the sterner elements in the characters of many 
 of the Scotch-Irish ministers, the first Presbyterian 
 pastors of this region." 
 
 Under their earnest and laborious ministrations 
 the older congregations maintained a steady pros- 
 perity. Such as had suffered most seriously from the 
 ravages of the war, gradually revived, and new con- 
 gregations were organized in many localities. The 
 ministers who occupied the outer borders of the 
 Church were zealously affected to care for the feeble 
 churches in their vicinity and to extend the Gospel 
 into the regions beyond. They undertook mission- 
 ary tours into remote districts, gathering together the 
 scattered children of the house of Luther, and plant- 
 ing in newer'and destitute settlements the church of 
 Christ as the centre of light and the bulwark of vir- 
 tue. The Rev. Bager, who was for years pastor of the 
 churches at York and at Hanover, was wont to visit 
 every six weeks a small band of Lutherans at Balti- 
 more, and extended his missionary journeys also 
 westward as far as Grindstone Hill, in the neighbor- 
 hood of Chambersburg, traversing an area extending 
 fifty miles in one direction and fifty in another, and 
 strewing over the soil the seeds of divine truth, from 
 
308 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 which the more than one hundred churches of Balti- 
 more, and of Franklin, Cumberland, Adams and York 
 counties in Pennsylvania, are to-day reaping the har- 
 vest. A large number of excellent people, who trace 
 their lineage to this active pioneer of Lutheranism, 
 have an honorable place in the congregations which 
 he founded. His grandson, Dr. H. L. Baugher, for a 
 long time the President of Pennsylvania College, and 
 the son and namesake of the latter, have in their de- 
 votion to the Church and their labors for its ad- 
 vancement proved themselves worthy descendants 
 while others have shown exceptional liberality in the 
 support of her institutions. 
 
 No more active, indefatigable and self-denying mis- 
 sionary than the Rev. Paul Henkel ever labored in 
 this country. He was a great-grandson of Rev. Ger- 
 hard Henkel, one of the first Lutheran ministers who 
 came to this country from Germany. Serving at dif- 
 ferent times what might be regarded as a fixed charge 
 at New Market, Va., and in Rowan County, N. C, he 
 never confined himself to any such limitations. The 
 whole surrounding country was his parish. He laid 
 the foundations of quite a number of churches in 
 Augusta, Madison, Pendleton and Wythe Counties, 
 Va., and without authorization from any mission 
 Board, and without dependence upon any missionary 
 fund, he made repeated tours through western Vir- 
 ginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana and Ohio ; hunt- 
 ing up the lost ; administering the Word and Sacra- 
 ments ; instructing and confirming the youth, and so 
 far as practicable organizing new congregations* 
 With all this he found time for the preparation of a 
 
The Ravages of War. 309 
 
 series of devotional volumes in English and in Ger- 
 man, and took part in the training of quite a number 
 of candidates for the ministry. He passed away from 
 his earthly labors in 1825, but five sons took up 
 his work in the church militant and their honorable 
 name, their zealous consecration to the Church and 
 her doctrines, have been perpetuated without inter- 
 ruption in the Lutheran pulpit to the present day. 
 
 The Rev. John George Butler labored for some time 
 in the Cumberland Valley in Pennsylvania. . Subse- 
 quently he visited the destitute Lutheran settlements 
 in the territory now embraced in Huntingdon, Blair, 
 Bedford and Somerset counties. Again he is found 
 exploring the waste places of the State of Virginia. 
 He made Botetourt county his headquarters, but with 
 all the energies of an ardent soul he was constantly 
 prosecuting missionary operations into districts lying 
 far beyond, often making appointments a year in ad- 
 vance and never failing to meet them. "He was an- 
 nually commissioned by the Synod of Pennsylvania to 
 travel through the western part of Virginia and Ten- 
 nessee, to stop for a time wherever there was a pros- 
 pect of being especially useful, to catechise and con- 
 firm the young, to distribute copies of the Bible and 
 the hymn-book, and to organize congregations wher- 
 ever it was practicable." 
 
 In 1805 he removed to Cumberland, Md., where a 
 congregation had been organized and a log house of 
 worship erected in 1794. His regular charge consisted 
 here of eight congregations, one forty-seven, another 
 sixty miles from the place of his residence, receiving 
 from all these congregations about one hundred and 
 
310 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 fifty dollars. "In visiting a neighborhood remote from 
 his residence he usually remained from four to eight 
 weeks, preaching and catechising the youth daily, vis- 
 iting the people from house to house, praying with 
 them, and exhorting all to become Christians or to 
 grow in grace. Before leaving, it was his custom to 
 preach a farewell sermon at a school-house, in a mill, 
 or some other convenient place, there being usually a 
 very large attendance. At the close he requested all 
 to unite with him in singing a farewell hymn. During 
 the singing of the first stanza the fathers came forward 
 and one by one gave him the parting hand. After he 
 had spoken to them a few suitable words, they would 
 turn and pass out of doors, generally weeping as they 
 went. The mothers did the same while the next verse 
 was being sung; then those whom he had confirmed ; 
 then all the rest, and finally he himself followed. Then 
 in front of the house all arranged themselves in a cir- 
 cle, with him in the center, and thus they sang the re- 
 maining verses. After that he knelt with all of them 
 on the cold ground, and spreading his hands to heaven 
 prayed with and for them. The doxology followed 
 and the benediction. And now in an instant he was 
 upon his horse, and away he went, perhaps to return 
 no more. The impression made by such a scene was 
 overpowering. He wept and they wept ; and in the 
 remembrance of what he had said, the good seed of 
 the word brought forth rich fruit," — fruit which has 
 kept ripening and multiplying for successive genera- 
 tions, and the gathering of which at this time employs 
 the labors of scores of ministers in the western coun- 
 ties of Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania. 
 
The Ravages of War. 3 1 1 
 
 Thus rolled the wave of missionary operations till it 
 reached, before the close of the century, the very sum- 
 mit of the Alleghenies. But the mountains themselves 
 form no barriers to the spread of the Gospel. And 
 weak and poorly organized as was the Church, the ag- 
 gressive spirit of Christianity moved it to follow the 
 streams of immigration and to plant the cross on the 
 wild prairies of the west. One of the noblest of these 
 pioneers was Rev William Carpenter, who after serv- 
 ing for twenty-six years the old Hebron church in Mad- 
 ison county, Va., followed a colony of his' own congre- 
 gation to Boone county, Ky. This little band had 
 kept up religious meetings in their humble cabins for 
 eight years when Mr. Carpenter paid them a visit to 
 catechise the children and administer the Sacraments. 
 He felt constrained to cast his lot among them and 
 for twenty years, to the close of his life in 1833, he 
 exercised his ministry in that remote region. During 
 the same period a pupil of his, Rev. Geo. Daniel Flohr, 
 cultivated a large missionary field in south-western 
 Virginia. His residence was in Wythe county, but his 
 congregations lay in three different counties and four 
 of them were distant from his residence, nine, twenty- 
 two, thirty, and forty-seven miles. 
 
 In Pennsylvania we trace Rev. John Michael Steck 
 taking charge of congregations in Bedford and Somer- 
 set counties, in the year 1789. He located at Greens- 
 burg in 1792, performing arduous missionary labors in 
 that part of Pennsylvania, which was yet a wilderness. 
 His son, Michael John Steck, accepted a call to Lan- 
 caster, Ohio, in 1816, and by appointment of Synod, 
 made extensive missionary tours. He was the first 
 
312 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 Lutheran minister to officiate in Columbus, O., hold- 
 ing services in an upper room of a private house in 
 1819. Rev. Colson was laboring at Meadville in 1814, 
 to which place Rev. C. F. Heyer was sent out by the 
 Pennsylvania Synod in 181 7. He was the ideal of a 
 Christian missionary and for sixty years rendered in- 
 calculable services to his Church both in this country 
 and in India. 
 
 As the borders of Zion became extended and minis- 
 ters and congregations were multiplying, the great dis- 
 tances to be travelled over in attending the annual 
 meetings of the Pennsylvania Synod, as well as the 
 desire to promote the efficiency of the churches 
 through closer affiliation and a more compact or- 
 ganization, prompted the ministers in different states 
 to organize separate conferences or associations - 
 The first of these organizations, the second synod of 
 the American Lutheran Church, was " The Synod and 
 Ministerium of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in 
 the State of New York and adjacent parts," which was 
 formed at Albany in the year 1786, with Dr. Kunze as 
 President. Its constitution and regulations were al- 
 most identical with those of the mother synod, "except 
 that the German language was not constituted either 
 the language of synod, or that wherein divine service 
 was to be celebrated, except where the circumstances 
 of a congregation would require it." As early as 181 5 
 it became almost entirely English. Although there 
 were ten ministers between New York and Troy, and 
 several in New Jersey, only three were present at the 
 first convention. And of the more than twenty-five 
 congregations only two were represented. 
 
The Ravages of War. 313 
 
 During the year 1788 seven ministers with fifteen 
 congregations located in the Carolinas formed a kind 
 of synodical organization under the title Unio Eccle- 
 siastica of the German Protestant Churches in the 
 State of South Carolina. Its principal object seems 
 to have been to provide " for the proper legal incor- 
 poration of all the German churches which were lo- 
 cated in the interior of the state." The evil of con- 
 founding or merging the two Churches into one was 
 carefully guarded against, and the act of incorporation 
 stipulates that " it is not to be understood that any 
 member of either confession should forsake his con- 
 fession, but that both Lutheran and Reformed, who 
 are members of one or the other of the incorporated 
 Churches, and who have hitherto united in the attend- 
 ance on worship, shall continue to enjoy the same 
 rights and privileges, without the least reproaches in 
 consequence of their respective confessions." Nor can 
 this corporate alliance, be chargeable with unsound- 
 ness in the faith on the part of the Lutherans, for " all 
 the Evangelical Lutheran ministers were formally 
 sworn on the Symbolical Books " at the first meeting. 
 Rev. Friedrich Daser, A. M., was chosen Senior or 
 President, Rev. F. A. Wallberg, Secretary. Both were 
 Lutherans, as were in fact all but two of the ministers, 
 and nine of the fifteen congregations. 
 
 The ecclesiastical consciousness of that region 
 seems to have been at that time somewhat confused, 
 since the first convention of the Lutheran Church in 
 North Carolina, held in St. John's Church, Cabarras 
 county, May 1794, proceeded to examine and ordain a 
 minister for the Episcopal Church. His name was 
 
314 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 Robert Johnson Miller, and this extraordinary inva- 
 sion of Episcopal prerogative on the part of a Lu- 
 theran Ministeriumwas in response to a petition from 
 Mr. Miller's people of White Haven Church, in Lin- 
 coln county. It must have been in strange times that 
 Episcopalians could forget the Apostolic Succession 
 and Lutherans ordain a man to minister for that de- 
 nomination. Rev. Miller's ordination certificate is 
 still extant. It ought to be deposited with the House 
 of Bishops as a companion piece of the memorable 
 deliverance on the " Historic Episcopate." 
 
 This conference seems to have been called for no 
 other purpose than the ordaining of Mr. Miller. No 
 synodical organization was effected until the year 
 1803. The principal impulse leading to the organiza- 
 tion seems to have been the great religious awakening 
 which passed over the country in the first years of the 
 present century. The ablest minds of the Church in 
 that section, Revs. Storch and Henkel, became greatly 
 disturbed and perplexed over the phenomena which 
 they witnessed and which in some measure unsettled 
 their own people. They hesitated to call the move- 
 ment fanatical or to denounce it as unscriptural, for 
 they discovered a remarkable change in persons who 
 had been previously either ungodly in their lives or 
 avowedly skeptical in their views. As there was di- 
 vision of sentiment among the German ministers, this 
 instead of leading to strife or alienation, " drove them 
 to more intimate communion with each other in their 
 official acts, and they had thus the opportunity to in- 
 vestigate this matter more closely." 
 
 About this time, too, the assistance which the 
 
The Ravages of War. 315, 
 
 Helmstaedt Mission had been rendering to the 
 churches in North Carolina came to an end, and these 
 churches were accordingly thrown upon their own re- 
 sources. Distracted by the revivalistic excitement,, 
 and deprived of the parental guidance and the ma- 
 terial support of their friends in the fatherland, they 
 felt the need of united counsels and active co-opera- 
 tion for their own defence and prosperity, and " that 
 the instruction and quickening influence of the Gospel 
 may be brought to many thousands of souls who have 
 hitherto been necessarily deprived of the same." 
 Thus originated at Salisbury, May 2d, 1803, the North 
 Carolina Synod, or Conference, as these bodies were 
 then sometimes called, exercising henceforth sole 
 ecclesiastical jurisdiction in those parts. The Penn- 
 sylvania Ministerium had, in fact, never extended its 
 jurisdiction beyond Virginia, the churches farther 
 south having been under the care of a European 
 missionary society, or else independent alike of the 
 care or fellowship of any ecclesiastical body. The 
 ministers present were Gottfried Arndt, Carl A. G. 
 Storch, Paul Henkel and Robert J. Miller, who had 
 been charged in his ordination certificate "to obey 
 the rules, ordinances and customs of the Protestant 
 Episcopal Church," but who, notwithstanding, served 
 Lutheran congregations for twenty-seven years. 
 
 By this organization a new life appears to have been 
 infused into the Lutheran Church in the Carolinas. 
 With the exception of Rev. Faber in Charleston, who 
 was doubtless prevented by the great distance which 
 separated him from the localities where the synod 
 usually met, and the Rev. F. J. Wallern, who always 
 
,3 1 6 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 remained independent of synodical connection, all the 
 Lutheran ministers residing in South Carolina united 
 subsequently with this body. The greatest drawback 
 to large and rapid growth was the want of ministers 
 of the Gospel, "and in order to supply this demand, 
 pious laymen were licensed as catechets, who after- 
 wards became candidates for the ministry; in this way 
 originated the licensure system." 
 
 In October, 1812, some ten ministers, missionaries 
 sent out by the Ministerium of Pennsylvania, held in 
 Washington county, Pa., the first ecclesiastical confer- 
 ence west of the Allegheny mountains. The organ- 
 ization of an independent body, which was discounte- 
 nanced by the mother Synod, did not occur until Sep- 
 tember, 1817, at New Philadelphia, Ohio. It was the 
 work of the younger members in opposition to the 
 judgment of the older ones, and only three of the 
 ministers participating in the organization had been 
 ordained. 
 
 The Synod of Maryland and Virginia was formed 
 in the year 1820. 
 
 Thus moved neither by doctrinal or ecclesiastical 
 differences, nor, so far as known, by any other cause 
 of dissension, but mainly by the circumstances of their 
 situation and the consideration of the interests of the 
 Church, there were organized four additional synods 
 before the end of the first quarter of the present cen- 
 tury. The extension of the Lutheran Church, not- 
 withstanding great obstacles, kept pace with the growth 
 of the country and with the rapid multiplication and 
 expansion "of our population. Its whole strength, 
 which at the beginning of the century numbered but 
 
The Ravages of War. 
 
 3*7 
 
 seventy ministers and three hundred congregations,, 
 embraced now one hundred and sixty-four ministers,. 
 four hundred and seventy-five congregations, and forty- 
 five thousand communicants. But one hundred of the 
 congregations were pastorless. 
 
 The latter statement reveals the saddest feature of 
 the Church at that period and brings into view the 
 most serious barrier to her rapid progress. A num- 
 ber of circumstances combined unfortunately to pre- 
 
 IBM 
 
 
 8p 
 
 
 :'.J "' 1 
 
 --;» 
 
 WITTENBERG ORPHAN HOME, WITTENBERG, WIS, 
 
 vent the establishment of schools for the training of 
 ministers, the inflow of suitable men from Germany 
 had long since ceased, and in consequence there was 
 such a dearth of laborers that nearly one-fourth of the 
 congregations were deprived of pastoral ministrations, 
 and but few preachers could be spared to prosecute 
 missionary operations on the frontier. 
 
 The enlightened founders of the Church in this. 
 
31 8 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 ■country were not only alive to the interests of general 
 education but with signal zeal they endeavored to de- 
 velop institutions for the training of a ministry. The 
 language of her people placed them even then already 
 in comparison with others, at a great disadvantage? 
 but this evil was sought to be remedied by a project 
 •devised by liberal-minded men like Benjamin Frank- 
 lin, Conrad Weiser and William Smith, who secured 
 large sums in England for the maintenance of elemen- 
 tary schools in which to educate and Anglicize the 
 German population. But these efforts and the flour- 
 ishing parochial school of Philadelphia could not sup- 
 ply a cultured ministry for the Church, and Dr. Kunze, 
 at a day when apparently all the means and resources 
 for such an institution were wanting, conceived the 
 project of a High School, and, with his "Society for 
 the promotion of Christianity and all useful knowl- 
 edge among the Germans," opened, amid festive cere- 
 monies, his " Deutsches Seminar," February 15, 1773. 
 But this noble beginning of a theological school, which 
 might have raised up a large body of cultured minis- 
 ters, perished like many other precious institutions in 
 the storms of the Revolution. "When peace was re- 
 stored in 1783 there was no institution in which Ger- 
 man youths could be advanced beyond the limits of 
 the elementary branches." 
 
 This want was supplied in part through the Univer- 
 sity of Pennsylvania, then the foremost liberal school 
 of the State, and which had connected with it from the 
 year 1 780 a German Department, that is a " German 
 Professorship by which, through the medium of the 
 German tongue, instruction in the learned languages 
 
The Ravages of War. 319 
 
 was to be imparted." The first incumbent of this 
 professorship was the learned Dr. Kunze, who was 
 succeeded in 1784 by his colleague in St. Michael's 
 and Zion, the eloquent Dr. Helmuth. Their prestige 
 and ability secured at once a liberal patronage, and as 
 many as sixty students were in attendance during 
 1785, a number considerably greater than that of the 
 English students, so that the large recitation room of 
 the English, the most commodious and beautiful in 
 the building, was given up to the Germans. 
 
 A number of Lutheran ministers received their clas- 
 sical training in this University, some of them being 
 the beneficiaries of the German Society of Pennsyl- 
 vania, among the latter such distinguished names 
 as George Lochman, Christian Endress, David F. 
 Schaeffer and Samuel Schmucker. 
 
 Franklin College was founded in 1787, but compar- 
 atively a small number of Lutheran clergymen re- 
 ceived their training in it. Rev. Henry A. Muhlen- 
 berg, for a long time pastor at Reading, and after- 
 wards attaining high distinction as a civilian, and Rev. 
 Benjamin Keller, one of the most lovely and useful of 
 the Church's servants, were among the number. A 
 kind of private Seminary for theological instruction 
 was begun somewhat earlier by Rev's. Helmuth and 
 Schmidt, and such lights of the Church as George 
 Lochman, J. G. Schmucker, Endress, J. Miller, Baker, 
 Butler and Baetes were prepared in this institute for 
 the Lutheran pulpit. Kunze was moved to accept 
 the call to New York in 1784, by the offer of a profess- 
 orship in Columbia College, in which institution he 
 hoped to be able to accomplish something by way of 
 
320 
 
 The Lutherans in America 
 
 supplying the great destitution of ministers. In 1815 
 Hartwick Seminary, in New York, was opened with 
 nineteen students the number growing within a few 
 months to forty-four. The founding of this school 
 was the result of a munificent legacy left by Pastor 
 Hartwig for a school in which young men should be 
 trained both for the office of pastor and for that of 
 missionary among the Indian population. Its first 
 
 HARTWICK SEMINARY, HARTWICK, N. Y. 
 
 
 president was Dr. Ernst Ludwig Hazelius, a man who 
 brought to this country thorough German culture, em- 
 inently fitting him for an instructor. He was an earn- 
 est Christian. Although not more pronounced in his 
 Lutheran faith than many of his contemporaries, he 
 was instrumental through his students in putting an 
 end to the sway of rationalism in the New York Min- 
 isterium. 
 
 A number of the abler ministers, in addition to the 
 
The Ravages of War. 321 
 
 exhaustive labors which their large pastoral districts 
 required, furnished private instruction, taking young 
 men into their homes, often giving them boarding 
 and even books gratuitously, and assisting them in 
 their earnest endeavors to master theological studies. 
 To the disinterested and stimulating efforts of this 
 character, from men like the Schaeffers, Dr. Loch- 
 man, and Drs. Geissenhainer and Quitman in New- 
 York, the Church is indebted for many of the most 
 active, worthy and useful men that labored in her 
 vineyards during the last quarter of the eighteenth 
 century and the first quarter of the nineteenth. 
 
 Of course no individual pastor, burdened with the 
 cares of one or, sometimes, many congregations, what- 
 ever may have been his own attainments in theology, 
 could do the work of a theological faculty, whose time 
 and abilities are given exclusively to this calling. 
 Hence though the Church was honored in that period 
 by men of eminent culture, to whom the best institu- 
 tions awarded the title of Doctor of Divinity, who 
 commanded the admiration and personal esteem of 
 the foremost men of the day, and whose abilities were 
 frequently sought for in the counsels of state, the 
 standard of theological education necessarily de- 
 clined, the number of men rightly equipped for the 
 holy office was very much limited, and a correspond- 
 ing depression of the life and activities of the 
 Church and a restriction of her progress became in- 
 evitable. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 FORMATION OF THE GENERAL SYNOD. 
 
 A BRIGHTER day was about to break over 
 the Church. Its sun rose indeed amid over- 
 hanging clouds, nevertheless it rose and ushered 
 in a period of extraordinary prosperity, development 
 and expansion. The spirit of Christianity is the 
 spirit of unity. The mission of the Chief Shepherd 
 was "to gather together in one the children ot God 
 that were scattered abroad." Sin and error cause 
 divisions and alienations. The Gospel, as it reconciles 
 men to God, binds them also to one another in sym- 
 pathy and affection. He that loveth God the Father 
 of all, loveth also his brother, and where love is men 
 are drawn together 
 
 This fraternal spirit was animating the hearts of 
 many in the Lutheran Church during the first quarter 
 of the nineteenth century, and its fruit was the organi- 
 zation of the General Synod, which, recalling in many 
 respects the blooming period of Muhlenberg, formed 
 like that a new era in the history and operations of 
 the Evangelical Lutheran Church of this country. 
 She became once again distinguished by unity, life, 
 activity and wonderful progress. Those having the 
 same faith, culture, traditions and blood even, would 
 naturally be attracted together by the affinities of 
 the Gospel, but they felt also the necessity for a 
 closer bond of union in order to promote, by com- 
 bined effort, and on a comprehensive scale the general 
 
 322 
 
REV. S*. S. SCHMICKER, D. ». 
 
Formation of the General Synod. 323 
 
 progress of Zion. This sentiment had been growing 
 for years and the desire seemed general, that there 
 should be some central connection in order that 
 unnecessary and injurious divisions might not arise, 
 that more general conformity in the usages and devo- 
 tional books of the Church might prevail, and 
 greater strength and increased efficiency imparted to 
 those enterprises, in which concentration is so essen- 
 tial to success. 
 
 To satisfy this Christian yearning for fraternal fel- 
 lowship, to provide for the increasing wants of the 
 individual congregations, and to meet the responsi- 
 bilities of the Church as a body, the Lutheran com- 
 munities must needs enter into organic relations with 
 each other. The situation was ripe for carrying it 
 into execution. The Spirit of God had prepared the 
 Church for an advance. 
 
 The initiative came fittingly from the Synod of 
 Pennsylvania, which was the mother of the other 
 Synods, and which still embraced more churches and 
 pastors than all the others. The first traces of it are 
 found in the meeting of the Synod at Harrisburg in 
 1818, where it was "Resolved that the Synod regard 
 it as desirable that the different Evangelical Lutheran 
 Synods in the United States should in some way or 
 other stand in closer connection with each other; 
 and that the Reverend Ministerium be charged with 
 the consideration of this matter, and if the Reverend 
 Ministerium recognize the advisability of it, to develop 
 a plan for a closer union, and to see to it that some 
 such desirable union be effected if possible." " Extra- 
 ordinary unanimity and the most hearty concord and 
 
324 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 brotherly love prevailed " at this meeting, for which 
 the secretary records fervent thanksgiving. 
 
 The officers were appointed a committee on cor- 
 respondence to give efficacy to the movement. Com- 
 munications expressive of the Synod's action were 
 accordingly forwarded to the other Synods, and they 
 were invited to send deputies to the next annual meet- 
 ing of the Pennsylvania Synod, to be held in Balti- 
 more, Trinity week, 1819, for the purpose of consider- 
 ing the expediency of organizing a General Synod. 
 
 At that convention a letter was read from Pastor 
 Quitman, of New York, favoring a more intimate 
 union of the Synods. No mention is made of the 
 Ohio Synod. But the North Carolina Synod, hold- 
 ing " that towards such a Union of our Church all 
 possible assistance ought to be rendered," promptly 
 elected its secretary, Rev. Gottlieb Shober, to attend 
 the above meeting at Baltimore, and in the name of 
 his Synod, "endeavor to effect such a desirable 
 union." He was accorded a seat and a vote, and his 
 presence for this particular object gave great en- 
 couragement to the Synod to proceed with it. It be- 
 came the paramount subject of consideration. A 
 committee was appointed consisting of Rev. Drs. F. D. 
 Schaeffer, J. Daniel Kurtz and J. George Schmucker 
 with Messrs. Demuth, Keller and Schorr of the laity, 
 and the delegate, Rev. Shober, to examine the 
 whole matter and to outline a plan as early as pos- 
 sible. 
 
 The report of the committee was thoroughly dis- 
 cussed and its plan for the establishment of a General 
 Synod adopted by a vote of forty-two to eight. Its 
 
Formation of the General Synod. 325 
 
 first paragraph states that in view of the extension 
 of the Church "over the greatest part of the United 
 States of North America, and as the members of the 
 said Church are anxious to walk in the spirit of love 
 and concord, under one rule of faith, * * * it ap- 
 pears to be the almost unanimous wish of the exist- 
 ing synods or ministeriums, that a fraternal union of 
 the whole Evangelical Lutheran Church in these 
 United States might be effected, by means of some 
 central organization." 
 
 How to effect such " a fraternal union " was the 
 problem. The Lutheran Church recognizes in no 
 form of Church government any divine right beyond 
 that of the sovereignty of the individual congrega- 
 tion, which includes the office of preaching the Gospel 
 and administering the sacraments. This principle 
 being guarded the fathers were at liberty to adopt any 
 polity that would best subserve the end in view. The 
 outline of a plan modeled largely after the constitu- 
 tion of the Presbyterian General Assembly formed 
 the basis of discussion with the committee, but some 
 prominent features of the Congregational system were 
 also introduced. The powers of the General Body 
 were made chiefly advisory, the judicial and executive 
 authority being left mainly in the hands of the indi- 
 vidual synods. It was designed to serve as "a joint 
 committee of the special synods," and the internal 
 management and government of these was to be re- 
 tained perpetually in their hands, "subject only to 
 this restriction, that such rules and regulations do not 
 conflict with these fundamental principles of the 
 general organization." 
 
326 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 Section 4 of the proposed plan surrendered to the 
 General Synod "the exclusive right, with the consent 
 of a majority of the special synods, of introducing new 
 books for general use in the Church, and also of mak- 
 ing improvements in the Liturgy ; until this however 
 takes place, the hymn-books now in use, the Small 
 Catechism of Luther, the Liturgies already adopted, 
 and such other books as have been received as 
 Church books by any of the existing synods, shall 
 continue in use as they may choose. The General 
 Synod however has no power to make or to demand 
 any alteration whatever in the doctrines hitherto re- 
 ceived by us." 
 
 Provision was made for the organization of new 
 synods, especially in States not yet having any such 
 organization. Unless the permission of the General 
 Synod shall have been formally obtained, " no newly 
 organized body shall be recognized as a lawful Min- 
 isterium among us, and no ordination performed by 
 them as valid." 
 
 The plan thus adopted by the Synod of Pennsyl- 
 vania as "a proposition for a General Union of the 
 the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the United 
 States of North America" was signed by J. George 
 Schmucker, President, and Conrad Jaeger, Secretary, 
 and was published for general distribution among all 
 the ministers and delegates of the several synods, 
 with the understanding that they were to take action 
 upon it as soon as possible, and that if three-fourths 
 of the Synods adopted it, "at least in its spirit and 
 essentials," the President of the Synod of Pennsylva- 
 nia should proceed to call a convention of deputies, 
 
Formation of the General Synod. 327 
 
 who at such time and place as he might determine, 
 should meet for the purpose of framing for themselves 
 a constitution to be conformed as nearly as possible 
 to the plan proposed. 
 
 The proposition having been favorably received by 
 the requisite number of synods, the convention for 
 effecting the proposed organization was announced 
 to be held at Hagerstown, Md., October 22, 1820. 
 There appeared as deputies from the Synod of Penn- 
 sylvania, Drs. George Lochman, F. W. Geissenhainer, 
 Christian Endress, J. G. Schmucker, H. A. Muhlen- 
 berg (a son of Henry E. Muhlenberg, D. D„ and grand- 
 son of the Patriarch), and Messrs. Christian Kunkel, 
 William Hensel and Peter Strickler; from the Synod 
 of New York, Rev. Drs. P. F. Mayer and F. C. Schaef- 
 fer; from the Synod of North Carolina, Revs. G. 
 Schober and P. Schmucker; from the Synod of Mary- 
 land and Virginia, Rev. Drs. J. D. Kurtz, D. F. Schaef- 
 fer and Mr. G. Schryock. " It was much regretted by 
 all present, that from the Synod in the State of Ohio 
 the expected deputies did not appear." J. D. Kurtz, 
 D. D., was chosen President of the Convention and H. 
 A. Muhlenberg, D. D., Secretary. A more important 
 meeting was never held within the bounds of the Lu- 
 theran Church this side of the Atlantic, and a nobler 
 band of enlightened men could not have been found 
 at the time within her pale — or outside of it. 
 
 They seem to have realized the responsibility with 
 which they were charged in laying the foundations 
 of a united Lutheran Church on this continent, and 
 with the spirit of the utmost harmony they built so 
 wisely that their structure with some modifications, 
 
328 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 still remains, and has been by general consent one of 
 the most powerful instruments in determining the 
 character and advancing the general welfare of the 
 Church. Although false friends within and hostile 
 assailants from without have often exposed it to re- 
 proach, few men familiar with its history will withhold 
 from it the praise that directly or indirectly, by its 
 own development on right lines, as well as by stimu- 
 lating its opponents to a right development, " it has 
 proved a great blessing to the Church. From its in- 
 fluence the happiest results have flowed, even to 
 Synods which did not formally unite with it." "It 
 was at this crisis," says the Rev. Charles P. Krauth, 
 D. D., in The Lutheran and Missionary, March 17, 
 1864, "that the life of the Church displayed itself in 
 the formation of the General Synod. The formation 
 was a great act of faith, made as the framers of the 
 constitution sublimely express it, in reliance 'upon 
 God our Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
 under the guidance and direction of the Holy Spirit 
 in the word of God.' The framers of that constitu- 
 tion should be as dear to us as Lutherans, as the 
 framers of our Federal Constitution are to us as 
 Americans." 
 
 The convention agreed unanimously upon a consti- 
 tution which was essentially identical with the plan 
 that had been proposed by the Pennsylvania Synod. 
 It was referred to the several Synods with the provis- 
 ion that if ratified by three of the Synods partici- 
 pating in its preparation, it should be considered bind- 
 ing, and the chairman of the convention was author- 
 ized to call the first meeting of the united body at 
 
33° The Lutherans in America. 
 
 Frederick, Md., on the third Monday in October, 1821. 
 The absence of deputies from the Synod of Ohio hav- 
 ing occasioned much disappointment, a friendly letter 
 was ordered to be addressed to its President " encour- 
 aging him, if possible, to prevail on said Synod to 
 unite with their brethren in the adoption of the con- 
 stitution." So confident were these deputies of the 
 ratification of their work by the requisite number of 
 synods, that in their zeal they proceeded at once with 
 the initial steps for the founding of some of the insti- 
 tutions contemplated. One committee was appointed 
 to form a plan for a Seminary of Education. This 
 consisted of Drs. Schmucker, Lochman, Endress, 
 Geissenhainer and Muhlenberg. Another committee 
 was charged to form a plan for a Missionary Institu- 
 tion. A third committee was to form a plan in aid of 
 poor ministers, and ministers 1 widows and orphans. 
 
 At the next annual convention of the Pennsylvania 
 Synod, held in Chambersburg, June, 1821, "after every 
 article had been maturely considered and unanimously 
 agreed upon," the constitution was adopted by a vote 
 of sixty-seven against six. The Synod of Maryland 
 and Virginia at its next meeting, in Frederick, Sep- 
 tember 2-4, also adopted it with entire unanimity. 
 And so did the Synod of North Carolina. In the 
 Synod of New York the subject encountered singular 
 indifference. In 1819 this body had discussed at some 
 length the plan proposed, and Drs. Mayer and Schaef- 
 fer represented it at the convention to form a consti- 
 tution in 1820. These delegates reported at the sub- 
 sequent meeting of that Synod in 182 1, and presented 
 the Constitution to the General Synod. "The same 
 
Formation of the General Synod. 331 
 
 was read and debated, and it was finally resolved that 
 the secretary exert himself to secure more copies of 
 this constitution and that the further discussion be 
 postponed." The question of uniting was referred to 
 the congregations. In 1822 the secretary reported 
 that only a few congregations had communicated their 
 decision. " The majority of the answers indicated, 
 however, that the connection with the General Synod 
 was for the present not feasible, (unpraktisch)," though 
 no objections were raised against the project. 
 
 Three of the synods having ratified the constitution, 
 the first regular convention of the General Synod met 
 in Frederick, Md., October 21-23, 182 1. Rev. George 
 Lochman, D. D., conducted services in the morning 
 in the German language, Rev. J. G. Schmucker, D. D., 
 preached in the afternoon in German, and Rev. C. 
 Eridress, D. D., at night in the English language. 
 Representatives were present from the Synods of 
 Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Maryland and Virginia. 
 Those from the first were Drs. J. G, Schmucker, Loch- 
 man and Endress, with lay deputies C. A. Barnitz, F. 
 Sharrets and P. Brua; from the second, Revs. Shober 
 and Scherer ; from the latter body, Rev. D. F. Schaef- 
 fer and John Ebert, Esq. Thus while fifteen repre- 
 sentatives had participated in the formation of the 
 constitution, only ten took part in the proceedings of 
 the first regular meeting. " But on account of a pre- 
 vailing epidemic and an error in the advertisement of 
 the newspapers concerning the time of meeting, there 
 were absent four deputies elected by the Synod of 
 Pennsylvania, two by the Synod of North Carolina 
 and two by the Synod of Maryland and Virginia." 
 
33 2 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 The whole number, therefore, properly constitut- 
 ing the first meeting was twenty. Dr. Lochman 
 was President of the body, Dr. David F. Schaeffer 
 Secretary, and Hon. C. A. Barnitz, Treasurer. The 
 number was small. Their resources were slender. 
 Formidable obstacles confronted them. But the Spirit 
 of Christ had wrought within them strong desires 
 and high expectations. There was withal a reso- 
 lute will and a lofty, world-conquering faith. 
 
 Keenly sensible of the immediate and pressing needs 
 of the Church, the members of the first General Synod 
 wrestled earnestly with the problems of Ministerial 
 Education, Home Missions, and the Catechisation of 
 the Young. While clearly perceiving the necessity for 
 a Theological Seminary it was deemed advisable, 
 among other reasons, "on account of the pressure of 
 the times," to defer its establishment for several yea'rs, 
 but in the meanwhile measures were proposed in an- 
 ticipation of the early founding of such an institution. 
 The subject was to be agitated, the minds of the con- 
 gregations prepared for it, and a well selected and 
 extensive library collected for the use of the Seminary. 
 
 Considerable discussion having been given to the 
 subject of Home Missions, "the several district Synods 
 were earnestly recommended to send one or more mis- 
 sionaries to such parts of the country as, in their opin- 
 ion, stood most in need of them." Drs. Endress, 
 Schmucker, Lochman, D. F. Schaeffer, and Rev. Sho- 
 ber were appointed to prepare an English Cate- 
 chism. At this covention the the Pennsylvania Synod 
 reported on its roll eighty-five ministers, who had dur- 
 ing the year confirmed "about four or five hundred 
 
Formation of the General Synod. 333 
 
 persons" and whose congregations maintained two 
 hundred and ninety-five schools. The Synod of 
 Maryland and Virginia reported fifteen ministers who 
 had confirmed five hundred and eighty during the year, 
 and the Synod of North Carolina thirteen ministers 
 and two hundred and twenty confirmations. 
 
 So wise and beneficent an organization as the Gen- 
 eral Synod was designed to be can not proceed very 
 far without hindrances and antagonisms. It began its 
 career, indeed, with remarkable freedom from oppo- 
 sition. But every new departure in civil or religious 
 society, every forward movement in the cause of truth 
 and righteousness, must run the gauntlet of denuncia- 
 tion, hostility and misrepresentation. The price of 
 every noble institution is a struggle for existence. 
 
 The general union of Lutheran Synods in this coun- 
 try must submit to the same law of trial, and only 
 after it has stood the fiery test and proved its vitality, 
 its worthiness to live, could it expect to go forward 
 with the divine work of developing the Church and 
 extending her borders. The laudable endeavor to 
 unite the different sections of the Church, so that by 
 harmony of counsel and concert of action a general 
 advance might be effected, had scarcely been inaugu- 
 rated when the whole movement seemed to be sud- 
 denly frustrated. " The hopes which had been cher- 
 ished for the improvement of our Zion seemed blasted, 
 and many were disposed to abandon the project of a 
 union." Happily the project was of God, and brave 
 and capable men with strong faith and with true hearts, 
 men capable of enduring hardship and of meeting the 
 issue, were provided for the crisis. 
 
334 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 At the second convention of the General Synod, 
 held at Frederick, October 19-21, 1823, the Pennsyl- 
 vania Ministerium, the parent synod, which had been 
 really the founder of the General Synod, was not rep- 
 resented. At its regular convention in the year 1823, 
 it passed resolutions severing its connection with the 
 general body. This withdrawal was not caused by 
 any doctrinal divergence between the former body 
 and the latter. Neither had any misunderstandings 
 arisen among the leaders, nor any dissatisfaction with 
 the avowed plans and purposes of the organization. 
 Nor indeed was the recession designed to be perma- 
 nent, but only "until such time in the future as the 
 congregations themselves shall see their mistake of 
 our true intention, and shall call for a reconsideration 
 of these resolutions." 
 
 The trouble arose with the congregations. The 
 idea was conceived and spread among them that such 
 an organization might become an instrument of eccle- 
 siastical tyranny. Dolorous predictions were uttered, 
 malicious representations circulated and violent hos- 
 tility excited against it. So jealous, indeed, were the 
 people of their political rights, the price of which had 
 not yet been forgotten, so suspicious were they of 
 authority, and so morbidly sensitive was their dread 
 of power in any domain, that they professed to fear in 
 such a union necessary for the strengthening and up- 
 building of the Church, an institution dangerous to 
 the liberties of the American people. Ministers of 
 other denominations were largely instrumental in ex- 
 citing these groundless fears and inflaming bitter op- 
 position to a movement designed to enhance the 
 
Formation of the General Synod. 335 
 
 growth and influence of the Lutheran communion. 
 They unfortunately succeeded to such an extent that 
 the ministers of the Pennsylvania Synod felt con- 
 strained to yield to the adverse pressure, unreason- 
 able and mistaken as it was, and to dissolve formal re- 
 lations withthe general body. So far were the leading 
 men of the Synod from manifesting any antagonism or 
 unfriendliness to the General Synod, that they con- 
 tinued to view it " as highly beneficial to the interests 
 of the Church," and strongly deplored the " peculiar 
 circumstances " which compelled them to this course, 
 circumstances which the General Synod itself recog- 
 nized " as excusing if not absolutely necessitating the 
 attitude of the Old Synod in its temporary recession." 
 Expressions of the most cordial good feeling and con- 
 fidence were exchanged, and the hope indulged and 
 expressed on both sides that the enforced separation 
 over which both grieved would come to an early and 
 happy end. 
 
 The absence of a delegation from the Pennsylvania 
 Synod, on whose leadership and influence so much 
 had been reckoned, cast a deep gloom over the second 
 convention. It certainly looked as if the General 
 Synod could not survive this overwhelming disaster 
 in the first years of its feeble beginnings. It is not 
 surprising that "very little seems to have been done." 
 The wonder is that there was heart to do anything. 
 Yet some measures were adopted which were impor- 
 tant as exponents of the spirit that animated the little 
 body of delegates. 
 
 Such was the appointment of a committee to open 
 communication with the Lutheran Church in Europe, 
 
33^ The Lutherans in America 
 
 in order to elicit " correct information relative to the 
 spiritual prosperity of our Church in the several em- 
 pires, kingdoms and places abroad, to promote the 
 unity of the Church, and to invite the prayers and ex- 
 ertions of each other, for the prosperity of the Church 
 of Christ in the world." An address prepared by 
 Revs. S. S. Schmucker and D. F. Schaeffer, and pub- 
 lished for general distribution in all the synods, ex- 
 presses grateful acknowledgment to God for the 
 prosperity and rapid extension of the Church, which 
 had reached an aggregate of one hundred and seventy- 
 five ministers, nine hundred congregations and over 
 fifty thousand communicants. It upholds the Gen- 
 eral Synod as loudly called for by the best interests 
 of Zion, as needful to guard "against diversity in 
 doctrine and practice, and to prevent discord and 
 schism." It rejoices that "the spirit of piety and zeal 
 is advancing throughout their borders," asks the 
 prayers of the Church for more ministers to carry the 
 Gospel to the frontier, urges liberal contributions to 
 the missionary fund, exhorts the several synods "to 
 persevere in their evangelical habit of annually send- 
 ing out missionaries, lauds especially the Ohio Synod 
 and the Tennessee Conference, for making all possible 
 exertions to meet the pressing calls for Gospel minis- 
 trations which come to them from the remote west. 
 and pleads with the latter body to dismiss its scruples 
 and apprehensions respecting the constitution of the 
 General Synod. 
 
 A Formula or Directory of Discipline and Govern- 
 ment, which had been adopted by the Synod of Mary- 
 land and Virginia, " was carefully examined, and was 
 
Formation of the General Synod. 337 
 
 unanimously approved, as fully accordant with Scrip- 
 ture and sound reason, and in harmony with the es- 
 tablished principles of the Lutheran Church." 
 
 The disheartening impression produced by the loss 
 of the Synod of Pennsylvania was in a measure coun- 
 teracted by the presence of two delegations from 
 bodies which had not heretofore participated in the 
 General Synod. Rev. Peter Schmucker and Rev. J. 
 Steele appeared as representatives from the Synod of 
 Ohio. This body soon severed its connection, al- 
 though in this instance, as in that of the Pennsylvania 
 Ministerium, cordial relations and a measure of co- 
 operation with the general body were maintained for 
 a. number of years. 
 
 Rev. J. G. Schmucker, D. D., and Rev. J. Herbst 
 were received as representatives "appointed by the 
 conference of the ministers west of the Susquehanna, 
 belonging to the Synod of Pennsylvania." A special 
 conference of these ministers held two weeks before 
 at York, Pa., had selected these brethren as their rep- 
 resentatives. The fears and the prejudices against 
 the General Synod seem to have been altogether 
 local, and as they did not exist west of the river, these 
 congregations with their ministers proposed a sepa- 
 rate organization and thereby they secured the con- 
 tinuance of their connection with the General Synod. 
 An actual separation from the Pennsylvania Synod 
 had not yet been consummated. At another special 
 conference held at Greencastle, November 6-9, 1824, 
 they resolved upon the formation of a synod to in- 
 clude all the territory of the State west of the river. 
 This action was communicated to the mother synod 
 
33$ The Lutherans in America. 
 
 at its next regular convention, with a plea for the 
 recognition of the new body as one of the regular 
 synods of the American Lutheran Church. Among 
 the reasons alleged for this movement were the dis- 
 tance and expense connected with attendance upon 
 synodical meetings, and the advantages of a small 
 body for the better cultivation of the field within its 
 bounds, for a closer union among brethren, and for 
 the better supervision of their private and official 
 walk. Their desire for preserving the union with the 
 General Synod had also doubtless some weight. Its 
 leaders were among the staunchest and most zealous 
 advocates of that body. When their petition came 
 before the parent synod at Reading in 1825, the latter 
 expressed pain at the separation of these brethren, but 
 agreed to recognize them as a sister synod. 
 
 Separations and new aggregations were thus taking 
 place, but as yet the attitude of each division or 
 organization of the Lutheran Church to all the others 
 was peaceable and friendly, except in the territory of 
 the Synod of North Carolina. 
 
 The constituency of the General Synod was up to 
 the year 1830 limited to the Synods of North Carolina, 
 Maryland and Virginia, and West Pennsylvania, a 
 body feeble in numbers but strong in energy, faith and 
 devotion to the Church. The discouragements ex- 
 perienced, the opposition that began to rumble in 
 certain quarters and some malicious aspersions had 
 the happy effect of stimulating its friends to greater 
 zeal and exertion. The loss of powerful allies re- 
 sulted in rallying the forces that remained and closing 
 the ranks. 
 
Formation of the General Synod. 339 
 
 At its next meeting, in Frederick, November 7, 1825, 
 energetic measures were taken "to commence forth- 
 with in the name of the Triune God, and in humble 
 reliance on his aid the establishment of ? Theological 
 Seminary," in which shall be taught, " in the German 
 and English languages, the fundamental doctrines of 
 the sacred Scriptures, as contained in the Augsburg 
 Confession." Although Hartwick Seminary, whose 
 curriculum was not confined to theological studies, 
 was at the time reported to be " in the most flourish- 
 ing condition," it was held to be "a solemn duty of the 
 General Synod imposed on it by the constitution and 
 due from it to God and the Church, to provide for the 
 proper education of men of piety and of talents for 
 the Gospel ministry." If the Chiirch was to live and 
 maintain a distinct existence, it must be supplied with 
 a learned and consecrated ministry, a band of breth- 
 ren, who experienced the same training, were governed 
 by the same principles and directed by the same 
 spirit. 
 
 The committee charged with the preparation of a 
 plan were Revs. B. Kurtz, S. S. Schmucker J. Herbst, 
 B. Keller and Messrs. Harry and Hauptman. The 
 General Synod elected the first board of directors, but 
 their successors were to be elected by the Synods con- 
 nected with the General Synod and contributing 
 pecuniary aid to the institution. The General Synod 
 also elected the first professor, S. S. Schmucker, after 
 which, it was provided, the Board of Directors shall 
 have the exclusive authority of electing additional pro- 
 fessors. Agents were appointed to prosecute the so- 
 licitation of funds, Drs. Lochman, Endress and Muh- 
 
34° The Lutherans in America. 
 
 lenberg, and Rev. Demme for the Synod of East 
 Pennsylvania, the name now for some time given to 
 the Old Synod; Dr. Schmucker and Revs. Herbst and 
 Keller that of West Pennsylvania ; Revs. Stouch 
 and Steck, Ohio and Indiana ; Dr. P. Mayer and 
 Revs. Geissenhainer, F. C. Schaeffer and Lintner, the 
 Synod of New York; S. S. Schmucker, Philadelphia 
 and the Eastern States ; Revs. Reck, Meyerheffer and 
 Krauth, Virginia ; Revs. B. Kurtz, H. Graber, Roth- 
 rauf and Little, Maryland; Rev. W. Jenkins, Tennes- 
 see ; Revs. J. Scherer and J. Reck, North Carolina ; 
 and Revs. Bachman and Dreher, South Carolina. 
 Rev. Benjamin Kurtz was at the same time selected 
 to proceed to Europe and solicit money and books for 
 the benefit of the Seminary. 
 
 A few months later, March 1826, the Board assem- 
 bled at Hagerstown, adopted a constitution, and 
 accepted the offer of $7,000 and use of a buildingfrom 
 Gettysburg, not only because it made the most gen- 
 erous proposals, but because it was deemed most 
 central. On the first Tuesday in September the in- 
 stitution was opened with ten students, of whom Jona- 
 than Oswald, D. D., and J. G. Morris, D. D., LL. D., 
 still survive. It was a day of profound rejoicing over 
 the answer " to the prayers and desires which many in 
 our Zion have long breathed forth." The second 
 year saw the number rise to twenty-three, and the 
 school soon won its way to the heart and confidence 
 of the Church and prospered beyond the most san- 
 guine expectation of its friends. Viewed from the 
 present state of the Church those were the days of 
 feebleness and poverty, yet, the situation being con- 
 
Formation of the General Synod. 
 
 34i 
 
 sidered, the efforts and liberality of our fathers do not 
 suffer in comparison with what we boast of to-day. 
 Prof. Schmucker in canvassing Philadelphia for funds 
 wrote : " My solicitations have been directed chiefly 
 to the members of the Lutheran churches, whom I 
 found to be a liberal, wealthy and generous people." 
 In less than a year subscriptions amounting to $17,513 
 were made. 
 
 Thus was founded the Seminary of the General 
 
 THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, GETTYSBURG, PA. 
 
 Synod, which for many years was the principal train- 
 ing school for Lutheran ministers in America, which 
 has for nearly seventy years been sending out a con- 
 stant supply of able ministers of the New Testament, 
 and which has furnished not only a large majority of 
 the most eminent and successful pastors, missionaries 
 and professors connected with the General Synod, 
 with which body it still holds a formal connection, but 
 
34 2 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 also a number of the founders and leaders of the Gen- 
 eral Council and many of the most distinguished min- 
 isters of the United Synod. It was the first product 
 of the General Synod, as it was in fact the principal 
 object contemplated in its organization. The subject 
 had been warmly agitated in various quarters, but 
 especially in the Synod of Maryland, which was at the 
 time largely composed of stirring, zealous and enlight- 
 ened young men, such as C. P. Krauth, Benjamin 
 Kurtz. Abraham Reck, S. S. Schmucker and, leader of 
 them all, David F. Schaeffer. The principal impulse 
 to the General Synod's action as well as the draft of 
 the constitution of the seminary are to be ascribed to 
 this illustrious group. The professor's oath bound 
 him to the Augsburg Confession and the Catechisms 
 of Luther " as a summary and just exhibition of the 
 fundamental doctrines of the word of God." The 
 charge of Rev. Schaeffer at the installation of Profes- 
 sor Schmucker contains the following: "As the Lord 
 has signally favored our Church — as her tenets are 
 biblical, and her veriest enemies cannot point out an 
 important error in her articles of faith, no more than 
 could the enemies of the truth at the Diet of Worms 
 prove the books of the immortal Reformer erroneous. 
 Therefore, the Church which entrusts you with the 
 preparation and formation of her pastors, demands of 
 you (and in her behalf I solemnly charge you) to es- 
 tablish all students confided to your care, in that faith 
 which distinguishes our Church from others. If any 
 should object to such faith, or any part of it, or refuse 
 to be convinced of the excellence of our discipline 
 they have their choice to unite with such of our Chris- 
 
Formation of the General Synod. 343 
 
 tian brethren, whose particular views in matters of 
 faith and discipline may suit them better. I hold it, 
 however, as indispensable for the peace and welfare of 
 a Church that unity of sentiment should prevail upon 
 all important matters of faith and discipline among 
 the pastors thereof. Hence I charge you to exert 
 yourself in convincing our students that the Augsburg 
 Confession is a safe directory to determine upon mat- 
 ters of faith, declared upon the Lamb's book." A sen- 
 timent of charity for other denominations of Chris- 
 tians is expressed "but the different genera and spe- 
 cies should be preserved according to their peculiar 
 nature." 
 
 With the retirement of the older leaders through 
 age and death, and the withdrawal of the Pennsylvania 
 Synod, several young men came to the front who by 
 their ability and their prominence swayed for a gen- 
 eration an influence equalled by none of their con- 
 temporaries in the Church. One was Benjamin Kurtz, 
 D. D., a grandson of Rev. John Nicholas Kurtz. 
 Subject in early youth to deep religious convictions 
 he studied theology under Dr. Lochman and entered 
 the ministry in 1815, assisting for a while his uncle, J. 
 D. Kurtz, D. D., in Baltimore, but accepting shortly 
 a call to Hagerstown. He was the only Lutheran min- 
 ister in Washington county, which comprised then at 
 least ten congregations. During his pastorate of six- 
 teen years he succeeded — not without bitter and stub- 
 born opposition — in introducing English preaching, 
 prayer-meetings, Sunday Schools and temperance 
 societies. Upon the establishment of the theological 
 seminary he was commissioned to proceed to Ger- 
 
344 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 many to solicit aid for the young and needy institu- 
 tion. The German ministers in London became once 
 more the medium of communication, and through 
 these he was cordially commended to the ecclesiasti- 
 cal authorities of Germany, under whose patronage 
 he pleaded his cause with marked effect in the presence 
 of the highest classes, including royalty itself. Im- 
 mense crowds attended the churches in which he 
 officiated and his preaching and his cause won exten- 
 sive popularity. He was absent nearly two years and 
 returned with about $10,000, besides a large number 
 of books for the library, while the stream of liberality 
 which he opened continued to flow long after. 
 
 In 1833 he took editorial charge of the Lutheran 
 Observer, a paper which, under his conduct for thirty 
 years, became a notable power, every onward move- 
 ment finding in it an earnest and able advocate. Late 
 in life and amid the opposition of nearly the whole 
 Church he projected the Missionary Institute, located 
 at Selins Grove, Pa., for the purpose of preparing for 
 the Lutheran ministry such candidates as were either 
 too far advanced in years or prevented by other cir- 
 cumstances from pursuing a collegiate course and a 
 full theological curriculum. 
 
 S. S. Schmucker, D. D., was a son of Rev. J. G. 
 Schmucker, D. D. He pursued his classical studies 
 at the University of Pennsylvania, and after reading 
 theology for a time under his father, took the full 
 course at Princeton Seminary. He was without doubt 
 at that time "the best educated young man in the Lu- 
 theran Church in this country." He was also recog- 
 nized throughout his career as a man of devoted 
 
Formation of the General Synod. 345. 
 
 piety, of exalted Christian character and of self-sacri- 
 ficingf zeal for the advancement of the Church and her 
 ins'titutions, fighting for years ill-health with one hand 
 while with habits of indefatigable industry the other 
 was toiling and writing in behalf of the interests of 
 Zion. Endowed with rare qualities of leadership, it 
 fell to his lot to do the principal work in providing' 
 the necessary ecclesiastical literature. To his clear 
 head and persevering activity the Church is mainly 
 indebted for the Formula of discipline, English hymn- 
 book, liturgy, catechism, and the constitution of the 
 Theological Seminary. 
 
 Called to preside over this institution at its founda- 
 tion, he was for some time its sole professor and he ' 
 may justly be called its father. He held this position 
 until 1864, a period of nearly forty years, and during 
 this time, by his ascendency over the minds of his stu- 
 dents, his numerous publications, his debates at synod, 
 and his manifest devotion to every cause of public in- 
 terest, he was beyond question the most conspicuous 
 and influential man in the Lutheran Church in Amer- 
 ica and the best known to the Christian community 
 outside of it. 
 
 Notwithstanding his laborious activity and mani- 
 fold cares in connection with the Seminary, the estab- 
 lishment of Pennsylvania College, the collection of 
 funds, erection of buildings and the like, he was one 
 of the most prolific authors that the Church has yet 
 produced. The most important of his publications 
 were his " Popular Theology " which passed through 
 nine editions, "Psychology," a translation of Storr and 
 Flatt's " Theology," " Lutheran Manual," and the " Lu- 
 
34° The Lutherans in America. 
 
 theran Church in America." He was an ardent advo- 
 cate of Christian union and his " Fraternal Appeal," 
 published in 1838, gave him such recognition in differ- 
 ent churches and countries that when in 1846 he at- 
 tended the first meeting of the Evangelical Alliance 
 in London, Dr. King of Ireland did not hesitate to 
 call him the father of the Alliance. 
 
 His liberal attitude toward other denominations 
 and his qualified acceptance of some of the distinctive 
 tenets of his own Church exposed him, especially in 
 his later years, to the criticism and stern opposition 
 of many of his Lutheran brethren. At the beginning 
 of his ministry, when great doctrinal laxity prevailed, 
 he stood in advance of the majority of Lutheran min- 
 isters in holding to the Augsburg Confession. But 
 when about 1850 there set in a decided reaction in 
 favor of the faith which had for centuries distinguished 
 the Lutheran Church, and which was emblazoned on 
 her banner as it was first unfurled on these shores, 
 when in the language of the elder Krauth " the Church , 
 was disposed to renew her connection with the past, 
 and in her future progress to walk under the guidance 
 of the light which it has furnished," Dr. Schmucker 
 not only did not sympathize with the movement but 
 he opposed it by voice and pen with all his ability. 
 The resultwas sharp controversies, painful alienations, 
 many of his warmest friends deprecating his course 
 and deeply regretting that he could see only error in 
 statements and definitions which they believed to be 
 the truth of Scripture, but no one questioned the sin- 
 cerity of his convictions or the completeness of his 
 consecration to Christ and his Church. 
 
Formation of the General Synod. 347 
 
 A life-long associate of Prof. Schmucker and his 
 ablest co-laborer in the establishment and upbuilding 
 of the institutions at Gettysburg and the preparation 
 of church manuals, was Rev. Chas. Philip Krauth, 
 D. D. After preaching for some years in Virginia, he 
 was for seven years pastor of St. Matthews, Philadel- 
 phia. Chosen the first President of Pennsylvania 
 College he held that position from 1834 to 1850, when 
 he accepted the chair of Biblical Philology and 
 Ecclesiastical History in the Seminary, devoting 
 henceforth to the day of his death his time exclusively 
 to this Institution in which he had for years previously 
 been imparting instruction. 
 
 He was a man of marked intellectual force, of sin- 
 gular purity of character, of a generous heart, a benig- 
 nant disposition, courtly manners and a princely 
 mien. His reading covered the whole field 'of theo- 
 logical science and that of polite literature. He was 
 a forcible writer and in his prime an eloquent preach- 
 er. He had his very being in the General Synod 
 from its organization all through his life, and his 
 loyalty to the Confessions and historic principles of 
 the Lutheran Church was never questioned. Parties 
 whose hostility to these was undisguised were wont 
 indeed to call him " Symbolic" and "Old Lutheran." 
 His sound judgment and calm temper led to his 
 appointment on the most important committees, and 
 in 1 841 he served as chairman of the committee en- 
 trusted with the duty of preparing an English liturgy. 
 Though not given to theological controversies he 
 commanded a strong influence and his opinions had 
 great weight among his associates and students. A 
 
348 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 most intimate life-long friend says of him: "He was 
 the most unselfish man I ever knew. All his labors, 
 studies, prayers, and earnings were for the good of 
 others. When his name was mentioned it was with 
 reverence; when his conduct was spoken of it was 
 with approbation. No student ever left Gettysburg 
 who did not admire his character as a man." His 
 piety was indeed of the highest type, the students 
 spoke of him as "the beloved disciple," and his calm 
 and holy life fittingly closed with the words " Peace* 
 all is peace." 
 
 The energy of the new life pulsating through the 
 body of Christ could not expend itself on a single in- 
 stitution. The very object of the Seminary was to 
 produce a revival of every languishing interest, to give 
 momentum and homogeneity to every form of Chris- 
 tian enterprise. The General Synod was small in 
 numbers, it was feeble in resources, it was threatened 
 with serious dangers and even with dissolution from 
 its birth, but its leaders had energy, devotion, self- 
 sacrifice and, as the spring of these, that divine faith 
 which worketh under the impulse and channel of love. 
 They were prompted by zeal for the Redeemer's king- 
 dom. They were animated by the spirit of brotherly 
 love, while harmony of aim and counsel enabled them 
 to move as a unit. And they went forward, conscious 
 of the spiritual power inherent in the Church, confi- 
 dent of the smile of heaven upon their endeavors, and 
 expecting the happiest results. 
 
 To furnish suitable candidates for the nascent 
 Seminary a classical school was at once opened at 
 Gettysburg. It was intended primarily "to enable 
 
Formation of the General Synod. 349 
 
 persons of slender means or advanced years to secure 
 the most useful and necessary preparatory studies," 
 and to afford an opportunity for others " to be pre- 
 pared for entrance into the different colleges of our 
 country." But it prospered so rapidly that in a few- 
 years it grew into Pennsylvania College, and Lu- 
 theran students could complete the curriculum of 
 study in an institution of their own Church. 
 
 The machinery of instruction being provided, 
 measures were taken to secure the proper subjects 
 and the means for their support. The Church must 
 share the pecuniary burden contracted in acquiring a 
 thorough education for her clergy. Educational 
 associations, " Ladies Mite Societies," sewing societies, 
 and other agencies for gathering funds were accord- 
 ingly instituted in numerous congregations. The 
 Maryland Synod, in its annual report, October 1831, 
 attests its "gratitude to the ladies of the Lutheran 
 ■churches at Frederick, Taneytown, Shepherdstown and 
 Baltimore, who by the labor of their hands jointly 
 •contributed the sum of $582.31." 
 
 At the meeting of the General Synod, in York, 1835, 
 the organization of a General Educational Society 
 was effected, officers were elected and directors ap- 
 pointed not only from the General Synod, but also 
 from the Synods of Ohio, Pennsylvania and New 
 York, the co-operation of all being contemplated. 
 After the trial of various methods in the administra- 
 tion of this cause, the district synods in 1855 respect- 
 ively assumed entire charge of it, leaving the Parent 
 Education Society to depend on legacies and special 
 donations for its peculiar sphere. This beneficiary 
 
35° The Lutherans in America. 
 
 expedient for supplying the ever-increasing needs of 
 the Church has been of incomparable service. With- 
 out the beneficiaries hundreds of congregations must 
 have died for want of spiritual sustenance. The 
 twenty years of active operations by the parent society 
 gave the Church some two hundred pastors. Many 
 of these have occupied the most important positions 
 in the Church. Four became presidents of colleges, 
 one a professor of theology, while many were called 
 to the largest and most intelligent congregations. 
 
 There was no difficulty in finding proper employ- 
 ment for the newly equipped ministerial recruits. 
 When the air is surcharged with missionary fire men 
 with tongues of flame are sure to find places where 
 they may give utterance to the glad tidings. The first 
 graduates showed what spirit was in them as they went 
 "where the destitution was greatest and the cry for 
 ministerial supply most urgent." The tides of emi- 
 gration had begun to sweep away thousands from the 
 older congregations in the east, and the Church like a 
 faithful mother was yearning after them, recognizing 
 at the same time in their destitution her golden oppor- 
 tunity for the extension of her blessings and the ad- 
 vancement of her influence. The General Synod being 
 composed of delegates representing the widely sepa- 
 rated and remote sections of the Church became the 
 medium of intelligence concerning the extent and 
 necessities of the field, and through it the cry for spir- 
 itual assistance was clearly heard by all the congrega- 
 tions, and the burden of their scattered brethren laid 
 on their heart, while mutual consultation, unity of aim 
 
35 2 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 and concert of effort rendered efficient action practi- 
 cable and certain. 
 
 The living spirit is sure to seek embodiment and to 
 strive after formal organization, by which alone it can 
 find a proper and effective exercise for its powers'. 
 Missonary societies were formed in many congrega- 
 tions and by all the synods, the General Synod for 
 some years giving simply its moral support and en- 
 couragement to the synodical societies. In Balti- 
 more, 1833, ^ appointed a standing Committee on 
 Missions, whose immediate province was to gather 
 and report information. At York, in 1835, it adopted 
 a lengthy and ringing report declaring that " more 
 must be done if the frowns of Heaven are not to rest 
 upon our churches," and urging that "the destitute 
 parts of our country must be supplied with the Gos- 
 pel, and as soon as possible our hands must be exten- 
 ded to the heathen." The more men felt the need of 
 supplying our own rapidly-extending country the more 
 the claims of the heathen world pressed upon them. 
 A mass meeting in the interests of Home Missions 
 was called at Mechanicsburg the following year. 
 
 At Hagerstown in 1837 the General Synod cordially 
 •endorsed a convention, held at that time and place, 
 for the organization of .1 Foreign Mission Society, 
 adjourning its own sessions from time to time to 
 allow its members to participate in this convention, 
 which was composed of delegates representing churches 
 without as well as within the pale of the General 
 Synod. Revs. H. N. Pohlman, W. D. Strobel and 
 others were in attendance from New York, Revs. J. 
 Medtart, C. W. Schaeffer and Dr. F. W. Heckel 
 
Formation of the General Synod. 353 
 
 appeared as delegates from the Missionary Society 
 of the Old Synod, besides other clerical and lay mem- 
 bers of that body, charged to assure the convention 
 of their co-operation. During the same convention 
 the Central Home Missionary Society held its first an- 
 niversary, these different associations, though distinct 
 from the General Synod, realizing their dependence 
 upon it for moral support, while they widened its 
 sphere and stimulated its activity. 
 
 The Church took also a lively interest in Sunday 
 Schools which at this period were coming into vogue. 
 One of the first societies organized under the impulses 
 of the General Synod was a Lutheran Sunday-school 
 Union, which was founded in 1829 and for some time 
 held its anniversaries in connection with the meetings 
 of the General Synod. Flourishing schools sprang 
 up in a number of congregations and the foundations 
 were laid for that successful Sunday-school work which 
 has been a prominent characteristic of Lutheranism. 
 
 The publication of a suitable and necessary church 
 literature was undertaken. Church periodicals were 
 established. An English Hymn-book, based on that 
 of the Synod of New York was published, also a 
 Liturgy based on the German Agenda of the Penn- 
 sylvania Synod, a Collection of Prayers and an Eng- 
 lish Catechism. A Lutheran Book Company began 
 business in Baltimore in 1836. A cordial and general 
 support was at the same time rendered to the unde- 
 nominational Bible and Tract Societies, and Lutheran 
 ministers and people co-operated largely with organi- 
 zations to counteract the evils of intemperance. 
 
 While a large proportion of these beneficent move- 
 
354 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 merits originated directly with the General Synod, 
 that body sounding the keynote and the district 
 synods re-echoing the strain until it was heard on 
 the very borders of Zion, the general body was in 
 other cases but the exponent of the prevalent feeling, 
 registering and voicing the spirit of the congregations, 
 giving it direction and momentum. Whether a move- 
 ment proceeded from its bosom or came to it from its 
 constituencies, the General Synod was the grand in- 
 strument for marshaling the various elements, offer- 
 ing one rallying point instead of many, and promot- 
 ing a '-united policy." No one acquainted with the 
 history of that period will deny to it the honor of 
 being either the prime originator or the principal 
 supporter of all the enlightened measures then put 
 forth for building up the interests and fulfilling the 
 mission of the Church. For half a century it was the 
 most conspicuous and the most influential factor in 
 advancing her usefulness and her glory. 
 
 Symptoms of renewed spiritual life attested every- 
 where the presence of the Holy Ghost. The pulpit 
 was marked by peculiar earnestness and pastors ex- 
 celled in self-sacrificing fidelity in the catechism class 
 and in house to house visitation. The congregations 
 experienced "an increased degree of spirituality," so 
 that they "abounded in lives of prayer, of faith and 
 love, of pious deeds and of zeal for Christ," and real- 
 ized their mission to spread the Gospel and to exer- 
 cise the grace of giving in the support of "all benevo- 
 lent institutions." The pastoral address issued by the 
 General Synod in 1831 affirms: "Education and Mis- 
 sionary Societies are increasing, and we know of no 
 
Formation of the General Synod. 355 
 
 benevolent institution in our country, that does not 
 number among its patrons some of our most devoted 
 members." The Synod of South Carolina number- 
 ing but thirteen pastors reported in 1836 the sum of 
 $1,660.60 for missions and education, the West Pennsyl- 
 vania Synod $769.91 for the same year, and the Hart- 
 wick Synod with fifteen ministers gave $1,467.83 in 
 two years. "Prayer meetings conducted according to 
 the Scriptures were numerous," and viewed as "a 
 great blessing to many souls on the brink of eternal 
 ruin." Students for the ministry multiplied in a 
 rapid ratio. 
 
 So far from being exhausted by the founding of 
 one seminary or the support of one professorship, the 
 interest in theological education kept increasing and 
 led to the undertaking of a second professorship at 
 Gettysburg in 1829. A collecting tour of Professor 
 Schmucker through the north yielded the large sum 
 of $14,917, collected mostly from Congregationalists 
 through the active co-operation of Professor Stuart. 
 
 The proposal of the Board to call the second pro- 
 fessor from the ranks of Lutheran theologians in Ger- 
 many met with unexpected opposition from the Old 
 Synod "because an European could not so well ac- 
 commodate himself to the peculiar views and situa- 
 tion of our ecclesiastical and civil institutions." The 
 choice fell on Dr. Hazelius who in 1830 was made 
 Professor of Biblical and Oriental Literature and the 
 German Language. The library, numbering six thou- 
 sand volumes, was at that time the largest theological 
 library in the country. 
 
 Hartwick Seminary also attained a prosperity it 
 
356 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 had never enjoyed, and before the surrender of its 
 honored professor to Gettysburg, called as his 
 assistant Rev. G. B. Miller, who for many years filled 
 this position with great usefulness. At the same time 
 a cheering support was given to the seminary at 
 Lexington, founded by the Synod of South Carolina, 
 and that of the Synod of Ohio, established at Colum- 
 bus. 
 
 The relation of the General Synod to this advance- 
 ment of the Church is well set forth in the pastoral 
 letter which it addressed to the churches in 1835. 
 "Will it be too much to say that since 1820 this 
 Synod has been a means under God of greatly reviv- 
 ing our American churches ; spreading abroad the 
 spirit of reformation ; firing with new zeal ministers 
 and laymen ; elevating the standard of piety among 
 us ; diffusing a spirit of benevolence among our 
 people ; furnishing, by means of her seminaries min- 
 isters for congregations ready to perish, and through 
 the medium of her publications, bread to those starv- 
 ing." When this body had been but ten years in ex- 
 istence its members could testify before angels and 
 men: "The temporal and spiritual, the external and 
 internal concerns of our Zion have been advanced 
 with unparalleled success." These pastoral letters 
 show how the brethren were cheered by the rapid 
 spread of the Church in every quarter, how they more 
 than realized their brightest anticipations, and how 
 these happy results enforced upon their conscience the 
 duty of the hour. A noble Christian optimism shines 
 through the review of the situation which they were 
 wont to publish after each meeting. With what joy 
 
-. 
 
 rev. <-hari.es a. stork, n. d 
 
Formation of the General Synod. 357 
 
 they speak of the increasing extent and rising impor- 
 tance of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. "Since the 
 establishment of the General Synod, God has favored 
 us with many glorious manifestations of God's power 
 and grace." 
 
 They deemed it just to judge of results by what had 
 been in former days. Comparisons were drawn be- 
 tween the state of the Church "ready to sink into in- 
 significance" at that critical juncture when the Gen- 
 eral Synod was founded, and "the favorable and cheer- 
 ing results which in a few years were reported from all 
 sections." " Our Synods, and the General Synod as 
 well as the churches, enjoy an amount of the public 
 confidence and esteem which must satisfy and encour- 
 age greatly every Lutheran." The only drawback to 
 the rapid expansion of the Church was again as always 
 an inadequate army of ministers. Many of the most 
 inviting points could not be occupied, and so great 
 were the labors and exposures of many pastors that 
 often their strength was prematurely exhausted. It 
 was a sad reflection made at York in 1835 tnat with 
 "two hundred and twenty laborers among eight hun- 
 dred congregations, not a few have entered premature 
 graves." Of others it was said that as the result of 
 overwork "they bear evident marks of a wasting con- 
 stitution and of a dissolution not far off." 
 
 While the revived prosperity of the Lutheran 
 Church is doubtless largely to be ascribed to the 
 formation of the General Synod, it was not confined 
 to the synods organically incorporated with it. The 
 activity and advance of those not associated with it 
 were, however, directly or indirectly stimulated by 
 
358 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 the general body, whose paramount influence in de- 
 termining the character and advancing the interests 
 of the native Lutheran Church is not likely to be 
 gainsayed. 
 
 The Pennsylvania Synod was permeated by the 
 same spirit and developed along the same lines. 
 Bonds of strong and conspicuous sympathy kept it in 
 practical co-operation with the measures of the Gen- 
 eral Synod. The majority of its ministers heartily 
 united with the latter in Missionary, Education and 
 Sunday-school work and "in the preparation of a uni- 
 form liturgy for the use of the Church." Its congre- 
 gations contributed freely to the support of the semi- 
 nary at Gettysburg and a large proportion of its young 
 men were sent to study in its halls. 
 
 Dr. S. S. Schmucker in his " Retrospect of Luther- 
 anism " testifies : " Much might be said of the honor- 
 able manner in which the greater part of the brethren 
 and churches in East Pennsylvania, and elsewhere, 
 whilst yielding to the prejudices of the weaker mem- 
 bers, yet continued to afford their substantial and in- 
 creasing aid to every good work undertaken by this 
 Synod, so that much of the credit for what has been 
 achieved, is justly due to their co-operation." And 
 Dr. C. P. Krauth, Jr., in an editorial in the Lutheran 
 and Missionary, May 3, 1866, says : "The relations of 
 that Synod to the General Synod were never antag- 
 onistic or unfriendly. * * * Throughout there 
 was a majority of her ministers favorable to active 
 co-operation with the General Synod." But they for- 
 bearingly deferred for the time to the reactionary 
 minority which opposed Bible Societies, Theological 
 
Formation of the General Synod. 359 
 
 Seminaries, Missionary and Sunday-school Associa- 
 tions and in short all organized forms of Christian 
 activity. 
 
 Assurances of " undiminished affection " for the 
 brethren of that body were repeatedly expressed by 
 the General Synod, confident of "the ardent attach- 
 ment" which many in that body bore to it. In the 
 minutes of 1827 it rejoices that "this Synod continues 
 to be in a prosperous condition, and some churches 
 in its bounds have been visited with peculiar seasons of 
 refreshment." 
 
 The desire for the return of this body " to that union 
 in the establishment of which they sustained a princi- 
 pal part and which will remain to after ages a monu- 
 ment of their zeal for the cause of God," was fre- 
 quently voiced by the General Synod. Reviewing 
 "the harmony, unanimity and evangelical zeal" which 
 animated the brethren of the Synod of Pennsylvania, 
 they longed for the day when they should see them 
 "unite their counsels and energies with ours." In the 
 Old Synod also, the matter of reuniting with the 
 General Synod was from time to time agitated, espec- 
 ially in 1839 and 1840, but the apprehensions and 
 prejudices which led to the withdrawal in 1823 were 
 found to be still smouldering. They were readily 
 inflamed by the prevalence of the English language in 
 the General Synod and the popularity of the "new 
 measures" within its bounds. Final action was there- 
 fore deferred on the plea that " the time had not come." 
 The consummation so long devoutly cherished by many 
 on both sides was at last realized in 1853, when seven 
 pastors and seven lay-delagates appeared as represent- 
 
360 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 atives of that body and were welcomed with great joy 
 at the meeting of the General Synod at Winchester, 
 Va. Two years previously the Synod had endowed a 
 German Professorship in Pennsylvania College. The 
 incumbent of this chair was likewise to give instruc- 
 tion in the Theological Seminary. 
 
 The New York Synod, which had taken an honor- 
 able part in the founding of the General Synod, came 
 into organic relations with it in 1837. The Ohio 
 Synod after having a representation at one meeting, 
 stood aloof, yet its missionary zeal is often lauded 
 in the proceedings of the General Synod. No antag- 
 onism had as yet developed, and delegates to this 
 body as well as to the Synods of Pennsylvania and 
 New York, were appointed by the General Synod as 
 late as 1829. 
 
 One of the most conspicuous features of the General 
 Synod was its conciliatory attitude toward synods not 
 in its connection. It not only sought their counsels 
 and energies to be united with it, but as their approval 
 of its doctrinal character, its general spirit and grand 
 aims, was well known, it avowed its readiness to make 
 any concessions " consistent with the grand design of 
 the association," in order "to conciliate all minds 
 and afford full and general satisfaction." 
 
 It sought to embrace the whole church. And as it 
 brought together a large proportion of the most intel- 
 ligent and influential clerical and lay representatives 
 from remote sections, joined them into a family of 
 brethren, ascertained from them the interests and 
 needs of the whole church, inspired mutual confidence, 
 and provoked one another to good works, it was in- 
 
Formation of the General Synod. 361 
 
 strumental in developing a consciousness of strength, 
 awakening a sense of responsibility, and engendering 
 a fellow feeling. It united the wisdom, piety, ability 
 and energy of the Church, north, east, south and west, 
 and by the concentration of all her resources for ob- 
 jects to which no individual synod could have been 
 competent, it was able to provide in large measure 
 for the wants and. prosperity of the whole Church. 
 
 A warm spiritual life coursing through all the 
 arteries of Christ's body, and wise leaders directing 
 it, there was a rapid expansion of the Church's bor- 
 ders as well as of her influence and power. Follow- 
 ing the steady flow of population, missionaries organ- 
 ized new congregations on the territory now embraced 
 in Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois and Missouri. These, 
 though widely scattered, were united into a new synod 
 in 1835, under the title of the Synod of the West. 
 Among its founders were Revs. William Jenkins, 
 Daniel Scherer and Abraham Reck. In a few years 
 it numbered twenty-three ministers — to-day more than 
 a thousand Lutheran ministers preach in those parts 
 — and in 1840 it united with the General Synod. 
 The following year the English district of Ohio, now 
 the East Ohio Synod, did the same. The Synod of 
 South Carolina united in 1835, that of Virginia in 
 1839. * The Synod of East Pennsylvania, whose organ- 
 ization on the territory of the mother synod in 1842 
 is to be ascribed largely to the increasing demand for 
 English services and for the progressive measures 
 then commonly associated with English, united in 
 1843, and with it the Allegheny and Southwest 
 Virginia Synods ; the Miami Synod in 1845, the I Hi— 
 
362 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 nois and Wittenberg in 1848, the Olive Branch in 
 1850, the Texas, Northern Illinois and Pittsburg 
 Synods in 1853, the Kentucky, Central Pennsylvania 
 and English District of Ohio (the second English 
 District of the Joint Synod of Ohio) in 1855, the 
 Northern Indiana, Southern Illinois and English 
 Iowa in 1857, the Melanchthon in 1859. 
 
 The maximum of the General Synod's growth was 
 reached in the year i860, when it embraced 26 synods 
 spread over almost the entire territory of the Union, 
 all the synods in fact which comprised to any extent 
 the native Lutheran population, except that of the 
 Joint-Ohio and the Tennessee, aggregating 864 out 
 of 1 313 ministers, and 164,000 out of 245,000 communi- 
 cants, i. e. two-thirds of the Lutheran Church in this 
 country. 
 
 The out-break of the civil war caused the with- 
 drawal of the synods south of the Potomac, with a 
 total of 125 ministers, 205 congregations, and 21,098 
 communicants. 
 
 A rupture more serious in character and more far- 
 reaching in consequences was soon to be experienced. 
 At the time of the organization of the General Synod 
 confessional laxity had deeply penetrated the life of 
 the Lutheran Church, although a stricter and conser- 
 vative element also remained. Both tendencies- came 
 into the general body and continued for many years 
 side by side without any sharp antagonism or con- 
 flict. " It embraced elements," says Dr. C. P. Krauth, 
 " which were distinctively Lutheran and others dis- 
 tinctively Latitudinarian. The first party was on the 
 whole more Lutheran in doctrine and more active in 
 
Formation of the General Synod. 363 
 
 piety than the second. Their relatively higher Lu- 
 theranism was connected with a relatively higher 
 spirituality and aggressiveness. Though they had so 
 far felt the evil tendency of the times that they fell 
 far below the doctrinal decision and consistent Lu- 
 theranism of Muhlenberg and his co-laborers, yet they 
 were relatively decided, relatively Lutheran, and their 
 Lutheranism had something of the ardor and earnest- 
 ness of that earlier time. It was their desire to make 
 the General Synod as strong in government and as 
 Lutheran in doctrine as they possibly could. The 
 more decided Lutheran influence prevailed and the 
 friends of the laxer tendencies dropped off from the 
 General Synod." Dr. K. gives this as indubitably in 
 part, the philosophy of " the tacit withdrawal of the 
 Pennsylvania Synod." 
 
 " While it guarded against taking a position which 
 would necessarily exclude the laxer elements, the Gen- 
 eral Synod always maintained that the strictest Lu- 
 therans could conscientiously unite with it and that 
 their objections on the score of laxity were un- 
 grounded." The Tennessee Synod gave indeed a 
 more pronounced adhesion to the Confessions than 
 the General Synod, "whose constitution shows only 
 too many sad traces of the embarrassments of the 
 period," yet upon its subsequent acknowledgment of 
 the doctrinal articles of the Augsburg Confession as a 
 standard of faith, "it was the only voluntary body on 
 earth, pretending to embrace a nation as its territory 
 and bearing a Lutheran name, in which the fundamen- 
 tal doctrines of Lutheranism were the basis of a 
 union." Such is the testimony of the ablest mind the 
 
364 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 Church has produced in America, when speaking of 
 the formation of the General Synod. The two ten- 
 dencies dwelling in one body must inevitably develop 
 their inherent nature, and their antagonistic character. 
 So strong, however was the desire for unity and so 
 paramount the spirit of conciliation that a sharp col- 
 lision was for a long time averted. The conservative 
 element sought more and more to revive the princi- 
 ples of historic Lutheranism, which had fallen into 
 desuetude under the rationalistic sway of the previous 
 period. It studied with ardor the confessions of the 
 Church, brought once more to light its devotional 
 treasures, and endeavored to foster the Lutheran type 
 of Christianity by returning to "the good old ways of 
 the fathers." Others were so carried away with the 
 ideal of the American type of religion that they 
 fancied the only way to get the warmth of Methodism 
 and the vigor of Presbyterianism was, as Dr. C. A. 
 Stork put it, " to disembowel their own Church of 
 heart and lungs." 
 
 A few leading representatives of this element pro- 
 gressed to the point of publishing (anonymously) in 
 1855 an " American Recension of the Augsburg Con- 
 fession," from which they omitted certain alleged 
 " errors contained in the Confession," Baptismal Re- 
 generation and the Real Presence of the Body and 
 Blood of the Savior in the Eucharist being designa- 
 ted among others. Its appearance raised a storm 
 throughout the Church. " Extremely unlutheran, un- 
 churchly. and even rationalistic positions were as- 
 sumed "by some who defended the " Platform," says 
 Dr. Morris in his " Fifty Years in the Lutheran Minis- 
 
Formation of the General Synod. 365 
 
 try." On the other hand it was indignantly and 
 universally rejected by the Eastern Synods, their judg- 
 ment being well expressed in the resolution prepared 
 by Dr. J. A. Brown and adopted unanimously by the 
 Synod of East Pennsylvania which denounced it as a 
 "most dangerous attempt to change the doctrinal 
 basis and revolutionize the existing character of the 
 Lutheran Churches now united in the General 
 Synod." 
 
 The opposition to this onslaught on the Confession 
 was so decided and overwhelming that the authors of 
 it, though men of prominence and ability, at once lost 
 their prestige, and the subject was never so much as 
 mooted in the General Synod. But it became a 
 touch-stone for the trial and rapid development of 
 the two tendencies, and the agitation which followed 
 awakened grave fears of an ultimate disruption. A 
 few years later at York, 1864, the General Synod ex- 
 plicity repudiated the charge that the alleged errors 
 were contained in the Confession, and " before God 
 and his Church " declared that the Augsburg Con- 
 fession, "properly interpreted, is in perfect consist- 
 ence with the Holy Scriptures as regards the errors 
 specified." 
 
 At the same convention it so amended its consti- 
 tution as to require all synods seeking connection 
 with it "to receive and hold the Augsburg Confession 
 as a correct exhibition of the fundamental doctrines 
 of the Divine Word and of the faith of our Church 
 founded on that Word." By this doctrinal basis im- 
 posed on the District Synods as a condition of union 
 with it, and the previous adoption of Luther's Cate- 
 
3 66 
 
 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 chism "without qualification," and the definition of 
 fundamentals in the Liturgy of 1847, it is the testi- 
 mony of Dr. C. P. Krauth, Jr., "the General Synod's 
 Lutheran soundness is fully vindicated." " These tes- 
 timonials," he maintained "are its real basis, official 
 statements, back of which no man has a right to go." 
 The growing ascendency of positive Lutheranism 
 stimulated the antagonism of the laxer element. Vio- 
 lent discussions and agitations ensued, which were 
 
 MISSIONARY INSTITUTE, SELIN'S GROVE, PA. 
 
 heightened by complaints of doctrinal unsoundness 
 and neglect of the German interest at Gettysburg. 
 The heart of the body had become exceedingly sensi- 
 tive. The tension between opposing principles had 
 reached a degree which made a break imminent on 
 the slightest disturbance. 
 
 The crisis was reached in 1864, at York, when the 
 Franckean Synod applied for admission. This body 
 had been charged with serious defection from Lu- 
 theran doctrine, had for a quarter of a century stood 
 aloof from the General Synod, and had not given any 
 
Formation of the General Synod. 367 
 
 recognition to the Augsburg Confession. Its appli- 
 cation was accordingly rejected, until it should for- 
 mally adopt the Confession as received by the Gen- 
 eral Synod. 
 
 The Franckean deputies felt aggrieved by this ex- 
 clusion. They urged that "in adopting the constitu- 
 tion of that body, the members of the Franckean Synod 
 fully understood that they were adopting the doc- 
 trinal position of the General Synod." Their friends 
 on this representation were able to call for a recon- 
 sideration, which after an earnest and protracted dis- 
 cussion resulted in receiving them by a vote of ninety- 
 seven to forty, with the understanding that their 
 Synod, at its next meeting, declare in an official man- 
 ner, its adoption of the doctrinal articles of the Augs- 
 burg Confession, as a substantially correct exhibition 
 of the fundamental docrines of the Word of God. 
 
 The minority entered a protest, expressing deep 
 grief "that by this action of the General Synod its 
 constitution has been sadly and lamentably violated." 
 The delegation of the Pennsylvania Synod further 
 presented a paper, recalling that their Synod had re- 
 newed organic relations, with the reservation that 
 should the General Synod violate its constitution, 
 and require assent to anything conflicting with the old 
 and long established faith of the Evangelical Lutheran 
 Church, its delegates shall protest against such action, 
 withdraw from its sessions and report to their body, 
 and declaring their purpose "to withdraw from the 
 sessions of the General Synod, in order to report to 
 the Synod of Pennsylvania at its approaching con- 
 vention." 
 
368 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 The vote for the admission of the Franckean Synod 
 was by no means entirely on confessional lines. Many 
 who gave their voice in favor of it regarded the adop- 
 tion of the constitution of the General Synod by that 
 body, a virtual adoption of the Augsburg Confession, 
 and held that their promise to adopt it formally 
 at their next regular session was evidence of their 
 good faith. 
 
 The withdrawal of the Pennsylvania delegation was 
 unanimously approved by that Synod at its next con- 
 vention. Nevertheless it adopted the constitutional 
 amendments which had been sent down to it, as to the 
 othe synods, and the following year chose a full dele- 
 gation to the General Synod at its meeting at Fort 
 Wayne, but in the organization of that body the chair 
 ruled that that Synod must be considered "in a state 
 of practical withdrawal from the governing functions 
 of the General Synod," and that consequently its 
 delegation could not be received until after the organ- 
 ization of the convention. 
 
 Three days' discussion of the question followed this 
 parliamentary ruling, the members of the Pennsylva- 
 nia delegation participating. They were subsequently 
 requested by resolution "to waive what may seem to 
 them an irregular organization of this Body, and to 
 acquiesce in the present organization." Their re- 
 sponse to this was, that if "this Body shall now declare 
 that the Synod of Pennsylvania had, as it claimed to 
 have, the constitutional right to be represented before 
 the election of officers, and to take part in it, we are 
 perfectly willing to waive the right of voting, will ac^ 
 quiesce in the present organization, and will take our 
 
Formation of the General Synod. 369 
 
 seats in this Body, equals among equals." The reply 
 of the majority that "they could not conscientiously 
 recede " from their action, and a protest from the mi- 
 nority, closed the conflict on the floor of the Synod. 
 
 The die was cast. The prospect, of a general 
 Evangelical Lutheran organization in this country 
 was dispelled. At its next convention the Pennsyl 1 
 vania Synod formally severed its relations with the 
 General Synod. The Ministerium of New York fol- 
 lowed, at the cost of a schism in its own constituency, 
 nearly all its English churches and pastors adher- 
 ing to the General Synod. The Pittsburg Synod also 
 withdrew and experienced a rupture. The English 
 Ohio, the Minnesota and the Texas Synods took the 
 same course, and the Synod of Illinois was disbanded, 
 to be reorganized on the lines along which the whole 
 Church, including not a few individual congregations, 
 was being rent asunder. 
 
 Shortly after the unhappy dissensions at York in 
 1864, Rev. James A. Brown, D. D., succeeded Dr. S. S. 
 Schmucker as Professor of Theology in the Gettys- 
 burg Seminary. He immediately became one of the 
 most conspicuous as he was probably the ablest 
 champion of the General Synod. He wielded a pow- 
 erful pen, was skilled in polemics, and on the floor of 
 Synod, in particular, was such a master in debate as 
 to bear down all opposition. He had been wont to 
 affiliate with the conservatives, and was firmly set 
 against certain teachings and tendencies of their an- 
 tagonists. He had inflicted heavy blows on the "Defi- 
 nite Platform " and other deviations from sound Lu- 
 theranism, and was wont to denounce all fanaticisms, 
 
37° 
 
 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 and but for the unhappy conflict now thrust upon the 
 Church, he might have long co-operated in the de- 
 velopment of the Lutheran Church with many of 
 those who left the General Synod ; but when in the 
 progress of the-struggle the assaults of the opposition 
 were directed principally against the Seminary over 
 which he presided and against the doctrinal basis of 
 the General Synod, he contended with might and 
 
 MIDLAND COLLEGE, ATCHISON, KANSAS. 
 
 main against what he considered the revival of the 
 "Old Lutheran theology." 
 
 " As the result of his teachings," says Dr. Charles 
 A. Stork, "there went forth from Gettysburg a suc- 
 cession of young men who had a new view of the Lu- 
 theran Church, of her theology, her spirit and genius, 
 and of the work she had to do. * * They were 
 learning to value their own mother Church, and her 
 
Formation of the General Synod. 371 
 
 rich and full type of Christian doctrine and life. It 
 is true our young men did not know Lutheran theol- 
 ogy thoroughly ; on many minor points they were 
 cloudy. But they were set on the way to know that 
 theology. They had a belief in the true individuality 
 and value of her type of life, and they began to build 
 the walls on the old foundations. For much of this 
 the Church of to-day owes a debt of gratitude to Dr. 
 Brown's theological work." His sudden disability by 
 a stroke of paralysis in the prime of his eminent en- 
 dowments, caused universal sorrow, and was viewed, 
 even by those most hostile to his position, as a great 
 calamity. 
 
 Since the division in 1866 six synods, several of them 
 having grown up in the west, have united with the 
 General Synod, which now aggregates 23 synods, 997 
 ministers, 1,364 congregations, and 153,064 communi- 
 cants. It receives and holds "with the Evangelical 
 Lutheran Church of our fathers, the Word of God, as 
 contained in the Canonical Scriptures of the Old and 
 New Testaments, as the only infallible rule of faith 
 and practice, and the Augsburg Confession as a cor- 
 rect exhibition of the fundamental doctrines of the 
 Divine Word, and of the faith of our Church founded 
 upon that Word." And whatever may have been 
 the case in the past, the specific doctrines of the 
 Lutheran Confessions are to-day taught explicitly 
 and ex animo in all the theological schools connected 
 with the General Synod. The standard reference 
 book in each of them is Schmid's Theology of the Lu- 
 theran Church. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 THE INDEPENDENT SYNODS. 
 
 THE TENNESSEE SYNOD. 
 
 THE very year which brought into being the Gen- 
 eral Synod witnessed also the organization of 
 the Evangelical Lutheran Tennessee Synod, a 
 body which, for a long time, was its only antagonist. 
 Whatever other causes may have been active in sepa- 
 rating the founders of this body from the Synod of 
 North Carolina, doctrinal hostility, both to that body 
 and to the newly-formed General Synod became im- 
 mediately prominent. Rev. Dr. Bernheim says : "Doc- 
 trinal differences were at first not very apparent, ex- 
 cept on the ordination question ; however it was per- 
 ceptible, as early as 1816, that everything was tending 
 toward a disruption, and that only some occasion or 
 circumstance was wanting to produce it." 
 
 The occasion was offered when the North Carolina 
 Synod, in order to send a representative to the Penn- 
 sylvania Synod in 1819, for the purpose of consider- 
 ing the project of a General Synod, held its annual 
 meeting six weeks earlier than the appointed time. 
 When the regular time arrived on Trinity Sunday, 
 Rev. Philip Henkel, who had given, notice that he 
 could not recognize the irregular meeting, his brother, 
 Rev. David Henkel, a catechist of the synod, and Rev. 
 Joseph Bell, a candidate, assembled at Organ Church, 
 
 37 2 
 
The Independent Synods. 373 
 
 Rowan county, N. C, for the purpose of holding 
 Synod. The two latter were ordained by the former. 
 As the use of the church was denied them for Synod- 
 ical business, the ordination took place in the grove 
 adjoining. The proceedings of the earlier meeting 
 were pronounced null and void, and the three brethren 
 assumed the name and title of the Synod of North 
 Carolina. Warm controversies ensued and these de- 
 veloped a sharp conflict of doctrine which rendered 
 fruitless all attempts at reconciliation in the following 
 year, when both bodies assembled at the same time 
 and place to hold a Synodical convention. After 
 an earnest discussion of their differences, the majority 
 withdrew to another building. Those who remained 
 soon adjourned and a few months later, July 17, 1820, 
 completed the organization of the Tennessee Synod, 
 adopting this name on account of the state in which 
 they met, their congregations being scattered also 
 over the Carolinas and Virginia. 
 
 The doctrines dividing the two parties were chiefly 
 Original Sin, the Person of Christ, and especially Bap- 
 tism and the Lord's Supper. On all these the North 
 Carolina Synod was condemned as holding unluther- 
 an views, and "the plan for a general union of our 
 church," so warmly espoused by that synod, was de- 
 clared to be "against the Augsburg Confession." The 
 General Synod was denounced as a hierarchy depriv- 
 ing the congregations of their rights," a measure re- 
 plete with mischief, threatening imminent danger to 
 the liberties of the American people." All the other 
 Synods were in fact condemned as heretical. 
 
 The new organization was the only synod which 
 
374 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 then formally and unqualifiedly received the Augs- 
 burg Confesssion. Its members considered it for a 
 long time their special mission to oppose the General 
 Synod and to preserve and develop the pure Lutheran 
 faith in America. Their leader and ablest champion 
 to the time of his death was Rev. David Henkel, a son 
 of Rev. Paul Henkel. By close application and pri- 
 vate study he had acquired a knowledge of Latin and 
 Greek, of Hebrew and Theology, and understood the 
 mastery of men as well as of books. 
 
 For the sake of preserving a language which con~ 
 tained the treasures of Lutheran literature, German 
 was at first made obligatory in the discussions of the 
 Synod, but in less than twenty years its use disap- 
 peared, and that without any abatement in the devo- 
 tion to Lutheran doctrine. During a period of forty- 
 five years the Augsburg Confession was recognized 
 as a sufficient exponent of the Lutheran faith, while 
 Luther's Small Catechism was the manual for the in- 
 struction of the young. But in 1886 the other Symbols 
 were declared to be a faithful scriptural explanation 
 of the doctrines contained in the Augsburg Confes- 
 sion. As general indifference to those features which 
 characterize the Lutheran Church had long prevailed, 
 the apprehension of Lutheran doctrines was to these 
 men like a new and rich discovery, and the tide run- 
 ning strongly against them, had the effect of making 
 them very firm and zealous in their maintenance. 
 Great stress was laid upon them in their preaching. 
 They were talked about constantly by the way and at 
 the fireside and made an all important element in the 
 examination of candidates for the ministry. Thus 
 
The Independent Synods. 375 
 
 the clergy, whatever their defects, have always been 
 well grounded in Lutheran dogmatics. 
 
 A high standard of general education was always 
 advocated, and though proper institutions were at first 
 lacking, all candidates were expected to submit to an 
 examination in Greek and Hebrew. Even after they 
 had received license to preach as deacons they were 
 required to prosecute their studies from two to six 
 years before they could enter fully the pastoral office. 
 The Synod, in the interests of a thorough preparation 
 and indoctrination, deviated in this for some time from 
 the Lutheran principle of the parity of ministers. 
 
 Fully persuaded that the doctrines of the Lutheran 
 Church were the doctrines of God's Word and recog- 
 nizing the duty of those who have came to a knowl- 
 edge of the truth to publish it to the world, these 
 Tennesseeans had recourse to the press and issued 
 from time to time a number of translations from Ger- 
 man theological works, as well as original doctrinal, 
 devotional and polemic treatises, being in this respect 
 as well as in their unreserved acceptance of the Con- 
 fession far in advance of the other Lutheran Synods. 
 Fortunately a publishing house had been founded by 
 the Henkel family as early as 1805 at New Market, 
 Va. When the Tennessee Synod was formed this 
 came at once into its service, and it had until very re- 
 cently good grounds for the claim that it has pub- 
 lished more distinctively Lutheran theological works 
 in the English language than any other publishing 
 house in the world. Its most daring and important 
 enterprise was the English translation of the Chris- 
 tian Book of Concord, or the whole of the Lutheran 
 
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The Independent Synods. $77 
 
 Symbols, the first edition of which appeared in 185 1. 
 It was a work of faith and self-sacrificing devotion, con- 
 ceived and directed by a layman, Dr. Samuel Godfrey 
 Henkel, but encouraged and supported by the Synod. 
 A second, revised edition was called for three years 
 later. "Luther on the Sacraments" was issued in 1853, 
 and Luther's " Church Postil," Sermons on the Epis- 
 tles for the Sundays and Festivals of the year, in 1869. 
 The result of these publications in reviving and pre- 
 serving the faith of our fathers cannot be estimated, 
 and the pain of heart with which we note this first 
 rupture of the Lutheran body in America, is consider- 
 ably relieved when one sees how the providence of God 
 employed it to recover the buried and almost for- 
 gotten treasures of the Reformation and to coin them 
 into the current language of this great country. 
 
 Catechisation was from the beginning the main re- 
 liance for building up congregations. For many 
 years no one except in very special cases was con- 
 firmed without a previous course of instruction. The 
 pastors were wont to teach continuously from ten to 
 fifteen days of six hours each. They used the Cate- 
 chism as a basis. With this they propounded ques- 
 tions to awaken thought, and after stating clearly a 
 specific truth required each catechumen to find and 
 mark the proof-text in his own bible. They dismissed 
 no subject until they were sure that conviction had 
 been wrought. Patient, faithful and devoted in this 
 work, they made their catechumens intelligent Lu- 
 therans, enlightened Christians, and it was only in 
 rare cases that a member of their congregations, no 
 
378 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 matter what his location or situation, left the Lu- 
 theran Church. 
 
 Always animated by the missionary spirit, the ag- 
 gressive work of the Synod was very much hindered 
 and has been largely misunderstood through a singu- 
 lar article in its Constitution. Dreading whatever 
 savors of the union of Church and State, it prohib- 
 ited the Synod from becoming an incorporated body 
 and from having a treasury for either missions or 
 Theological Seminaries. This precluded efficient 
 organization and a business-like management of the 
 cause, but although this interfered materially with the 
 garneringoftheharvest.it did not damp the ardor 
 nor arrest the activity of sowing the seed. The statis- 
 tics may not be flattering, but the ministers, almost to 
 a man, were missionaries in every sense of the word. 
 With no board to aid them, no treasury to support 
 them, they made long journeys North, West and 
 South, in nine different States, on horse-back, over 
 rough ways, through wild and thinly settled districts, 
 exposed to serious dangers, and suffering great priva- 
 tions, teaching, preaching, baptizing, organizing con- 
 gregations and administering the Holy Supper, trust- 
 ing for their expenses to the communities which they 
 visited. Some of the ministers devoted half their 
 time to this work. In later years missionary opera- 
 tions have been conducted through the three confer- 
 ences into which the Synod is divided. 
 
 As the visible result of her missionary work, the 
 Tennessee Synod points to the organization of the 
 Indiana Synod in 1835, the English Conference of 
 Missouri, which has become a district of the Missouri 
 
The. Independent Synods. 379 
 
 Synod, and the Holston Synod, organised in i860 by 
 the ministers and congregations in the State of Ten- 
 nessee. Notwithstanding these separations and in 
 spite of a multitude of peculiar obstacles, the parent 
 body still numbers thirty-two ministers, somewhat 
 more than one hundred congregations, ten thou- 
 sand communicants, " intelligent, reading, thinking 
 and industrious people," and has flourishing schools at 
 Conover and Dallas, both in the State of North 
 Carolina, and at Luray, Va. Concordia College at Con- 
 over has both a Theological and a Collegiate depart- 
 ment, and is controlled by the Synod. The other two 
 are female institutions in the hands of success ful in- 
 structors. In one of its first conventions this Synod 
 put upon record its conviction that slavery is an evil 
 and appealed to the government to devise measures 
 for its abolition. It called likewise upon slave-owners 
 to provide in the meantime for the Christian educa- 
 tion of their slaves, a large number of whom it 
 appears from the pastoral reports were baptized by 
 its pastors. The Columbus Standard was its organ 
 till the outbreak of the war. It now publishes " Our 
 Church Paper." 
 
 The Synod maintained its independence until in 
 July 1886 at Roanoke, Va., it joined with the other 
 Lutherans Synods of the South in forming the United 
 Synod, a union being thus effected of bodies which 
 had for fifty years antagonized each other. The 
 grounds for this happy consummation are numerous. 
 Time had softened the asperities of religious contro- 
 versy. Old prejudices had died away. A spirit of 
 concord and co-operation had made itself felt. A 
 
380 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 sense of responsibility to gather the harvest which 
 Providence had ripened, pointed to union as the con- 
 dition of success. The Tennesseeans were not con- 
 scious of any relaxation of Lutheran orthodoxy, yet 
 in some respects a more liberal tendency prevailed. 
 A new constitution was adopted in 1866 and the ma- 
 jority were sufficiently satisfied with the confessional 
 advance which marked the other Synods to enter into 
 organic relations with them. Finally by education, by 
 long contact and personal association, both parties 
 had mutually come to a better understanding of each 
 other's spirit principles and work. 
 
 THE JOINT SYNOD OF OHIO. 
 
 The oldest Lutheran organization west of the Alle- 
 gheny mountains is the Joint Synod of Ohio and ad- 
 jacent States. Its beginnings date back to 181 2, be- 
 tween which date and 181 7 special conferences were 
 held of the various Lutheran pastors who had found 
 their way to the new State of Ohio. The name 
 of Conference was retained down to the year 1830. 
 The first meeting of the Joint Synod, as such, was not 
 held until 1833. Its origin and development did not 
 spring from the deliberations of an older body in the 
 East, but rather from the necessity of the case as seen 
 and appreciated by a few Lutheran pastors. People 
 of the Lutheran faith were found among the early set- 
 tlers of Ohio, chiefly in Fairfield, Perry, Pickaway, 
 Montgomery, Columbiana, Stark and Jefferson coun- 
 ties. The. missionary spirit that now prompts the 
 Lutheran Synods to look to the spiritual interests of 
 their brethren who seek homes and fortunes in remote 
 
n 
 
 * Vi.V' 3, 
 
 ^K^ * ' 
 
 IP*: 
 
 REV. W. K. LEHIHANN. 
 
The Independent Synods. 381 
 
 districts, did not operate then as it does now. The 
 understanding and appreciation of the historic teach- 
 ings of the Church of the Reformation had not been 
 so fully developed, and accordingly had not become 
 so determined and aggressive. The few weak synods 
 had, besides, such an abundance of labor in their own 
 territory that little could be done for the destitute 
 brethren in the West. The pioneer gospel work de- 
 volved therefore, of necessity, mainly upon those who 
 in themselves felt the call and the need of planting 
 the Lutheran Church in the new settlements and 
 gathering into folds her scattered children. 
 
 The work of that day had a unique character and 
 was really indicative of greater zeal and fervor than 
 are the organized missionary efforts of our synods in 
 the new West at present. Neither money nor honor 
 awaited those first messengers of the cross. They 
 could expect only a living, a poor one at that as a 
 rule, and the approval of their conscience. By men 
 of this stamp and actuated by this spirit were laid the 
 foundations for the first Lutheran Synod of the West. 
 They employed almost exclusively the German tongue 
 the object being to gather into congregations those 
 who in Europe had been members of the Lutheran 
 state churches, or in the East had been Lutheran. 
 Even yet is the Home Mission activity of the Lutherans 
 distinguished from that of the other denominations by 
 the fact that it aims primarily, and often exclusively, 
 at gathering their own lost sheep. The English por- 
 tion of the Church has of late years addressed itself 
 more to the general public and with cheering results. 
 The founders of the Ohio Synod introduced English 
 
382 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 at an early date. The rapid Americanization of the 
 German Lutherans, especially in language, made it im- 
 perative, and soon led to the organization of an Eng- 
 lish district. 
 
 These pastors had a task before them not easy to 
 accomplish. The Lutherans were widely scattered. 
 They were poor in this world's goods, but, as a rule' 
 anxious to hear the Gospel and from teachers of their 
 own Church. The facilities for getting from one place 
 to another were exceedingly poor, and the almost end- 
 less journeys of these preachers, generally on horse- 
 back, always involved great fatigue, privation and 
 often danger. One would frequently spend six or 
 seven weeks on a missionary tour of this sort. Such 
 hospitality as the people could give he accepted, and 
 his remuneration was generally little or nothing. The 
 story of the ups and downs of these men and the zeal 
 they displayed reads almost like a romance. It is 
 refreshing in these days when the general tendencies 
 of the churches, and of their pastors, in a measure too, 
 are toward effeminacy and ease, to read of the sturdy 
 courage, the untiring activity, and the persistent, 
 heroic enterprise of these men. They were, perhaps, 
 not as deeply versed in theological lore as are the pas- 
 tors of to-day. Their libraries consisted merely of a 
 handful of books, and they did not have the time or 
 opportunity to secure scholastic attainments. But 
 though lacking in their heads they were rich in their 
 hearts. Their preaching was the promulgation of the 
 simple Gospel truth without much rhetorical nourish 
 or ornamental paraphernalia. But they worked sue- 
 
384 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 cessfully in a field that required greater devotion and 
 enterprise than do the missionary efforts of to-day. 
 
 The growth of the Ohio Synod has been steady, 
 and in comparison with most of the other Lutheran 
 Synods, rapid. Its present statistics are two hundred 
 and seventy pastors, sixty-five parochial school teach- 
 ers, four hundred and twenty congregations and fifty- 
 seven thousand eight hundred and seventy-two com- 
 municants. It was from the beginning zealous for 
 education and in the number of its institutions com- 
 pares very favorably with the other Lutheran bodies. 
 The Theological Seminary at Columbus was estab- 
 lished in 1833. Capital University at the same place, 
 in 1850. It sustains now five different higher institu- 
 tions, with nearly three hundred students for the cleri- 
 cal or pedagogic vocation, and a Home sheltering one 
 hundred orphans 
 
 The running expenses of these institutions reach 
 the sum of $30,000, all of which except what is de- 
 rived from the publishing house at Columbus, is pro- 
 vided by the benevolence of the congregations. The 
 cost of their erection has also been borne by the 
 people in general, the largest single donation thus far 
 made being $5,000.00, contributed several years ago for 
 the liquidation of the debt on Capital University. 
 
 The rapid growth of the work of the Synod in the 
 last ten or fifteen years as compared with that of the 
 decades preceding, is due largely to the rapid 
 development of missionary interest and the increase 
 of territory occupied by the Synod. Ten years ago 
 the different districts of the Synod, of which there 
 were six, two English and the rest German, did a 
 
The Independent Synods. 385 
 
 little work in this direction, but the appointment of a 
 general Mission Committee, in 1884, marked the begin- 
 ning of a new era. Missionary work is now being done 
 in twenty states and territories, from North Carolina 
 and Maryland in the East to Oregon and Washing- 
 ton Territory in the West. Formerly there was not 
 a single missionary engaged exclusively in the work, 
 the pastors doing what they could in this direction in 
 addition to their congregational duties, now there are 
 .twenty -six missionaries under the direction of the 
 Committee and fully twenty-five more have been called 
 for. Some of these missionaries have as high as a 
 dozen, fifteen or even twenty preaching places, the ma- 
 jority of which in a short time generally become fully 
 organized congregations. The annual expenses of 
 the Mission Committee are about twelve thousand 
 dollars, a large proportion of which is raised by the 
 Sunday-schools on Childrens' Day. The most of this 
 work is among the German emigrants of the West, 
 although English interests are cared for also, particu- 
 larly in the larger cities. The cause is growing in the 
 Synod in a most encouraging manner and is one of 
 the best signs of its inner prosperity and soundness. 
 
 The Ohio Synod has all along, with the exception 
 of about a dozen years when it was in connection 
 with the Synodical Conference, been an independent 
 body. Efforts were made in earlier times to form a 
 union with the General Synod and later with the 
 General Council; but in both cases the attempt 
 proved a failure. This was the case principally on 
 account of the conservative and strictly confessional 
 standpoint of the Ohio Synod. The union with the- 
 
386 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 Conference was severed in 1881, on account of the 
 doctrine of Predestination as taught by the Missouri 
 Synod, the leading member of the Conference. The 
 Synod has at no time enjoyed a more flourishing 
 period than it does now, and the prospects for success- 
 ful work were never better. The language question 
 has caused but little difficulty. Just now it is the trans- 
 ition period, and in fully one third of the charges both 
 German and English preaching are required, the 
 former for the older the latter for the younger 
 element. There are thirty or forty exclusively Eng- 
 lish congregations. This state of affairs is reflected 
 in the institutions, in which the German and the 
 English are both used as mediums of instruction and 
 intercourse. On the floor of Synod both languages 
 have equal rights and all transactions are recorded 
 in both. Its popular periodicals, TheStandard and 
 Die Lulherische Kirchenzeitung, and its theological 
 journals, The Theological Monthly and Theologische 
 Zeitblaetter are ably conducted, and it has made valu- 
 able contributions to permanent church literature. 
 
 THE IOWA SYNOD. 
 
 The German Synod of Iowa and other States ac- 
 cepts the Bible as the only rule of faith and the Lu- 
 theran Confessions as "the pure and unadulterated rep- 
 resentation of the divine Word and Law." It con- 
 demns secret societies as anti-christian and repudiates 
 all unionistic tendencies. Holding unreservedly all 
 doctrines of faith expressed in the Symbolical Books 
 as binding, it allows diversity of opinion on theological 
 questions which do not come in conflict with articles 
 
Rev. GOTTFRIED FRITSCuEL, D. *>. 
 
The Independent Synods. 387 
 
 of faith. Among such "open questions " in which full 
 agreement, though desirable, is not absolutely neces- 
 sary to Church fellowship, are " the development and 
 explanation of Eschatology, Anti-Christ, the Sabbath 
 and the Holy Office." 
 
 In the fall of 1853, Rev. G. Grossman, Superintend- 
 ent of the first Protestant Normal School of this 
 country, who had come into collision with the Mis- 
 souri Synod on one of the above "questions," removed 
 his school to Dubuque, Iowa, so as not to occasion 
 schisms in neighboring congregations of that body. 
 After some disheartening trials, he began teaching 
 here with two students who had accompanied him ; 
 several were sent from Germany and on November 
 10 a seminary was opened in a building which served 
 as church, parsonage, school-room and professor's resi- 
 dence. Free lodging was the professor's salary. In 
 the following July Rev. Sigmund Fritschel became 
 second instructor. These two in company with Rev. 
 J. Deindoerfer, who had left Michigan along with 
 Grossman and settled west of Dubuque, and Rev. M. 
 Schueller who served a congregation near Dubuque, 
 formed themselves, August 24, 1854, at St. Sebald, into 
 the EvangelicanLutheral Synod of Iowa. 
 
 No Synod in the United States has been founded 
 under more discouraging prospects. ' Its three congre- 
 gations — one consisting of less than six families — were 
 absolutely unable to support a seminary. Once dur- 
 ing that year the institution was actually discontinued 
 for a few days, when an unexpected gift enabled the 
 work to be resumed. But for many years all had to 
 live and labor in great poverty as but little financial 
 
388 
 
 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 support came from congregations. The seminary 
 was removed to St. Sebald, 1857, where a part of its 
 support could be raised on a farm. The professors 
 for the time received house-rent and board. Rev. S. 
 Fritschel had accepted a call to a congregation in 
 1854, as only one teacher could be supported; but in 
 May, 1857, his brother, Rev. Gottfried Fritschel, took 
 his place, while a year later he returned to the sem- 
 inary. 
 
 In 1855 the Synod had five ministers and five con- 
 
 i& v 'ill 1 P11kIF-IJC_: 
 
 GERMAN EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN ORPHAN ASYLUM, TOLEDO, O. 
 
 gregations, in 1856 nine and eight respectively; in 
 1858 these figures had grown to eighteen and thirty- 
 one ; in 1861 to thirty-six and fifty. In its eleventh 
 year, 1865, it reached fifty ministers, seventy congrega- 
 tions and six thousand communicants. 
 
 From its organization this body showed earnest 
 missionary zeal. No distance was too great, no roads 
 
The Independent Synods. 389 
 
 too rough, no season too unfavorable ; in the heat of 
 summer and in the cold blasts of western winters, 
 through mud, slush and frozen streams, ministers 
 sought and served new fields of labor. One professor 
 frequently walked twenty-five miles and back be- 
 tween Saturday and Monday; another served congre- 
 gations more than forty miles from his place of resi- 
 dence, traveling mostly afoot. 
 
 When the Buffalo and Missouri Synods maintained 
 a contest, especially on the ministerial office, the Iowa 
 Synod held an intermediate position between the 
 democratic view of Missouri and the episcopal of 
 Buffalo. It seemed for a time as though Iowa could 
 work in harmony with Buffalo, and ministers of the 
 former synod were called to congregations of the lat- 
 ter. But on account of certain eschatological views 
 entertained by some of the Iowa men, these friendly 
 relations were not long maintained. 
 
 The Missouri Synod took from the beginning a hos- 
 tile stand toward members of the Iowa Synod. By 
 its influential press these were vigorously attacked 
 and the reproach of heresy was sought to be fixed 
 upon them even in Germany. All endeavors to pro- 
 mote a good understanding between the two bodies 
 proved vain, all explanations were misunderstood or 
 misinterpreted. But Iowa did not relax its efforts 
 to bring about peace with Missouri as well as with 
 other synods. Its relations with the Minnesota and 
 the Wisconsin Synods became very friendly, and event- 
 ually its continued endeavors were so far successful 
 that a Colloquium was held with the Missouri Synod, 
 November 13-19, 1867, at Milwaukee, Wis. The re- 
 
390 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 suit was deemed encouraging by many. Though no 
 agreement had been attained peace seemed possible. 
 
 Throughout this period the territory of the Iowa 
 Synod continued to widen. A number of congrega- 
 tions were formed in the vicinity of Toledo, Ohio, Des 
 Moines, Iowa, Madison, Wis., in south-ea stern Mis- 
 souri, in Illinois and elsewhere. Missionary work was 
 also undertaken among the Indians. The first trials 
 were made in 1856 by Rev. Jakob Schmidt in Canada; 
 he went in 1858 to the Crows or Upsarokas between 
 the Yellowstone river and the Black Hills. In 1859 
 he and M. Braeuninger, Doederlein and Seyler with 
 two colonists started to establish a station on the 
 Powder river, Wyoming, but i860, missionary Braeun- 
 inger was murdered by a band of Sioux. 
 
 A new station on the Deer Creek, Neb., was estab- 
 lished among the Zistas or Cheyennes. Three Indian 
 boys were given to be educated ; missionary Krebs 
 translated Luther's Catechism into the Cheyenne 
 language and in 1863 the missionaries had commenced 
 to preach in the Cheyenne language, when the Sioux 
 induced all Indians in Nebraska to go upon the war- 
 path. The missionaries reluctantly withdrew, only 
 when a party of Sioux approached expressly to mur- 
 der them. Thus unhappily ended the Indian mission 
 in its very infancy. The Indian boys fled with the 
 missionaries and were afterwards baptized. Two of 
 them lie buried at St. Sebald ; a plain cross marks the 
 place; and the short inscription: "Two Indians," 
 tells the story of a relatively fruitless enterprise. 
 
 The persistent attacks upon the Synod created 
 gradually dissatisfaction within its bosom. In order 
 
The Independent Synods. 391 
 
 to set forth unmistakably its position the paragraph 
 stating the doctrinal basis was changed to the form 
 which had been used at every ordination from the 
 very beginning. No change of doctrinal position was 
 intended, but simply a more unmistakable form was 
 adopted at Davenport 1873. The Synod was at once 
 charged with having surrendered its former doctrinal 
 basis, and by various means it was sought to produce 
 dissatisfaction and disharmony within the body. 
 From May 1, 1874 until October 15, 1875 the attacks 
 of the " Lutheraner " were sent broadcast to ministers 
 and members of the Iowa Synod. As a result of this 
 the appearance of an organized party in the Synod 
 divergent in objects yet one in opposition, and the 
 dissolution of the Synod, seemed inevitable. The gen- 
 eral meeting appointed for 1876 had to be held in 
 1875 at Madison. It adopted a series of resolutions 
 clearly and finally stating its doctrinal basis ; and the 
 opposition broke into fragments. About twenty min- 
 isters severed their connection, leaving the number in 
 the Synod about one hundred. Only a few of the 
 congregations could be induced to secede with them, 
 and the withdrawing ministers connected themselves 
 mostly with Synods of the Synodical Conference. 
 
 In a suit-at-law brought by a majority of the con- 
 gregation at Wilton, Iowa, to recover property from 
 the minority and the pastor, the decision was in favor 
 of the Iowa party, and the Supreme Court of Iowa 
 sustained the judgment of the lower courts. 
 
 It had been alleged that the attacks upon the Iowa 
 Synod were made on documentary evidence from 
 official publications of the Synod. These proofs were 
 
39 2 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 examined and refuted in " Iowa and Missouri," an ex- 
 ceedingly thorough work in which it is claimed the 
 position of the Iowa Synod was fully vindicated. 
 
 The Theological Seminary was removed in 1874 to 
 Mendota, Ills., and occupied a building of the former 
 Mendota College of the General Synod. 
 
 The severe trials through which the Synod passed 
 gave it greater strength and a rapid increase. At the 
 Quarto-Centennial, celebrated in 1879 at Maxfield, 
 Iowa, a Teachers' Seminary was established. In 1885 
 the College founded in 1868 was united with it and 
 the institution is now in a flourishing condition at 
 Waverly, Iowa, with an able staff of instructors. The 
 Seminary also outgrew its quarters and when the 
 Synod in 1888 called for $10,000 to erect buildings 
 at Dubuque, the congregations responded with $1 5,000. 
 The new building will accomodate ninety students. 
 
 Home Mission work was systematically organized 
 in 1879 and the Synod has since worked quietly, but 
 diligently, throughout the West, among the immi- 
 grants. Though every year from fifteen to twenty 
 new workers are sent into the field these are insuf- 
 ficient to supply all the urgent applications. The rapid 
 increase of recent years is as follows: 1875, one hun- 
 dred and fourteen ministers, one hundred and eighty 
 congregations; 1882, one hundred and seventy minis- 
 ters, two hundred and seventy-five congregations ; 
 1889, two hundred and seventy-two ministers, five hun- 
 dred congregations, and not less than forty thousand 
 communicants. 
 
 The Synod is divided into six districts, which meet 
 annually ; whilst the delegate Synod meets every third 
 
The Independent Synods. 393 
 
 year. Conferences are held for deliberation and the 
 discussion of theological questions. Visitations are 
 made to superintend the enforcement of the princi- 
 ples of the Synod. All the money necessary for the 
 support of the Synod and its institutions is raised by 
 the voluntary contributions of the congregations. 
 
 Besides the Seminary and the College, the Synod 
 sustains two Orphans' homes; one at Toledo, Ohio 
 and one at Andrew, Iowa. Support is given to the 
 Foreign Missions of the General Council as well as 
 to some Missionary Societies in Germany. The 
 Wartburg Publishing House furnishes Lutheran books 
 for home, school and church use, and three periodicals, 
 the "Kirchenblatt," the " Kirchliche Zeitschrift," and 
 " Waisenhausblaetter." A Mutual Aid Society assists 
 widows and orphans; and a " Pfarrwittwen-Kasse" 
 pays an annuity to widows of deceased ministers. 
 
 The Iowa Synod has always maintained friendly 
 relations with the General Council of the Evangelical 
 Lutheran Church, and has worked in harmony with 
 it. But thus far it has not united organically with 
 the Council ; while it sincerely hopes the time will 
 come when every obstacle to union may be removed. 
 
 One of its strong men, Rev. Gottfried Fritschel, 
 D. D., has just passed to his reward. From the time 
 of his ordination in 1857 he served as Professor in 
 the Wartburg Seminary, where he labored with un- 
 faltering diligence, with profound attainments and 
 with enthusiasm for the Lutheran Church and her 
 faith. Not less than four hundred students sat at 
 his feet during this period and " he has left an impress 
 upon all these minds which the Lutheran Church in 
 
394 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 America will never cease to feel." He was beloved 
 as a preacher as he was tireless in missionary activity. 
 Of an irenic temper and diffident almost to t. fault,, 
 circumstances forced him into controversies which he 
 conducted with great ability and vigor. The pros- 
 perity which has attended the Iowa Synod and its 
 Seminary is due under God in large measure "to the 
 unpretentious and quiet but solid and faithful work 
 which he did as a professor and teacher. " 
 
 THE NORWEGIANS. 
 
 Kling Petersen, the first immigrant from Norway 
 of whom we have any history, came to America in 
 1821. He returned after three years and aroused an 
 American interest among his people. Rigging out a 
 small vessel, he left Stavanger with fifty-two persons, 
 July 4, 1825. Landing in New York, October 9, the 
 little band proceeded to Rochester, N. Y., where they 
 formed the first Norwegian colony in America. 
 
 In 1836-7 the first colonists settled in the west along 
 Fox river, in La Salle county, 111. Since then there 
 has been a steadily increasing stream, bringing some 
 years as high as fifteen thousand. These new comers 
 are scattered over the whole country, so that Nor- 
 wegian Lutheran churches are now found from Port- 
 land, Oregon, to Portland Maine, from Manitoba to 
 Texas. For years the people were destitute of pas- 
 toral care. They had brought with them their Bibles, 
 hymn-books and devotional manuals, and thus they 
 enjoyed the means of private edification, but having 
 no church organization they suffered sad spiritual des- 
 titution. On every returning Lord's day they were 
 
The Independent Synods. 395 
 
 forcibly reminded of the wonted ringing of the church 
 bells, of the stately churches, the beautiful liturgical 
 service, the soul-stirring song, the richly robed minis- 
 ter, the elaborate sermon — in short of the entire wor- 
 ship, as they had enjoyed it in their native home. 
 Those of a more decidedly Christian character called 
 "Hauge's Friends," having been awakened by the re- 
 ligious movement under Hauge in Norway, did all in 
 their power for spiritual improvement. They assem- 
 bled with the people both on Sunday and week days 
 for mutual edification. They had experienced 'the 
 grace of God upon their own hearts, and would thus 
 with power and unction exhort the people. They 
 encouraged the faithful, strengthened the weak, and 
 awakened the slumbering; but this supplied only in a 
 measure the pressing want, and could not fill the place 
 of public worship and pastoral care. 
 
 Scattered as sheep without shepherd these strangers 
 were also subject to the proselyting schemes of sec- 
 tarians. The Episcopalians approached them with 
 their specious plea of "essentially no difference." 
 The Baptists by ordaining a proselyte expected to 
 gain entrance into the Lutheran fold. Even the Mor- 
 mons attempted, but in vain, to make inroads among 
 them. Very few were misled by these encroachments. 
 Some of them gladly returned to their spiritual home. 
 The faith that possessed their hearts guarded them 
 against a trumpet giving " an uncertain sound." The 
 Norwegians are conservative. Their Lutheranism 
 has such root in their hearts that they do not readily 
 exchange it for every new " ism." Proselytism among 
 them has, therefore, seldom been a success. 
 
39^ The Lutherans in America. 
 
 A spiritual awakening visited, in 1839, the commu- 
 nity along the Fox river, where lay preachers were 
 laboring, and in the following year the first " meeting- 
 house " was erected. There was no ordained minister 
 among them until 1843, when Mr. C. L. Clausen, who 
 had been a lay preacher in the old country, having re- 
 ceived a call from the congregations at Muskego and 
 Yorkville, Wis., was ordained by a German Lutheran, 
 Rev. C. F. Krause, of Milwaukee. In 1845 the first 
 Norwegian Church was built in Muskego. 
 
 A synodical organization was attempted in 1846, 
 but beyond a declaration of general principles noth- 
 ing was effected. Another meeting, called at Middle- 
 town, 111., in September, 1848, in order to meet the 
 demands of the State laws, adopted as a rule for the 
 congregations the " Church Discipline of the Franck- 
 ean Synod," by which one of the ministers had been 
 ordained. The Hauge's Synod dates from 1850. 
 
 No closer union between congregations took place 
 until the fall of 185 1, when the Norwegian, Swedish 
 and English Lutherans united to form the Synod of 
 Northern Illinois. In the year i$6o, the two former 
 withdrew on account of doctrinal differences, and in 
 June of the same year organized the Scandinavian 
 Evangelical Lutheran Augustana Synod in which the 
 Norwegians and Swedes worked harmoniously to- 
 gether until 1870, when they separated on the line of 
 nationality, and the Norwegian Augustana Synod 
 was formed. It was composed also of followers of 
 Hauge, having special concern for conversion and 
 being in sympathy with the Hauge Synod, but more 
 conservative, "prizing the Lutheran faith aboveevery- 
 
The Independent Synods. 397 
 
 thing," yet dispensing with Liturgical worship. This 
 body was the first to establish Sunday-schools and to 
 introduce English in public services. 
 
 Those who in 1870 formed the " Conference " form- 
 erly belonged to the Augustana Synod, but a reaction 
 against its bald worship and in favor of churchly 
 practice led to the formation of a separate body. Its 
 special zeal for churchliness and home missions has 
 given it phenomenal progress. 
 
 With efficient organization and an ever-increasing 
 emigration the Norwegian communion has had a 
 steady growth. From the feeble beginnings little 
 more than a generation ago have sprung 460 minis- 
 ters, over 1,400 congregations and more than 140,000 
 communicants, maintaining five Theological Semina- 
 ries, two colleges, three preparatory schools and four 
 religious papers. 
 
 The work of gathering in has been relatively easy. 
 Even when wanting in personal piety the respect of 
 the Norwegians for the Church and the Lutheran 
 faith is such that unless they have become quite un- 
 godly they mostly seek of their own accord the 
 Church to which all belonged in the old country. A 
 little encouragement seldom fails to win them. 
 
 Great missionary activity has been shown from the 
 beginning, and it has been constantly increasing. 
 This aggressive zeal is largely due to the foreign 
 missionary interest which prevails in the mother 
 church, and which is intensified here where means and 
 opportunity are at hand. Two missionaries from 
 Madagascar, each visiting congregations here some 
 six months, within the last year, collected about 
 
398 
 
 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 $11,000 for that field. At its first organization the 
 Church here was exclusively a missionary enterprise. 
 No sooner had the old congregations become well 
 established and self-supporting, than calls came to 
 them constantly from new regions to send them 
 
 NORWEGIAN SEAMEN'S CHURCH, BROOKLYN, N. Y. 
 
 ministers and establish churches among them. Nor 
 has the cry abated yet. Immigration is greater than 
 ever before, removals from the old settlements and 
 cities are constantly going on, and the people are now 
 scattered into nearly every state and territory in the 
 
The Independent Synods. 399 
 
 Union. The majority of the annual Seminary gradu- 
 ates are sent into the mission field. With all that has 
 been accomplished the means at hand are still utterly 
 inadequate to meet the demands constantly made 
 from all directions. 
 
 Great praise for the growth of the Norwegian 
 Church is due to the early ministers, who laid a good 
 foundation. Constrained by the love of Christ and 
 deeming themselves called of God and men, because 
 of the spiritual wants of their countrymen, they shrank 
 from no sacrifice. The pioneer work was connected 
 with all manner of hardships. The earliest immi- 
 grants were mostly poor people, many of them even in 
 actual want. For years they had to battle against 
 poverty, sickness, and numerous privations and disad- 
 vantages. Among such people, widely scattered, the 
 first ministers were called to labor, necessitated to 
 make long and difficult journeys, and to preach in small 
 crowded houses and as a rule with no compensation. 
 In this way, by being more of itinerant than local 
 preachers, with many congregations and preaching 
 places, it was that the people were kept together and 
 preserved to the Church. The sermon had often 
 little polish, but it had pith and marrow. It gave 
 the pure, unadorned and unadulterated Word. And 
 this is what the people longed for and what gave them 
 strength and joy. A visit from the pastor every four 
 or six weeks had to suffice. It proved a season of.re- 
 freshing and kept them constant in the faith. The 
 work was arduous, done for love's sake and not for 
 lucre. It was richly blessed of God to the spiritual 
 nourishment and preservation of many people. 
 
400 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 The Norwegian branch of the Church presents a 
 remarkable spectacle. From the very beginning of 
 its organization here there have been three different 
 parties, which have now grown to five, each maintain- 
 ing tenets and practices of its own, while all claim to 
 be distinctively Lutheran. Different tendencies came 
 over from the mother church. Some of the emigrants 
 were adherents of the reformer Hauge, marked by 
 great simplicity and earnestness. Others came here 
 in full sympathy with the State Church. These 
 were opposed to the pietists, of a more churchly turn, 
 zealous for the faith, and devoted to the usages of the 
 home Church, a full liturgy, clerical vestments, etc. 
 Their ministers came generally from the Universities. 
 Another element was mediate between these. 
 
 These diversities became here more fully developed, 
 and violent controversies broke out. Yet the organi- 
 zation of different Synods had not been possible had 
 not questions and differences of a graver nature 
 arisen. The pietistic and orthodox tendencies might 
 have been united in their work and in brotherly love 
 had not important doctrinal issues come to the 
 front. 
 
 The first trouble of this kind "arose with the first 
 two ministers who advocated the doctrines of Grundt- 
 vig." So radical a departure from the Lutheran 
 doctrine rendered co-operation in work impossible. 
 The breach already existing was greatly widened. 
 
 Another conflict turned on the activity of laymen, 
 whether they should have the right of prayer and ex- 
 hortation in public assemblies. Those of the Hauge 
 Synod had always recognized this right as inherent in 
 
The Independent' Synods. 401 
 
 the universal priesthood. The rigidly orthodox would 
 suppress all such activity. Another question was that 
 of the Sabbath, the one party following the sixteenth 
 century theologians, the other those of the seventeenth 
 century, especially Spener. Many other important 
 questions have created dissension and caused still 
 wider separation: Absolution, "the world's Justifica- 
 tion," and lastly Predestination, which has now rent 
 the "Norwegian Synod," a body which "has always 
 been uncompromisingly ' Missourian,'" the majority of 
 its pastors being trained at St. Louis, and which has 
 been eminently successful in educational work and in 
 winning the masses. 
 
 These separations have not arisen from different in- 
 terpretations of the Confessions — all accept these with 
 one accord. All are firm Lutherans. The present 
 divisions are: Hauge Synod, organized 1850, 43 min- 
 isters, 126 congregations, 9,222 communicants; "Nor- 
 wegian," organized 1853, 174 ministers, 610 congrega- 
 tions, 60,684 communicants ; Augustana, organized in 
 i860, 32 ministers, 80 congregations, 5,000 communi- 
 cants ; Conference, organized 1870,101 ministers, 436 
 congregations, 33,165 communicants; Anti-Missourian, 
 organized 1887, no ministers, 400 congregations, and 
 35,000 communicants. The latter have not effected a 
 Synodical organization, but hold annual meetings and 
 have their own college, seminary, and weekly. 
 
 In the midst of the warfare long raging, there have 
 always been in all the Synods those inclined to peace, 
 who have bewailed these divisions and have longed 
 and labored and prayed for a better understanding, 
 for brotherly love and for a union of the whole Nor- 
 
4<D2 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 wegian Church. Efforts to this effect have been made 
 from the beginning. The work of union dates back 
 to the work of separation. Conferences for this pur- 
 pose' were held in 1859, in 1863 and in 1864. 
 
 For years no further attempt to bring the different 
 parties together was witnessed until in 1881 when they 
 all met for conference in St. Ansgar, Iowa. The situa- 
 tion had become considerably changed. Twenty 
 years of conflict had modified the minds of many. 
 All were now disposed to see how nearly they agreed 
 rather than as before to find how greatly they differed. 
 The results of the meeting were encouraging beyond- 
 what had been anticipated. Other conferences which 
 have been held annually since have been equally pro- 
 motive of peace. 
 
 a The greatest impetus was given to the union move- 
 ment in 1 888, when a committee of seven, clerical and 
 lay, from each of the Synods, except the "Norwegian," 
 met in Eau Claire, Wis., for the purpose of devising a 
 plan of consolidation. The result far exceeded the 
 the peoples' expectation. A settlement of the old 
 controversies was effected and a draft for a new con- 
 stitution and articles of agreement were drawn up. 
 
 A meeting of representatives from the congrega- 
 tions for the consideration of this plan was held in 
 November 1888, at Scandinavia, Wis. The whole 
 plan with but few alterations was unanimously 
 adopted. This plan, which has since been unani- 
 mously adopted by three bodies at their annual meet- 
 ings, now goes to the congregations, and will come up 
 for final action at the next meeting of each of the 
 Synods, which are to convene at the same time in 
 
The Independent Synods. 403 
 
 Minneapolis. If approval carries they can at once 
 unite and form the new Synod and organize their Senr- 
 inary with five professors as already agreed upon. 
 
 All essential matters having been settled, these three 
 bodies now look forward confidently to a union. The 
 fourth, Hauge's Synod, is hesitating. Still there is 
 hope that when the Synods come together in 1890, the 
 United Synod will embrace this body also. 
 
 The " Norwegian Synod" has kept entirely aloof 
 from this movement, yet the hope is cherished that in 
 due time this body will also be one with the others 
 so that ultimately one United Synod shall be formed 
 from the five now existing. 
 
 DANISH SYNODS. 
 
 A society for missionary work in America was 
 founded in Odense, Denmark, October 1869. Several 
 ministers had previously come to this country and 
 three more were now sent over by this association. 
 These united in 1872 in a Synodical body, known as 
 "The Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church in Amer- 
 ica." Although passing through the usual trials and 
 conflicts, this body has made such progress that it now 
 numbers 44 ministers and more than 4,000 communi- 
 cants. It supports a Theological Seminary at West 
 Denmark, Wis., four High Schools, an Orphan Home, 
 an Emigrant House and a Sailors' Mission. In for- 
 eign missionary work, for which it has furnished a 
 missionary and his wife, it co-operates both with the 
 General Council in the Telegu field and with the 
 Church of Denmark among the Tamuls and Sandthals. 
 "The Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church Associa- 
 
404 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 tion " was organized in 1884 by some Danish ministers 
 who in a fraternal spirit withdrew from the Norwe- 
 gian-Danish Conference. It has now 16 ministers, 
 maintains a Theological Seminary at Blair, Neb., 
 with two Professors, and has sent a missionary to 
 Utah. It seems very desirable that these two Danish 
 bodies should unite, and those unacquainted with their 
 difficulties may see no reason for their separation, but 
 as Rationalism and the teachings of Grundtvig have 
 caused great disturbances in the Church of Denmark, 
 , sufficient time must necessarily elapse for all parties 
 in this country to purge themselves from these errors, 
 before the Danish Lutherans can harmoniously and 
 effectively co-operate. 
 
 A vigorous Icelandic Association was organized in 
 1885 with 4 pastors and about 4,000 communicants. 
 It reports now 22 congregations. 
 
 THE SYXOD OF BUFFALO. 
 
 This body held its first meeting at Milwaukee, Wis., 
 June, 1845, four ministers and eighteen laymen being 
 in attendance. The leading spirit was Rev. J. A. A. 
 Grabau, who came to this country in 1839 and estab- 
 lished a theological school at Buffalo. In its some- 
 what hierarchical view of the ministry it came into 
 conflict with the Missouri Synod. A colloquium with 
 representatives from that body was held in 1866 and 
 as a consequence a number of the ministers and con- 
 gregations passed over into its bounds. Another sec- 
 tion withdrew about the same time, and after maintain- 
 ing for a while a separate organization its members be- 
 came absorbed in different synods. The original 
 
The Independent Synods. 405 
 
 synod consists now of twenty-one ministers, thirty-five 
 congregations, and five thousand communicants. 
 
 THE MICHIGAN SYNOD. 
 
 Which assisted in the organization of the General 
 Council, withdrew in 1888 on account of dissatisfac- 
 tion with the latter's position on pulpit and altar 
 fellowship. It embraces about forty ministers, fifty- 
 five congregations, and ten thousand communicants. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 THE MISSOURIANS. 
 
 TOWARD the close of the third decade of the 
 present century, those days of rationalistic rule, 
 there was at the University of Leipzig a small 
 circle of students whom their academic fellow-citizens 
 termed Mystics or Pietists, or Hypocrites and Obscur- 
 ants. They would spend the hours which others de- 
 voted to the loud pleasures of the beer mug, in the 
 seclusion of some quiet room, where they might have 
 been found closeted with some obscure volume, the 
 writings of Arndt, Francke, Spener, Rambach, Fresen- 
 ius, or some other theologian of like character. A 
 theological candidate of riper years and spiritual ex- 
 perience, named Kuehn, was the leader of this little 
 band, and the path he endeavored to point out to his 
 associates was a via dolorosa through dark depths of 
 anguish and contrition, a series of experiences like 
 those through which he had passed before he found 
 peace and rest in Christ Jesus. 
 
 In the fall of 1829 this circle welcomed a young 
 man of eighteen years, the son of a clergyman in Sax- 
 ony, a youth with a good classical education, who had 
 until recently "felt himself born for music only." 
 When his father declared that he would set him adrift 
 without a farthing if he should "turn musician," but 
 promised him a thaler a week if he would study theol- 
 ogy, the son set his face toward Leipzig and theology, 
 
 406 
 
REV. C. F. XV. WAI.THBR, I>. D. 
 
The Missourians. 407 
 
 and there we find him, young in years, slender of 
 stature, in delicate health, shifting as best he could 
 with his thaler a week, but turning to every advan- 
 tage his talents and opportunities. 
 
 The young student was Carl Ferdinand Wilhelm 
 Walther. An elder brother introduced the youth to 
 that circle of Pietists mentioned above. Soon the 
 younger Walther was far gone in the direction in 
 which the influence of Kuehn and others was exerted, 
 his soul was filled with anguish under the pangs of a 
 troubled conscience ; sighs and sobs and tears gave 
 evidence of the storm that raged in his bosom and 
 threatened to engulf every hope and to shut out every 
 ray of consoling light which had dawned in his soul. 
 While he was struggling with despair God used the 
 gentle hand of a woman to draw him from the preci- 
 pice. The wife of a revenue officer at Leipzig, whose 
 home had been opened to him, perceived the trouble 
 of the pious youth, and from her lips came words of 
 comfort drawn from the Gospel, and from her heart 
 rose many a fervent prayer to a throne of grace that 
 the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, 
 might be granted to that troubled soul. 
 
 God in his wise providence led young Walther to 
 seek spiritual advice and consolation also from an- 
 other, from a man who was in future years to be in- 
 strumental in leading him across the ocean. Martin 
 Stephan was the pastor of a Bohemian congregation 
 which worshiped in St. John's Church at Dresden, a 
 preacher who had for years proclaimed to vast multi- 
 tudes that flocked to that unostentatious church in 
 the suburbs, what was then very rarely heard from 
 
408 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 German pulpits, Christ and him crucified. Stephan 
 was renowned as a spiritual adviser who had profound 
 knowledge of the human heart and was ever ready to 
 minister what each individual soul required. This man 
 one day received a letter from a stranger, a student 
 at Leipzig, who disclosed to him his innermost soul 
 and solicited an answer. When the answer came, Wal- 
 ther held the letter in his hands, and before he broke 
 the seal prayed to God to keep him from accepting 
 vain counsels and consolations. But after he had read 
 Stephan's letter, he was like one who had been lifted 
 from hell into paradise, and his tears of anguish were 
 changed into tears of joy. 
 
 A year and another year passed away, and then 
 young Walther's days seemed nearly numbered ; pul- 
 monary disease forced him to relinquish his studies 
 and seek rest and relief at home. During these weary 
 months he found in his father's library the works of 
 Luther, and here he laid the foundation of the inti- 
 mate acquaintance with the writings of the great Re- 
 former which distinguished him in later years. In the 
 spring of 1832 he returned to the university, improved 
 in health, but without hope of ever becoming phys- 
 ically able to work in the ministry. He completed 
 his studies, passed his first examination, and was then 
 a private tutor from 1834 to 1836. In 1837 he was 
 ordained to the ministry in the village church of 
 Braeunsdorf in Saxony, amidst a congregation which 
 for forty years and more had not heard the Gospel of 
 Christ and had sunk deep in intellectual, moral and 
 religious depravity. The form of public service, the 
 hymn-book, the school-books, were, like the school 
 
The Missourians. 409 
 
 teacher and the superintendent, steeped in Rationalism, 
 and when Walther, true to his vow and to the Sym- 
 bols of the Lutheran Church which he had sworn to 
 follow and maintain, endeavored to work a change 
 toward sound Lutheranism, stumbling blocks without 
 number were thrown in his way, until his troubled 
 conscience was beset on every side. 
 
 Walther was not the only Lutheran in Saxony who 
 suffered under the rod of a rationalistic and unionis- 
 tic regime, and when in those days Stephan was look- 
 ing toward the United States of America as an 
 asylum of true Lutheranism, to which his attention 
 had been directed by Dr. Benjamin Kurtz of Balti- 
 more, and finally came forth with a definite plan of 
 emigration, Walther with others caught up the signal. 
 In September 1838, as many as 707 persons had 
 entered their names upon the rolls ; ministers, school- 
 teachers, lawyers, physicians, artists, gave up their 
 positions, married men and women left their husbands 
 and wives, parents their children, children their 
 parents; a part of their joint possessions was turned 
 over to a common treasury ; four ships were chartered 
 and a fifth, the Amalia, was also occupied mostly by 
 members of the company. All of these ships left 
 Bremerhafen in November 1838. The Copernicus 
 arrived at New Orleans on the last day of the same 
 year, three others in January 1839; the Amalia was 
 lost with all on board. 
 
 The passengers continued their pilgrimage to St. 
 Louis, then a city of about 16,000 inhabitants. 
 Stephan had prevailed upon his followers to make 
 him their bishop and to sign a document in which 
 
.410 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 they pledged themselves to allegiance and obedience. 
 He surrounded himself with every kind of luxury, and 
 ■during the few months of his rule he drew from the 
 common treasury more than 4,000 thalers for his own 
 sustenance and comfort. To secure a still more un- 
 limited exercise of his power, he aimed at isolating 
 the community under his sway. A tract of land was 
 purchased in Perry county, Mo., and here the emigrants 
 amid untold hardships began to build up a number of 
 Saxon colonies. A small flock remained in St. Louis 
 and chose the elder Walther for their pastor. 
 
 Stephan, who had also repaired to Perry county, 
 ruled like a Pasha. A magnificent episcopal palace 
 was in process of construction. Then came a revela- 
 tion which fell like a thunderbolt among the colonists. 
 One dark night the younger Walther arrived from St. 
 Louis. To a young theological candidate he confided 
 his secret. It was in one of the dormitories for the 
 colonists and, though all seemed fast asleep, the con- 
 versation was carried on in Latin, and a physician 
 lying on the straw not far away heard, what he and 
 others had suspected before, that Stephan had been 
 leading a life of shameful immorality and had now 
 been found out through the confessions of several of 
 his victims. Soon after, a number of the emigrants 
 who had remained at St. Louis arrived, a formal 
 council was held and Stephan was solemnly deposed 
 from his office. Provided with ample means, he was 
 taken across the Mississippi river in askiffand landed 
 near Devil's Bake-oven, a grotesque rock at the 
 water's edge. He died in 1846 in a log cabin a few 
 miles from Red Bud, Illinois. 
 
The Missourians. 411 
 
 The colonists were at first stunned and bewildered. 
 Such had been Stephan's extravagance and misman- 
 agement that the funds of the emigrants were far spent, 
 and abject poverty stared them in the face. The min- 
 isters and candidates were troubled by the question 
 whether the colonists constituted Christian congrega- 
 tions with authority to call ministers, and many of the 
 laymen also entertained doubts concerning the right 
 of the ministers to hold their office here after having 
 left their charges beyond the sea. Walther, too, was 
 for a time tossed about by doubts and fears. But 
 better counsels prevailed, and soon things gained a 
 more favorable aspect. In the midst of all their 
 hardships and poverty, the candidates Fuerbringer, 
 Brohm and Buenger, with the aid of the ministers, 
 Walther, Loeber and Keyl, had organized a school 
 of learning in which Religion, Latin, Greek, Hebrew, 
 German, French and English, History, Geography, 
 Mathematics, Natural Philosophy, Natural History, 
 Mental Philosophy and Music were to be taught. In 
 a log cabin the school was opened which has since de- 
 veloped into two distinct institutions, Concordia 
 Seminary in St. Louis, Mo., and Concordia College 
 at Fort Wayne, Ind., both of which are flourishing 
 to-day and have educated hundreds of young men 
 for the ministry in the Lutheran Church. The first 
 faculty consisted of Ottomar Fuerbringer, Th. Jul. 
 Brohm and Joh. Fr. Buenger, and the log cabin has 
 been preserved to this day. 
 
 The younger Walther was soon the acknowledged 
 leader. Stephan had never been quite at ease on 
 Walther's account, and had even stigmatized him as 
 
412 
 
 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 his Judas, and it was Walther who now fought down 
 the doctrinal errors which that hierarch had taught, 
 that the Lutheran Church was the Church, without 
 which there was no salvation, that the ministry was a 
 mediatorship between God and man, and entitled to 
 unconditional obedience in all things not in conflict 
 with the word of God, that questions of doctrine were 
 to be decided by the clergy alone, in whose hands also 
 
 OLD CONCORDIA SEMINARY, ALTENBURG, PERRY CO., MO. 
 
 rested the power of the Keys. W.ith convincing 
 clearness Walther set forth the truth until it held the 
 field victorious, and at a later day, the weapons tried 
 and found true against Stephanism were again drawn 
 and wielded with like success in other encounters. 
 
 In January, 1841, the elder Walther was called to 
 his rest, and his brother was chosen to succeed him as 
 pastor of the "Saxons" at St. Louis, who were then 
 
The Missourians. 413 
 
 still worshiping in the basement of an Episcopal church. 
 Both the congregation and the parochial school in- 
 creased rapidly, and in 1842 Trinity church was 
 erected, with a basement for school-rooms. In 1844 
 Cand. Buenger, who since 1841 had been in charge of 
 the school, became Walther's assistant. In the same 
 year a branch school was opened in another part of 
 the city, and this school was the germ of Immanuel's 
 church, which was organized in 1847 an d erected a 
 house of worship in 1848, where henceforth to the 
 end of his days Buenger officiated as pastor. While 
 the trowel had thus been busy, the sword had not 
 rusted in the scabbard. Separatistic elements had 
 caused much trouble in the congregation. 
 
 Another conflict of greater dimensions and of 
 longer duration had sprung up. In 1839 a band of 
 German Lutheran emigrants had come over under the 
 leadership of Pastor Grabau, who had suffered perse- 
 cution and imprisonment in Prussia for his refusal to 
 submit to the unionistic policy of the government. At 
 Buffalo, where he had settled with most of his follow- 
 ers, Grabau in 1840 issued a "Pastoral Letter," of 
 which he sent a copy to the Saxon ministers in Mis- 
 souri with a request for their opinion. The request 
 was granted, but the " opinion " was not satisfactory to 
 Grabau. In his " Pastoral Letter " and the correspond- 
 ence to which it gave rise, Grabau maintained that a 
 minister not called in accordance with the ancient 
 " Kirchenordnungen" was not properly called; that 
 ordination by other clergymen was by divine ordi- 
 nance essential to the validity of the ministerial office; 
 that God would deal with us only through the minis- 
 
414 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 terial office ; that a minister arbitrarily elevated by 
 the congregation was unable to pronounce absolution, 
 and what he distributed at the altar was not the body 
 and blood of Christ, but mere bread and wine ; that 
 through her Symbols and Constitutions and Synods 
 the Church at large must decide what is in accordance 
 or at variance with the word of God ; that the con- 
 gregation is not the supreme tribunal in the Church, 
 but the synod as representing the Church at large ; 
 that the congregation is not authorized to pronounce 
 excommunication ; that Christians are bound to obey 
 their minister in all things not contrary to the word 
 of God. In all of these points the Saxons differed 
 from Grabau, — denying what he affirmed, and affirm- 
 ing what he denied. He now drew up a list of seven- 
 teen charges of error against them and declared that 
 he could no longer consider them orthodox Lutheran 
 ministers. Thus the controversy carried on afterwards 
 between the Synods of Buffalo and Missouri had 
 sprung up years before either body had an existence. 
 
 The doctrines which the Saxons maintained against 
 Grabau and his followers were not only taught but 
 practiced in Perry county and St. Louis ; the congrega- 
 tions not only claimed but exercised what by divine 
 right a Christian congregation should claim and prac- 
 tice, instead of leaving it to the ministry. Church dis- 
 cipline was exercised in accordance with Matthew xviii ; 
 doctrinal matters were discussed ; the college at Al- 
 tenburg was formally adopted and considerately 
 treated as the foster-child of the congregations. 
 
 In 1844, the congregation at St. Louis resolved on 
 the publication of a religious periodical which had 
 
The > Misso u rians. 415: 
 
 been planned by Walther, and in September of that 
 year the "Lutheraner" made its first appearance. To 
 secure the publication of this and the following num- 
 bers, many members had subscribed for two copies,, 
 and the congregation had agreed that if the expenses 
 should exceed the receipts, the deficit should be cov- 
 ered from the common treasury or by free contribu- 
 tions. From its beginning the "Lutheraner" gave 
 forth a clear, decided, uncompromising ring, and the 
 type of Lutheranism which it advocated was to the 
 generation of those days a strange phenomenon, so 
 strange that by many it was not even recognized as 
 Lutheranism at all, and chiefly for this reason Wal- 
 ther made it his object to show from the writings of 
 the Fathers of the Lutheran Church, that he was not 
 promulgating new tenets, but the doctrines laid down 
 in the Confessions and in the writings of the best 
 teachers of the Lutheran Church. This, not an undue 
 reverence of the Fathers, prompted Walther to intro- 
 duce into his doctrinal expositions numerous extracts 
 from the works of those earlier theologians; not as 
 authorities but as witnesses he called them forth from 
 the dust of oblivion, and before many years Germany 
 was being ransacked for those old parchment-bound 
 volumes, and dealers wondered what people wanted 
 with those mummies in the American backwoods, 
 whence came the growing demand for what had long 
 lain unnoticed as unmarketable dross. 
 
 Among the few who hailed with joy the first num- 
 ber of the "Lutheraner" was another pioneer of 
 western Lutheranism, a man whose name will be pro- 
 nounced with reverence as long as a Lutheran Church 
 
41 6 The Lutherans ~ in* 1 -America. 
 
 remains in America. Friedrich Conrad Dietrich Wyn- 
 eken landed at Baltimore about half a year be- 
 fore the Saxons trod the banks of the Mississippi. 
 He was a man of powerful frame and a well educated 
 mind, fiery and energetic, filled with a burning zeal to 
 carry the Gospel of Christ to his countrymen in the 
 western solitudes, of whose wants he had learned 
 through missionary magazines in the old world. He 
 was recommended by Rev. Haesbaert to the mission- 
 ary committee of the Synod of Pennsylvania, and 
 soon the young missionary is laboring amid hardships 
 and privations in Indiana, Ohio, and Michigan, trav- 
 ersing the forests and prairies on foot and on horse- 
 back, in fair and foul weather, by day and by night, 
 and sowing the seeds of life in a spiritual wilderness. 
 Fort Wayne was then a small country town. The 
 first German and at the same time the first Lutheran 
 who had settled here was Henry Rudisill, who with 
 his wife, a daughter of the Henkel family, had arrived 
 in this community of Frenchmen and Indians in 1829. 
 A Lutheran he would remain, and by his endeavors a 
 current o f German immigration was led to Fort Wayne 
 and vicinity. In 1837 a congregation was organized 
 with Rev. Jesse Hoover, a member of the Pennsylva- 
 nia Synod, as its pastor. But when in the fall of 1838 
 Wyneken first set foot into the town, young pastor 
 Hoover had been laid to rest. At the urgent request 
 of the congregation Wyneken established his head- 
 quarters there. The Lutherans had neither church 
 nor parsonage; they worshiped in the court-house 
 until the building threatened to fall, then here and 
 there, until the little frame church erected in 1839 
 
The M issourians. 417 
 
 afforded them shelter. From Fort Wayne Wyneken 
 extended his missionary excursions, until a painful dis- 
 ease of the throat interrupted his labors. In 1841 he 
 went to Germany for treatment. As soon as his 
 health was sufficiently restored, he started out to agi- 
 tate the cause of the church in America ; by personal 
 solicitations he engaged the sympathies of a number 
 of prominent men, and by public addresses as well as 
 through a brilliant pamphlet he inspired into thou- 
 sands of hearts a feeling of responsibility for the 
 brethren in the New World. 
 
 When Wyneken returned in 1843, he had ripened 
 into a man of mature powers and of confirmed Lu- 
 theran convictions. It was in those days that the 
 first number of the "Lutheraner" appeared, and when 
 Wyneken had perused it, he joyfully exclaimed : 
 "Thank God! There are more Lutherans in Amer- 
 ica!" Soon Wyneken and the "Lutheraner" were 
 companions in arms, both being violently assailed 
 by the Methodists, the "Lutheraner" for its articles, 
 Wyneken for his portraiture of Methodism which had 
 been reprinted in America. 
 
 Great joy was also awakened by the first number 
 of the " Lutheraner," at Pomeroy, Ohio, where Dr. 
 Sihler was then stationed, one of the men whom 
 Wyneken had drawn westward. He was a member of 
 the Synod of Ohio, and was endeavoring in various 
 ways to exert his influence against certain features of 
 doctrine and practice which claimed his attention. 
 One day, early in 1845, while Sihler was instructing 
 catechumens, a horseman alighted at his door, and a 
 moment later Wyneken introduced himself. He was. 
 
D 
 
 o 
 
 a 
 
 o 
 
 I 
 
The Missourians. 419 
 
 on his way to Baltimore, to succeed his friend Haes- 
 baert, and he stopped to behold the face of the man 
 who was to be his successor at Fort Wayne. 
 
 Soon after the Doctor's arrival at this place, where 
 he was to serve the Master for forty years, another 
 fruit of Wyneken's sojourn in Germany was planted 
 in American soil and entrusted to the care of Wyne- 
 ken's successor in the pastorate of St. Paul's. 
 
 Among the men whom Wyneken had won to the 
 American cause was Wilhelm Loehe of Neuendet- 
 telsau. Loehe had not only gathered about him a 
 number of young men whom he gave a practical prep- 
 aration for the ministry in America, but he also con- 
 ceived and executed the plan of opening a seminary for 
 the same purpose in the New World. For its site he 
 selected Fort Wayne, and in 1846 he sent over eleven 
 young men together with a talented candidate of 
 theology by the name of Roebbelen, who with Dr. 
 Sihler was to give these young men and others who 
 might be recruited in America, a training which would 
 in a few years fit them for missionary and pastoral 
 work among the Germans in this country. This was 
 the beginning of the "Practical Seminary" which was 
 at a latter date combined with the " Theoretical 
 Seminary" at St. Louis and, still later, transplanted to 
 Springfield, 111., where it is flourishing to-day. 
 
 The work of those early days with the ways and 
 means employed by the pioneers, is on a more ex- 
 tended scale and in a wider field going on to-day in 
 the Synod of Missouri. Still the voices of preachers 
 are heard in the wilderness ; traveling missionaries 
 are traversing the forests and prairies and towns of 
 
420 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 the North, South, East, and West; congregations are 
 gathered, and where the Word is being preached to 
 the old, schools are opened for the young; small 
 churches are built at first, which, in time, give place to 
 larger ones, and, when the means of the congregation 
 permit, a school-master is called to the minister's side, 
 both ministers and teachers coming from the colleges 
 and seminaries, (a teachers' seminary is sustained by 
 the Synod at Addison, 111.,) the humble beginnings of 
 which we have witnessed. Purity and unity of doc- 
 trine are still being guarded and propagated and de- 
 fended, while brotherly fellowship with others who 
 hold the same ground in doctrine and practice is still 
 sought and cherished, as it was sought and cherished 
 by Walther and Wyneken and their brethren in the 
 "colonial " period. 
 
 In the spring of 1846, Dr. Sihler and two other 
 ministers had a conference with Walther and other 
 Saxon ministers at St. Louis. Sihler had severed his 
 connection with the Synod of Ohio. Wyneken had 
 given strength to the movement at a conference held 
 at Cleveland in 1845. The formation of a synod was 
 now taken into consideration by the congregation at 
 St. Louis and the clergymen there assembled. In 
 nine meetings the draft of a constitution, in which 
 every vestige of hierarchical leaven had been most 
 carefully avoided, was discussed. A similar confer- 
 ence was held in July of the same year at Fort Wayne. 
 Sixteen ministers were present. Six others had signi- 
 fied their full sympathy. The constitution with a few 
 modifications being approved, it was resolved to com- 
 plete the formal organization at Chicago in April 
 
The Missourians. 421 
 
 1847. There the "German Evangelical Lutheran 
 Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and other States " was 
 formed by twelve congregations, twenty-two ministers 
 and two candidates. Under the constitution which 
 was adopted and signed at this meeting and, with a 
 few alterations, is in force to-day, only those ministers 
 whose congregations had entered into membership 
 with the Synod, and the lay delegates by whom con- 
 gregations were represented, were entitled to suffrage, 
 other ministers being only advisory members. The 
 " Lutheraner " was made the official organ of the 
 Synod with Walther as editor. A missionary com- 
 mittee was chosen, and various other measures gave 
 evidence of the earnestness with which the assembly 
 entered upon the task of building up Zion in the land 
 of their pilgrimage. 
 
 Here, then, was a Lutheran synod which declared in 
 its constitution that the acceptance of all the Symbols 
 of the Lutheran Church without exception or reserve, 
 abstinence from every kind of syncretism, from mixed 
 congregations and mixed services and communions, 
 a permanent, not temporary or licensed, ministry, the 
 use of purely Lutheran books in churches and schools, 
 should be and remain conditions of membership with 
 this body, but which, on the other hand, claimed no 
 authority over the congregations connected with it, 
 thus leaving intact the freedom of the churches. 
 
 At Chicago a resolution was passed to invite pastor 
 Loehe to attend the meeting of the coming year, 
 which was to be held at St. Louis. Loehe did not 
 come, but letters arrived which announced that 
 another wish had been fulfilled ; Loehe had made 
 
422 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 over to the Synod the Seminary at Fort Wayne. 
 The cordial friendship between him and Missouri con- 
 tinued for several years. But doctrinal difficulties 
 arose. In a pamphlet which Loehe published in 1849 
 he spoke of the ministerial office in terms very much 
 like those of Grabau. About the same time letters 
 to Loehe from America presented the Missourians 
 in an unfavorable light, and he soon entertained 
 thoughts of gaining a new basis for his operations in 
 America. Several Franconian colonies had been 
 
 planted in the Sagi- .__-.,„ . " --Zi-3 ?!3 
 
 naw valley under his t :: . __L - - "---" : " : j 
 
 guidance, and in 1850 ig- - : ; ;; %-w£^^^^^^^^:M;^- ^^11 
 he matured a plan for b . "g^llpPllp^l «%» 
 
 erecting a "Pilger- | THjJI M V I Hfe* 
 
 haus" at Saginaw, a ; ^S; ■ \ " " ^ffljl 
 1 • 1 • 1 m> til 1 91 fr "' i 
 
 peculiar combination |*L|fflf jMyfJI «' liffift 
 
 of a temporary home Kfl j^^ fe".-^^^.!! 1 J Ja g 
 
 ior colonists, a nos- lli^^^^^ijii;!, '''iihii'^niii'iiiiii'; "Wija^^^J&iiiiS^ 
 
 pital, a theological &flHHES|£9@PK:.o 
 
 seminary, all united £UHPt ...-•--> 
 
 . . , EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN HOSPITAL, ST. LOUIS, MO. 
 
 in a little common- 
 wealth which was to be regulated by a liturgical rule 
 that would give it the character of "a kind of protest- 
 ant cloister." For its management and the leader- 
 ship of the work to be centered there, Loehe had 
 singled out a talented young theologian, Gottlieb 
 Schaller, who after completing his theological studies 
 at the University of Erlangen had gained renown as 
 a teacher and preacher. Loehe had in 1848 directed 
 him to America, and although he had in 1849 joined 
 the Missouri Synod, Loehe still hoped to see his 
 
The Missourians. 423 
 
 Timothy in the position which he now held out to 
 him. But at the Synod in 1850, Schaller was, after a 
 warm and protracted discussion, fully convinced of 
 Loehe's errors, and afterwards he labored for many 
 years by Walther's side as minister of Trinity church 
 and Professor of Theology in the Seminary at St. 
 Louis, where they were both laid to rest in 1887. 
 
 The "Pilgerhaus," was opened in 1852. It was 
 afterwards removed to Iowa, and with it went Loehe's 
 heart, who thus virtually became the founder of the 
 Iowa Synod. 
 
 The Synod had spared no endeavors to prevent the 
 impending rupture between Missouri and the man 
 who had done so much for the Lutheran Church in 
 the West. In 1851 the matter was laid before the 
 Synod convened at Milwaukee, and so important did 
 the continuation of friendship and fraternal co-opera- 
 tion with Loehe appear to the Missourians, that a 
 delegation was sent to Germany on a mission of 
 peace. One of the delegates was Walther, then Pro- 
 fessor of Theology and President of Concordia Col- 
 lege. The other delegate was Wyneken, one of 
 Loehe's dearest friends and a man eminently fitted 
 for this task. But though many difficulties were over- 
 come, a complete understanding was not reached by 
 the interviews between Loehe and the American dele- 
 gates ; the kind feelings which were renewed were 
 but of brief duration ; and the new synod which grew 
 up under the influence of Neuendettelsau shared 
 Loehe's doctrinal positions and his antagonism to 
 Missouri. 
 
 Among the points at issue between the Synods of 
 
424 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 Iowa and Missouri, were the doctrines of the Church, 
 Missouri holding that the Church of Christ is invisi- 
 ble, while Iowa recognized a visible and an invisible 
 side; "open questions," with which Iowa classed the 
 doctrines of the Church, the Ministry, Chiliasm, Anti- 
 christ, while Missouri maintained that these doctrines 
 are clearly set forth in Scriptures and therefore are 
 in no sense open questions; Antichrist, of whom Mis- 
 souri affirmed that he is the Roman pontiff while Iowa 
 held that the Antichrist in the strictest sense of the word 
 is an individual person yet to be expected ; Chiliasm, 
 which Missouri rejected in its subtle as well as in its 
 crass forms, while Iowa held that not every form of 
 Chiliasm must be rejected ; the question to what ex- 
 tent subscription to the symbols of the Church enjoins 
 the acceptance of the doctrines laid down in such sym- 
 bols, Missouri holding that one who subscribes the 
 symbols unconditionally thereby declares acceptance 
 of all the doctrines laid down in them, while Iowa 
 , claimed that to be of binding force a doctrine must be 
 stated in the symbols ex professo, hot only occasion- 
 ally, and that, therefore, a distinction must be made 
 between the doctrines contained in the Symbolical 
 Books. These points were discussed in a colloquy by 
 representatives of both synods who met at Milwaukee 
 in 1867, but no satisfactory result was reached. 
 
 A similar "colloquium " had, in 1866, been brought 
 about between representatives of the Buffalo Synod 
 and that of Missouri. Grabau had branded Walther 
 and his followers as heretics. Walther had, in 1852, 
 published his book on "the Church and the Minis- 
 terial Office," which had previously been approved by 
 
The Missourians. 425 
 
 the Synod. In this book Walther showed by numer- 
 ous extracts from the Symbols of the Lutheran Church 
 and from the writings of her orthodox teachers, what 
 former centuries had voiced forth as the Lutheran 
 doctrine on these subjects. Now, shortly after Gra- 
 bau had left his own synod, three ministers and as 
 many laymen of each synod met at Buffalo, and when 
 in February, 1867, twelve ministers of the Buffalo 
 Synod were assembled at Buffalo with five Missouri- 
 ans, a formal recognition of fraternal unity was sealed 
 and the near future saw eleven of them members of 
 the Synod of Missouri. 
 
 In 1872 the Synod celebrated its twenty-fifth anni- 
 versary. The meetings were held in Mercantile Li- 
 brary Hall at St. Louis, and here it appeared to all 
 eyes that conventions of all the ministers and school 
 teachers and of lay delegates from all the congrega- 
 tions were no longer practicable. The Synod then 
 numbered four hundred and twenty-eight ministers and 
 two hundred and fifty-one school teachers, and the 
 numbers were fast increasing. It was therefore de- 
 cided that thenceforth from two to seven congrega- 
 tions should delegate one minister and one- layman to 
 the triennial meetings of the general body, which had 
 years ago been divided into four district synods. 
 
 At this jubilee meeting there was also discussed the 
 draft of the constitution of the Synodical Conference, 
 a union of Lutheran Synods which was soon after, in 
 July, 1872, completed at Milwaukee. The synods 
 which were represented at the first meeting were those 
 of Ohio, Missouri, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, and 
 the Norwegian Synod, which had previously by collo- 
 
426 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 quiums between representatives convinced themselves 
 of each other's orthodoxy. The Synod of Illinois was 
 afterwards merged into that of Missouri. For a num- 
 ber of years, the synods worked together in harmony 
 of faith, until the great " predestinarian controversy" 
 led to a rupture which has not yet been healed. 
 
 This controversy did not come unforeseen. On 
 the floor of the Synod in 1872 a hard struggle had 
 been predicted, and when the new decade was ushered 
 in the struggle had begun. It was Prof. Schmidt who 
 first within the Synodical Conference raised his voice in 
 public against the doctrine of predestination as set 
 forth in the reports of 1877 and 1879 of the Western 
 District of the Missouri' Synod. He directed his 
 attack especially against the position held by Wal- 
 ther and the Synod, that God's predestination is a 
 cause of our salvation and of everything thereto per- 
 taining, faith and perseverance in faith not excepted, 
 that in the decree of predestination the faith of the 
 elect was not presupposed, but included. The contest 
 soon waxed very hot. Walther and the Missourians 
 were desirous of bringing about an understanding, 
 and in January 1881, the theological Faculties and 
 the Presidents of synods and district synods in the 
 Synodical Conference responded to a call for a col- 
 loquium at Milwaukee. When five days of earnest 
 debate had brought the dissenting parties no nearer 
 to each other, and the representatives of Ohio could 
 remain no longer, the colloquy was closed. As the 
 controversy proceeded, the doctrine of conversion 
 came to the foreground. Missouri maintained that 
 conversion is the work of divine grace alone, wrought 
 
IfcKiltlM 1 .'.,'... :,[- - - - - ^ki itlifiS^P 
 
.428 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 through the means of grace, which, though they come 
 with equal power and earnestness to all, do not attain 
 the same results in all ; but that this mystery must 
 not be explained away by denying with Calvin the 
 earnest will of God to convert all, nor by denying the 
 utter depravity which incapacitates all alike to concur 
 in their own conversion ; that the conversion of sin- 
 ners rests in God's grace alone, and they can in no 
 way or measure be credited with their own conversion; 
 that the non-conversion of sinners rests in their own 
 hardness of heart alone, and God is in no wise the 
 cause of their non-conversion. The other side held 
 that the effect wrought by the grace of God in the 
 "work of conversion depended in a measure on man's 
 conduct toward the means of grace, which Missouri re- 
 jects as synergistic, while Ohio denounces Missouri's 
 position as Calvinistic. 
 
 The controversy led to the separation of Ohio and 
 the Norwegians from the Confrence the latter servering 
 their connection in the hope of meeting with less diffi- 
 culty in overcoming the commotion which this contro- 
 versy had created within their own Synod. 
 
 Great inward profit accrued to the Synod of Mis- 
 souri and the synods still connected with it in the 
 Synodical Conference from this controversy. Hun- 
 dreds and thousands of its members were lad to a 
 deeper and clearer understanding of the truths at 
 issue, and a habit of careful and extended research 
 in the Scriptures and the Symbols was deepened and 
 strengthened in many, both ministers and laymen. 
 
 Nor was the outward progress of the Synod stayed 
 by the great controversy. From 1878 to 1888 the 
 
The Missourians. 429 
 
 Synod well nigh doubled the number of its minis- 
 ters. The Joint Synod at present consists of thirteen 
 District Synods, which embrace the entire Union. 
 The number of ministers, according to the statistics 
 of 1888, is 1030, the number of school teachers 617, 
 that of congregations, not including unorganized mis- 
 sions, 1,480, that of communicant members, at a low 
 estimate, 279,150. The missions of the Synod are the 
 Home Missions carried on among the Germans in 
 this country by the District Synods, Emigrant Mis- 
 sions in New York and Baltimore, Missions among 
 the Jews, English Missions, and conjointly with other 
 synods of the Synodical Conference, a Negro Mission. 
 The higher institutions of learning for the education 
 of ministers and school teachers are, besides those 
 mentioned in the narrative and still in operation, a 
 college at Milwaukee, Wis., a preparatory collegiate 
 institute at Concordia, Mo., and another in New 
 York. In these schools upward of 900 students were 
 in 1888 instructed by 40 professors. Of benevolent 
 institutions, there are within the Synod an institute for 
 the deaf and dumb at Norris, Mich., eleven asylums 
 for orphans and invalids, and several hospitals. The 
 periodicals of the Synod are "Der Lutheraner," " Lehre 
 und Wehre," "Homiletical Magazine," and "Schul- 
 blatt"; of the Synodical Conference, the " Missions- 
 taube " and the " Lutheran Pioneer ; " besides, eight 
 religious periodicals published by conferences, socie- 
 ties, or individuals. The Synod publishes its own 
 hymn-books, school-books, Bibles, prayer-books, etc., 
 all of which with the periodicals and a voluminous 
 theological literature contained in the synodical reports 
 
430 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 and other publications in the form of books and pam- 
 phlets, issue from the Synod's Concordia Publishing 
 House, the total receipts of which in 1888 were over 
 
 $i52,357- 
 
 Of the patriarchs of the Missouri Synod but few 
 remain. Wyneken was President of the Joint Synod 
 from 1850 to 1864, when Walther was again elected 
 to this office. In 1876 Wyneken, after a protracted 
 illness, fell peacefully asleep in Jesus at San Francisco, 
 Cal. Walther was considerately relieved of the presi- 
 
 fJPJ 
 
 flHHJUULM 
 
 '.■pMannnHk 
 
 ^• r v,Vi r ' Pwii'isiilf S'f! if! II w III Jai£kui 
 
 Sp®* . mm 11111 tMJx\-& tIk 
 
 CONCORDIA PUBLISHING HOUSE, ST. LOUIS, MO. 
 
 dency in 1878 ; yet the eve of his life was a time of 
 vigorous activity in the service of the Master. He 
 wrote copiously for the press ; he presented theses at 
 synodical meetings, at which he was eminently the 
 theological teacher ; he was regular in his lectures to 
 the students of the seminary. When at the meeting 
 of the Western District in 1886 he had completed a 
 series of eloquent theological discussions, each of 
 which had lasted several hours, he closed with tears 
 and in faltering accents ; he felt that his work was 
 
The Missourians. 431 
 
 done. His physical energies were fast failing, and the 
 Synod unanimously resolved that he should rest. 
 
 Time passed on, and the venerable Doctor was 
 slowly but steadily sinking, and while the Joint Synod 
 was in session at Fort Wayne, on the 7th of May, 
 1887, the Lord called His weary servant to his eternal 
 rest. Thousands from the Missouri and sister synods, 
 who had come from all parts of the country, formed 
 the greatest funeral procession St. Louis has wit- 
 nessed, as they followed the precious dust of this great 
 man in Israel to its last repose. 
 
 Of the other members of the Synodical Conference 
 the Synod of Wisconsin numbers 140 ministers, and 
 50 teachers of parish schools. It has a prosperous 
 college at Watertown, Wis., and a Theological Semi- 
 nary at Milwaukee, and embraces about 70.000 com- 
 municants. Its official publications are the " Gemeinde 
 Blatt," and " Schulzeitung." The Synod of Minnesota 
 comprises 51 ministers, 18 teachers and 12,000 com- 
 municants, has a college and theological seminary 
 combined at New Ulm, Minn., and publishes the "Sy- 
 nodal -Bote." 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE GENERAL COUNCIL. 
 
 IT would be an error to suppose that the spirit of dis- 
 integration was back of the internal differences and 
 external circumstances which led to the disruption 
 of the General Synod in 1866. On the contrary the 
 spirit of unification, "a hearty desire for the unity of 
 Zion," exerted undoubtedly a powerful influence in de- 
 termining this result. 
 
 The time seemed ripe for a general organization of 
 the Lutheran Church, national in its scope and com- 
 prehending all the numerous Lutheran bodies, Ameri- 
 can and foreign, that receive unequivocally the Augs- 
 burg Confession. Several of the largest synods had 
 just separated from the General Synod. The South- 
 ern Synods, after the dissolution of the Confederacy,, 
 were ready, it was hoped, to enter again into organic 
 fellowship with the Northern churches, and they might 
 for various reasons prefer to ally themselves to a new 
 body rather than rejoin the old one. The recognized 
 leaders of the Pennsylvania, New York and Pittsburg 
 Synods had, by the course which they pursued, reached 
 a good understanding with the representatives of the 
 Joint-Ohio, Iowa and Tennessee Synods. Even Dr. 
 Walther of the Missouri Synod expressed his great joy 
 over the action of the Pennsylvania Synod in with- 
 drawing from the General Synod — a step which he 
 held "will undoubtedly be connected with consequen- 
 
 432 
 
KiEV. C. I*. ERAIITH, D. »., I«I«. D. 
 
The General Council. 433 
 
 ces not only of the utmost importance, but also of the 
 most salutary character." The administration of the 
 Lord's Supper to a number of the Pennsylvania 
 Synod's delegates by the pastor of a Missouri Church 
 at Fort Wayne, during the memorable convention of 
 1866, was regarded as significant. The co-operation 
 of the large Scandinavian element might also be con- 
 fidently anticipated. It was an inspiring prospect, a 
 consummation devoutly to be wished, the union of the 
 various powerful bodies which vied with each other in 
 emphasizing the historic faith of the Lutheran Church. 
 Then, too, synods still incorporated with the General 
 Synod gave a clear recognition to the Augustana, and 
 embraced men who were profoundly convinced that 
 the duty, the wisdom and the glory of the Lutheran 
 Church in this country, require the retention of those 
 distinctive features in doctrine and cultus which have 
 ever been her life's blood and breath. 
 
 Accordingly at the one hundred and nineteenth con- 
 vention of the Pennsylvania Ministerium, 1866, a fra- 
 ternal address was issued ' to Evangelical Lutheran 
 Synods, ministers and congregations in the United 
 States and Canadas, which confess the , Unaltered 
 Augsburg Confession, inviting them to unite in a con- 
 vention for the purpose of forming a union of Luther- 
 an Synods." 
 
 This call urged "the needs of a general organiza- 
 tion, first and supremely for the maintenance of unity 
 in the true faith of the Gospel, and in the uncorrupted 
 Sacraments, as the Word of God teaches and our 
 Church confesses them ; and furthermore for the pres- 
 ervation of her genuine spirit and worship, and for 
 
434 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 the development of her practical life in all its forms." 
 "A great necessity is therefore laid upon us, in the 
 Providence of God, at once to take steps to meet a 
 want, which has been so urgent, and the painful con- 
 sciousness of which continually grows." "The condi- 
 tion and wants of our Church in this land, make it 
 clear that we are not moving in this matter on insuf- 
 ficient or doubtful grounds. With our communion of 
 millions scattered over a vast and ever-widening ter- 
 ritory, with the ceaseless tide of immigration to our 
 shores, with the diversity of surrounding usages and 
 of religious life, with our various nationalities and 
 tongues, our crying need of faithful ministers, our im- 
 perfect provision for any and all of the urgent wants 
 of the Church, there is danger that the genuinely 
 Lutheran elements may become gradually alienated, 
 * * * that the unity of the spirit in the bond of 
 peace, may be lost, and that our church, which alone in 
 the history of Protestantism has maintained a genuine 
 catholicity and unity, should drift into the sectarian- 
 ism and separatism which characterize and curse our 
 land." 
 
 " Apart from these extraordinary reasons, our gen- 
 eral vocation as a Church, the interest of foreign and 
 home missions, of theological, collegiate and congre- 
 gational education, of institutions of beneficence, of a 
 sound religious literature, all demand such an organ- 
 ization as shall enable our whole Church in this land 
 in its varied tongues, to work together in the unity of 
 a pure faith." 
 
 No favorable response to this Fraternal Address 
 came from any synod still identified with the General 
 
The General Council. 435 
 
 Synod, but representatives from the Synod of Penn- 
 sylvania, the English, English District, and Joint 
 Synods of Ohio, from the Wisconsin, Michigan, Pitts- 
 burg, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Canada, New York, 
 and the Norwegian Synods, assembled at Reading, 
 December 11, 1866. The Augustana Synod was rep- 
 resented by letter. The president of the temporary 
 organization was Rev. Professor W. F. Lehman of the 
 Joint Synod of Ohio, of the permanent convention, 
 Rev. G. Bassler of the Pittsburg Synod, two names 
 that will long be endeared to the Lutheran Church 
 for their living exemplification of its faith and spirit. 
 
 The preliminary step toward effecting an organiza- 
 tion was the unanimous adoption of the " Funda- 
 mental principles of Faith and Church Polity." A 
 committee was appointed to outline a constitution to 
 be submitted to the respective District Synods. 
 Whenever ten of them should have accepted this, it 
 was provided that it shall at once go into effect and a 
 convention be called under it, whose title shall be 
 "The General Council of the Evangelical Lutheran 
 Church in America." 
 
 The requisite number of synods adopted the consti- 
 tution and the first convention met accordingly, No- 
 vember 20, 1867, at Fort Wayne, Ind., where the divis- 
 ion of the General Synod had occurred the previous 
 year. Twelve were represented. The several districts 
 of the Missouri Synod sent a communication proposing 
 a series of free conferences before consummating an 
 organic union. The Joint Synod of Ohio also de- 
 clined to adopt the constitution but "sent delegates 
 to sit in conference on such subjects of difference as 
 
The General Council. 437 
 
 may exist." While heartily desiring a union of Lu- 
 theran Synods, this body saw practical difficulties in 
 the way, on account of which it could not yet form a 
 connection with the General Council. Relative to 
 such difficulties it asked for an answer on the follow- 
 ing points : 
 
 First. — What relation will this venerable body in 
 future sustain to Chiliasm ? 
 
 Second. — Mixed Communion? 
 
 Third. — The exchanging of pulpits with sectarians? 
 
 Fourth. — Secret or unchurchly Societies? 
 
 The delegates of the Synod of Iowa offered a com- 
 munication of similar import with the exception of 
 question first, proposing that the Council officially re- 
 nounce church fellowship with such as are not Luther- 
 an, that it exclude from synodical connection, from the 
 communion and from the pulpit, all who are " not 
 purely Lutheran," and asking for the enforcement of 
 this principle against the practice implied in the three 
 last questions given above. 
 
 The answer given to this paper was to the effect 
 that the Council was not prepared to endorse the po- 
 sition of the Iowa Synod, but would "refer the matter 
 to the District Synods until such time as by the 
 blessing of God's Holy Spirit, and the leadings of 
 his Providence, we shall be enabled, throughout the 
 whole General Council and all its churches, to see eye 
 to eye in all the details of practice and usage." 
 
 The Iowa Synod holding that there must be com- 
 plete and hearty agreement not only in the principles 
 of faith, "but also in an ecclesiastical practice accord- 
 ant with such faith," refused to complete its connec- 
 
43& The Lutherans in America. 
 
 tion with the Council, its representatives contenting 
 themselves with the privilege of debate at its conven- 
 tions, which they continue to enjoy. For similar 
 reasons the Synods of Ohio and Missouri decided not 
 to enter into the union, and a few years later the 
 Synods of Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota con- 
 cluded to withdraw from it. 
 
 Such was the origin of the famous "Four Points" 
 which have gained a historic interest in the Lutheran 
 Church. They became a most important factor in 
 the development of the General Council, arresting 
 in its very first convention the realization of the 
 original plan of its founders, and in no small degree 
 "damping the bright and perhaps somewhat sanguine 
 expectations of its warmest friends," while they kept 
 the body for years in constant agitation. 
 
 On the doctrinal basis, which " accepts and acknowl- 
 edges the doctrines of the Unaltered Augsburg Con- 
 fession in its original sense as throughout in conform- 
 ity with the pure truth of which God's Word is the 
 only rule," and holds that "the other Confessions of 
 the Evangelical Lutheran Church, inasmuch as they 
 set forth none other than its system of doctrine, and 
 articles of faith, are of necessity pure and scriptural," 
 there was entire and spontaneous unanimity among all 
 those Synods now for the first time brought into 
 official and fraternal contact. The same is true of 
 their reception of the Fundamental Principles of Faith 
 and Church Polity, but when it came to the applica- 
 tion and enforcement of these principles, the disagree- 
 ment was so decided that the Council was after all 
 able to rally less than half of the great Lutheran 
 
The General Council. 439 
 
 community which had heretofore maintained independ- 
 ent and isolated organizations. 
 
 The wide chasm which now appeared between these 
 bodies and the General Council, was in the first place, 
 as stated by Prof. Spaeth, "the natural result of the 
 historical development, through which those various 
 sections of the Church had passed, which now en- 
 deavored to form an organic union. The Lutheran 
 Church in the Eastern part of our country, having 
 been founded about 150 years ago, had passed through 
 all the different stages of church life, suffering and 
 death, by which the history of the Church and Theol- 
 ogy of the German Fatherland was characterized in 
 that period. We need not be surprised to find that 
 during this time many things had crept in, which were 
 in conflict with the spirit and Confession of our 
 Church. Over against those things the renewed 
 appreciation of the Lutheran Confession and the 
 honest return to the same was of comparatively recent 
 date. It was therefore not to be expected that there 
 should have been on all sides at the very outset a 
 thorough insight into all the consequences and obli- 
 gations of a decided and consistent adoption of the 
 Lutheran Confession. On the other hand most of 
 the Lutheran Synods of the West had been founded 
 at a much more favorable season. Out of the very 
 fullness and freshness of the revived Confession, 
 partly even in the martyr spirit of a persecuted 
 church, have their foundations been laid and their 
 structures raised. Accordingly their whole congrega- 
 tional life could much more easily and more consist- 
 ently be organized on the principles established in 
 
44° The Lutherans in America. 
 
 the Confession, and many evils could be excluded 
 which in other places had taken root and had been 
 growing for nearly a century." 
 
 The first and supreme interest kept in view in the 
 formation of the General Council being that of purity 
 of doctrine and the development of a sound cultusand 
 practice from this source, that subject has in the main 
 absorbed the discussions of its annual conventions 
 and the literary activity of its teachers. In this 
 sphere it has rendered invaluable services, the whole 
 Church appreciating its contribution to the knowledge 
 of Lutheran teaching and Lutheran history. 
 
 From the beginning the Council has considered it 
 one of the great tasks to be accomplished by it that 
 the different languages and nationalities "should be 
 firmly knit together in this New World in the unity of 
 one and the same pure faith." Recognizing the language 
 of the country, and holding that Lutheranism is bound 
 and is able to preserve its faith and its spirit in an 
 English garb, its pastors and churches were from the 
 first entreated "to suffer no distinction of language to 
 interfere with the great work which God has assigned 
 to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in this country." 
 And its success in the practical co-ordination of lan- 
 guages and nationalities is not only without a parallel, 
 but commends itself as a marvellous and glorious 
 achievement. Diversities of language, diversities of 
 gifts, but the same Spirit, was the watchword of the 
 Apostolic Church, and the spectacle of the German, 
 the Scandinavian and the American elements so 
 widely separated by language, nationality and training, 
 standing together and working harmoniously in one 
 
The General Council. 44 l 
 
 ecclesiastical body "without giving and taking offence, 
 provoking and encouraging one another to appropri- 
 ate the good features found in each," recalls the day 
 of Pentecost, rebukes the sects which make the Ameri- 
 canization of the Lutheran immigrants the pretext for 
 their proselyting devices, and offers to Lutherans, in 
 particular, one of the most cheering pledges of the 
 rapid and wide enlargement of their Church. Al- 
 though the German and Scandinavian languages are 
 used in perhaps a majority of the congregations, and 
 these languages have full rights in the conventions 
 of the Council, most of its proceedings are, by com- 
 mon consent, conducted in English as the tongue most 
 familiar to the vast majority. The English has, in 
 fact, been adopted as the official language. There is 
 no danger of it ever becoming a foreign body, a new 
 Scandinavia or a new Germany on American soil. 
 
 A notable element of the Councifs strength and 
 success is the Theological Seminary at Philadelphia. 
 Its establishment antedates the disruption of the Gen- 
 eral Synod, and was itself a recognition of the diverse 
 tendencies that prevailed between those who sought 
 primarily to uphold the standards of the Church and 
 those who represented the " American " type of Luther- 
 anism. Warm controversies were raging in periodicals 
 and other publications, and an irreconcilable antag- 
 onism showed itself especially at Gettysburg, where 
 in the same building, one professor in almost every 
 lecture disparaged and discredited the Confessions, 
 while another one constantly inspired his students 
 with the highest veneration for them. 
 
 The Pennsylvania Synod believed that its views 
 
442 
 
 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 and wants could not be satisfied in that institution and 
 was agitating for some years the founding of another 
 under its immediate control, which should conform to 
 its doctrinal position and give proper attention to the 
 education of German pastors. 
 
 The gift of $30,000 for the endowment of a profes- 
 sorship by Mr. Charles F. Norton, a like sum from 
 
 wt. 
 
 III 
 
 mil 
 
 mmSm 
 
 mm 
 
 .ORPHAN HOME AND ASYLUM FOR AGED, GERMANTOWN, PA. 
 
 the Synod, along with other generous donations, en- 
 abled it in the fall of 1864 to open a seminary with 
 five eminent professors, and with provision for a full 
 course of theology in both German and English. 
 
 The establishment of the seminary at that juncture 
 became naturally an occasion for aggravating the 
 controversies that were already agitating the church, 
 
The General Council. 443 
 
 and it contributed no little in determining the result 
 at Fort Wayne in 1866. Coming so soon after the 
 withdrawal of the delegation at York in 1864, the im- 
 pression spread that the Synod had already severed 
 its connection with the General Synod, and strength- 
 ened the purpose to contest its re-admission. 
 
 The policy of the Council in concentrating its Eng- 
 lish and German interests in one theological school, 
 while the General Synod with a much smaller constit- 
 uency is endeavoring to keep up five, has given to 
 the Philadelphia Seminary an exceptional prosperity. 
 
 The missionary activity of the General Council can- 
 not be properly estimated without considering its 
 polyglot composition and the relation which the con- 
 stituent synods sustain in this respect to the general 
 body. The General Synod being much more homo- 
 geneous is able to commit the entire administration 
 of its Home Mission work to the two boards of Home 
 Missions and Church Extension. While likewise pur- 
 suing this method with its prosperous foreign mission 
 the Council is constrained not only to have three 
 Home Mission Boards, an English, a German, and a 
 Scandinavian, but also to leave the greater part of 
 this interest to the respective synods. 
 
 The General Council has been distinguished by the 
 number of able, learned and eminent divines upon its 
 roll. Several have already passed to their eternal 
 reward, although the body on which they have left 
 their indelible impress is yet in comparative infancy. 
 The prominence and influence of two of these in 
 founding and shaping the Council call for a pause at 
 this point. With a surprising coincidence they bear 
 
444 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 the names of Krauth and Schmucker, names that will 
 never fade from the memory of the Lutheran Church. 
 They were sons respectively of the two venerable 
 Gettysburg professors, sons that surpassed "the praise 
 of their great sires," especially in the incalculable and 
 ineffaceable results of their activity. 
 
 Charles Porterfield Krauth, D. D., LL. D., was be- 
 yond question the most gifted, the most learned and 
 the most renowned theologian of the English Lu- 
 theran Church, commanding even in Germany recog- 
 nition " as one of the chief scholars in the great 
 Church of theologians." His brilliancy and versa- 
 tility, his vast erudition, his combination of breadth 
 and depth of culture, and his voluminous writings 
 gave him an exalted station among his contempo- 
 raries. Dr. Schaff, his colleague on the American 
 Committee of Old Testament Revisers, speaks of his 
 death, which occurred before he had attained three- 
 score years, as a great loss "to the whole Church of 
 Christ in this land, and to the republic of letters. 
 Our country has produced few men who united in 
 their own persons so many of the excellences, which 
 distinguish the scholar, the theologian, the exegete, 
 the debater and the leader of his brethren. His learn- 
 ing did not smother his genius, nor did his philosoph- 
 ical attainments impair the simplicity of his faith." 
 
 His crowning glory, his imperishable monument, is 
 found in his incomparable service in behalf of the 
 faith, history and cultus of the Lutheran Church. 
 Having by years of close study come to the convic- 
 tion that the full truth of God's Word was nowhere 
 set forth with such clearness, purity and fullness as in 
 
The General Council. 445 
 
 her collective Confessions, and that in all their doc- 
 trinal teachings these were in conformity with that 
 Word, he expended his talents and energies in their 
 interpretation into the thought and idiom of this na- 
 tion, in their exposition, elucidation and defense. His 
 own heart held captive by the discovery of the rich 
 treasures of the Church, he earnestly called her chil- 
 dren to the consciousness of their inheritance. 
 
 As Editor of the Lutheran and Missionary, as Pro- 
 fessor in the Philadelphia Seminary, as author of the 
 Fundamental Principles of Faith and Church Polity 
 and other important official documents, as President 
 of the Council by common consent for ten years, and 
 especially by his "Conservative Reformation," he 
 exerted an epoch-making influence over the Lutheran 
 Church of this country. 
 
 His fellow-laborer and life-long friend, Beale M. 
 Schmucker, D. D., offers a striking proof that faith as 
 well as blood leaves its impress upon posterity. Rep- 
 resenting one of the distinguished families which in 
 each successive generation contributes at least one 
 worthy, son to the ministry of the Lutheran Church, 
 he inherited ,the strong and splendid personal qualities 
 which characterized alike his grandfather and his 
 father, each in his day and peculiar environment being 
 the model of a cultured Christian gentleman. 
 
 In view of subsequent developments in the Church, 
 what a stroke of Providence it must have been to 
 locate young Krauth and young Schmucker" soon 
 after the completion of their training at the Gettys- 
 burg institutions, in neighboring towns in the State of 
 Virginia, where, with a standing engagement to spend 
 
446 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 together one week of every three months and with 
 regular correspondence during the interval, they 
 jointly studied the doctrines and history of their 
 Church. It was there that the theological position of 
 these sons of Gettysburg Professors underwent a 
 powerful change, and to an humble parsonage in the 
 Valley of Virginia may be traced the birth of a move- 
 ment that has affected almost the entire Lutheran 
 Church of this country and permanently changed the 
 stream of her development. 
 
 No one was more active or zealous than Dr. 
 Schmucker in founding the General Council and its 
 institutions, and no one has done more in the prepara- 
 tion of nearly all its official documents, especially its 
 hymnal, catechisms and forms of worship, for which 
 he possessed rare gifts and through industrious and 
 minute research had acquired uncommon attainments. 
 In Liturgies he had no superior in this country or in 
 Germany, in his own Church or in any other. A 
 learned Episcopal bishop was wont to refer his clergy 
 to him as being better posted than himself on all 
 questions pertaining to the " Book of Common 
 Prayer." His labors in this sphere were prompted 
 by the interests of divine worship, by the desire of his 
 heart to have the believer on coming to the throne of 
 grace employ the most appropriate terms ' which the 
 Holy Spirit has put upon the lips of God's Children 
 through many ages." 
 
 THE PENNSYLVANIA MINISTERIUM. 
 
 The General Council is essentially an alliance of 
 Synods. Its most powerful member is without ques- 
 
The General Council. 
 
 447 
 
 lion the Pennsylvania Ministerium, the parent organi- 
 zation of this country, the founder of the General 
 Synod in 1820 and of the General Council in 1867. 
 Its history is for nearly a century the history of the 
 Church. Although in previous chapters its progress, 
 its operations and strength are noted, it well merits a 
 separate chapter. Yet as nothing short of an entire 
 volume would suffice to bring out fully its place and 
 part in the development of the Church, further details, 
 however interesting and important, cannot here be at- 
 tempted. One of its noblest products in recent years 
 is the establishment of Muhlenberg College at Allen- 
 town, Penn., in 1867 
 
 THE NEW YORK MINISTERIUM. 
 
 Another strong constituent of the Council is the 
 
 Ministerium of New 
 
 l\ . $14J]j4Ml York ' the second oldest 
 
 Bjtlt Synod in America, which 
 through all the changes 
 of a century has uniform- 
 ly sustained relations of 
 warm sympathy to the 
 Mother Synod. It num- 
 iSffll bers over 26,000 commu- 
 y|Jy|jl nicants, supports a Pro- 
 ill fessor in the Philadelphia 
 1|S Seminary and has lately 
 established the Luther 
 Wagner Memorial Col- 
 lege at Rochester, N. Y. Since the separation of 
 nearly the entire English element in 1867, it has been 
 predominantly a German body but a number of vigor- 
 
 
 mm 
 
 Hi 
 
 IB 
 
 iti 
 
 las** 
 
 MM 
 
 I 
 
 «J3 
 
 ggjltfiiggig 
 
 WAGNER MEMORIAL COLLEGE, 
 ROCHESTER, N. Y. 
 
448 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 ous and prosperous English Churches have in recent 
 years been organized. A compendious history of this 
 body prepared in the German language by Rev. John 
 Nicum has been published by official authority. 
 
 THE PITTSBURG SYNOD. 
 
 The Pittsburg Synod has a history of its own which 
 claims some notice. Organized in the city of Pitts- 
 burg, January 15, 1845, by eight ministers and six lay- 
 men it represented some forty congregations with a 
 membership of about 3,500. The western section of 
 Pennsylvania had heretofore been common ground 
 for the German Synod of Ohio, its English district, 
 the English Synod of Ohio and the Synod of West 
 Pennsylvania. These eight ministers stood con- 
 nected with seven different synodical bodies. The 
 time for uniting themselves and their churches in one 
 body would seem to have been ripe, especially as the 
 territory they occupied lay at the extreme limits of 
 the Synods which were respectively and in a desul- 
 tory fashion seeking to cultivate it. A centre was 
 needed, co-operation, a common purpose. 
 
 Hence it was resolved to sink all minor differences 
 of opinion, such as preferences for literary, theological 
 and benevolent institutions, and to ignore such dis- 
 tinctions as were commonly designated by the terms 
 "old and new measures." Having thus disposed of 
 the obstacles which blocked the way of union they 
 formed an association in order 
 
 First. To bring the hitherto separated congrega- 
 tions of Western Pennsylvania into one body, 
 
 Second. Provide these churches with a holy and 
 
s 
 
 w 
 o 
 
 o 
 
 o 
 
 o 
 
450 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 competent ministry, either through stated supplies or 
 permanent pastors, 
 
 Third. Build up and reorganize such as were lan- 
 guishing, 
 
 Fourth. Carry the Gospel to destitute settlements 
 throughout that territory. 
 
 This body has won the honorable distinction of 
 "the Missionary Synod." It has been singularly 
 aggressive in all church works and abundant in sacri- 
 fices, alms and labors. While holding firmly to the 
 Church's Confession, cherishing her pure faith and 
 maintaining a conservative tendency, the bond which 
 united its congregations has been conspicuously its 
 educational, missionary and charitable work. 
 
 In 1850 it sent a missionary to Canada who was 
 soon followed by others. Their success in that prov- 
 ince led to the organization of a separate Synod in 
 1861. In 1851 missionaries were sent to Texas and 
 material support was given to the feeble congrega- 
 tions there, until they also were able a few years 
 later to organize a Synod, which like that of Can- 
 ada stands connected with the General Council. The 
 Minnesota Synod also owes its existence to this body's 
 activity. Missionary work has been successfully car- 
 ried on in Nova Scotia and missions have been sus- 
 tained in Knoxville, Chattanooga, Nashville, Wheel- 
 ing, Fort Wayne, Canton, Cleveland, Chicago and 
 other western cities at an expense of not less than 
 $100,000. The Synod can point to many flourishing 
 churches which its far-seeing efforts brought into ex- 
 istence. A generous support has also been given to 
 the cause of ministerial education. A successful col- 
 
The General Council. 451 
 
 lege is in operation at Greenville, Penn., and a num- 
 ber of institutions of mercy, sheltering orphans and the 
 suffering, evince the spirit that animates this body. 
 Its eight ministers have multiplied to 109, notwith- 
 standing the "withdrawal of a number with their con- 
 gregations during the crisis of 1866, and it now em- 
 braces 190 congregations and 20,000 communicants. 
 It united with the General Synod in 1853, in "the 
 hope that a connection with the Parent Education 
 and Missionary Society of that body would widen its 
 field of influence." "Its separation from the General 
 Synod and union with the Council in 1867 resulted 
 from the firm conviction that the change would 
 enhance its opportunities for building up the Redeem- 
 er's Kingdom." 
 
 Of its founders all but one have been called to the 
 Church above. Pre-eminent among the group was 
 Rev. Gottlieb Bassler, who was for nine years Presi- 
 dent of the body, and who by his extraordinary talents 
 as an organizer did more to develop the Lutheran 
 Church in Western Pennsylvania than any other 
 man. His purity of character, his humility, honesty, 
 generosity, his judgment and his devotion to convic- 
 tion were such that no one could be long in contact 
 with him without coming under his influence. 
 
 THE SWEDISH AUGUSTANA SYNOD. 
 
 The thrilling episode of the Swedish Colony of the 
 seventeenth and eighteenth centuries occupies an 
 earlier chapter of this volume. The humble begin- 
 nings, rapid growth and earnest spirit of the Swedish 
 
452 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 Augustana Synod, offers another bright portion of 
 the history of the Lutheran Church in America. 
 
 The immigration from which it has sprung began 
 about 1845, reached noticeable proportions in ten 
 years, rose after the war to tens of thousands annually 
 and continues a large and steady stream. There are 
 now in this country a million of Swedes of the first 
 and second generations. While the great mass is to 
 be found in the northern part of the Mississippi Val- 
 ley, there are Swedish Lutherans in Puritan New 
 England and in the new Northwest beyond the Rocky 
 Mountains. Chicago, Minneapolis and St. Paul are 
 their ecclesiastical and social centres. In Minnesota 
 they form one-sixth of the population. 
 
 Most of these people are farmers. Others are me- 
 chanics and laborers. Not a few are the leading mer- 
 chants and business men of their communities. 
 
 In the earlier days of immigration, while their 
 number was small, the Swedes seemed possessed of 
 inordinate haste to lay aside every national peculiar- 
 ity and to Americanize by wholesale. Their marvel- 
 ous increase, coupled with the multiplication of 
 Swedish newspapers and schools, has led to a reac- 
 tion. The tendency towards the use of the English 
 language in worship, as well as in business, is now, 
 generally speaking, more gradual and is more readily 
 kept within churchly channels. A wide difference 
 obtains in this matter between rural and city districts. 
 Where a farming community is exclusively Swedish, 
 the customs and even some of the costumes of the 
 fatherland persist. In mixed communities, especially 
 in cities, a great change is effected in a single genera- 
 
REV. I«. I*. ESBJORK. 
 
The General Council. 453 
 
 tion. But the Scandinavian generally Americanizes 
 more rapidly than the German. 
 
 The man selected by Providence to lay the founda- 
 tions of the Swedish Lutheran Church in America, 
 was Rev. Lars P. Esbjorn, who settled in Henry 
 county, 111., not far from Rock Island. In 1850 with 
 but ten members he founded the first regular Lu- 
 theran Church, at Andover. The original church 
 edifice still stands, but the congregation now worships 
 in an immense building, and holds the first rank 
 among the Swedish congregations, 
 
 Esbjorn was a true bishop. He visited the scat- 
 tered settlements, organizing congregations and pre- 
 paring the way for pastors. When it became neces- 
 sary to find a man for the Scandinavian professorship 
 in Capital University, Springfield, 111., all eyes turned 
 to him. Thence he was in i860 called to the newly 
 established theological seminary in Chicago. He 
 subseauently returned to Sweden and died in the 
 service of the State Church. 
 
 Esbjorn associated with himself two men of God, 
 who continue unto this d.iy the beloved patriarchs of 
 the Svnod, Rev. Tuve N. Hasselquist, D. D., and 
 Rev. Erland Carlsson. The former began in 1855 
 his editorial career by issuing a politico-religious 
 weekly, entitled "Hemlandet, det Gamla och det Nya," 
 i. e. The Old and the New Fatherland. Out of it 
 have grown the substantial Chicago weekly "Hem- 
 landet," edited by Hon. John Enander, and the weekly 
 synodical organ "Augustana och Mission "ren," 
 edited by Dr. Hasselquist. Through these papers, 
 and, in his capacity as president of the Synod for ten, 
 
454 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 and of Augustana College and Theological Seminary 
 for twenty-six years, Dr, H. has been the instructor, 
 champion, and spiritual father of the Swedish people 
 of this country. 
 
 The equally important position of pastor at 
 Chicago was occupied for twenty-two years (1853- 
 1875) by Rev. E. Carlsson. The fervor of his pulpit 
 ministrations and his masterly skill as an organizer 
 were blessed to the building up of Immanuel Church, 
 now a parish of sixteen hundred communicants. As 
 president of the Synod and of the college board, he 
 skillfully guided and developed the energies of the 
 Synod and impressed it with a spirit of "faith that 
 worketh by love." 
 
 The Swedish work was brought into connection 
 with American church life by the temporary union of 
 the Swedes with the Synod of Northern Illinois — a 
 General Synod body. As this synod simply affirmed 
 the Augsburg Confession to be "a summary of the 
 fundamental doctrines of the Christian religion substan- 
 tially correct," the Swedish conferences carefully guard- 
 ed their rights on entering the body. Feeling hampered 
 by the union, they abruptly withdrew in i860, and im- 
 mediately formed an organization of their own, com- 
 posed of the Chicago, Mississippi, and Minnesota Con- 
 ferences, and containing half as many Norwegians as 
 Swedes. The first convention of "The Scandinavian 
 Augustana Synod" was held in the Norwegian church 
 at Jefferson Prairie, near Clinton, Rock county, Wis., 
 June 5, i860. Twenty-eight pastors, representing five 
 thousand communicants, participated in the organiza- 
 tion. The most important step taken was the found- 
 
The General Council. 455 
 
 ing of a theological seminary at Chicago. This sem- 
 inary has been the chief source of supply for the 
 Synod, the pronounced sentiment of the body favor- 
 ing a ministry educated in America. This has con- 
 duced to such unity of view and strength of attach- 
 ment to the Synod as to render it difficult to effect a 
 change in the organization, now that it has grown so 
 numerous and widely extended to make the attendance 
 and entertainment of the whole body impracticable. 
 
 Among the notable founders of this Synod mention 
 should be made of the following: Rev. Erik Norelius, 
 born in Sweden, but educated at Capital University, 
 Ohio, the pioneer of the Minnesota Conference, one of 
 the originators of nearly all its institutions, the college 
 begun at Red Wing, 1862, the Weekly Skaffaren, and 
 the Vasa Orphans' Home. His three volume history 
 of the Synod, now in press, reveals the painstaking 
 scholar and the graceful writer ; 
 
 Rev. Jonas Svensson of Andover, 111., remarkable as 
 a preacher and a catechist. It was not uncommon for 
 him to preach for three hours, without notes and with- 
 out fault of logic or excess of verbiage. His catechu- 
 mens were readily distinguished by their thorough 
 knowledge of divine things ; 
 
 Rev. Peter Carlsson, who after years spent in the 
 forests of Minnesota, went to the Northwest and 
 founded the leading churches in Idaho, Washington, 
 and Oregon. 
 
 During this, "the patriarchal period," although under 
 the external pressure of temporal poverty and many 
 other difficulties, such as the Civil War, and the great 
 
456 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 Sioux outbreak in Minnesota in 1862, the develop- 
 ment was more internal and tranquil. 
 
 The theological seminary was removed in 1863 to 
 Paxton, 111. An American professor and a Norwe- 
 gian — Rev. Wm. Kopp and Rev. A. Weenaas — 
 were added. A general collection in Sweden yielded 
 $10,846. Five thousand volumes were received from 
 the library of the late King Oscar I. 
 
 In 1867 the Synod participated in the formation of 
 the General Council, in whose deliberations its dele- 
 gates have taken an honorable part. It early pro- 
 nounced against indiscriminate communion, pulpit 
 fellowship, and secret societies. Persons connected 
 with lodges were in most congregations permitted to 
 remain, but no new ones were received ; in others 
 they were excluded. Saloon keepers are also exclud- 
 ed, and a strong temperance sentiment prevails. 
 
 About 1865 there came to Kansas at the head of a 
 Swedish colony a man who has awakened extraordi- 
 nary enthusiasm in the Synod, Rev. Olof Olsson. He 
 settled at Lindsborg, Kansas, which under his magnetic 
 leadership became a centre of singular power and 
 activity. At one time his people sent him to the 
 legislature of Kansas. Prof. Olsson is an interesting 
 writer. His ability as such was of great service when 
 the hyper-evangelical tendency in Sweden ran out into 
 the Waldenstromian heresy — a species of Socinian- 
 ism taught in Sweden by Waldenstrom, who is now 
 propagating his views in this country. From pulpit 
 and theological chair (at Rock Island) Prof. Olsson 
 fought this error. Above all he enkindled a burning 
 zeal in all the students of the college and seminary. 
 
45 8 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 The Synod holds an annual meeting continuing for 
 about ten days. Two or three sermons are preached 
 daily, and doctrinal discussions occupy much time 
 when not, as latterly, crowded into the background. 
 The Synodical council, consisting of the President 
 and Vice-President of the Synod and two representa- 
 tives from" each conference, spends several days in 
 preparing business for the Convention. The Minis- 
 terium meets next. Every applicant for ordination 
 and every ordained minister dismissed to this Synod 
 must appear before it for examination touching his 
 faith and life. In the ordination as many ministers 
 as possible unite in the laying on of hands. Not only 
 the Augsburg Confession but the entire Book of Con- 
 cord is accepted. 
 
 'I he Synod deals with general questions — ordina- 
 tion, the institutions at Rock Island, home missions 
 outside of the Conferences, missions among the Mor- 
 mons, foreign missions, and publication. 
 
 The Conferences, dealing with most of these 
 questions within their own bounds, and having edu- 
 cational and charitable institutions of their own. are 
 virtual sub-synods. They meet twice a year for a 
 week or ten days. In order that each congregation 
 may be reached, they are subdivided into mission dis- 
 tricts, which are conferences in the usual sense of the 
 term, and in which preaching predominates. 
 
 The college and seminary were transferred to Rock 
 Island, 1875. The St. Ansgar's Academy at St. Peter, 
 Minn., was reopened as Gustavus Adolphus College ; 
 and about the same time, the publication of three new 
 papers — Barn Vannen (Children's Friend) by Rev. 
 
The General Council. 459 
 
 A. Hult, and Ungdoms Vannen (Friend of Youth), 
 a monthly, and Korsbaneret (The Banner of the 
 Cross), an annual, was begun. 
 
 The present decade is viewed as " the transitional 
 period." The fathers are gradually relaxing their 
 hold ; a generation born or educated here is coming 
 forward ; an unmistakable Americanization has 
 set in. The magnificent Bethany College has been 
 built at Lindsborg, Kan., and Orphanages have lately 
 sprung up at Mariedahl, Kan., Staunton, Iowa, and 
 in the old settlement at Jamestown, N. Y. 
 
 The publication cause has taken a new phase. The 
 Synod in 1875 sold its bookstore to a Chicago firm 
 in consideration of an annual payment of $1,000 for 
 ten years, and now a vigorous society, the Augus- 
 tana Book Concern, publishes a number of periodicals 
 and books and is a source of revenue to the Church. 
 
 The work of the Synods covers the Union. The 
 eastern-most Church is at New Sweden in the Maine 
 forests. New England is missionary ground. In New 
 York stands the handsome Gustavus Adolphus Church. 
 In Philadelphia Zion Swedish Church. The Illinois 
 Conference extends into the copper districts along 
 Lake Superior. Chicago has twelve Swedish churches 
 and the Swedish Augustana Hospital and Deaconess 
 House. Rockford, III, has a church seating two thou- 
 sand. It cost $65,000. The congregation at Moline.a 
 suburb of Rock Island, numbers twelve hundred. 
 
 Rock Island has a group of five college buildings, 
 the latest a costly stone structure in chaste Gothic 
 style, one of the finest Lutheran college buildings in 
 the land. Its erection was made possible by the gift 
 
460 
 
 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 of $25,000 from the Hon. R. S. Cable, president of 
 the Rock Island Railway Company. Augustana College 
 and the institutions at St. Peter and Lindsborg now 
 contain business and musical departments. The semi- 
 nary makes full provision for the English interests. 
 
 Minneapolis and St. Paul form the second great 
 Scandinavian center, with already over fifty thousand 
 
 AUGUSTANA COLLEGE, ROCK ISLANp, ILL. 
 
 Swedes. Augustana church, Minneapolis, has a congre- 
 gation of nearly two thousand. At St. Peter there is a 
 college with a large faculty and 245 students, and there 
 are several flourishing academies. The peculiar dif- 
 ficulties of this field are the vast floating population, 
 the increasing worldliness of the later immigration, 
 and the' pernicious activity of the sects. 
 
 An element which by every sacred bond is united 
 
The General Council. 461 
 
 with the Lutheran Church, is sought to be wrested 
 from it by Methodists, Baptists and especially the so- 
 called Mission Friends. With the latter the Congre- 
 gationalists have been courting fellowship. Some years 
 ago a determined effort was made by the Episcopa- 
 lians to appropriate this rich Lutheran material. 
 Through their agency the Swedish bishops were per- 
 suaded at one time to grant letters of dismissal, recom- 
 mending the emigrants to the care of Episcopalian 
 rectors where Swedish Lutheran pastors could not be 
 found. Not many Swedes were alienated from their 
 church by this proselyting device. There is very lit- 
 tle high church tendency among those that come to 
 this country, and though they were accustomed to 
 Episcopal government in the State Church, they know 
 nothing of Apostolic Succession or the divine right of 
 bishops. Firmly grounded in the doctrines of the 
 Gospel, indefatigable in promoting evangelical ac- 
 tivity and spirituality, and united as one man, the Au- 
 gustana Synod has been wonderfully successful in 
 preserving the Swedish people from fanaticism and 
 gathering them into churches of their own faith. 
 
 Effective English work has been done at Minneapo- 
 lis, and at St. Paul. Lutherans of eight nationalities 
 have been gathen-d into these congregations. By the 
 same pastors congregations have been established at 
 Red Wing and West St. Paul. Other attempts have been 
 made by the Synod itself to solve the English problem 
 atChicago and Rock Island by separate congregations, 
 at Galesburg, Rockford, Denver, and elsewhere, by more 
 or less frequent English Sunday evening services. 
 
 The Nebraska churches with their own school cen- 
 
462 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 ter at Wahoo, and noble deaconess work at Omaha, 
 have since 1887 constituted a distinct Conference. 
 The Kansas Conference covers a wide field — Kansas, 
 Texas, Colorado, which it cultivates with self-sacrific- 
 ing zeal. Out of the labors of Rev. Peter Carlsson 
 on the Northwestern coast and Rev. J. Telleen in 
 California, has sprung the Pacific Conference. To 
 rescue the Swedes sunk in Mormonism, Prof. S. M. 
 Hill, 1882, began work at Salt Lake City. A church 
 has been erected and an academy begun. A number 
 of pastors now labor in the Territory of Utah. 
 
 Thehome missionary work has sorely taxed the en- 
 ergies of the Synod. At times settled pastors, have 
 spent a month every year in the mission field. Again 
 they have served four or five churches until these were 
 strong enough to support their own pastors. Occa- 
 sionally catechists have been employed, but the chief 
 dependence has been students of theology, pious col- 
 lege students of all stages of preparation, and pro- 
 fessors ordained and unordained. 
 
 The parochial schools maintained by most congre- 
 gations and taught by students have been an agency 
 of great good. They are held for a month or more 
 during the summer. A few hold sessions of six 
 months or more. Instruction is given in Bible His- 
 tory, Luther's Catechism, the Swedish Language, 
 Church History, and Church Hymns. To this the 
 pastor adds a six months' term of catechization, meet- 
 ing his class from two to four hour hours a day once 
 or twice a week. Confirmation takes place about 
 Palm Sunday. A public examination precedes. 
 
 At " Hogmessa " (High Mass), or the Sunday morn- 
 
The General Council. 463 
 
 ing service, the full liturgical service (according to the 
 hymn-book of 1819) is used. It is in the main that of 
 the Common Service, with the Confession of Sins, the 
 greater "Gloria" (averse of "Allena Gud i himmelrik,'' 
 "All glory be to God on high)," the pericopes, collects, 
 etc. On high days the minister intones his part of the 
 service. The Lord's Prayer is often merely indicated 
 by the opening words, the people following in silence. 
 The sermon is as a rule extemporaneous and on the 
 Gospel for the day. Prayer-meetings are held, at 
 which the laity take part in prayer and exhortation. 
 The Week of Prayer is observed. 
 
 The people are earnest readers of such devotional 
 works as Luther's sermons, Arndt's True Christianity, 
 and the writings of the Swedish Pietists, Rosenius and 
 Fjellstedt. The Bible with brief notes by Fjellstedt, 
 or Melin, and the Book of Concord are found in many 
 households. This fact augurs well for a continuance 
 of Christian knowledge and true godliness, despite 
 the temptations incident to the twofold transition 
 from poverty to affluence and from the language and 
 customs of Sweden to those of America. 
 
 The strength of this synod is 292 ministers, 582 con- 
 gregations, 343 church buildings, and 76,000 communi- 
 cants, with 1 9,889 scholars and 2,606 teachers in the 
 Sunday-schools, 272 parochial schools and 11,464 
 pupils. The contributions for educational purposes 
 were, in 1888, $28,415; home missions, $14,538; for- 
 eign missions, $5,946; church extension, orphans, etc., 
 $19,476; the whole averaging $1.00 per member. The 
 synod doubles every fifteen years. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 THE UNITED SYNOD IN THE SOUTH. 
 
 THE rupture of the Federal Union in 1861 was 
 regarded final by the great body of the people in 
 the Confederate States. The members of the 
 Lutheran Church shared this conviction, and believing 
 their civil and political separation to be beyond re- 
 call they deemed it expedient and necessary to have a 
 new general ecclesiastical organization. The move- 
 ment was abetted by the alienation inevitably growing 
 out of domestic war and by the bitterness of feeling 
 which a sharp conflict of sentiment on sectional insti- 
 tutions naturally produced, while the general desire 
 for a more pronounced adherence to the Augsburg 
 Confession which a few years later triumphed also in 
 the General Synod, had already attained decided 
 strength in the South. 
 
 A preliminary convention of a few delegates at 
 Salisbury, N. C, May 15, 1862, accomplished little be- 
 yond the appointment of special committees to pro- 
 vide for submission to a subsequent meeting, a con- 
 stitution for the new body, a Formula of government 
 and discipline, a Hymn-book and Catechism, and a 
 Liturgy. 
 
 A year later delegations from the Synods of North 
 and South Carolina, Georgia, Virginia and South- 
 western Virginia assembled at Concord, N. C, and 
 formally organized " The General Synod of the Evan- 
 
 464 
 
Rev. JOHN BACHMAS, D. D., 1,1,. ». 
 
The United Synod in the South. 465 
 
 gelical Lutheran Church in the Confederate States of 
 America." Rev. John Bachman, D. D., LL. D., was 
 elected President and Rev. David F. Bittle, D. D., 
 Secretary. The doctrinal basis was declared to be 
 ■"the Old and New Testaments as the Word of God 
 and the only infallible rule of faith and practice," and 
 "the Ecumenical Creeds and the Augsburg Confes- 
 sion as the exponents of this faith." A clause allow- 
 ing liberty of construction on several articles of the 
 Confession was added, but a later convention expunged 
 it. The work of the other committees was accepted, 
 the "Southern Lutheran" was made the organ of the 
 body, the founding of a publishing company was re- 
 solved on, and the organization of the new body was 
 perfected with a remarkable degree of harmony. 
 
 The second annual meeting was marked by the ap- 
 pointment of a Committee on Domestic Missions. 
 
 When the body met again, June 14. 1866, the war 
 had ended, the Union was restored, a new title had to 
 be adopted to conform to the changed situation, the 
 problem of a continued separation from the Church 
 North had to be grappled, and the founding of a theo- 
 logical seminary was advocated as the most pressing 
 need of the hour. 
 
 A pastoral letter urging the continuance of a sepa- 
 rate organization protested that this was due to no 
 desire to keep up sectional animosity either in Church 
 or State, but to a firm persuasion " that the prosperity 
 of our beloved Zion in the South can best be sub- 
 served in this way." Connected with the General 
 Synod from its organization, the result on the progress 
 of the Southern Churches had not been satisfactory. 
 
466 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 They had patronized the educational institutions and 
 the literature of the North to the serious neglect of 
 their own resources and the detriment of their own 
 development. It devolved on them now to make 
 proper sacrifices by way of building up and sustaining 
 institutions and publications in their midst, and no 
 longer to retard their growth by an unhealthy depen- 
 dence upon the Church in the North. This letter also 
 decried the latitudinarianism which, by ignoring every 
 feature which distinguished the Lutheran Church 
 from other denominations, extinguished that church 
 love so essential to church activity, and furnished the 
 excuse for the transition of ministers and members 
 to other communions. A decided stand for Lutheran 
 orthodoxy, it claimed, was required at this particular 
 juncture. The division which was then taking place 
 in the General Synod was finally pointed to as a 
 decisive argument for not renewing organic relations 
 with it. The perpetuation of a general body for the 
 South was thus decided, and at the same session the 
 Constitution was so modified as to give to it both 
 legislative and judicial powers. 
 
 At the next convention, in 1867, the South Carolina 
 Synod transferred its theological seminary at New- 
 berry to the control of the General Synod, offering at 
 the same time to support a professor from its own 
 funds. Rev. A. J. Fox appeared as a commissioner 
 from the Tennessee Synod to confer with reference to 
 the union of that Synod with this body. This is the 
 first step towards merging all the Southern Synods in 
 one body, which was happily consummated nine years 
 later. Assurances were given to the Tennessee Synod 
 
The United Synod in the South. 467 
 
 not only of a cordial reception as an integral part of 
 the General Synod on its truly Lu'theran basis, but 
 also of the obligation laid upon this body by its basis 
 to allow neither in its publications nor its theological 
 schools any doctrine at variance with the Augsburg 
 Confession. The Holston Synod was admitted in 
 1868, the Mississippi in 1872. At these conventions 
 the problems of the most earnest deliberation were 
 those of a theological seminary and a church paper; 
 those brethren clearly recognizing that only a trained 
 ministry and an enlightened laity can effect any perma- 
 nent and thorough upbuilding of the church. At 
 Winchester in 1870 the prosecution of Home and 
 Foreign Missions was warmly canvassed and methods 
 were proposed for enlisting the interest of the whole 
 church. This convention has become memorable 
 from a special communication received from the ven- 
 erable Dr. Bachman expressing his prayerful concern 
 for the prosperity of the church, and affirming that 
 " there is nothing in our doctrines that should prevent 
 a union of the whole church, both in Europe and 
 America." In the interest of a consummation so de- 
 voutly to be wished, he suggested to the Synod "the ap- 
 pointment of delegates to meet those of other synods 
 in consultation for the purpose of promoting a greater 
 uniformity in our books of worship than at present 
 exists. Other denominations have gained very much 
 by establishing a uniform mode of worship. If this 
 object could be accomplished our Church would, in my 
 opinion, be more respected at home and abroad, and 
 would accomplish a far greater amount of good." 
 The General Synod was not prepared to take action 
 
468 
 
 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 on this suggestion but it is well to note what spirit 
 conceived the project of the Common Service. Six 
 years later when the revision of the Book of Worship 
 was under discussion "with a view to bringing it into 
 more complete accord with the true Lutheran cultus," 
 it was resolved that the powers of the committee 
 be so enlarged as to invite the co-operation of the 
 General Synod North and the General Council, by 
 the appointment of similar committees, with a view 
 
 NEWBEHRY COLLEGE, NEWBERRY, S. C 
 
 to the adoption of a Common Service for the whole 
 Church. The suggestion was promptly adopted and 
 afterwards heartily and unanimously accepted by the 
 other two bodies, and "the common consent of the 
 pure Lutheran liturgies of the sixteenth century" 
 made the basis for the preparation of the service. The 
 Theological Seminary was in 1872 removed to Salem, 
 Va., the seat of Roanoke College, where with two pro- 
 fessors it soon attained a fair measure of patronage. 
 
The United Synod tn the South 469 
 
 At the meeting in 1878 fraternal relations were 
 opened with the General Synod North, after assur- 
 ances from that body that its deliverances on the war 
 were in no way designed to reflect upon the Christian 
 character of the ministers and churches of the South- 
 ern Synods. An official visitor from the General 
 Council was at the same time received and accorded 
 "all the privileges of an advisory member." Peculiar 
 interest was given to subsequent conventions by the 
 presence and diplomatic addresses of distinguished 
 corresponding delegates from these two bodies. A 
 committee was also appointed to look after the moral 
 and religious interests of the colored race, with especial 
 reference to the establishment of Lutheran churches 
 and educational and eleemosynary institutions among 
 them, and the General Bodies in the North were 
 invited to " co-operate in the advancement of this 
 imperatively needed work." 
 
 At Charlotte, N. C, in 1882, an entire evening was 
 devoted to the subject of union with other General 
 Bodies of the church. "A full and courteous ex- 
 pressions of opinion was given by all the members" 
 and it was 
 
 Resolved, "That this General Synod does honestly 
 and earnestly desire to promote unity and concord 
 between all the parts of our Evangelical Lutheran 
 Church in this land, and stands prepared to co-operate 
 in any concurrent movement of other General Bodies 
 towards an organic union of our entire church upon 
 an unequivocal Lutheran basis." 
 
 The committee on Missions was authorized to select 
 and sustain a missionary in the foreign field under 
 
47° The Lutherans in America. 
 
 V 
 
 the direction of the Foreign Mission Board of the 
 General Synod North. This action was carried out 
 with enthusiasm, but the course of the missionary who 
 was thus sent out involved this promising movement 
 in total failure. 
 
 The fifteenth and last convention of the General 
 Synod South, held at Roanoke, Va., June 23, 1886, was 
 made memorable by two events. The first was the 
 report of its Committee on a Common Service that at 
 a full meeting of the three committees, held in Phila- 
 delphia, in May, 1885, "a scheme of the normal service 
 of the Lutheran Church " had been agreed upon with- 
 out dissent, and that this had been subsequently and 
 with absolute unanimity approved and adopted by 
 the General Synod at Harrisburg. The other was the 
 merging of the General Synod South into "the United 
 Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the 
 South," a union consummated between the General 
 Synod and the Tennessee and the Holston Synods in 
 accordance with a previous understanding and prelim- 
 inary arrangements. 
 
 Two ways stood open at this juncture to the Synods 
 which embrace nearly all the Lutheran congregations 
 south of the Potomac. Either they must individually 
 enter into organic relations with one of the general 
 bodies that assert a national compass, or else perpet- 
 uating their sectional organization it behooved all of 
 them to be incorporated into one body so as to gain 
 the inestimable advantage of concentration. The 
 strong current of reaction toward distinctive Luther- 
 anism which was passing over the entire Church had 
 especially affected the southern portion, and was bring- 
 
The United Synod in the South 47 1 
 
 ing into close sympathy bodies which had for many 
 years kept up a sharp conflict with each other. A gen- 
 eral and sincere interest in their union was therefore 
 quite preceptible and the realization was recognized 
 as alike feasible and in the highest degree desirable. 
 
 The Tennessee Synod made a formal deliverance 
 on this subject which soon called out a hearty 
 response from the Synods of North and South 
 Carolina, Georgia and Virginia. The General Synod 
 at its session in Charleston, 1884, declared itself "un- 
 willing to have these divisions continue any longer 
 without an earnest effort on their part to remove 
 them," and while 1 acknowledging the fidelity of the 
 Tennessee Synod in its defense of the faith, it ex- 
 pressed its own devotion to the same precious truth, 
 and argued that the causes for separation having 
 passed away there should now be on the ground of a 
 unity of the faith a formal realization of it in 
 practice. 
 
 A commission was constituted " consisting of one or- 
 dained minister and one lay member of the various 
 district Synods, who shall meet in conference with the 
 Committee of the Evangelical Lutheran Tennessee 
 Synod for the purpose of maturely considering this 
 subject etc." 
 
 The Diet or Colloquium to consider the project of 
 an organic union was held at Salisbury, N. C, Novem- 
 ber 12 and 13, 1884. It was composed of Commis- 
 sioners from the General Synod South and delegates 
 from all the Southeran Synods except that of Missis- 
 sippi. The spirit of harmony ruled this convention. 
 
 The basis for union which was unanimously 
 
47 2 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 adopted accepts the Holy Scriptures as the only 
 standard of doctrine and Church discipline, and the 
 Ecumenical Creeds and the Unaltered Augsburg 
 Confession as "a true and faithful exhibition of the 
 doctrines of the Holy Scriptures in regard to 
 matters of faith and practice." The other Lu- 
 theran Symbols were declared to be "true and 
 scriptural developments of the doctrines taught in the 
 Augsburg Confession, and in the perfect harmony 
 of one and the same pure, Scriptural faith." 
 
 A constitution to be submitted to the different 
 bodies represented was also agreed upon. It allowed 
 the new body only advisory powers except in such 
 matters "as pertain to the general interests or opera- 
 tions of the Church," namely liturgies, theological 
 seminaries, foreign missions, important home mission- 
 ary operations etc. 
 
 The General Synod at its next meeting in Roanoke, 
 Va., June 23, 1886, gave its cordial approval to this 
 basis, regarding it "as essentially identical with its 
 present doctrinal basis," and also accepted the consti- 
 tution as satisfactory. Similar action had already 
 been taken by the Tennessee and Holston Synods. 
 As their representatives were present at Roanoke 
 only the formalities were required for the organiza- 
 tion of the body contemplated and these being execu- 
 ted with entire unanimity, "the United Synod of the 
 Evangelical Lutheran Church in the South," was form- 
 ed. The Church of that section has thus come into 
 one compact and harmonious body, working unitedly 
 and with a new impetus for the advancement of the 
 Gospel, notwithstanding the fact that there exist di- 
 
2 
 
 1 
 
 w 
 o 
 w 
 
 o 
 o 
 
 w 
 
 w 
 o 
 
 1 
 
474 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 versities of opinion and practice as marked as those 
 which still divide the Church in other parts of the 
 country. , 
 
 This happy result must in the main be ascribed to 
 the peculiar development of the Southern General 
 Synod. Feeble in members and resources, it was 
 called upon by extraordinary circumstances to break 
 away from its former associations. It was thus en- 
 abled to plant itself definitely upon the Church's Con- 
 fession and to issue a Book of Worship with Cate- 
 chism, Confession and Prayers, that has had an 
 immense educational influence in promoting unity of 
 faith and uniformity of worship, in cementing the 
 hearts of the people to their church, and preparing 
 them for earnest co-operation with all in whom they 
 recognize like precious faith and who are ruled by the 
 same spirit. The numerical strength of the United 
 Synod embraced in 1888, 8 district synods, 186 minis- 
 ters, 392 congregations, and 33,625 communicants. 
 Besides the Educational Institutions already named 
 as under the auspices of the Tennessee Synod, there 
 are in the bounds of the United Synod, colleges at 
 Salem, Va., Mt. Pleasant, N. C, Newberry, S. C. ,with a 
 theological department; and Female Seminaries at 
 Staunton, Marion and Wytheville, Va., and at Mt 
 Pleasant and Charlotte, N. C. 
 
 If the growth of the Lutheran Church in the South 
 has been relatively slow, this is in part undoubtedly 
 due to the absence of immigration. It has not been 
 wanting in church love nor in church activity com- 
 mensurate with its opportunity. And it has been 
 
The United Synod in the South. • 475 
 
 honored by a large proportion of able, eminent and 
 consecrated divines. 
 
 Towering above all others was the Rev. John 
 Bachman, D. D., LL. D., Ph. D. (Berlin), for nearly 
 sixty years pastor of St. John's, Charleston, which 
 under his ministry became the most influential con- 
 gregation in the South. He took a profound interest 
 in the general work of the Church,- and his influence, 
 while he stood in connection with the General Synod 
 or with the General Synod South, was always thrown 
 on the side of a large, unselfish and permanent policy. 
 To him chiefly the college and seminary, both now 
 located at Newberry, S. C, owe their existence. 
 From him came the first suggestion of a Common 
 Service. The dignity, force and simplicity of his per- 
 sonal character gave Dr. Bachman a wide fame 
 throughout the Southern States, but his greatest 
 distinction was that of a man of science. He was in 
 the first rank of ornithologists in his day. With 
 Audubon, whose two sons married his two daughters, 
 he prepared "The Birds of America" and "The 
 Quadrupeds of America." He was a member of 
 numerous scientific societies and numbered among his 
 correspondents such men as Humboldt and Agassiz. 
 
 No other man on that territory has greater claims 
 on the reverent memory of his church than David F. • 
 Bittle, D. D. His self-sacrificing and successful labors 
 as President of Roanoke College, his indomitable 
 world-conquering faith, his pulpit unction and power 
 and exalted Christian character, place his name on the 
 scroll of immortality. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 THE LUTHERAN CHURCH AND CULTURE. 
 
 THE first to liberate the human mind from mediae- 
 val darkness and error, the Lutheran Church 
 has always fostered thorough intellectual culture* 
 She is distinguished as " the church of theologians." 
 Her scholars were the principal teachers of Christendom 
 in the sixteenth century, and they have within the pres- 
 ent century restored the glories of the best age of 
 Christian learning. "Her wonderful literature, her 
 great universities, her systems of popular education 
 are felt by the world." 
 
 The Reformation under Luther made an epoch in 
 education as well as in religion. The debasing super- 
 stitions against which the battle was waged derived 
 their strength from ignorance. A reforming Church 
 must spread the light of knowledge. Recovering her 
 true character the Church cannot be unmindful of her 
 function as teacher. She kindles the highest powers 
 of the human mind and then employs them to en- 
 lighten the world. Education is at once her duty 
 and the most effective instrumentality for extending 
 . her sway. 
 
 The Lutheran Church took organic form with this 
 instrument in her hands. Her cause was from the 
 outset the cause of learning. She arose into distinct- 
 ive being, identified with the highest educational in- 
 stitutions. The Reformers, every man of them, occu- 
 
 476 
 
Tfie Lutheran Church and Culture. 477 
 
 pied university chairs. The superiority of her doctors 
 became a current argument for her doctrine. Witten- 
 berg was the focus of the grand revolution. In its 
 lecture-rooms, and a little later in those of Leipsic, 
 Jena, and T'bingen, were found freedom of inquiry 
 and freedom of teaching, and thence shone forth the 
 living rays which turned the darkness into light. 
 
 While sustaining and developing those illustrious 
 institutions which are still the pride of Europe, and to 
 which the learned men of England and America ever 
 repair to complete their education, the genius of Lu- 
 theranism has been equally zealous in establishing 
 schools for the masses. Luther's writings and espe- 
 cially his translation of the Bible set the people to 
 reading, made them eager for knowledge, and with the 
 new energy awakened in every sphere prepared them 
 for those measures of general instruction to which the 
 Reformers gave their earnest attention. Popular edu- 
 cation dates from the Reformation, and certainly 
 no other countries have furnished snch thorough, gen- 
 erous and universal systems of instruction as those in 
 which the Lutheran creed has been predominant. 
 There are no illiterates in Lutheran lands. Other 
 nations have from ten to eighty per cent. 
 
 This jewel was happily not lost in the trying pro- 
 cess of transplanting the church into a new world. 
 The earliest preachers had received a liberal training. 
 Of the Swedish pastors of the seventeenth century, it 
 is recorded that with few exceptions they were men of 
 liberal culture, "eminent alike for learning, pulpit 
 power and fervent piety." Acrelius and von Wrangel 
 of the last century were " distinguished and scholarly 
 
47& The Lutherans in America. 
 
 men." The patriarch Muhlenberg and a number of 
 his colleagues could speak fluently a half dozen lan- 
 guages, including ancient and modern. Long before 
 the Lutheran Church was able to found academic in- 
 stitutions, a number of her clergy received the title of 
 Doctor of Divinity from the colleges of other denom- 
 inations. Some of them were elected College Trustees 
 and such was their recognized zeal in the cause of 
 science that they were specially welcomed to com- 
 mencements and enrolled among the learned societies 
 of America and Europe. 
 
 Dr. Kunze's varied acquirements made him " an 
 ornament of the American republic of letters." He 
 was professor of Oriental languages in Columbia 
 College, having in that domain no superior in 
 America, and doing more than any other individual 
 of his day " to promote a taste for Hebrew literature." 
 " He was deservedly recognized as among the very 
 first of scholars, and cherished by the learned and 
 liberal of every denomination as an example of the 
 refined influence which elevated pursuits so uniformly 
 stamp on human character." 
 
 Dr. Helmuth, who succeeded him as Professor in 
 the University of Pennsylvania, "had a richly en- 
 dowed and well cultivated mind," and published a vol- 
 ume of hymns, and other religious works. His col- 
 league, Rev. J. F. Schmidt, was an accomplished 
 astronomer and mathematician. H. E. Muhlenberg, 
 besides being a profound theologian, an original 
 thinker, a celebrated Orientalist, and a proficient in 
 almost every department of science and literature, 
 made a specialty of Natural History, in particular of 
 
The Lutherdn Church and Culture. 479 
 
 Botany, in which he became an authority and gained 
 the title of " the American Linnaeus." He carried on 
 an extensive correspondence with the foremost nat- 
 uralists of Europe, and through the newspapers and 
 other publications contributed much to the progress 
 of Natural Science. He was a member of the Ameri- 
 can Philosophical Society and quite a number of 
 philosophical and physical societies in Europe. 
 
 That the Lutheran people of the last century were 
 generally not illiterate, is pretty clearly indicated by 
 the fact that half of Franklin's printing of books and 
 purely literary matter was for the Germans. 
 
 The fathers had received their culture at European 
 Universities. Unfortunately the first generation of 
 native ministers could enjoy no such facilities. Re- 
 peated efforts to found higher institutions had 
 proved abortive, or perished in the storms of the 
 Revolution, and the Church did not control a single 
 classical or theological school, excepting the share 
 she had in Franklin College, founded in 1787. This 
 was due to the straitened circumstances of the 
 people and above all to the language problem. A 
 German institution would have been under the circum- 
 stances an exotic, repelling the patronage of Americans. 
 And an English institution could not be maintained 
 until the Lutheran population had become more 
 thoroughly anglicised. 
 
 In theory the Church always asserted a high stand- 
 ard of training for her ministers. No young man 
 said the General Synod at its first meeting, is to be 
 admitted to the study of theology before he has ob- 
 tained a diploma or its equivalent. And she has at all 
 
480 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 times been honored with a fair proportion of learned 
 divines whose range of culture placed them alongside 
 of the foremost scholars of the country. We need 
 but instance the Schaeffers, Schmuckers, Krauths, 
 Storks, Dr. P. F. Mayer, Dr. John Bachman, and 
 Profs. M. Jacobs, H. L. Baugher and M. L. Stoever, 
 three men whose solid attainments and whose abiding 
 success in raising Pennsylvania College to its honor- 
 able rank, were only paralleled by their self-sacrifice 
 to the cause of higher Christian education. That 
 leaders of such power and prominence had as a rule 
 received their own training where another faith pre- 
 vailed, is a circumstance not to be overlooked in 
 studying the tendencies of their day, and its lesson 
 should never be forgotten. 
 
 While the founding of institutions for higher cul- 
 ture had of necessity to be delayed until colleges of 
 other denominations had been maintained for one or 
 even two centuries, the instruction of the children was 
 from the beginning made a leading function of the 
 Church. The first Lutherans brought with them from 
 the fatherland the parish school, and, straitened and 
 widely dispersed as they were, they could no more 
 dispense with these Christian nurseries for their 
 children than with the Church itself. A congregation 
 without its school was not to be thought of. Even 
 when there was no pastor, the congregation must 
 secure a teacher. Beside the rude log church a 
 school-house always arose, and it is suggestive that 
 Muhlenberg, who is said to have never lost sight of 
 the training of the children, and who at first person- 
 ally gave instructions in the rudiments, built a school- 
 
The Lutheran Church and Culture. 481 
 
 house at the Trappe even before he began the 
 erection of a house of worship. Significant likewise, 
 is the fact that the second topic which engaged the 
 attention of the first synodical meeting "was the con- 
 dition of the Parochial Schools ; each pastor laid be- 
 fore the Synod the actual state, the wants and pros- 
 pects of his school." 
 
 Our fathers held that the young should be trained 
 inside the church and not outside of it ; that educa- 
 tion should be in the hands of Christian teachers, 
 should be seasoned and conserved with the Gospel 
 should include the moral as well as the intellectual 
 nature, and that it is a function worthy of and incum- 
 bent on the pastor, who indeed was often the main if 
 not the sole teacher of the parish school. What the 
 Church has gained by abandoning this institution and 
 leaving her children to the mercy of secular educa- 
 tion, is a question of no little consequence. It should 
 be carefully pondered along with the more general 
 inquiry as to the measure of advantage which any 
 church derives from the surrender of inherited bless- 
 ings for the sake of conforming to other denomina- 
 tions and keeping in line with the spirit of the times. 
 
 In these schools the children were, thoroughly in- 
 doctrinated in God's Word, as well as taught the ele- 
 ments of a secular education; Receiving religious 
 instruction from competent teachers six days of the 
 week, they became rooted in the faith of the Church, 
 and laid the foundations of those solid virtues for which 
 the Lutheran people were always distinguished. Prior 
 to the establishment of the common schools the Penn- 
 sylvania Synod had hundreds of these church schools. 
 
482 The Lutherans in America- 
 
 The corporation of Zion Church, Philadelphia, main- 
 tained four, and their grand work was at one time rec- 
 ognized by the donation of five thousand acres of 
 land from the State of Pennsylvania. 
 
 It costs a pang to write here that, so far as known, 
 hardly a solitary parish school exists to-day in the 
 English portion of the Lutheran Church, although its 
 poignancy is somewhat relieved by the knowledge that 
 several thousand are maintained by the German and 
 Scandinavian congregations. 
 
 While holding that all education should have a 
 Christian character, and conforming, in the days of 
 her poverty, her universal practice to this ideal, the 
 crowning feature of the Lutheran Church is her sysr 
 tern of specific Christian instruction to the young- 
 The book she prizes next to Holy Scriptures is her 
 Catechism, a treasure not equalled in any other church, 
 and which is said to have the widest circulation of any 
 uninspired volume. 
 
 A minister without this Catechism is an anomaly in 
 the Lutheran Church. He is out of his element. He 
 has missed his calling. An unfailing tribute paid by 
 every historian to the fathers, is their fidelity in cate- 
 chisation and their success in preparing by this means 
 candidates for confirmation. No work of greater spir- 
 itual power is on record anywhere. To these instruc- 
 tions thousands attributed their conversion. To them 
 is to be ascribed in large measure the revived and 
 blooming state of the Church in their day. 
 
 Whatever derelictions may have since then been 
 chargeable to individuals, or to measures in conflict 
 with the Lutheran system, neither the leaders of the 
 

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484 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 Church nor any of its bodies have ever failed to bear 
 their testimony to this invaluable medium of saving 
 the young and preserving the Church of God. One 
 of the first acts of the General Synod was the appoint- 
 ment of a committee to prepare a Catechism, "the 
 present state of the church requiring an English edi- 
 tion." A report presented to the General Synod at 
 York, 1835, declares: "If it had not been for that ex- 
 cellent course of lectures, which is given to our young 
 people preparatory to confirmation, our people would 
 in a great measure, have remained altogether stran- 
 gers to the power of godliness." Dr. Hazelius in his 
 History of the American Lutheran Church, 1845, ob- 
 serves : " Many of us still remember the time when re- 
 missness in the religious instruction of children was a 
 fault in our preachers, seldom discovered but least for- 
 given; and can we forget, that this instruction pecu- 
 liar to the German churches created so strong an at- 
 tachment to the Church that it almost amounted to a 
 fault? This instruction is now sparingly imparted, and 
 what is the consequence? The attachment to the church 
 has been weakened so much that the causes of this 
 alarming fact have frequently been made the subject 
 of inquiry in our church paper, and we are sorry to 
 say that among all the causes assigned, we have 
 missed the one which is at the root of the evil, viz.: 
 'The remissness of many of our pastors in the religious 
 instruction of youths ? ' " 
 
 One of the most laudable features of Lutheran edu- 
 cational work is the care of the orphan. By no other 
 sign does she more clearly testify that she has the 
 spirit of God "in whom the fatherless findeth mercy." 
 
The Lutheran Church and Culture. 485 
 
 When we recall the instrumentalities by which the 
 Lutheran Church came into organic being in America, 
 it may be said that she had her birth in an Orphan 
 House. That glorious institution at Halle communi- 
 cated the breath of life to the unorganized mass ready 
 to perish on these shores, and from that same fount- 
 ain the Church was nursed for fifty years. The 
 great preachers of that period were graduates of that 
 orphanage. It is therefore not surprising to read that 
 " one feature marked all the early Lutheran preachers, 
 their attention to the young, the poor, the sick, and 
 especially the widow and orphan." 
 
 The Salzburgers had hardly erected' their own 
 homes in the savannas of Georgia, when in 1742 they 
 founded an Orphan House with four boys and four 
 girls. The same institution became also an asylum 
 for the sick, and received the warm sympathy and sub- 
 stantial support of Whitfield, whose own attempt at a 
 similar institution in Savannah was doomed to failure. 
 
 The charge of the orphan, like some other import- 
 ant trusts, experienced for some time a melancholy 
 neglect, but with the revival, latterly, of a better church 
 life, a new impulse has also been given to this humane 
 and godly work. At least thirty-three Orphan Homes 
 throughout the country are now supported by the Lu- 
 therans — eight by the Missouri Synod, six by the 
 Swedish Augustana, two by the Iowa. Some are not 
 specially connected with any Synod. 
 
 In connection with the orphanages, mention can 
 simply be made of the hospitals, about ten in number, 
 and the Deaconess Institutes, the most splendid of 
 which is the "Mary J. Drexel Home and Philadelphia 
 
486 
 
 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 Mother-house of Deaconesses." The building con- 
 sists of a central edifice two hundred and fifty feet 
 long and two wings connected with it at right angles, 
 each two hundred feet in length, the gift of John D. 
 Lankenau, Esq., who has also pledged himself for its 
 maintenance as long as he lives. 
 
 The courage, the struggles and the self-sacrifice 
 by means of which some twenty-one theological sem- 
 inaries and as many colleges have been built up, and 
 the work these are doing for the education of youth 
 
 CARTHAGE COLLEGE, CARTHAGE, ILL. 
 
 to serve in the holy office and in other influential sta- 
 tions, would occupy a volume. Reference to all but a 
 few may be found in other chapters. Wittenberg Col- 
 lege, at Springfield, Ohio, is a worthy monument of 
 Ezra Keller, D. D., whose services in pioneer work both 
 in the sphere of religion and education can hardly be 
 overestimated. Carthage College, at Carthage, 111., 
 
The Lutheran Church and Culture. 487 
 
 and Midland College, at Atchison, Kan., have but re- 
 cently come into being under the auspices of the Gen- 
 eral Synod. They encounter the usual trials of such 
 schools, but they command the sympathay and sup- 
 port of that body, and from whatever point they may 
 be judged can no longer be regarded as experiments. 
 The Female Seminaries at Hagerstown, Lutherville and 
 Mechanicsburg are on the territory of the General Syn- 
 od, but receive patronage from all portions of the church. 
 Fourteen years ago an incomplete list of Lutheran 
 publications made a considerable volume, compiled 
 under the name of Bibliotheca Lutherana, by Dr. Mor- 
 ris. Since then a large number of valuable works 
 have been added, and although no other ministers 
 have as laborious a lot as the Lutheran, and although 
 some of the ablest men of the Church, like Drs. C. P. 
 Krauth, Sr., J. A, Brown, and C. A. Stork, have left 
 nothing more permanent and complete than Review 
 articles, yet the array of Lutheran literature makes 
 a substantial library. The first known publication 
 by a Lutheran in America was a volume entitled 
 "Grondlycke Onderricht von sekere Voorname Hoofd- 
 stucken der Waren, Loutern, Saligmakenden Chris- 
 telycken Leere, etc., by Justus Falckner, in 1708- 
 Schmucker's translation of Storr and Flatt's Biblical 
 Theology, in 1826, became a text-book in seminaries 
 of other churches. His Popular Theology passed 
 through nine editions. Siess' works have a world- 
 wide fame. Their titles fill many pages. Valentine's 
 Natural Theology is a text-book in a number of 
 American colleges. C. F. Schaeffer's translation of 
 Kurtz's Sacred History has been extensively used as 
 
488 
 
 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 a text-book in theological seminaries. Krauth's Con- 
 servative Reformation is the masterpiece of Lutheran 
 authorship in this country. Sprecher's Groundwork of 
 Lutheran Theology is a work of rare ability. Zieg- 
 ler's Catechetics, The Preacher, and The Pastor, are 
 valuable manuals for the clergy. Harkey's Justifica- 
 tion by Faith should be in every home. Dr. Mann's 
 literary activity covers, besides valuable English and 
 German volumes, a wide field in the periodical litera- 
 ture of America and Europe. Theophilus Stork, B. 
 
 LUTHERVILLE FEMALE SEMINARY, LUTHERVILLE, Md. 
 
 Kurtz, Greenwald, C. W. Schaeffer, Spaeth, Morris, 
 Rhodes, and Gerberding have enriched the devotional 
 literature of the church. Profs. Schodde and Weid- 
 ner have published valuable contributions to theolog- 
 ical science. The latter's Introductory N. T. Greek 
 Method is adopted in a number of seminaries. Wal- 
 ther's " Kirche und Amt," " Evangelien-Postille," " Epis- 
 tel-Postille," and " Pastoral Theologie," have passed 
 through many editions. Seyffarth, that prodigy of 
 learning, wrote numerous volumes on Egyptology, 
 Chronology, etc. Bachman's fame rests largely on 
 
The Lutheran Church and Culture. 489 
 
 his contributions to Natural History. Profs. L. M. 
 Haupt and S. P. Sadtler have won high distinction in 
 the ranks of scientific scholarship. Among the most 
 important issues are the translation of Schmidt's Dog- 
 matik of the Lutheran Church, by Drs. Hay and Jacobs, 
 an English edition of the Book of Concord, with com- 
 panion volume giving Historical Introduction, Notes, 
 Appendixes and Index, by Jacobs, and a revised edi- 
 tion of Walch's " Luther's Sammtlice Schriften," by the 
 Faculty of Concordia Seminary. 
 
 The first periodical published was "Das Evangelis- 
 che Magazin,"founded by Dr. Helmuth. " The Lutheran 
 Intelligencer," began in 1826, with D. F. Schaeffer as 
 editor. It was afterwards changed to the "Lutheran Ob- 
 server." "The Literary Record," a journal formerly pub- 
 lished by the Linnsean Association of Pennsylvania Col- 
 lege, wasa scientific journal of great merit. "The Luth- 
 eran Standard" was begun in 1841. "The Lutheran 
 Quarterly" succeeded in 1871 "The Evangelical Re- 
 view," which was founded in 1849. "The Lutheran 
 Church Review "was founded in 1882. "The Lutheran," 
 "The Lutheran Evangelist," "The Lutheran Visitor," 
 "Our Church Paper" are the other English weeklies. 
 "The Workman " and "The Lutheran Witness " are bi- 
 monthly. "The Lutheran Home," "The Theological 
 Magazine," "The Augsburg Teacher," "The Church 
 Messenger," and " The Young Lutheran " are monthlies. 
 Besides these are a number of children's papers, some 
 forty German periodicals and nearly as many Swed- 
 ish, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish and Icelandic mes- 
 sengers of light and strength that regularly visit the 
 tabernacles of godly Lutherans. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 THE LUTHERAN CHURCH AND MISSIONS. 
 
 AN American historian of reputed learning and 
 fairness says: "The conversion of the heathen oc- 
 cupied no place in the thoughts of the great 
 leader of the Reformation. The followers of Luther 
 for more than a century entertained the same preju- 
 dice against missions." This is a fair specimen of the 
 misrepresentations of the Lutheran Church. 
 
 The truth on this point is stated in Herzog's Real- 
 Encyclopaedie : " Luther himself already seizes every 
 opportunity offered by a text of the divine Word 
 in order to remind believers of the distress of ' the 
 Heathen and the Turks ' and earnestly urges them to 
 pray in their behalf and to send out missionaries to 
 them. In accord with him all the prominent theolo- 
 gians and preachers of his day and of the succeeding 
 period inculcated the missionary duty of the Church. 
 Many also of the Evangelical princes cherished this 
 work with Christian love and zeal." It was the Refor- 
 mation with its new spiritual life that once more re- 
 vived missionary operations which had entirely ceased 
 in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, and the 
 labors of the Lutheran Church were the earliest in 
 that sphere as they have been the most productive. 
 " All missions, Catholic and Protestant alike, with the 
 benefits of every sort they bring us, are in several im- 
 portant senses a debt which Christendom owes to Mar- 
 
 490 
 
Krai 
 
 
 *M-i 
 
 FATHER HEVER. 
 
The Lutheran Church and Missions. 491 
 
 tin Luther." So says a learned representative of a 
 great missionary church. If the Reformers failed to 
 organize any movement for the conversion of the heath- 
 en world, this failure might be sufficiently accounted for 
 by the prevailing heathenism which had become rank 
 within the limits of the Church, and the uprooting of 
 which taxed all their thoughts and energies. But it 
 must further be borne in mind that the Protestant 
 nations had no means of communication with heathen 
 countries. The hegemony of the seas was during 
 that century in the hands of the Catholic powers, 
 Spain and Portugal, while Lutheran Germany had 
 neither commerce nor colonies, the indispensable pre- 
 requisites in that day for the prosecution of missions 
 outside the pale of Christendom. Geographical open- 
 ings are quite as necessary to the spread of the Gospel 
 as the zeal inspired by the Lord's command and the 
 love of humanity. It is the testimony of one of the 
 most devoted living missionary champions that " the 
 time had not come for Protestant missions." Self- 
 sacrificing love and the heroism of faith were present, 
 but the obstacles were insuperable. 
 
 What manner of spirit was begotten from the first by 
 the Lutheran Reformation is attested by the establish- 
 ment of the first Protestant mission by Gustavus Vasa, 
 as early as 1559, for the conversion of the heathen 
 Lapps in the extreme North of Sweden, and by the 
 noble efforts of his successors for the prosperity of 
 this mission. Where contiguous territory did not 
 offer a heathen population for evangelization, Christ- 
 ian princes like Christopher of Wurtemberg and 
 Ernst the Pious, Duke of Saxe-Gotha, exhibited an 
 
49 2 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 apostolic zeal for the general diffusion of evangelical 
 doctrine. To the latter belongs the honor of intro- 
 ducing the Lutheran faith into Russia. 
 
 The Thirty Years' War prostrated and desolated 
 Germany, so that in the seventeenth century foreign 
 missionary enterprises were absolutely impossible. 
 Yet the spirit of missions lived and a circle of jurists 
 in Liibeck " bound themselves to obedience to the 
 missionary mandate," and one of them, Peter Heyling, 
 went in 1635 as far as Abyssinia, where he translated 
 the New Testament into the Amchar language, gained 
 access to the court and became minister to the King. 
 The ultimate fate of his mission remains unknown. A 
 generation later, Baron von Welz issued several stir- 
 ring appeals to all " Orthodox Christians of the 
 Augsburg Confession," for the formation of a Society 
 for the spread of the Evangelical Religion, urging the 
 establishment at every University of a faculty of mis- 
 sions, and the preparation of students for work among 
 the heathen. He appropriated 36,000 marks for mis- 
 sions and set out for Dutch Guinea where he soon 
 died. The great Leibnitz- conceived such an enthusi- 
 asm for missions that " he designated China as a 
 suitable field whither Lutheran missionaries ought to 
 go, and even incoporated these thoughts in the consti- 
 tution of the Berlin Academy of Sciences." 
 
 Denmark was the first Lutheran state to take her 
 place among the maritime nations. This was in the 
 seventeenth century. The way to heathen peoples 
 was now for the first time opened to the Lutheran 
 Church. And simultaneously the rise of Pietism with 
 its revival of practical Christianity awakened a new 
 
The Lutheran Church and Missions. 
 
 493 
 
 and decided interest in the salvation of the heathen. 
 Liitken, the Court-preacher at Copenhagen, had long 
 sustained a friendly intercourse with Spener and 
 Francke, when his King, Frederick IV.. commissioned 
 him to engage missionaries for foreign lands. He 
 selected two pietist students at Halle, Ziegenbalg 
 and Pliitschau, who sailed for Tranquebar, India, in 
 July, 1706. The material support for the mission 
 came from the Lutheran King of Denmark, its spirit- 
 ual direction from Halle and especially its great 
 
 LUTHERAN MISSION CHURCH, GUNTUR, INDIA. 
 
 leader, Augustus Herman Francke, who seems to have 
 gotten the first impulse toward heathen evangelization 
 from Leibnitz. His mind once kindled with mission- 
 ary ardor became remarkably active in the cause. As 
 founder of the Orphan House at Halle he was indeed 
 "providentially fitted to induce a spirit of devotion in 
 young missionaries, and to develop a missionary 
 constituency at home." Halle was from thenceforth 
 the centre of mission activity for the heathen. 
 
494 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 Ziegenbalg, " the parent of Eastern missions," trans- 
 lated the New Testament into the Tamul language. 
 The mission spread into the English possessions. 
 Re-enforced from time to time by a number of excel- 
 lent missionaries from the Halle Orphan House, chief 
 among whom was Christian Friedrich Schwartz, "the 
 patriarch of Lutheran missions," it attained great 
 prosperity, resulted in 40,000 conversions, and pre- 
 pared the way for the successful evangelization of 
 India during the present century. 
 
 It does not fall within the scope of this work to 
 trace the growth and extent of missionary operations 
 by the Lutherans of Europe, but as the charge of 
 indifference to heathen evangelization has found its 
 way into historical works, it becomes a duty to state 
 here that >the Lutheran Church was carrying forward 
 on a vast scale a successful mission in India one hun- 
 dred years before any of the English Churches had a 
 single missionary station in heathen lands. "With 
 the grand opportunities afforded by its colonies, and 
 domination on the seas, England did next to nothing, 
 during the eighteenth century for missions." It was 
 from Lutheran Halle that " missionary zeal spread 
 over other countries and other denominations." 
 
 As the diffusion of the Scriptures is an essential 
 feature of missions, it is due to the truth to record 
 here the fact that in this sphere also the work of the 
 Lutheran Church antedates the efforts of other 
 churches by a hundred years. The British and For- 
 eign Bible Society was organized in London, March 7, 
 1804. And this is tritely claimed as the first institu- 
 tion of the kind, whereas the Canstein Biblical Insti- 
 
The Lutheran Church and Missions. 495 
 
 tute, founded at Halle by the private fortune of Baron 
 von Canstein, began its blessed work in 1710, and has 
 since circulated many millions of copies of Holy Writ. 
 Thousands of the early Lutherans in this country had 
 in their possession the Bibles of this institute for gene- 
 rations before the idea of any other Bible Society was 
 conceived. 
 
 The Swedish colonization of America, it has been 
 already noted, was distinctively a missionary project. 
 And the earliest Lutheran pastors on these shores 
 were among the first, if not absolutely the first, to pro- 
 claim the knowledge of God to the aborigines, as 
 Luther's Catechism was the first book ever translated 
 into their language. And Muhlenberg's spiritual in- 
 terest in the slaves is among the earliest instances of 
 such sympathy with that class in Pennsylvania. 
 
 For two hundred years all was missionary work in 
 this western world. Tranberg and other Swedish pas- 
 tors impaired their health and shortened their lives 
 by extending their ministrations to the Episcopalians 
 and German Lutherans whom they found in forlorn 
 spiritual destitution. Whether those devoted men 
 had their own local congregations or not, they were 
 journeying to and fro, across forests, streams and 
 mountains, enduring exposure, hardships, perils and 
 sufferings, seldom surpassed by the most thrilling 
 records of self-sacrifice among the heathen. They 
 were quite justly called "the missionaries." Let Dr. 
 von Wrangel's course as described by Muhlenberg in 
 1762 serve as an illustration : "He preaches on Sun- 
 day in the forenoon in Swedish in his own Church 
 (Wicacoa); in the afternoon he goes on horseback a 
 
496 
 
 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 distance of six miles to a congregation on the other 
 side of the Schuylkill, and delivers a second sermon; 
 in the evening he again preaches in his own church, 
 and this third time in English. Every fourth week 
 he undertakes a laborious tour through the province 
 of Jersey to his destitute congregations. Through 
 the week-days he visits other scattered outposts of his 
 church, goes from place to place, holds catechisation 
 
 LUTHERAN MISSION HOUSE, RAJAHMUNDHY, INDIA. 
 
 in the houses, and in spite of his indescribable labors 
 and exertions among his dispersed sheep, he is willing 
 from time to time to visit the destitute flocks of poor 
 German Lutherans, and to bring joy by administering 
 to them the means of grace, although he could give 
 convincing proofs that he has laid upon him more 
 than enough work among his own nation." This 
 apostolic portrait could be duplicated many times, 
 by men who with unquenchable zeal journeyed over 
 immense distances and sought from day to day in 
 
The Lutheran Church and Missions. 497 
 
 English, German, Swedish and French, to minister to 
 all classes, giving their especial care to the sick, the 
 poor and the inmates of prisons. 
 
 The Church here was born of the spirit of missions. 
 Her life was nursed for years from the bosom of the 
 mother churches of Europe. And although she has 
 at times faltered under great obstacles or blighting in- 
 difference, she has never wholly forgotten the com- 
 mand, " freely ye have received, freely give." 
 
 On the first occasion of a general assemblage of the 
 church, at the convention in 1820, a committee was 
 appointed "to form a plan for a Missionary Institu- 
 tion." And the first meeting of the General Synod 
 earnestly urged the District Synods to send out mis- 
 sionaries. If sometimes disposed to lament that more 
 extensive operations were not undertaken, we should 
 remember that at no time did they have sufficient min- 
 isters "to fill the vacancies of their immediate neigh- 
 borhoods." Serving so many congregations that they 
 ■could give them only one sermon in four weeks, 
 it is very evident that "a more efficient and sufficient 
 supply of pastors " was demanded, before a large num- 
 ber could go to the destitute regions of the country 
 or any be sent to the heathen. Already in the last 
 •century "the old synod appointed some itinerant 
 preachers to visit for a month or two new settlements 
 about the skirts of our country, and similar exertions 
 were made in almost every synod established since," 
 but those who engaged in this work had to take the 
 time from their own congregations, which were but 
 half supplied before. Such was the missionary activity 
 of all the synods for more than a generation, and to 
 
498 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 this activity, desultory and unorganized as it was, the 
 church is largely indebted for its power and influence 
 in many parts of the country. 
 
 The first issue of an English journal, in 1826, had 
 an article on Missions, and so had every subsequent 
 issue of that year, a symptom of the spirit that pre- 
 vailed in the church and which had long been nurtured 
 in congregational and synodical societies. In 1835 
 the General Synod set apart an hour on the first 
 Monday in every month, "in the evening at early can- 
 dlelight for concert prayer in all our congregations, 
 to petition the Lord for an outpouring of his Holy 
 Spirit on our churches — that He would call more la- 
 borers into the harvest, and revive a missionary spirit 
 in us and our congregations." At this same meeting 
 an expression of feeling was asked from the District 
 Synods respecting the establishment of a Foreign 
 Mission. 
 
 In 1836 the Pennsylvania Synod formed itself into 
 a Mission Society for propagating the Gospel among 
 the destitute portions of the Lutheran Church in 
 America and " ultimately to co-operate in sending it 
 to the heathen world." 
 
 A Central Home Missionary Society was organized 
 the same year at Mechanicsburg, and a "German For- 
 eign Mission Society" the year following, in connec- 
 tion with the meeting of the General Synod at Hagers- 
 town. Besides the members of the latter body, forty- 
 four delegates were present. Every Synod except 
 the Ohio and the Tennessee was represented in the 
 convention, great enthusiasm prevailed, and a collec- 
 tion of $300.00 was lifted. A wide-spread interest in 
 
The Lutheran Church and Missions. 499 
 
 the cause was soon awakened. At the first anniver- 
 sary of the Society, in 1839, several brethren indi- 
 cated their willingness to go out as missionaries to 
 the heathen under the auspices of this society. 
 
 The first person selected was Rev. C. F. Heyer, 
 who as a missionary in Western Pennsylvania, had 
 exhibited those rare qualities of faith and self-denial, 
 simplicity, energy and patience which form the requi- 
 sites for the evangelization of heathen lands. He 
 readily accepted the appointment, in 1841, but on dis- 
 covering that he was to be placed under the super- 
 vision of the American Board, he returned his com- 
 mission. He then wrote to the President of the Penn- 
 sylvania Synod's Missionary Society that he "preferred 
 going into the heathen world under the the direction 
 of an Evangelical Lutheran Missionary Society, 
 rather than be dependent on other Christian denomi- 
 nations," and offered to go as their missionary, they 
 to name the country for the mission, pay toward his 
 travelling expenses whatever funds were in its treasury, 
 while he himself would invest $1,000 of his own 
 property in support of the Mission. The committee 
 to whom this letter was referred, found that there 
 were " not sufficient means at hand to form and main- 
 tain a heathen mission," but "on motion of Dr. 
 Demme, seconded by Dr. Baker, it was unanimously 
 Resolved, That we in reliance on Divine Providence, 
 commence a heathen mission," also that "we receive 
 brother Heyer as missionary in our service." His 
 offer of $1,000 from his own purse was declined. The 
 Executive Committee took immediate measures to 
 send him to Guntur in the Madras Presidency, where 
 
500 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 he arrived alone in the spring of 1842. The General 
 Society having reconsidered its proposed connection 
 with the American Board, sent out a year later, Rev. 
 Walter Gunn to the same field. He was cordially 
 welcomed by Rev. Heyer, as a fellow-laborer in the 
 cultivation of that promising field which has since 
 yielded an extraordinary harvest. The two societies 
 adopted in 1845 a plan of Union, each remaining dis- 
 tinct, appointing and maintaining its own missionaries, 
 but occupying the same district, "having but one in- 
 terest and one aim in the foreign field, the joint mis- 
 sion to be known as "the American Lutheran Mission." 
 Mr. Heyer remained in charge of the field for four- 
 teen years, returning at the age of 65 to America. 
 The mission then, 1857, embraced three principal 
 stations, Guntur, Palnad and Rajahmundry, Samulcotta 
 being added later. The Pennsylvania Synod having 
 united with the General Synod, the direction of the 
 mission devolved wholly upon the General Foreign 
 Missionary Society. When this was so weakened by 
 the division in 1866, as to be unable to carry the 
 whole interest, it relinquished the Rajahmundry and 
 Samulcotta stations. In 1869 the General Council un- 
 dertook the care of these and Father Heyer, not far 
 from eighty years of age, hastened once more to India 
 to recover those fields and re-establish successful 
 operations. Both bodies have since respectively pros- 
 ecuted the work with zeal and vigor. And India has 
 had no missions whose results are more gratifying. 
 
 The General Synod mission numbers in India to- 
 day 11,387 communicants, gathered into 335 congre- 
 gations. Besides the support of 7 missionaries it em- 
 
The Lutheran Church and Missions. 
 
 SOi 
 
 ploys 165 gospel workers, sustains 152 schools with 209 
 teachers and 4,108 pupils. The Watts Memorial Col- 
 lege, toward which a single family contributed $10,000, 
 has just been established. For the foreign work $82,- 
 404.71 were collected from April, 1887, to April, 1889. 
 The Council's mission reports a total of 80 workers, 
 1993 baptized Christians, and 767 pupils in the schools. 
 
 ■HX& & Tfijbg 
 
 WSmgmKm 
 
 #--i|'^v ; -- 'Mile 
 
 LUTHERAN MISSION HIGH SCHOOL, RAJAHMUNDRY, INDIA. 
 
 A mission was also founded in Africa, on the St. 
 Paul's river, Liberia, in i860, by Rev. M. Officer. The 
 progress of this work, the self-devotion of the succes- 
 sive missionaries, some of whom sacrificed their lives in 
 a deadly climate, the ever-widening influence of this 
 fountain of grace in the desert, and the testimony of 
 travellers to its blessed character, would cover many 
 bright pages. 
 
 Other bodies co-operate either with these two Gen- 
 eral Bodies in Foreign Missions or with European 
 Societies . 
 
 To the Home Mission work the Lutheran Church 
 
502 The Lutherans in Amercia. 
 
 has a peculiar call. Besides the ordinary opportuni- 
 ties for extending Christ's Kingdom through the con- 
 stant expansion of the native population, there are 
 annually coming to this country and spreading over 
 every part of it, hundreds of thousands who have been 
 baptized, instructed and confirmed by the Lutheran 
 Church, and who require now her fostering care in 
 order to be gathered again into her bosom. If they 
 can but have a faithful Lutheran pastor they form, in 
 a few years, flourishing congregations. 
 
 The General Synod has organized its work effect- 
 ively, supporting annually over ioo missionaries and 
 aiding in the erection o f 30 to 40 church-buildings. The 
 combined collections for both these causes for the bi- 
 ennium ending March 31, 1889, was $125,000. The fund 
 of the Church Extension Board amounts to $133,320. 
 
 In the Council this work is only in part done by the 
 three boards of the General Body, but its extent and 
 success are likewise commendable. Not less than two 
 hundred missionaries are laboring in different sections 
 and among various nationalities, and the sum of 
 $50,000 is annually expended. The Joint Synod of 
 Ohio reports thirty missions. The union of the 
 Southern Synods has evidently quickened the mission- 
 ary pulse in those parts, and the flourishing missions 
 founded in several cities bespeak the increased ac- 
 tivity that has set in. A vast work in this sphere is 
 done by the Missourians, the Iowans, the Norwegians 
 and others, the majority of their pastors being mis- 
 sionaries even where they serve also self-sustaining 
 congregations, pushing the work in almost every town 
 and city, the people being liberal in their offerings. 
 
The Lutheran Church and Missions. 503 
 
 A children's Missionary Society under the auspices of 
 the General Synod has been efficient both in stimulat- 
 ing interest and in raising funds. The most notable 
 advance in thiscause is the organization of theWomen's 
 Missionary Society within the same body, which on the 
 occasion of its tenth anniversary discovered its collec- 
 tions to have reached the sum of $100,000. 
 
 A few examples of successful missions are subjoined: 
 Grace English Lutheran Church was organized in 
 Baltimore, September 13, i885,with forty-one members. 
 Within four years that congregation has grown to 
 622 communicants, and conducts a Sunday-school 
 numbering 650. It received aid from the boards for 
 several years and now owns a property worth $30,000, 
 has an annual revenue of $4,000 and contributes to 
 benevolence $500. 
 
 The Church of the Redeemer in Utica, N. Y., was 
 organized April 27, 1879 with 28 communicants. To- 
 day it numbers 400, with a " Sunday-school enrolment 
 of about 325 and an almost equal number in its mis- 
 sion school." It has received no assistance from any 
 Synod or mission board, owns a property that cost 
 $35,000 and has an annual income of between $3,000 
 and $4,000. The pastor of this congregation writes 
 that there is a parallel to it at Buffalo, and that he 
 assisted during the past year in organizing two mis- 
 sions in other cities of New York, "which bid fair to 
 excel this record. None of the four have received 
 any mission aid." 
 
 Other instances with results equally encouraging 
 might be cited. 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 OBLIGATIONS OF OTHER COMMUNIONS TO THE 
 LUTHERAN CHURCH. 
 
 SO great and so various is the debt which the 
 Christian world owes by common consent to the 
 Lutheran reformation that it is impossible to ex- 
 press the full extent of it. It broke the power of the 
 papacy ; it tore asunder the fetters of priestly rule ; it 
 restored the Church to her freedom ; it put her once 
 more in possession of the divine Scriptures. From 
 Wittenberg as the centre the wave of reform swept 
 onward until it reached the boundaries of Europe, 
 purifying and reviving the Christianity of different 
 nations. The writings of Luther and the disciples of 
 Luther, as if wings had been given them from heaven, 
 were found everywhere spreading the light of salvation 
 by grace, and in an amazingly brief period a reformed 
 church replaced the corrupt hierarchy throughout the 
 greater part of Germany, in Denmark, Sweden and 
 Norway, in a number of Swiss Cantons, in Hungary, 
 Holland, England and Scotland. 
 
 The revolution from various causes took on a dif- 
 ferent form in some of these countries, and there soon 
 came to be known besides the Evangelical Lutheran 
 Church, the Episcopal, the Reformed, the Presbyterian, 
 and later a number of other bodies, evolved from these, 
 have sucessively taken their place among Christian 
 denominations. 
 
 The Lutheran Church holds the preeminence over 
 
 504 
 
Obligations of other Communions. 505 
 
 all, first by the fact of her antedating every one by a 
 number of years. She was so well recognized as a 
 distinct factor long before the Reformation developed 
 beyond her pale, that all the earliest reformers in 
 every country were called Lutherans. But priority 
 in time is a wholly inadequate exhibition of the re- 
 lation between the Lutheran Church and others. 
 That relation is genetic. It is the truism of history 
 that the Lutheran is the parent Evangelical Church. 
 She is the mother of Protestantism. Historically all 
 other Evangelical Churches have sprung from her. 
 Their presence is the expansion of the Lutheran 
 Reformation. They owe their existence to the prin- 
 ciples she so earnestly and triumphantly maintained, 
 to her translation of the Bible, and to the saving 
 doctrines her leaders proclaimed at the hazard of 
 their lives. Her Confession, which was from the be- 
 ginning clearly recognized as the genuine expression 
 and symbol of her being, is the mother Confession, 
 the standard of pure and original Protestantism, "the 
 greatest of all the Reformed Confessions "says Bishop 
 Bull, as well as the first. " It struck the keynote," says 
 Dr. Schaff, "to the other Evangelical Confessions." 
 And it is so broad, so comprehensive, so scriptural 
 that it has at different times been signed or acknowl- 
 edged by great Reformed Doctors and Princes, by Cal- 
 vin, Farel, and Beza, by Frederick 1 1 1, of the Palatinate, 
 Sigismund of Brandenburg, and the Great Elector. 
 
 Inasmuch as nearly all the great Protestant Form- 
 ulas are based upon the Augsburg Confession, the 
 substance of it and often the language being incorpo- 
 rated into them, and inasmuch as it maintains that "in 
 
.506 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 •doctrine and ceremonials among us there is nothing 
 received contrary to Scripture or the Church Univer- 
 sal," the responsibility for putting forth tenets in con- 
 flict with this confession, promulgating other creeds 
 and thereby organizing divisions in the Protestant 
 host, does not lie with the Lutherans. They have not 
 departed from the original Evangelical stream, others 
 have. At the German Church Diet in Berlin, 1853. 
 1400 clergymen representing the Lutherans, Reformed, 
 United and Moravians, joined in a public acknowl- 
 edgment of this confession, testifying their agreement 
 with it " as the oldest, simplest, common document of 
 publicly recognized Evangelical doctrine in Germany." 
 The hope has often been expressed in other 
 churches that "it may one day become the United 
 Confession or Ecumenical Creed of all the Evangel- 
 ical Churches in Germany." If broad enough to 
 embrace the Evangelical Christendom of Germany, it 
 must be sufficiently comprehensive for the Evangelical 
 Christendori of the World. Such admissions on the 
 part of intelligent Protestants are tantamount to the 
 recognition of the Lutheran Church as the mother of 
 them all. They have gone out from her, not she 
 from them. She is not a "sister denomination." The 
 sisters are her daughters. It is historically untrue, it 
 is unjust and misleading, to represent the Lutheran 
 Church as a branch of the Evangelical Church. She 
 is the strong body, the massive and living trunk from 
 which they all have sprung, and on which they still 
 depend. Into these branches, their leaves, their bloom, 
 their fruit, her life has been transfused. Her teach- 
 ings, her literature, her hymns, her liturgies, have passed, 
 
Obligations of other Communions. 507 
 
 and continue directly or indirectly to pass, into these 
 Churches beyond what many think or dream. 
 
 In the case of some communions, particularly the 
 Church of England and her daughter, the Protestant 
 Episcopal Church, this indebtedness is quite obvious 
 and unquestioned. The English Reformation had its 
 origin in the study of the writings of the Lutheran 
 Reformers. Those given to reading German books at 
 Oxford and Cambridge were called Lutherans. 
 
 Tyndale's New Testament, which is substantially our 
 present authorized version, is largely dependent upon 
 Luther's translation. Its first edition was published 
 in Germany by Hans Luft, Luther's printer. His Pen- 
 tateuch is even more dependent. The introductions 
 and notes are nearly all literal translations of Luther. 
 
 Coverdale's Bible, where it does not appropriate 
 Tyndale's is largely a translation of Leo. Juda's Zurich 
 version, which again is a revision of Luther. Rogers, 
 the translator of Matthew's Bible, was for eleven years 
 a Lutheran pastor. Conferences between the Eng- 
 lish theologians and the Lutherans were frequent 
 and protracted, and during the reigns of Henry VIII. 
 and Edward VI. the Germans were pressed by letters 
 and by legations to come to the assistance of the Eng- 
 lish in reforming the church. Melancthon, in recog- 
 nition of his incalculable service to Lutheranism, Was 
 appointed Professor of Divinity in Cambridge Univer- 
 sity. He felt constrained to decline, but Bucer and 
 others accepted similar positions of influence, and took 
 a prominent part in preparing the formulas which em- 
 body the faith and worship of the Anglican Church. 
 Lutheran principles and tendencies had from the first 
 
508 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 predominated among the English and when they pro- 
 ceeded to a doctrinal reformation, the composition of 
 a national creed, their XXXIX Articles, in the lan- 
 guage of Archbishop Lawrence "were borrowed from a 
 Lutheran creed." "In some instances," adds this great 
 Episcopal authority, "it amounts to a direct transcript 
 of whole passages and entire extracts, without the 
 slightest omission or unimportant variation." Speak- 
 ing of the X Articles which appeared after the nego- 
 tiations in London, 1538, between Myconius and the 
 English Bishops, the same author says: "In the whole 
 of these articles the ideas and language of the Lu- 
 theran divines have been closely followed. Many of 
 the forty-two articles (afterwards reduced to thirty- 
 nine) owe their origin to the same source, and even 
 those which cannot be traced with certainty exhibit a 
 correspondence with the general opinions of the Ger- 
 man divines." 
 
 And again: "Our Reformers * * * chose to 
 give reputation to their opinions and stability to their 
 system by adopting * * * Lutheran sentiments 
 and expressing themselves in Lutheran language," 
 "purely Lutheran," '• couched in the very expressions 
 of the Lutheran creed." Of Cranmer he says : " From 
 the Lutherans he had learned almost everything, 
 which he deemed great and good in reformation." 
 
 Bishop Bull says : "the meaning of our articles can 
 scarcely be perceived" by any one who is ignorant of 
 their source. And Bishop Whittingham : "the Augs- 
 burg: Confession is the source of the XXXIX Articles, 
 their prototype in form, their model in doctrine, and 
 the very foundation of many of their expressions." 
 
Obligations of other Communions. 
 
 5°9 
 
 The origin o f the " Book of Common Prayer " is like- 
 wise to be credited to Lutheran agencies. The Luther- 
 ans had revised, purified and translated the services of 
 the ancient Church, and the Lutheran revision had been 
 issued in many editions before the revision of the old 
 service was undertaken across the channel. And when 
 the First Prayer Book of Edward VI. was brought 
 out, it presented very few divergences from the Lu- 
 
 " "-JUKI 
 
 HAGERSTOWN FEMALE SEMINARY, HAGERSTOWN, MD. 
 
 theran service. "The offices of our Church," says 
 Archbishop Lawrence again, "were completely re- 
 formed after the temperate system of Luther." The 
 successive stages of this are easily traced. The Mis- 
 sals in use in England, from which the English revis- 
 ion and translation were made, agreed very closely 
 with those used in Germany, from which the Lutheran 
 Liturgies were prepared. With the latter Cranmer, 
 by his sojourn in Germany in 1533, had grown quite 
 
5 JO The Lutherans in America. 
 
 familiar, and especially with the Order of Branden- 
 burg- Niirnberg, having married the niece of Osiander, 
 who with Brentz prepared that Order. Melancthon 
 and Bucer drew up subsequently, 1543, a service for 
 the Archbishopric of Cologne, which was in great 
 degree conformed to that of Niirnberg, and " from 
 this work " says Lawrence : " All our offices bear evi- 
 dent marks of having been partly taken. * * In 
 our Baptismal Service, the resemblance between the 
 two productions is particularly striking." Thus, as 
 Hardwick admits, though the Book of Common 
 Prayer has been mainly derived from the ancient and 
 Mediaeval Liturgies it has been " in no inconsiderable 
 degree through the medium of a Lutheran Compi- 
 lation." 
 
 The first Anglican Catechism was a literal transla- 
 tion by Cranmer in 1548, of the Kinder-Predigten of 
 the Brandenburg-Niirnberg Kirchen-Ordnung, which 
 Justus Jonas had translated into Latin. And what is 
 known as the Catechism of the Church of England was 
 prepared from Brentz's with suggestions from Cran- 
 mer's Nurnberg Catechism. 
 
 The great Methodist Church is commonly viewed 
 as an offshoot of the Episcopal Church. This very 
 fact goes to reveal its indirect dependence upon the 
 Lutheran Church. But since the XXV articles which 
 embody the doctrines of that body are in language 
 and substance almost identical with the XXXIX of 
 the Church of England, they are readily traced to 
 their original source. " They are only remoter issues 
 from the same Lutheran fountain." But Methodism 
 has a more direct indebtedness to Lutheranism. It 
 
Obligations of other Communions. 5 1 r 
 
 is beholden to the Lutheran Church for the spiritual, 
 birth of its founder. Sailing to Georgia in 1535 on a 
 vessel which carried a number of Salzburgrers, who in 
 the fierceness of the storm and the extremity of human 
 distress were kept- in perfect peace, Wesley realized 
 that his religion was destitute of the calm, confiding, 
 and joyous spirit which made these Lutherans sing 
 praises to God, when every other heart "was quaking 
 and some were almost dead with terror." Wesley 
 had been accustomed to legalistic bondage and Puri- 
 tan austerities. He had sought salvation by "the works 
 of the law," but strange feelings were aroused in his 
 heart, when he found a company of men, women and 
 children who knew no fear. It was a revelation to 
 him of the import and power of the Gospel. Even 
 then he did not attain the personal experience of the 
 heavenly gift, but when he returned to London and 
 listened there in a Moravian meeting to the reading 
 of Luther's Preface to the Epistle to the Romans, he 
 passed suddenly from darkness into light. " I felt " 
 he wrote " my heart strangely warmed, I felt I did 
 trust in Christ alone for salvation." 
 
 The Presbyterian and other Calvinistic bodies "have 
 always looked upon Luther and the Lutherans as the 
 authors of their Reformation." Bossuet says: "All 
 the Calvinists, Germans, English, Hungarians, Poles, 
 Dutch and all others, in general, who assembled at 
 Frankfort, through the influence of Queen Elizabeth, 
 all these having acknowledged those of the Confes- 
 sion of Augsburg, namely, the Lutherans, as the first 
 who gave a new birth to the Church, acknowledge also 
 the Confession of Augsburg as common to the whole: 
 
5 12 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 party." And Turretin, speaking of the concurrence of 
 the Reformed Calvinists with the Lutherans, says it is 
 evident "from the Augsburg Confession alone, which 
 both parties admit, and to which both desire to be re- 
 garded as adherents." 
 
 The German Reformed Church grew out of the 
 Melancthonian development in South Germany, where 
 Frederick III., appealing to Melancthon and the al- 
 tered Augsburg Confession in defense of his Lutheran 
 orthodoxy, charged two men Ursinus and Olevianus, 
 the former an adherent of Melancthon, to draw up 
 what is known as the Heidelberg Catechism, which is 
 recognized in Germany and in this country as the 
 doctrinal standard of that communion. The Mora- 
 vians, a name made glorious by devoted and heroic 
 missionary zeal, hold to the Augsburg Confession as 
 their only symbol of doctrine. 
 
 Rightly and truly, therefore, the great Protestant 
 communions are bound to look upon the Lutheran 
 Church as the mother of them all. And this histor- 
 ical and vital relation has not been sundered thoueH 
 It is often ignored. The biblical and theological treas- 
 ures of the Lutheran Church, though recoined in the 
 transition, form the richest element of the religious 
 literature of Protestantism. And the distinguished 
 teachers of the great theological seminaries through- 
 out this land have almost without exception, sat at the 
 feet of the learned Lutheran Professors in the Ger- 
 man Universities. "Evangelical Christendom owes 
 more to the Lutherans, for everything pure, blessed 
 and great in its religion, than to any other class of 
 men since the Apostles fell asleep." 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 DISTINGUISHING DOCTRINES AND FEATURES OF THE 
 EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH. 
 
 HOW other churches have drawn from the Lu- 
 theran much of what is best in their systems is 
 in part exhibited in the foregoing chapter. In 
 their departure from her they have, however, not car- 
 ried with them every important element of the parent 
 church. The life in the trunk has not passed in all 
 its richness into the branches. Or it has been so 
 modified as to show in the branches a different and 
 distinctive form. It would be an easy task to note 
 these variations which the branches respectively have 
 developed ; nevertheless, it is in accordance with the 
 logic of history to speak of the doctrines and features 
 which distinguish the Lutheran Church. They may 
 be summarized under the one idea of comprehensive- 
 ness. The Lutheran system is characterized by a 
 breadth, a fullness, an inclusiveness known to no other. 
 She has much that other communions do not have. 
 Their differentiation is due to their leaving or losing, 
 denying or abridging some of her excellences. They 
 are poorer, narrower, incomplete. They represent 
 avowedly or logically, a curtailment of the riches of 
 grace, a limitation of its benefits, a lowering of its effi- 
 cacy. The Lutheran Church accepts and holds the 
 whole truth of the Scriptures, with its normal historic 
 development. In and with this truth, she knows, is the 
 Holy Spirit, so that wherever presented, in Word or 
 
 513 
 
5H The Lutherans in Amercia. 
 
 Sacrament, it brings salvation to every one who does 
 not make it of none effect through unbelief. As she 
 does' not sever the Spirit from the Word, neither does 
 she take away aught from the consensus of the Church, 
 from the Person of Christ, the mercy of God, the offer 
 of salvation, or the content of the Sacraments. Her 
 doctrines are in every way richer, her distinctive life 
 fuller and more complete, all embracing and many- 
 sided as the grace, of the Holy Ghost. 
 
 Standing midway between Rome and ultra-Protest- 
 antism, maintaining doctrines that separate her from 
 both, while holding to the ecumenical creeds which 
 unite her to both, the Evangelical Lutheran Church 
 differs fundamentally from the Roman Catholic : 
 First, In receiving the Scriptures of the old and New 
 Testaments as sole and sufficient authority for belief 
 and life; Second, In ascribing salvation wholly to 
 the mercy of God. Then she differs from all others 
 who in any way limit mercy or make grace contingent 
 upon aught but Word and Sacrament. Such is the 
 abounding magnitude of divine grace, such is its free- 
 ness, that the greatest sinner has direct access to its 
 fountains. It is of no moment to him whether he who 
 offers him absolution received Episcopal or Presby- 
 terial ordination, or no ordination at all. The validity 
 of Baptism, the reality of Christ's Presence, the power 
 of the Gospel, the work of the Holy Ghost, are not de- 
 pendent on any ecclesiastical legitimacy. Salvation 
 comes through the means of grace in accordance with 
 the promises, which are not bound to any sacerdotal 
 order, line of succession or legalistic conditions. 
 
 And such is the measureless amplitude of God's 
 
Distinguishing Doctrines. 515 
 
 mercy, that all efforts either to supplement or pur- 
 chase, or in any other way to limit or condition it, are 
 at war with its essential character. 
 
 Now, according to the tenets of one denomination 
 the believer cannot feel assured of his salvation unless 
 grace has come to him through the right channel ; the 
 Gospel and the Sacraments in which it is visibly 
 offered, counting for nothing, it would seem, unless 
 dispensed by one whose credentials bear the stamp of 
 the "Historic Episcopate." 
 
 According to those of some others all the promises 
 and provisions of grace have no meaning except to 
 such as by a secret election in eternity were chosen 
 to become its subjects. 
 
 In another the salvation of the soul is in some de- 
 gree jeopardized if the entire body was not immersed 
 in the waters of Baptism. 
 
 In yet another quarter, God's Word, the Sacra- 
 ments, the atonement, and the hidden work of the 
 Spirit, avail nought until you can evidence your con- 
 version by an inward consciousness, supposed to be 
 an unfailing proof of regeneration, while others put 
 such stress upon personal efforts and such reliance 
 upon repentance and reformation that salvation is 
 made largely the outcome of such exercises. 
 
 To Lutherans the boundless mercy of God leaves 
 need for nothing more. All our need is complete in 
 Christ. Man gives nothing. He only receives. Faith is 
 receiving. And in the exercise of faith pardon is real- 
 ized and a new life is begotten in him by the Holy Ghost. 
 
 This curtailing and restricting of grace meet us un- 
 der various forms. It is seen in the limited atonement 
 
5 J 6 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 which is one of the five points of Calvinism, whereas 
 Lutheranism holds with the Scriptures that Christ is 
 " the propitiation for the sins of the whole world." 
 
 It is seen in the withholding of Baptism from little 
 children, whereas Lutherans, in common with the great 
 historic churches, draw no line and raise no barriers at 
 this gateway of the Church, but bring their offspring 
 to the font, believing that being offered to God by Bap- 
 tism "they are received into God's favor" and made 
 subjects of the quickening Spirit. The Church shuts 
 out no one, not even babes from its blessings. 
 
 It appears particularly in the denial of sacramental 
 grace, which separates what God has joined together. 
 The Sacraments are reduced to empty signs and me- 
 morials, Baptism being merely a symbol of spiritual 
 washing, the Supper merely a remembrance of Christ's 
 death. Lutherans while acknowledging them assigns 
 and memorials, lay chief stress upon them as vehicles 
 and bearers of grace, through which the ascended Lord 
 comes into contact with the individual soul, imparting 
 to it in Baptism the new life, nourishing it in the Sup- 
 per by the Communion of his body and blood. 
 
 It comes out very strikingly in the doctrine of the 
 Lord's Supper, where almost universally other Prot- 
 estant Churches teach that the Holy Eucharist is but 
 a picture, or memento of the suffering and dying Sav- 
 ior, and that the ordinance contains nothing peculiar, 
 nothing mysterious. 
 
 Lutherans believe that in the Holy Supper there are 
 present with the elements and received, sacramentally 
 and supernaturally, the body and the blood of the Lord 
 Jesus Christ, in accordance with his institution, and 
 
«k 
 
 ^Bra^"' 
 
 mtM 
 
 REV. O. ANDERSEN. 
 
 » 
 
 r 
 
Distinguishing Doctrines. 517 
 
 the words of the Apostle: "The cup of blessing which 
 we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? 
 The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the 
 body of Christ ?" Believers receive this to the strength- 
 ening of their faith, unbelievers to their judgment. 
 
 The enemies of the Lutheran Church have sought to 
 fasten on her the reproach of consubstantiation, al- 
 though not a single Lutheran teacher has ever advo- 
 cated it, and the Church's defenders have with one 
 mind and voice continually denied it. 
 
 The doctrine of Roman Catholicism is that by the 
 consecration of the priest, the bread and wine are 
 changed into the body and blood of Christ. Nothing 
 remains of the elements. This is transubstantiation- 
 
 Consubstantiation modifies this change to the ex- 
 tent of the difference between "trans " and " con," so 
 that the bread and wine instead of wholly disappear- 
 ing, intermingle with the body and blood of the 
 Savior, forming one substance. The Lutheran doc- 
 trine most clearly and strenuously denies that any 
 change occurs. The bread remains bread, the wine 
 remains wine, but in the reception of these elements, 
 there is a partaking of the Lord Jesus Christ, a com- 
 munion of His body and His blood. 
 
 The most striking example of the dwarfing and 
 narrowing process of other theologies, is that which 
 pertains to the Person of Christ. The Lutheran 
 Church embraces Christ as the God-man, begotten of 
 the Father from all eternity and born of the Virgin 
 Mary, the two natures inseparably and forever united 
 in one person, the divine and the human attributes 
 sharing in every act and work so that "every act of 
 
5 J 8 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 the Son of God is also an act of the Son of Man and 
 every word of the Son of Man is also a word of the 
 Son of God." 
 
 Others present a Christ divided, a Christ divested 
 of one or the other of his natures. When he is born, 
 he is but a human child. When he dies upon the 
 cross atoning for the sins of the world, he suffers only 
 as a man, the descent into Hell is only that of a human 
 soul. When he gives himself in the mystery of the 
 Holy Supper, when he is present "where two or three 
 are gathered in his name" he is only divine, his human 
 nature which unites him to us and in him unites hu- 
 manity to God, being confined to heaven. Lutherans 
 always comprehend both natures in the one, forever 
 indissoluble, Person. 
 
 And this undivided and indivisible Christ, the God- 
 man, is the center of the whole plan of salvation. Oth- 
 er systems begin with the Bible, with the decrees of 
 God, with the Church. Lutheranism begins with 
 Christ. Its theology rests on this immovable center. 
 
 It is not unusual to designate justification by faith 
 as the central doctrine of the Lutheran Church, but 
 this is simply the reverse of the same truth. Jesus 
 Christ is the sole objective ground of redemption. 
 Faith is the subjective appropriation of redemption. 
 Christ is the fixed sun from which light and life stream 
 to the world. Faith is the opening of the eye and of 
 the heart to receive the light and the life. Justification 
 is realized by faith resting on the merits of Christ. 
 
 Around this shining center everything revolves. 
 And thus Lutheran theology and Church life honor 
 and exalt and magnify Jesus Christ beyond any other 
 
Distinguishing Doctrines. 519 
 
 system. Romanism obscures him behind the Virgin. 
 Calvinism makes him an agent in the saving of the 
 elect. Anglicanism has sought to confine his grace to 
 narrow channels. Methodism often dims his crown 
 by its conjunction of experiences and works with grace- 
 Lutheranism makes him all in all. 
 
 In harmony with its distinguishing doctrines the 
 Lutheran Church has also its characteristic worship. 
 The church of the people, its worship is not that of 
 the priests, or of the preacher, it is the people's wor- 
 ship, and they are therefore provided with forms to 
 kindle, to exercise and to sustain the spirit of worship. 
 The Reformers proceeded with the liturgy just as they 
 did with the teaching of the Church. They purged 
 out corruption and error from the forms of public de- 
 votion, restored them to a scriptural standard and put 
 them into the vernacular tongue. Every Lutheran 
 country and city adopted its liturgy during the six- 
 teenth century, and all these agenda had with immate- 
 rial differences the same service, except in South Ger- 
 many, where the influence of Carlstadt made itself felt 
 in the cultus. 
 
 A Lutheran Church without a liturgy was unknown be- 
 fore Rationalism becameenthroned in Germany. Then, 
 as the vital truths of. Christianity were abandoned by 
 the pulpit, they were also removed from the people's 
 hymn-book and cast out from their forms of worship, 
 and the liturgies, in many cases, cast out altogether. 
 
 Many of the English congregations in this country, 
 influenced doubtless by the dominant churches around 
 them, dispensed for some time with prescribed forms, 
 yet it is significant of the spirit of the Church that 
 
520 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 the first measure at trie first convention of the first 
 Synod was the adoption of a liturgy "with a view of 
 introducing into our congregations the same ceremo- 
 nies, forms and words." 
 
 At an early period of its history the General Synod 
 made provision for an English Liturgy. To provide a 
 satisfactory English Service for the Lutheran Church 
 proved, however, under the peculiar circumstances, no 
 easy task, and for half a century successive committees 
 wrestled with the necessary but difficult undertaking. 
 
 In 1883 the three General Bodies representing the 
 English-speaking Lutherans entered into an agree- 
 ment to prepare a common service on the basis of 
 "the common consent of the pure Lutheran Liturgies 
 of the sixteenth century," and assigned this work to a 
 joint-committee whose unanimous report was adopted 
 by the three Bodies without a dissenting voice. The 
 General Synod, commonly regarded as but moderately 
 liturgical, heartily and solemnly gave its unanimous 
 approval to this undertaking at three consecutive 
 sessions, at Springfield instructing the Committee to 
 follow " the well-defined basis of the pure Lutheran 
 Liturgies of the sixteenth century," at Harrisburg ac- 
 cepting the unanimous conclusion of the Committee 
 when it presented " the order of Service of the Lu- 
 theran Church," and at Omaha ordering it to be pub- 
 lished "in all future editions of the Book of Worship 
 and the Book of Worship with tunes." 
 
 A feature that has never been wanting to the Lu- 
 theran Church is the observance of the great festivals 
 of the Christian Year, Christmas, Good Friday, Easter, 
 Ascension and Whitsunday. Though maintained 
 
Distinguishing Doctrines. 521 
 
 also by a few others, they are peculiarly precious to 
 the Lutheran Church, since in consonance with her 
 system of doctrine they exalt Christ. They magnify 
 his incarnation," his atoning death, his triumphant 
 resurrection, his glorious return to the Father, his out- 
 pouring of the Holy Ghost. These events are the im- 
 movable foundations of Christianity. 
 
 Doctrine and worship exert a potent influence up- 
 on thought and character, and peculiar types of doc- 
 trine and worship will have their counterparts in types 
 of piety, and peculiarities of spiritual life. The char- 
 acteristics of the fruit are the outcome of the root. 
 
 With the cardinal position of justification by faith in 
 the Lutheran system, there is absolute freedom from 
 the shackles of the law. 1 1 was the work of the Luther- 
 ans to restore and enthrone Pauline theology, and un- 
 der its sway believers come to realize their unqualified 
 freedom from every yoke and burden. Knowing by 
 the Scriptures that they are " the children of God by 
 faith in Christ Jesus," they behold in God not a despot 
 but a dear Father. We are under grace, not under the 
 law, children, not servants, obeying from the heart and 
 not by constraint of external precepts. The obedi- 
 ence of a child is nobler than that of a servant. A 
 spontaneous service is infinitely better than an en- 
 forced one. The law within the heart working out- 
 wardly, impelling to cheerful, holy obedience, develops 
 a Christian character which can never be reached by 
 any law of outward observances. And it is a surer 
 safeguard against both antinomianism and spiritual 
 sloth. Having peace with God through faith and hav- 
 ing the indwelling Spirit, the innermost promptings of 
 
.522 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 the heart will ever move men to ask " what can we 
 render unto the Lord for all his benefits to us." 
 
 A childlike faith, spiritual freedom, a calm, cheerful, 
 sunny frame, such as Wesley beheld in the storm- 
 tossed Salzburgers, are wont to mark those who have 
 been reared on the Lutheran faith and have grown up 
 in its healthful atmosphere. They strive after holiness 
 in temper and life " not for the sake of winning Heaven, 
 or escaping Hell," but from love to him who first loved 
 us. Their chief concern is to have continual fellow- 
 ship with God, the strength of their heart and their 
 portion forever. 
 
 The Lutheran Church is of course, like the other 
 historic communions, somewhat affected by environ- 
 ment. She has not always had a free, normal, un- 
 trammelled development. The oak does not attain the 
 same grandeur and symmetry in every climate or in 
 every variety of soil. So the Lutheran body, " the 
 purest and sublimest of churches," has sometimes 
 been dwarfed and warped, hindered in her noble prog- 
 ress, deprived of her true glory. Yet none who know 
 this majestic tree of life, whose leaves have been the 
 healing of untold millions, will deny that under favor- 
 able circumstances its character and fruits are what 
 they are here represented. 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 PRESENT STRENGTH OF THE EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN 
 CHURCH IN THE UNITED STATES AND EUROPE. 
 
 Synodical Conference, . 
 
 1,221 
 
 1,810 
 
 362,000 
 
 General Council, . 
 
 895 
 
 1.576 
 
 270,076 
 
 •General Synod, 
 
 997 
 
 1,364 
 
 153,064 
 
 United Synod, 
 
 186 
 
 392 
 
 33,625 
 
 Independent Synods, 
 
 ■ i>i3 2 
 
 2,562 
 
 263,943 
 
 Disconnected with Synods, 
 
 83 
 
 100 
 
 1 7,000 
 
 THE numerical strength of the Lutheran Church in 
 this country reaches, according to the latest sta- 
 tistics attainable (1889), a total of 4,514 minis- 
 ters, 7,804 congregations, 1,099,708 communicants 
 Of these there are embraced in the 
 
 Ministers. Congregations. Communicants. 
 
 1,810 362,000 
 
 1,576 270,076 
 
 1,364 I53, 64 
 
 392 33,625 
 
 2,562 263,943 
 
 IOO 17,000 
 
 No proper conception can be had of the strength 
 which these numbers indicate except by comparison. 
 Measured by the past they reveal the mighty hand of 
 God in the planting and progress of the Church in 
 America. The vast increase is of God. By his grace 
 feeble beginnings have developed into a powerful 
 communion. 
 
 Not many years ago the Lutheran Church was 
 classified "among the smaller Presbyterian bodies." 
 She was virtually unknown and unrecognized, scarcely 
 mentioned in statistical tables. Since then she has 
 overtaken one after the other of the tribes until she is 
 acknowledged among the largest and most influential 
 denominations of the land. 
 
 523 
 
5 2 4 
 
 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 An approximate estimate of the Church's numbers 
 for the last century gives the following: 
 
 Year. 
 
 Ministers. 
 
 Congregations. 
 
 Communicants 
 
 1780, 
 
 70 
 
 300 
 
 
 1814, 
 
 8S 
 
 380 
 
 40,000 
 
 1823, 
 
 *75 
 
 600 
 
 45,000 
 
 1833. 
 
 300 
 
 680 
 
 57,000 
 
 I»4Si 
 
 520 
 
 1,030 
 
 145,000 
 
 1853= 
 
 850 
 
 I.7SO 
 
 200,000' 
 
 1863, 
 
 I.43 1 
 
 2,677 
 
 285,217 
 
 1868, 
 
 1,748 
 
 3. 111 
 
 351,860. 
 
 1873, 
 
 2,309 
 
 4,115 
 
 485,080' 
 
 1878, 
 
 2,910 
 
 5^36 
 
 650,5 2 9' 
 
 i88 3 ; 
 
 , 3.429 
 
 6,130 
 
 785,987 
 
 1885. 
 
 3.720 
 
 7.037 
 
 893,202 
 
 Her comparative rank among the evangelical 
 Churches of this country appears according to the 
 latest statistics : 
 
 The Methodists Number 
 
 4,747> I 3° 
 
 The Baptists " 
 
 3.9 74,5 8 9< 
 
 The Presbyterians " 
 
 1,259,234 
 
 The Lutherans " 
 
 1,099,708 
 
 The Congregationalists Number 
 
 475,608 
 
 The Episcopalians " 
 
 459,642 
 
 The Reformed " ... 
 
 277,632- 
 
 Figures yield, however, an unsatisfactory and inade- 
 quate exhibit of a church's strength. Numbers are no' 
 proper expression of moral forces. Mathematics do' 
 not apply to what is spiritual. In that sphere one 
 and one may be more than two and two. Statistics 
 may include clergy, communicants and congregations 
 that weaken rather than strengthen a church. They 
 maybe minus quantities. One earnest soul may count 
 
Present Strength. 525 
 
 for more than multitudes who have the form but not 
 the power of godliness. 
 
 A Lutheran congregation may be equal to a Meth- 
 odist one, or to a Presbyterian, or to an Episcopalian. 
 It may also, though numerically and externally weaker, 
 represent more than either or many of these. Pri- 
 marily the question is how much Christian truth does 
 it represent? For what compass of the Gospel does 
 it stand ? What is the degree of its spiritual endow- 
 ment? To what extent is it the body of Christ? 
 
 Surely in this the strength of the Lutheran Church 
 is nowhere surpassed, is equalled by none. She holds 
 and preaches the truth as it is in Jesus with a fullness 
 and emphasis heard nowhere else. Salvation by faith 
 alone, Christ the center of all her teaching, Christ ex- 
 alted in her pulpit, her festivals and her liturgies, herein 
 lies the essential strength of the Lutheran Church. "If 
 the Lutheran Church does not compass the truth and 
 salvation of God, they are not to be found on earth." 
 And, what is of preeminent value, her faith is clearly 
 defined and fully set forth in her Symbols, which are 
 becoming more and more the study of her ministers, 
 and adhered to with a firmness that has no parallel in 
 any other Church. 
 
 A transcendent feature of her strength is the instruc- 
 tion of the young. She is the only Protestant com- 
 munion that has retained the Catechism as an indis- 
 pensable feature of religious training, as she is also 
 the only one that to any extent retains in her hands 
 general education. In Sunday-school work the Eng- 
 lish congregations are surpassed by none, and in many 
 localities their superior efficiency is unchallenged. 
 
526 
 
 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 With four thousand pastors annually catechising 
 the young, with some 300,000 children taught in par- 
 ish schools, with more than half a million reared in well- 
 conducted Sunday-schools, the Lutheran Church has 
 an incalculable element of power that wins admira- 
 tion from all who are acquainted with her. 
 
 Faithfully nurturing and guarding her own, she 
 shows, besides, an aggressiveness, a missionary zeal 
 and a general prevalence and growth of liberality, that 
 indicate an immeasurable capacity for extension, while 
 her ministry along with their fidelity in preaching ob- 
 
 GASTON COLLEGE, DALLAS, N. C. 
 
 jective truth, have no superiors in learning, in self-sac- 
 rifice and consecration. 
 
 Features like these rather than statistical tables 
 show the essential and effective strength of a church. 
 Not the muster roll of an army, but its fighting capac- 
 ity, its morale, and above all, the justice of its cause 
 represent its real power. 
 
 An approximate measurement of the strength of the 
 Lutheran Church may also be obtained from the fol- 
 lowing exhibit of her principal educational institu- 
 
Present Strength. 
 
 52 7 
 
 tions, the most powerful human agencies for promot- 
 ing her efficiency and growth : 
 
 THEOLOGICAL SEMINARIES. 
 Name. Opened. Location. Profs. Studs. 
 
 Hartwick, . , . .1816, Hartwick Sem., 3 15 
 
 Seminary of General Synod, . 1826, Gettysburg, Pa., 
 
 Theolog. Dept. of Capital University, 1830, Columbus, Ohio, 
 
 Southern, . ... 
 Theolog. Dept. of Wittenberg Col., 
 Concordia, . . . . 
 
 Wartburg, . . . . 
 
 Theolog. Dept., Miss'ry Institute, 
 Philadelphia, . . . . 
 Swedish Augustana, 
 Augsburg Augustana, . 
 Practical Concordia, 
 Norwegian-Danish Augustana, 
 Wisconsin Synod's, 
 Hauge's Red Wing, 
 German of General Synod, . 
 Minnesota Synod's, 
 Michigan Synod's, 
 Norwegian, . 
 Two Danish, 
 
 1830, Newberry, S. C, 
 
 1845, Springfield, O., 
 
 1846, St. Louis, Mo., 
 1854, Dubuque, la., 
 1858, Selins Grove, Pa., 
 1864, Philadelphia, Pa., 
 1864, Rock Island, 111., 
 1869, Minneapolis,Minn.3 
 
 1873, Springfield, 111., 3 
 
 1874, Beloit, Iowa, 2 
 
 1878, Milwaukee, Wis. 3 
 
 1879, RedWing, Minn., 2 
 1881, Chicago, 111., 3 
 
 1884, New Ulm, Minn., 2 
 
 1885, Saginaw, Mich., 3 
 
 1886, Northfield, Minn., 2 
 
 4 
 
 S3 
 30 
 4 
 18 
 109 
 64. 
 
 !3 
 
 65 
 48 
 
 34- 
 194 
 
 9 
 
 33 
 36 
 
 l 9 
 12 
 
 18 
 2 3 
 
 21 
 
 Three Norwegian Seminaries are about to consoli- 
 date at Minneapolis and will open with five professors. 
 
 Name. 
 
 Pennsylvania College, 
 Wittenberg College, 
 Concordia College, 
 Capital University, 
 Roanoke College, . 
 Newberry College, . 
 North Carolina College, 
 
 COLLEGES. 
 
 Founded. Locality. 
 
 1832, Gettysburg, Pa., 
 1845, Springfield, O., 
 
 1849, Fort Wayne, Ind., 
 
 1850, Columbus, O., 
 1853, Salem, Va., 
 1858, Newberry, S. C, 
 1858, Mt. Pleasant, N. C, 
 
 Profs. 
 
 Studs. 
 
 14 
 
 205 
 
 18 
 
 250 
 
 7 
 
 160 
 
 8 
 
 148 
 
 II 
 
 140 
 
 8 
 
 67 
 
 S 
 
 57 
 
.528 
 
 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 Name, 
 
 Augustana College, 
 Luther College, 
 Northwestern University, 
 Muhlenberg College, 
 Wartburg College, . 
 Augsburg College, . 
 Carthage College, . 
 Thiel College, 
 Gustavus Adolph. College, 
 Bethany Col. and Nor. Ins., 
 Concordia College, 
 Wagner Memorial College, 
 Midland College, 
 
 Founded. Location. 
 
 i860, Rock Island, 111., 
 1861, Decorah, la., 
 1865, Watertown, Wis., 
 
 1867, Allentown, Pa., 
 
 1868, Waverly, la. 
 
 1869, Minneapolis, Minn., 
 
 1870, Carthage, 111., 
 1870, Greenville, Pa., 
 1876, St. Peter, Minn., 
 
 1 88 1, Lindsborg, Kan., 
 
 1882, Conover, N. C, 
 1885, Rochester, N. Y., 
 1887, Atchinson, Kan., 
 
 rofs. 
 
 Studs. 
 
 30 
 
 194 
 
 9 
 
 131 
 
 7 
 
 161 
 
 11 
 
 I5 1 
 
 6 
 
 65 
 
 5 
 
 90 
 
 4 
 
 87 
 
 10 
 
 III 
 
 J 9 
 
 272 
 
 1.3 
 
 2 5 J 
 
 7 
 
 162 
 
 5 
 
 5 1 
 
 5 
 
 70 
 
 Hartwick Seminary with 7 Professors and 95 students and the Mis- 
 sionary Institute, with 8 Professors and 90 students, at Selins Grove, 
 Penn., are institutions of a higher grade, preparing men for advanced 
 •college classes. 
 
 There are numerous flourishing Female Seminaries 
 which, by the higher education of women, contribute 
 an incalculable momentum to the advance and influ- 
 ence of the Church. 
 
 To the educational institutions are yet to be added 
 the flourishing Publishing Houses, which issue a great 
 mass of literature in some half dozen languages. The 
 total number of periodicals is at least 131. Of these 
 42 are English, 53 German, 24 Norwegian or Danish, 
 9 Swedish, 2 Icelandic, and 1 Finnish. 
 
 In connection with the exhibit of the strength of 
 the Lutheran Church in this country, her numbers in 
 Europe are presented below. The facts that she pos- 
 sesses more territory than any other two of the great 
 Protestant families, and embraces a population al- 
 most as large as all other Evangelical bodies com- 
 
Present Strength. 529 
 
 bined, make a moral addition to her strength here 
 that is of great significance. 
 
 In this country the statistics represent only actual 
 communicants. In Europe they indicate generally the 
 aggregate population comprised within the Lutheran 
 State Churches. 
 
 THE LUTHERANS NUMBER AS FOLLOWS : 
 
 Denmark, Norway and Sweden, . . 8,508,000 
 German Empire, omitting the Reformed in the Prussian 
 
 Union, . . . 24,483,000 
 
 Austro- Hungary, ....... 1,550,000 
 
 Russia, .... 5,060,000 
 
 France, England, Holland, &c, . 225,000 
 
 Add those in Africa, Asia and Australia, . . 298,000 
 " " America, including Brazil, West Indies, and 
 
 Greenland . . 1,152,000 
 
 Total in the world, 41,276,000 
 
 These are comprised in 36,000 congregations, and 
 ministered to by more than 25,000 clergy. 
 
CHAPTER XX. 
 
 THE FUTURE OF THE LUTHERAN CHURCH. 
 
 IT has been no easy task to sketch the past and 
 present of the Lutheran Church in America. It 
 seems presumptuous to attempt the delineation of 
 her future. Yet coming events cast their shadows be- 
 fore. The humblest sower forms an idea of what 
 the harvest will be. Growth depends indeed largely 
 on conditions, yet the sapling is the promise of a 
 mighty oak. 
 
 The church is a tree of life, and it is the nature of 
 spiritual as of physical life to grow, to develop in 
 strength and dimensions. With the quick and quick- 
 ening Word coursing through her veins, the inherent 
 vitality of the Lutheran Church, tested and strength- 
 ened as it has been by storms of adversity, is itself the 
 pledge of boundless increase. 
 
 The conspicuous interpositions of Providence for 
 her preservation and progress in this western world, 
 vouch furthermore for the future favor of the Most 
 High. It was God that brought her across the deep, 
 that laid her foundations in this land, that protected 
 her in crises of supreme peril. The waters have roared 
 around her until the mountains shook with the swell- 
 ing thereof, but God has been at once her refuge and 
 her strength, her "feste Burg," so that in the face of 
 overwhelming odds she has advanced to marvellous 
 prosperity. Review the ordeals through which the 
 
 53° 
 
The Future of the Lutheran Church. 531 
 
 Church was called to pass for many years, the poverty 
 and the wrongs of her early colonists, the ravages of 
 protracted wars, the paralysis of rationalism, the dis- 
 persion and disorganization of her material, the havoc 
 of proselyting sects, and more trying than all, the 
 strain put upon her by the language conflict, and then 
 on that dark background, strive to behold her present 
 extent and power, and the heathen even, must cry out 
 "the Lord hath done great things for them," to .which 
 we exultantly respond " the Lord hath done great 
 things for us ; whereof we are glad." 
 
 It is a miracle that the Lutheran Church is not ex- 
 tinct in America. What shall be said of her triumph- 
 ant progress in the face of successive and over- 
 whelming adversities! She has not only maintained 
 her existence but she has come forth from her ad- 
 versities purer, stronger, more united and more active, 
 her roots growing deeper, her trunk mightier as the 
 storms have swayed her to and fro. No other church 
 has labored under the difficulties, disadvantages and 
 struggles to which the Lutheran has been subjected, 
 and yet no other has in the last forty years shown 
 such a ratio of progress. In some large districts 
 she has gained more within a quarter of a century 
 than all the other evangelical churches combined. 
 
 For a long time her growth had been slow, much 
 impeded and often intermitted, but slowness, too, is a 
 virtue in some cases, and great things in nature, 
 history or grace are never sudden. When at last 
 it became rapid, the sure warrant of its reality and 
 soundness was the fact of its manifestation in every 
 sphere. There has been vast progress not only in 
 
532 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 numbers, but in Confessional fidelity, in Churchly 
 practice, in Church love, in conviction and enthusiasm, 
 in efficient organization, in education, in missionary 
 activity, in benevolence. The advance in every re- 
 spect is so marvellous that many can hardly believe 
 it. Think of the Lutherans fifty years ago: "Pos- 
 sessed of a language mostly foreign, widely scat- 
 tered over an immense territory, destitute of facilities 
 for education in the spirit and learning of our Church, 
 poorly supplied with the regular ministrations of the 
 Word and Sacraments, often distracted with strifes 
 about what language they were to worship in, without 
 a literature worthy of the name, — lacking in efficient 
 organization, assailed on all sides by the ignorant or 
 wilful misrepresentations of the denominations around 
 them, and made the prey of proselyting sects." 
 
 Then there was no missionary fund and not a single 
 "missionary preacher in all the land wholly given up 
 to the work." Now the number of those wholly or in 
 part doing missionary work is not less than one 
 thousand, and the amounts annually expended on 
 this cause reach hundreds of thousands, while the 
 liberality of the people towards the cause of mis- 
 sions and education, has been steadily improving 
 until gifts of $5,000 to $25,000 are not unusual, and 
 legacies of $50,000 to $100,000 are reported. Then 
 there was one English and probably a German period- 
 ical, each with a few hundred subscribers. Now there 
 are altogether over one hundred and thirty Church 
 journals bearing light to one million of readers. 
 Humble beginnings of theological education had been 
 started in a few centers. Now not less than 21 semi- 
 
The Future of the Lutheran Church. 533 
 
 naries, with 69 professors and 700 students seek to 
 meet the growing wants of the Church. Then there 
 was a single college, feeble and struggling, now there 
 are twenty, some in equipment and attendance ranking 
 with the better colleges of the country, with millions 
 of dollars invested in property, libraries and endow- 
 ment, and thousands of young men receiving a liberal 
 education, a large proportion of them, about 1,500 pre- 
 paring for the ministry. 
 
 With the exception of the writings of Dr. S. S. 
 Schmucker, there was a generation ago hardly any 
 literature in the English tongue setting forth the his- 
 tory, character and claims of the Lutheran Church; 
 to-day, though much is yet to be desired, there is a 
 a number of solid volumes that ofter a fair exhibit 
 of her distinguishing excellences. 
 
 The time was, and not so very long ago, when others 
 did not know the Lutheran Church, when in fact she 
 hardly knew herself, when she seemed afraid of her 
 true self, when her children had no appreciation of 
 their patrimonial possessions, when her champions 
 were always on the defensive and some were fain to 
 apologize for their ecclesiastical connection. At pres- 
 ent the Lutheran people exult in their birthright. They 
 havebecome alive to the peculiar glory of their Church, 
 conscious of her strength and relative position, and 
 cognisant of her incomparable opportunities. Igno- 
 rance of the Lutheran Church no longer airs itself, 
 but blushes at its exposure. Where once the tide 
 bore ministers and people away from Lutheran altars, 
 it is now bringing in not a few from other altars. 
 While formerly Lutherans quoted the practices of 
 

 w% - - m 
 
 ft*s3ili|g ~~ 
 
 1 
 
The Future of the Lutheran Church. 535 
 
 others as presumptively correct, it is not uncommon 
 now to see Lutheran usage pointed to as a valid 
 endorsement of what is desired. The immense sigmifi- 
 cance of all this is beyond description. It forms an 
 inestimable element of hope in the future of Luther- 
 anism, and this hope itself is a force of measureless 
 possibilities. Once all was discouragement. Now a 
 prospect opens to the Lutheran Church such as no 
 other communion commands. 
 
 If then notwithstanding trials and struggles un- 
 known to other churches, the Lutheran Church has 
 steadily progressed, doubling her numbers on an aver- 
 age every thirteen years, if with the most limited out- 
 ward resources and equipments, she has startled the 
 public mind by the prosperity and power she has 
 attained, what may she not be expected to accomplish 
 with the vantage ground she now holds, a situation 
 full of inspiration and of hope. 
 
 Struggles and trials will doubtless still oppose her 
 progress. Problems remain to be solved, glaring 
 weaknesses and disadvantages are yet to be overcome, 
 but she has no longer to contend with many of the 
 most formidable obstacles that once blocked her 
 path. And her discouragements are insignificant com- 
 pared with those of some other bodies. 
 
 One vital problem pressing upon the Church is her 
 adjustment to the demands of our country and age. 
 Another is the fuller occupation of the large cities 
 with English congregations. Happily she is con- 
 scious of her need and duty in these things, and favor- 
 able changes are here also apparent. The total of 
 Lutheran Churches in many of the principal cities is 
 
536 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 encouraging. New York has 20, Philadelphia 34, Bal- 
 timore 18, Washington 11, Pittsburg 18, Omaha 10, 
 Portland 8, San Francisco 8. An increasing propor- 
 tion of these is English. Sixteen years ago Balti- 
 more had 4 English Churches. Now it has 12. 
 The English membership was then 995, now it it 
 nearly 4,500. 
 
 Whatever circumstances may work to the future 
 detriment of the Church, it is very manifest that in 
 many respects she possesses extraordinary advan- 
 tages. 
 
 First. — Of all churches she holds the purest, clear- 
 est, most definite and most complete system of scrip- 
 tural doctrine. She is firmly grounded on her Sym- 
 bols, and these stand immovable amid the upheaval 
 and tumult that are shaking some other creeds. While 
 some are seeking in desperation to adjust their faith to 
 modern thought or scientific discovery, the Lutherans 
 know of nothing in their creed that has become unset- 
 tled, nothing that has to be given up. Not the faintest 
 voice is heard for a revision of her standards. " Her 
 confessional position and consequent church life," says 
 Dr. Valentine, "represent the best and truest outflow 
 of genuine Christianity." From a church that holds 
 the truth in love and loyalty the Holy Ghost will 
 never depart. 
 
 Second. — One of the brightest signs of her future is 
 her custom of inculcating this faith in her children. It 
 is not an idle boast that by her catechisation she gives 
 them an education that is without parallel. And who 
 can tell the full import of such indoctrination in this 
 skeptical age? With religious instruction banished 
 
The Future of the Lutheran Chtirch. 537 
 
 from our public schools, with infidelity wantonly taint- 
 ing our literature, with a godless press read at every 
 fireside, with unsanctified science aiming its shafts 
 at the most holy truths, with rampant sensualism and 
 worldliness, it may well be feared whether the multi- 
 tude can be held to Christianity unless they have been 
 rooted in it and grounded in it in childhood. 
 
 Third. — As she is the church of the children, so 
 she is the church of the people. It is no discredit to 
 her that she does not attract the devotees of fashion, 
 or that she fails to satisfy some who prefer social 
 standing to spiritual improvement, but wherever a 
 Lutheran congregation has become properly estab- 
 lished, her teachings and her usages are wont to com- 
 mend themselves to the thoughtful. 
 
 Fourth. — Her present numerical strength is a pledge 
 of a great future. Her communicants number 1,100,- 
 000 souls. The children in her homes number no less. 
 Including these more than 2,000,000 of a baptized 
 membership, it is estimated that there are to-day in 
 the United States 7,000,000 people who properly be- 
 long to the Lutheran household of faith, who look to 
 the Lutheran Church for whatever spiritual ministra- 
 tions they receive. And this grand total is steadily 
 increasing from the native population and through 
 the multitudes that come hither annually from the 
 Lutheran lands across the sea. Nor is it without 
 meaning for the future that although the Lutherans 
 have failed to occupy fully some of the great centers 
 in the East, they have spread themselves everywhere 
 over the great West. Nearly all of the Scandinavians 
 have settled west of Lake Michigan, and two-thirds 
 
538 
 
 The Lutherans in America. 
 
 of the Germans west of Buffalo. In a number of 
 western states the Lutheran population preponder- 
 ates. The uniform story, persistently repeated by 
 the representatives of other bodies, is that the vast- 
 ness of the Lutheran field is beyond all compari- 
 son, that multitudes are waiting to be gathered by 
 her shepherds. 
 
 Fifth. — Another great element of future strength is 
 the conservative character of this immense Lutheran 
 
 E. V. L. ST. JOHN'S ORPHAN HOME (FOR GIRLS), BUFFALO, N. Y.. 
 
 population. Whether it comes from foreign shores or 
 is born in this land, the solidity and sterling virtues 
 of this stock are unsurpassed. Jts industry and thrift, 
 its peaceableness and intelligence, make it the choice 
 and the enduring element of the nation. Underlying 
 these virtues are the sturdy health and physical stam- 
 ina which characterize these people and make them 
 prolific beyond all others. They form a race whose 
 physical and spiritual attributes are the pledges of 
 large families. To it belongs the future of this country 
 
The Future of the Lutheran Church. 539 
 
 and from it by God's grace the Church of the Reforma- 
 tion will have its future growth as it has had its past. 
 
 Sixth. — Another striking advantage of the Lutheran 
 Church is her polyglot character. She can teach and 
 preach in every tongue spoken in this country by Pro- 
 testants, and in her numerous seminaries she is edu- 
 cating preachers to minister to the English, the Ger- 
 man, the Swede, the Norwegian, whatever may be the 
 language of any wanderer to her altars. 
 
 Seventh. — Not the least of her advantages is her 
 prestige, her name, her glorious history. It is some- 
 thing to be a Lutheran, to belong to a church whose 
 roots penetrate the soil of four centuries and may 
 readily be traced to the Apostolic age. A church that 
 is not the product of a day, or of a generation or two,. 
 has the promise of a future such as is not assured to 
 the religious mushroom growths of our age. 
 
 To these infallible signs of the rapid extension and 
 glorious future of the Lutheran Church might be ad- 
 ded that manifest trend of the Evangelical Churches 
 toward some of the most prominent features of Lu- 
 theranism. Notice the demand of the day for a 
 Christo-centric theology, which is the soul of the Lu- 
 theran system ; the higher view of the Sacraments 
 which many are seeking after, and which have been a 
 conspicuous mark of Lutheranism ; the growing pop- 
 ularity of the Church Festivals, notwithstanding the 
 amazing course of the International Committee in 
 keeping them out of the Sunday Schools ; the general 
 "groping in the dark for a better service," for some- 
 thing "to render the service of worship more vigorous 
 and impressive," feeling after such helps as have al- 
 
54° The Lutherans in America. 
 
 ways been embraced in the Lutheran Liturgies. Are 
 not these strivings the unmistakable symptoms of a 
 powerful yearning in the minds of others for those 
 treasures which the Lutherans have always possessed? 
 Any disinterested and devout observer must recog- 
 nize in these phenomena the hand of Divine Provi- 
 dence. And surely her own children, who survey the 
 past of the Lutheran Church in this country and be- 
 hold her present growth, who have faith in the Gos- 
 pel and know to what extent their Church is its em- 
 bodiment, must share the conviction, neither forced nor 
 faltering, that in the days to come, her doctrines will 
 be sown over every foot of the soil of this great coun- 
 try as sure as the sun rises. 
 
 "Gottes Wort und Luthers Lehr 
 Vergehet nun und nimmermehr." 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Page. 
 Acrelius, 266, 477 
 
 Aloany, ii8,i2t, 129, 131, 217 
 
 America and Roman Catholicism. 108 f 
 
 Amsdorf, 97 f 
 
 Anhalt, Prince of, 104 f 
 
 Anne, Queen, 175, 178, 203, 205 
 
 Arensius, Rev. B A., 130 ff 
 
 Arndt's "True Christianity," 186, 221 
 
 Articles, XXXIX, 508 
 
 Athens, 217 
 
 Augsburg Confession, 219, 251, 260, 262, 
 339. 342f. 34°. 363. 365 ff, 371. 374 433. 
 43 s . 458, 464 f, 467, 47z> 505 U 5" f 
 Bachman, Rev. J., 465, 467, 475, 488 f 
 
 Baser, Rev. J. G., 266, 307 f 
 
 Baltimore, Church in, 296, 301, 307 f, 503 
 Baptism, Infant, 516 
 
 Bapiists, 515 f 
 
 Bassler, Rev. G., 435, 450 
 
 Baugher, Rev. H. L., 308, 480 
 
 fcserkenmeier, Kev. W. C, 179, 209, 217, 
 219, 229, 253 f, 287 f 
 Hole Society, 494 f 
 
 Httie, Rev. D. F., 463, 475 
 
 Bjurk, Kev E., 159, 161, 165, 173 
 
 Bolzius, Rev. J. M., 194, 202, 246 
 
 Brenz, 104 
 
 Brown, Rev. J. A., 369ft' 
 
 Brunnholtz, Rev. P., 254 f 
 
 Bucer, 507 
 
 Buenger, Rev., 411 ff 
 
 Buffalo S; nod, 389, 404 f, 424 f 
 
 Bugenhagen, 98 f 
 
 Butler, Rev. J. G., 309 f 
 
 Calvinism, si5f, 519; Intolerant. 1 14 ff, H9ff 
 Campanius, Kev. J., 137, 149, 159 
 
 Canada S) nod. 449 
 
 Canstein, Baron von, 495 
 
 Carlsson, Kev. E., 453 f 
 
 Carolina*, Lu heran Church in, 127, 355 f 
 Carpenter, Rev. \\ ., 311 
 
 Catechisation, 377 f, 462, 482 ff, 525 f, 536 f 
 Catechism, Anglican, 510 
 
 Heidelberg, 512 
 
 Luther's, 36s, 374, ",90, 482 
 
 translated into an Indian tongue, 141, 
 
 J 59 f . 39° 
 Charles XI, 154, 158, lto 
 
 C harlestim. 202, 306, 475 
 
 Christianity Essence of, 26 f, 29, 88 
 
 Christ, Person of, 517 f; the center, 518 f 
 ( hristina, 135, 142, 162 f 
 
 Church, indestructible, 21 f; corrupt, 23 ff, 
 29, 33, 40 ff; a brotherhood, 36; a po- 
 litical power, 38; authority, 01; uni- 
 versal, 85; rights, St.f 
 
 Page. 
 
 Church, Lutheran, 73f, 78;of God, — ;atrue 
 
 Church, 83 f; no new t hurch. 84, 87 ff; 
 
 differs from Roman Catholic, 514; trials 
 
 in America, 210 — 232, 280 f, 296, 399, 
 
 530 f ; Pol glot, 282, 528, 538; progress; 
 
 2 94. 3°7. 53* ! strength, 523 ff, 537 ; in 
 
 cities, 53s f ; in Europe, 528 f, 535;,moth- 
 
 erof Protestantism, 505 f; no sect, 506; 
 
 distinctive features, 519 ff; future, 530 ff 
 
 Colleges, 527 f, 533 
 
 Columbus, 107 
 
 Common Prayer, Eook of, 509 f 
 
 C oncord, Book of, 375, 458 
 
 Concordia Seminary, 4 1 1 
 
 I onference, S nodical, 385 f 
 
 Consubstantiation, 517 
 
 Conventicles, 115, 117 f, 122 
 
 Conversion, 426, 428 
 
 Cortez, 108 
 
 Council, General, 393, 432 ff, 456, 500 f 
 
 1 overdale s bible, 507 
 
 ( ranmer, 508 ff 
 
 Cruciger, 103 1" 
 
 Panish Synods, 403 f 
 
 Denmark, 492 f 
 
 Deaconess Institutes, 485 f 
 
 I eclension, Moral, 40 f, 279 f 
 
 Definite Platform, 344 f, 369 
 
 Discipline Formula of, 336 f 
 
 Doctrines, Lutheran, 513 f 
 
 Dutch Lutherans, 108 f; first in America, 
 
 111; persecuted, 113, 117 f, 119, I2if; 
 
 organized, 124 f; erect a church, 125 
 
 Dutch Persecutors, 113, n6f, I2iff, 139, 
 
 I42f. 147; moderate aggressions of, 
 
 I36f, 1.12; conquered by English, 146 
 
 Dylander, Rev., 248, 286 
 
 East Pennsylvania Synod, 361 
 
 Lbenezer, t95f, 204, 245f, 256, 272 
 
 Education, 196, 293^ 297, 3 i8f, 348f. 375, 
 
 429, 474, 476ft', 525 
 
 Society, 349 f 
 
 Endress, Rev. Christian, 302 
 
 England, * hurch of 507f 
 
 English Services, 167, 261, 283ff, 298, 302, 
 306, 312, 343 359, 361, 381, 397, 44L 
 452, 46of 
 Episcopal Church established in the v_ar- 
 
 ohnas, 127 
 
 Episcopalians, 179, 272, 287, 314, 461, 
 515; cared for by the Swedes, 2&4f; 
 indebted to the Lutherans, so7f 
 
 Ernst, the Pious, 49if 
 
 Esbjorn, Rev. L. P., 453 
 
 Fabricius, Rev. J., I29f, I47ff, 151, 153, 234 
 1' aith, Essence of, 33, 35 
 
542 
 
 Index. 
 
 Falckner. Rev J., 
 
 Falckner's Swamp, 
 
 Fanaticism, 
 
 Festivals, 
 
 Flohr, Rev. George D., 
 
 Forts turned into Churches 
 
 Fort Wayne, 
 
 Francke, A H., 
 
 • G. A., 
 
 Page. 
 
 I72f, 179, 209 
 
 1 721, 234, 247 
 
 2231, 227 
 
 52of, S39 
 
 148 
 4161, 41S 
 
 493 
 
 I93ff, 2i s, 236, 238ff, 243, 
 
 261, 264 
 
 Franckean Synod, 366ft' 
 
 Franklin, Benjamin, 31S, 479 
 
 Franklin College, 3ig, 479 
 
 Free Cities, 47 
 
 French Indian War, 2751 
 
 French Reformers, 78, 81 
 
 Friedt-richs. Rev. John G-, 202 
 
 Fritschel, Rev. G., 383, 3931 
 
 Rev. S., 3S71 
 
 Geissenhainer, Rev. F. W., 304, 321 
 
 Georgia 187, 193 
 
 Germ. .n, clamor for, 291*; 
 
 injury to the Church, 2931 
 
 Emigrants, large numbers of, 17 f, 
 
 i98f, 2coff; testimony to, 199, 2iof; 
 
 poverty and trials of, 2ioff, 2i8ff, 224ff, 
 
 2301', 235, 290 
 
 Society of Pennsylvania, 202, 319 
 
 Germantown 218 
 
 Germany founding no Colonies, 169, 
 
 215, 491 
 
 helping the Lutherans in America, 
 
 238, 344 
 Gerock, Rev. J. S., 266, 296, 301 
 
 GiesenJanner, Rev. John Ulrich, 203, 217 
 
 Goering, Rev. Jacob, 
 
 Goetwaier. Rev. John Ernest. 
 
 Grabau, Rev. J. A. A., 
 
 Gronau, Rev. Israel C, 
 
 Grossman, Rev. G., 
 
 Grundtxig, 
 
 Gunn, Rev. Walter, 
 
 Guntur, 
 
 Gustavus Adolphus 
 
 Hackensack, 
 Halle, 
 
 Handschuh, Rev J, F., 
 Hanover, 
 
 Hartwkk Seminary, 
 Hartwig, Rev., 
 Hasselquist, Rev. T. N., 
 Hauge, 
 
 S nod, 
 
 Hazelius, Rev. E. L , 
 Heathenism, Essence of, 
 
 301 f 
 
 I2lf 
 
 404. 4'3f 
 I94f 
 
 387 
 
 400 
 
 500 
 
 Soof 
 
 133; a martyr to 
 
 Protestantism, 134 
 
 209, 228 
 235ff, 242f, 254, 2to, 493f 
 
 257f, 262, 2S4 
 256 
 
 32°. 35Sf 
 253, 266, 320 
 
 453' 
 
 395, 400 
 
 356, 400f, 403 
 
 3 2 °. 355 
 
 28; reacting on 
 
 Christianity, 25, 26, 28 
 
 Hebron r hurch, 205f, 311 
 
 Heinzelman, Rev. J. D. M., 264 
 
 Helmulh, Rev. J. H. C , 264, 2g7ff, 
 
 3i9i 473 
 Helmstaedt, 304, 315 
 
 Henkel, Rev. David, 374 
 
 Page. 
 Henkel, Rev. Gerhard, 234, 308 
 
 Rev. Paul, 3oSf, 314 
 
 Rev. Philip, 372f 
 
 Dr S. G., 377 
 
 Herrnhuter, 171 
 
 He er, Rev. C. F., 312, 499f 
 
 Holland, Lutherans in, inf, ii3f 
 
 Hospitals, 485 
 
 Humboldt on fifteenth century, 45 
 
 Hunter, Governor, i7gf 
 
 Huss, 75, 78, 81 
 
 Icelandic Association, 404 
 
 Illinois Synod, 369, 42sf, 438 
 
 Northern, Synod, 454 
 
 Impostors, 223^ 248, 252, 257 
 
 India 493f, 499f 
 
 Indians friendly to the Swedes, 136, 143, 
 
 146, 157; to the Germans, iSof; 
 Massacre, 1051 
 
 Indulgences, 
 Infidelity, 
 Iowa Synod, 
 Jacobs, Professor M., 
 James Island. 
 John the Constant, 
 Jonas, 
 
 Justification, 
 Keller, Rev. B., 
 
 Rev. Ezra, 
 
 Knoll, Rev. M. C, 
 Koch, Peter, 
 Kocherthal, Rev. J. von, 
 Krauth, C. P., 
 
 C. P. Jr., 
 
 Krug, Rev. J. A., 
 Kuehn, 
 
 Kunze, Rev. J. C. 
 Kurtz, Kev B,, 
 — r- Rev. J. V., 
 
 Rev. J. N., 
 
 3 off, 6 3 f, 66 
 
 2761, 299 
 
 386ff, 423f, 43 7 f 
 
 480 
 
 127 
 
 I04f 
 
 roif 
 
 58f; central, 82f, 518 
 
 300, 319 
 
 4S6 
 
 179, 228f, 253, 287 
 
 253 
 178? 
 
 347' 
 
 444ff, 4S8 
 
 265 
 
 4 o6f 
 
 26sf, 299f, 3i8ff, 478 
 
 339 f 343 f . i°9 
 
 301 
 
 2S4f, 261, 30of 
 
 Laity in the Reformation, io5f; conduct- 
 ing service, 151, 156. 221, 4Cof 
 Lancaster, 2 18 
 
 Language conflict, 28iff, 44of, 479 
 
 Latiuidinarianism, 3&2f, 374 
 
 Lehman, Professor W. F., 435 
 
 Leibnitz, 4g2f 
 
 Leo X., 63 
 
 Licensure, 316 
 
 Literature, Lutheran, 37$f 
 
 Liturgy, 258, 263, 327, 347. 353, 358 446, 
 463, 46 7 ff, sigf, s 1 
 Livingston, J79 
 
 Lochman, Rev. G., 3°3f. 321 
 
 Lock, Rev. Lars, I42f, 145, 1481, 151 
 
 Loehe, William, 419, 42iff 
 
 Luther, a Roman devotee, 52ff, 73; conver- 
 sion 56ff ; at Worms62, 68; on indul- 
 gences, 66ff; excommunicated, 68; 
 protected, 75f; personality, 8of; con- 
 servatism, 82; above all Reformers, 
 94f; on Missions, 49of 
 
Index. 
 
 543 
 
 Page. 
 
 Lutheran Church, (see Church) Name, goff; 
 Glory of, 92f 
 
 Lutherans, all Reformers 92, 505, 507; not 
 Colonizing, nof ; not political mal- 
 contents 114; a hinderance, 116, 119, 
 123; steadfast, nSf, 124, 157, 220ft'. 
 233, 397; first missionaries in America, 
 139, 141 ; first to practice tolerance. 
 I39f; assisting English reformers, 507 
 
 Lutherans, German, preceded by Dutch 
 and Swedes, i6gf; widely scattered, 
 171, 217ft" ) numbers, 171?, 2i3f, 216; 
 spiritural destitution, 218ft". 23of, 235 
 
 Lutheraner, 'lhe, 414^417,421 
 
 Maine, Lutherans in, 
 
 206ft 
 
 Mann, Rev. W. J., 
 
 488 
 
 Markham, Gov., 
 
 163 
 
 Martin, Rev. J. N., 
 
 300 
 
 Maryland Synod, 
 
 2lf, 342 
 
 Mayer, Rev. P. F., 
 
 292 
 
 Measures, New, 
 
 359, 3°' 
 
 Megapulensis, Rev. J., 
 
 115, 122, 14J 
 
 Melancthon. 
 
 9iff> 5"7> S'° 
 
 Mercy, boundless, 
 
 5'4 
 
 Methodists, 
 
 91, siof, 515, 519 
 
 Michaelius, Rev. J., 
 
 112 
 
 Michigan t> nod, 
 
 405 
 
 Miller, Rev. G. B., 
 
 35° 
 
 Rev. R. J., 
 
 314. 3'& 
 
 Ministerial Office, 
 
 471, 413ft 422,, 4241 
 
 Ministers, lack of, 2i3f, 214ft", 3 I0 ff, 321, 357 
 
 Minnesota Synod, 431,438,449 
 
 Missionary Institute, 344 
 
 Misaiuiis, 133 137ft", J 4°f. r 4 6 . '59, 162, 230, 
 
 307ft, 33 3 , 3S° ff , 3°o f , 378, 38of, 3S4f, 
 
 388ff, 392f, 397f, 403, 4i6f, 419^ 429, 
 
 443, 449, 40 2 , 46gf, 490ft, 497ft", 520, 
 
 532 
 
 Missouri Synod, 386, 387, 389, 404, 400ft". 
 
 420ft", 435, 43/ 
 
 Monastic Life, 33, 39, 531 
 
 Moravians, The, 248, 259, 512 
 
 Muhlenberg, Rev. F. A. C, 272, 274, 295I' 
 
 kev. H A., 319 
 
 Rev. H. E., 272, 300, 4>Si 
 
 Rev. and Gen. P., 273^ 2951 
 
 Rev. H. M., \outh, 241ft"; conies to 
 
 America, 24sf; work, 248ff. 256, 48of ; 
 re-enfoiced, 254; use of English, 283 
 287f; death, 295 
 
 Myconius, ro^ 
 
 Neulander, 200 
 
 New Amsterdam, Church in, 125ft, '3 1 , l8S . 
 272, 287f, 293, 29J, 298^304 
 New Berne, 184, 205 
 
 Newburg, 178. 217, 219 
 
 New Hanover, (see Falckner's Swamp.) 
 New Incidence, (see The Tiappe), 
 New Jersey, Lutherans in, , 209 
 
 New Yoik, (see New Amsterdam), 
 
 Syncd 312, 320, 330^ 360, 369, 44;f 
 
 ..Nicholson, Francis 161 
 
 Page. 
 Noreiius, Rev. E., 455 
 
 Norton, C. F., 442 
 
 North Carolina, Lutherans in, 205, 304f, 
 
 3'3 £ , 323 
 North Carolina Synod, 3i4f, 338, 372f 
 
 Norwegians, 394ff, 428 
 
 Nussman, Rev. A., 304f 
 
 Oglethorpe, General, I95f 
 
 Ohio Synod, 316, 327, 330, 336f, 360, 380ft", 
 417, 428, 435 
 Ordination, 
 Orphan Asylums, 
 Oxenstiern 
 
 Palatinate 
 
 Palatines, 
 
 Papacy, immorality of 
 
 Penitential S stems, 
 
 Penn, William 
 
 Pennsylvania, 
 
 College, 
 
 Serf, 173ft 
 
 19°, 393, 4=9, 4S5f 
 
 135 
 
 J75f 
 
 175, 177, I79 ff , iS 7 
 
 3«f 
 
 -8 3°, 59 
 
 136,. 149, '53, 170 
 
 i83f, 187 198, 202, 223 
 
 3481, 360, 480 
 
 S> nod, 258ft. 315, 323ft", 330, 334f 
 
 358ft, 367ft', 417, 433, 442f, 440, 4Sif, 
 
 498 
 
 Persecution, (see Salzburgers and Palatines). 
 
 Petersen, Kling, 
 
 394 
 
 Philadelphia, 164, 187, 
 
 218, 234, 248, 309, 
 
 
 292!, 2971', 3 + i 
 
 Seminar , 
 
 44"ff 
 
 Pietists, 
 
 178, 235ft" 
 
 Pittsburg Synod, 
 
 369, 448ft 
 
 Platform, Definite, 
 
 3041', 369 
 
 Plutschau, 
 
 493 
 
 Points, Four, 
 
 447ff, 456 
 
 Polity Church, 86f 
 
 325, 336f, 413!, 421 
 
 Practical Seminary, 
 
 419 
 
 Pra er Meetings, 
 
 463 
 
 Predestination, 
 
 386, 401, 426f 
 
 Presbyterians, 
 
 5»f 
 
 I'ress. 1 utheran, 
 
 489, 528, 532 
 
 Priesthood, of N. T,. 
 
 34, 56 
 
 Printing, discovery of. 
 
 46 
 
 Pnntz, Lieut.-Col., 
 
 137 
 
 Providence in the Reformation, 441, 501, 68, 
 
 74f; in the Lutheran Church, 154, 160, 
 
 162, 172, 53of 
 
 Publications , Lutheran, 487^ 533 
 
 Puritan, political agitators, 139 
 
 Ministers, 2i7f 
 
 persecutions, 114, 121 
 
 Quake s, 
 Quitman, Rev. F. 
 
 IL, 
 
 i7of. iS4f 
 3°5f. 32i, 323 
 
 Raritan. 228f 
 
 Rationalism, 2771!, 405, 4oSf, 519 
 
 kefonu, efforts at, 4of, 7sf, 78, 8r 
 
 Reformation, beginning of, 57f ; providence 
 
 in, 44ff, 5of, 68, 74, 77 ; principles of, 
 
 61; progress, 69ff; protection of, 76ff; 
 
 triumphant, 7gf, 504 
 
 Reformed, The, 171, 178, 181, 281 
 
 German, 512 
 
 Revival, 354 f » 3°°. 39^ 
 
544 
 
 Index. 
 
 Revolution, The, 
 
 Rudman, Rev. A., 
 
 Rudesill, Henry, 
 Sacraments, 
 Saint Worship, 
 St. Louis, 
 St. Michael's, 
 Salvation, Man's part, 
 
 Page. 
 27iff; dividing the 
 Germans 290 
 132. 158, 161, 165. 
 167. 173, 284 
 416 
 5i6f 539 
 40.S3 
 4ogf, 4i2f, 414, 420 
 261, 269 
 28, 59f; sold for 
 money, 30, 31 
 Salzburgers, i87ff, iQ4f, 22if, 2721, 485, 511 
 Sandel, Rev. A., 173 
 
 Sa\anorola, 75, 81 
 
 Schaeffer, Rev. C. F., 299, 487 
 
 Rev. D. F., 298 
 
 Rev. F„ C. 2981 
 
 Rev. F. D., 298 
 
 Schaller, Rev. G., 422f 
 
 Schauin, Rev. J. Helfrich, 254, 261, 2941 
 Schmidt, Rev. J. F., 265. 27if, 297, 478 
 
 Schmucker, Rev. B. M., 445f 
 
 Rev. J. G., 302f 
 
 Rev. S. S-, 344ff, 487 
 
 Schoharie i8off, 18; 
 
 Sciiools, I arochial, 333, 461, 48off 
 
 Schuitz, Rev J. Christ, 2341 
 
 Schultze. Rev. C. E., 264 
 
 Governor, 264 
 
 Schwartz, C. F., 494 
 
 Scriptures, 6iff, 70 73, 82 
 
 Sects, 157, i7off; 223 
 
 Seminar Teutsches, 318 
 
 Seminaries, Theological, 527 
 
 Seminar , Theological at Gettysburg, 330, 
 
 332, 339. 345, 355f 
 
 Se ffarth, Rev. G., 488 
 
 Shuber, Rev. G. 324 
 
 Sihler, Dr., 417IV 
 
 South Carolina, 202ff, 218 
 
 Seminary, 466, 488 
 
 Spalaiin, 103 
 
 Spirit and Word, 5i3f 
 
 Staupitz, 57 
 
 Stephan, Martin, 407ff 412 
 Stoever, Rev. John Casper, 205, 217, 234 
 
 Professor M. L., 480 
 
 Steck, Kev J. M., 311 
 
 Kev. M. J , 3iif 
 
 Storch, Rev. C. A. G., 304f, 314 
 
 Sturk, kev. Theoph., 305 
 
 Kev. L. A., 305 
 
 Streit, Rev. C., 2S7, 306 
 Stuyvesant, Governor, 115, 117, 119, 125 
 
 Sunday Schools, 353. 397 
 
 Supper, the Lord's, 5i6f 
 Swedish Colony, founded, I35ff; a mission- 
 
 ar> project 133, i37rF, i59f 162; con- 
 quered, 142; trials, 144. 147, isiff, 
 157; picture of 157; high characte ', 
 150, i67f; activity of Ministers, 2 9, 
 215, 217; preaching English, 2S4; 
 
 Page. 
 Swedish culture, 477; relation to Germans, 
 2S9f, 266, 496; churches become Epis- 
 copalian, 285 
 Symbolical Books, 219, 257, 262, 313, 347, 374 
 377, 486, 409, 421, 438. 472, 525, 536 
 Synod, General, 322ff, 33iff, 372, scoff, 520; 
 influence ;>f, 3*8, 335, 34X, 35off, 
 354ff, 36of, 469; rupture, 302ff; 
 soundness, 3D2f, 365?, 371 
 
 General, South, (see United Sjnod), 
 
 Norwegian Augustana 396 
 
 Scandinavian, 3g6f, 454f 
 
 Swedish, 45off 
 
 United, 379ffi 4°4ff 
 
 S nodical Conference, 42sf, 431 
 
 Synods New, 36if, 371 
 
 Southern, 362 379, 432 
 
 Tenacon Church, 142, 144^ 165, 247 
 
 'I ennessee Synod, 336, 363, 3728?, 466, 47if 
 
 Tetzel, 
 
 Texas Synod, 
 
 Theses, Ninety-five, 
 
 Torkillus, Rev. R., 
 
 Tranberg. Rev. P., 
 
 Tranhook Church, 
 
 Trappe, The, 
 
 'lulpehocken, 
 
 T ndale's New Testament 
 
 Unio Ecclesiastica, 
 Urlsperger, Rev. S., 
 Vasa, Gustavus, 
 Virginia, 
 
 Voigt, Rev. J. L., 
 Wagner, Rev. Tobias, 25 2 
 
 Walduboro, 2o6£f 
 
 Walther, Rev. C. F. W., 4o6ff 421, 423f, 
 43°f, 43 2 , 4** 
 Weissiger, Paniel, 235, 24a 
 
 Weiser, Conrad, 184, 318 
 
 VVelze, Baron von, 492 
 
 Weslev, John, 196, 511 
 
 West, Synod of the, 361 
 
 West Lamp, 217 
 
 West Pennsylvania Synod, 337f 
 
 Whitfield, Rev. Geo., 196, 48s 
 
 Wicacoa, 148, 161, 1648 
 
 Wisconsin Synod, 43 l t 438 
 
 Wolf, Magister, A., 228 
 
 Wolfgang, io4i 
 
 Woman s Missionery Society, 503 
 
 Worship, Private. 115, 117, 122, 158, i8tV 
 Wrangle, Provost von, 266, 286f, 296, 477, 
 
 49S 
 Wycliffe, 76, 78. Si 
 
 Wyneken, Rev. F. C. D , 4i5ff. 423 430 
 
 Year, Christian. 520 
 
 \ork, 218, 252, 300 
 
 7iegenbalg, . 493 f 
 
 Ziegenhagen, 194, 215, 227, 235, 240, 244 
 Zinzendorf, Count, 248, 252 
 
 
 32f 
 
 ,°3f 
 449- 
 66f 
 
 248, 261 
 
 145. 
 
 135 
 286 
 149 
 234 
 183. 
 
 141 
 
 495 
 t6i 
 248 
 260 
 5°7 
 
 3'3 
 '93"" 
 
 
 491 
 
 53° 
 205 
 265 
 
^ 
 
 yS: