Rev. J.C. Kunz , D.D. The I In Their Hero:. c and 'v Promisin ttf&m ■ '.■.;■■• BX804I .K% 4. i^.4^r 3X8o4\ The Lutherans In America Their Heroic Past and Their Promising Future. BY REV J. C. KUNZMANN, D. D., SUPERINTENDENT OF MISSIONS. The Heroic Past and The Promising Future of the Evan. Lutheran Church in America* BY REV. J. C. KUNZMANN, D. D. SUPERINTENDENT OF MISSIONS. Church Register Company, Greensburg, Pa. 1906. THE HEROIC PAST AND PROMISING FUTURE OF THE EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee. Deut. 8:12. The capture of Constantinople and the over- throw of the Byzantine Empire by the Turks in 1453 resulted in two important events : — the Reformation and the Discovery of America. THE REFORMATION. The persecuting Mohammedan entered, closed the Christian schools and drove out the learned professors. Europe received them, and everywhere they aroused the spirit of investigation. They made the literature of Greece and Rome, the manu- scripts of the Sacred Scriptures and the writings of the Church Fathers, by means of the printing press, the common property of those who yearn- ed for knowledge and panted for the truth. Over against the Roman Church, which founded her meritorious w T orks upon the saying of Mass- es, Pater Nosters, Ave Marias and the observance cf the canonical hours, penances, fastings, etc., Christian Humanism arose and asserted that the Church, like her divine Founder, was the servant of the race and that divine service consisted in observing both tables of the law. The great Prophet, to proclaim the old and ever new message of the Gospel, was born at Eisleben, on the 10th of November, 1483. At the University of Erfurt, "the home of German Humanism," he unconsciously imbibed its principles and in its library found the Book Divine, which moulded his life. In the University of Wittenberg, the first institution established in Germany without charter from the Pope, he deepened his soul life by renewed study of the word. By his visit to Rome, he saw Romanism at its source, and climb- ing the "Sancta Scala" there flashed into his soul, as the light of Heaven, "The just shall live by faith." He sought the Lord and found Him, and in Him life and salvation. Tetzel came with his infamous traffic. The souls committed to his care were in danger of being misled. On the 31st of October, 15 17, he nailed his 95 Theses to the Church door, challenging the world to an open discussion ; and to his surprise the Reforma- tion was born. He had become the champion and leader of the greatest movement of modern times.. He contended against Rome, divorcing the second table of the Decalogue from the first, and against infidelity divorcing the first from the second, and both alike observing neither. The Keynote of the Reformation was principle over against prejudice, truth against falsehood, Chris- tian works against mere humanitarianism, and the struggle still goes on, and will while time lasts. THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA.— Ge- noa, one of the leading commercial cities of the Middle Ages, had been allied with Constantinople in commerce with the East. The plundering T^rk now rendered its trade unprofitable, by robbing its caravans. Christopher Columbus, the Genoese, convinced that a route to India f : ' ■ could be found by sailing westward, offered his services to his beloved city. He goes to Lis- bon and for several years negotiates with King- John II. of Portugal. Disappointed, he seeks the court of Spain ; and Ferdinand and Isabella finally fit out the expedition. On the 12th of October. 1492, he landed on San Salvador, one of the Bahama Islands, and America, destined to play an important part in the Reformation and the' world's Christianization, is discovered. Pope Alexander VI, by "the line of Demarcation," as- signs the eastern part of Brazil to Portugal and the vast remainder of North and South America and the isles of the sea to Spain in 1494. The Reformation and the Discovery of Amer- ica, act and react in the furtherance of the Gospel and the good of the race. Luther, the hero of one, and Columbus, the hero of the other, were cotemporaries. When the one was born, the other was at Lisbon pleading his cause with John II. of Portugal. Luther was learning lessons at his mother's knees and laying the foundations of his education in the school at Mansfield, when Columbus crossed the trackless ocean and opened a new Continent. During the third voyage, the 15-year-old son of the miner, first left the par- ental roof for self culture at Magdeburg and to develop self-reliance and earn his bread at Eis- enach. During the fourth voyage he was at the University at Erfurt. When the great navigator died, he was in the quiet precincts of the Mon- astery, seeking his soul's salvation by the pre- scribed svstem of work righteousness. When, on the 1 8th day of April, 1521, Luther appeared before the Emperor at Worms, Cortez, in the 8 name of the same ruler, seized the Capitol of Montezuma in Mexico and Spain made its first conquest in North America. THE MEETING OF OPPOSITE FORCES. Roman and Protestant civilization meet, preju- dice and principle confront each other. Earthly power and pomp, superstition and hoary tradition on the throne and at its base the truth of heaven. Charles V., King of Spain, King of the Nether- lands, Archduke of Austria, Emperor of Ger- many and ruler of North and South America, and the isles of the sea, the largest territory ever dominated by one man, sits in power and Luther stands for principle and conscience. He pleads for righteousness over against abuses and wrongs, and for freedom from all civil and ecclesiastical tyranny. He cries out to the as- sembled dignitaries : ''Let us beware lest the reign of our young and much-to-be praised Em- ptor Charles, on whom next to God high hopes have been set, should have a disastrous and fatal ending." Here the great battle of two continents was fought, yea of all continents. Carlyle says : "It is the greatest moment in modern History: English Puritanism, England and its Parliament, America, and the vast work of these two centu- ries lay there : had Luther in that moment done other, it had all been otherwise. *' Says Dr. Siess : "When Luther stood before the august Diet of Worms on trial for his faith, the liberties of the world trembled in his lone heart. And vviien he lifted up his hand before God, in the face of all Europe's potencies, and declared in solemn oath, that, unless convinced bv clear tes- 5 S T."*" H£ fcJ3 ; | rr - «sl? % X ■^ ':-' __ ._ » '- Vi ** - :--• E- i^BBg^g^^^P^ "~Z ~ HF;- * rv >*■ IV z a . ud T §> IIP ^O 4 g C 2 2K rr ttlllllijBfi °" ~i **2 ;S ■; 11 timonies of Holy Scripture and solid reasons, he could not and would not retract, modern free- dom drew its first breath, and independence once more began to pulsate in the arteries of man." LUTHERAN SETTLEMENTS. Whilst Luther laid the foundations of American liberty, Lutherans nobly aided in rearing its super- structure. New England Puritanism was not the only factor in building up the greatness of our Republic. Free Government came to us not from England nor from Massachusetts, but from the forests of Germany it was transplanted to Great Britain and thence to these United States. We claim a birthright, and a most hon- orable one, in this land. The late Secretary John Hay said, "Luther's far-reaching influence, which is today felt from the Atlantic to the Pacific, helped to people our Northern Continent with the colonists who laid the foundation of its future liberties on the truths of the Bible. He recom- mended the oppressed people of Europe to take the teachers of their choice, and with the Bible in their hands to follow the star of freedom to lands where religious liberty could find a home." As early as the year 1529, while Luther was still liv- ing., a company of his followers left Augsburg, Germany, and settled in Venezuela. In the col- ony founded by Admiral Coligny in Florida in 1564, there were Lutherans. Trusting them- selves to the promised compassion of Melandez the Spanish General, sent to "gibbet and behead all protestants," they were slain in August, 1565, and a cross was erected over their dead bodies with the inscription : "We slew you not 12 as Frenchmen, but as Lutherans." Thus the first martyr blood was shed on American soil. In 1623 Lutherans from Holland began to settle on Manhattan Island. In 1637 the Swedish Colony, the only Lutheran Colony, was founded. Hav- ing secured the cession of England's rights by reason of discovery, they purchased from the red men South Eastern Pennsylvania, of which Philadelphia forms a part and the state of Dela- ware. Gustavus Adolphus, the Snow King of the North, as he came down to preserve religious liberty to Europe, spoke of it as "The Jewel of My Kingdom." Three principles distinguish this colony — first, religious tolerance, second, the honorable treatment and evangelization of the Indian and third, the prohibition of slavery. In every one of these particulars this colony stands in contrast to those toward the North and toward the South. Even the Dutch Reformed, who had persecuted their Lutheran brethren in New Am- sterdam, and forced their pastor, Rev. Coetwa- ter, to leave the country, were unhindered in their worship when they settled in their midst. They treated the aborigines as Brethren, and Ferris says that during the Swedish occupation, "not a drop of Indian blood was shed." These Luther- ans, who had preceded William Perm by more than 40 years, and who had won the confidence of the Indian, were pioneers of that treaty, con- cluded under the elm of Shakamaxon,, which has gained a world-wide fame. The crack of the. slave drivers' lash and the sigh of the African slave were never heard. This Lutheran Colonv stands out pre-eminent and shines brightest and purest among the constellations of this western 13 land. About the beginning of the year 1700 the Germans began coming in large numbers. They settled in Nova Scotia and in Canada and from Waldboro, Maine, to Savannah, Georgia, throughout the territory of the thirteen colonies. In the Saltzburgers, whose solace and comfort was the word of God, as confessed by Luther, crussing the ocean on a stormy voyag-e, John Weslev, the founder of Methodism, beheld a depth of piety and a simple faith which he had not yet experienced, and afterwards in a London prayer meeting, he was converted by the reading of the Reformers' preface to the Epistle to the Romans, whilst his brother, Charles, was brought to the knowledge of the truth by the Reformer's Epistle to the Galatians. In 1742 Rev. Henry Melchoir Muhlenberg came to organize the scat- tered forces of our Church, bearing the motto, "Ecclesia Plantanda," the Church must be plant- ed. COLONIAL PERIOD. The first question to be decided on this continent was whether Roman- ism or Protestantism should dominate. Before 1600 the Spanish had already settled the islands, Central America, a large portion of South Amer- ica, and Mexico, California and Florida, in North America. The French were occupying Nova Scotia, Canada and the Mississippi valley. The destruction of the "Spanish Armada" in 1588, when Roman bigotry attempted to crush out Protestant Liberty in Europe, marks the begin- ning of permanent Protestant Colonies in Amer- ica. Hence Jamestown was settled in 1607, Plvmouth in 1620, and our Lutheran people fol- 14 lowed them in rapid succession. Rome now de- termined to crush out Protestantism in America. It is well known that the earliest French colon- ists were Hueguenots and came over under the patronage of Henry of Navarre, the Author of "The Edict of Nantes." When Cardinal Riche- lieu became supreme in 1627 and the company of 100 associates was chartered, every non-Catholic was excluded from the French colonies, Park- man says on page 121, "The Struggle for a Con- tinent," "If instead of excluding Huguenots, Prance had given them an asylum in the West and left them there to work out their own desti- nies, Canada would never have become a British Province." And the same can be asserted of what is now known as the Louisiana Purchase. But the Jesuit Priest displaced the Huguenot Colonist and bigotry and cruelty led to a new con- flict. They inspired those Indian massacres, be- ginning in 1689 and murdering thousands of our Colonists from the extreme North to the ex- treme South, in order to exterminate the Protest- ant religion. Wars followed each other in rapid succession. When, finally they erected forts at Niagara, Detroit, Erie, Franklin, and Pittsburg, etc., etc., determined to hem in the Colonists be- yond the crest of the Allegheny Mountains and drive them into the ocean, Gov. Dinwiddie sent Washington, in 1753, to Ft. Duquesne, demand- ing of them to vacate the Fort and stop these in- cursions ; and, on being refused, war was declar- ed. In this final contest with the French, the Luth- erans bore a prominent part. Conrad Weiser, the wizard of Conestoga, the Lutheran elder, 15 the father-in-law of the patriarch Muhlenberg, was the Tndian agent, who, more than any other man, held the six nations in check and prevented the French from securing their invaluable assist- ance. We would not deny to Sir William Johns- ton the credit of influencing the Mohawk tribe, but it was Conrad Weiser who treated with the rest of the six nations, and this saved our cause. When laid to rest on his farm at Womelsdorf the Indians came to mourn over his grave for years* saying: "We are at a great loss, we sit in dark- ness by the death of Conrad Weiser; since his death we cannot so well understand each other.'* The German "'Royal American Regiment" under Colonel Bonuet, made possible the relief of Ft. Pitt redeemed the disastrous defeat of General Braddock, checked Pontiac's conspiracy and freed Pennsylvania and Virginia from Indian warfare, It was with Wolfe at the storming of Quebec in 1757, and at the capture of HavannalTin 1762. The treaty of the following year ceded Canada, Florida and all the territory 'east of the Missis- sippi to England. Thus was Protestantism sav- ed and the first step for the Protestantizing of this western Continent taken. REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. In the Rev- olutionary war our Lutherans were loyal to the cause of freedom. The Germans were ever op- posed to all forms of tyranny. The appeal of their Philadelphia Society in 1775 aroused their countrymen throughout the Colonies. The mo- tion of Richard Henry Lee to declare "the Unit- ed States free and independent" was held in sus- pense because the Pennsylvania delegation, com- 16 posed of Quakers and allied sectarians, refused to support it, and would have doomed it to defeat. Had not our Pennsylvania Germans, the major- ity of whom were Lutherans, rallied their forces to the Pennsylvania convention of June 18th, 1776, and cast their votes in its favor, the Decla- ration of independence could not have been passed on July 4 th, 1776. We have heard of Putman, leaving his plow in the furrow to shoulder his musket, but we have heard little of Rev. Peter Muhlenberg, who, after preaching to his people in Woodstock, Va., said : "There is a time to preach, a time to pray, but there is a time to fight, and that time is now." Removing his gown and standing in military dress, he commanded the drums to beat, enrolled 300 of his congregation and served as Colonel under Washington. "He saved the day at Bran- dywine and led the reinforcements which took the last of the British works at Yorktown." The first to reach Boston at the call of Congress for the relief of New England were a company of Pennsylvania Germans, July 18th, 1775, and the first from the South, a German Company from Frederick County, Virginia. The German Fusi- leers, the oldest military organization in America, were organized in 1775, in St. John's Lutheran Church, Charlestown, S. C, whose pastor, Rev. Martin, was compelled to flee and have his prop- erty confiscated because he refused to pray for the success of the King's cause. They did vali- ant service all during the war. Washington's mounted body guard were nearly all Germans. The Germans were his favorite soldiers, both for their bravery and accuracy of aim. Their sharp- ■L ZION ? S CHURCH. PHTLA., IN WHICH THE SURRENDER OF LORD CORNWALLIS AT YORKTOWN WAS CELEBRAT- ED BY CONGRESS, THE FUNERAL SERVICES OF BENJA- MIN FRANKLIN HELD AND THE MEMORIAL ORATION ON THE DEATH OF WASHINGTON, THE FIRST PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES AND COMMANDER OF ITS ARM- IBS WAS DELIVERED IN THE PRESENCE OF CONGRESS AND IN WHOSE SCHOOL HOUSE THE PHILADELPHIA GERMAN SOCIETY WAS ORGANIZED. CONSECRATED JUNE -25, 1769. 19 shooters turned the tide at Saratoga and were Morgan's stay at Cowpens. Dr. Bachman says: "Those who ministered at the altars of the Luth- eran Church during that trying period, with scarce an exception, were the devoted friends of their country." And what was true of the min- istry was equally true of the laity. The forges of Berks and Lancaster counties furnished the army with ball and cannon whilst their farms and mills provided them with flour, and Christo- pher Ludwig, the German Lutheran Baker, fur- nished 135 pounds of bread for every hundred pounds of flour. He was Washington's "honest friend," and in reply to the committee ready to continue the arrangements by which others had gotten rich at the expense of the Government, he said: "No, Christopher Ludwig does not wish to get rich by the war." He saved the pro- ject from defeat when, at a public meeting called to raise money for the army, he said: "Mr. President, I am only a poor ginger-bread baker, but put me clown for 200 pounds." When in his old days a life of Washington was offered for purchase, he said : "No : I am traveling fast to meet him. I shall hear all about it from his own mouth." Bancroft says: "The Germans who composed a large part of the inhabitants of Penn- sylvania were all on the side of liberty." And what was true of the Pennsylvanians was true of the Germans throughout the colonies. When the fortunes of war had reached their lowest ebb, when Gates was conspiring with a weak Con- gress to supplant Washington, there came Baron Yon Steuben, born of Lutheran parents in the Lutheran City of Magdeburg, the veteran of the 20 seven-years' war, the honored member of the staff of Frederick the Great, the intimate friend of Rev. Dr. Knnze, and the right arm of Wash- ington. He appeared before Congress, assem- bled at York, on February 5th, 1777, and offered his services with no stipulation of reward beyond what they might judge proper by the results achieved. He became inspector, drillmaster and commander of the field. He turned a fleeing mob into a victorious army. He commanded a division at Yorktown. His "Rules for the Or- der and Discipline of the Troops of the United States" created our National army and forms the basis of our Military tactics. Rev. F. G. Got- wald says, "After Washington and Greene, no one stands so high, judged by his valuable ser-. vices rendered. He gave efficiency to our sol- diers, confidence to the commander, and saved our treasury not less than $600,000 by his honest system, rigorously enforced." One historian de- clares : "The debt of gratitude that America owes to Steuben is one that can never be fully discharged." In answer to a letter of the German Lutheran Congregation of Philadelphia, congratulating him upon his election to the Presidency, Wash- ington among other things says, "from the excel- lent character for diligence, sobriety, and vir- tue which the Germans in general who are set- tled in America have ever maintained, I cannot forbear felicitating myself on receiving from so respectable a number of them such strong as- surances of their affection for my person, confi- dence in my integrity, and zeal to support me in my endeavors for promoting the welfare of our 21 common country. Dr. Schmauk, on page 29, in "The Lutherans in Pennsylvania," says : "Wash- ington himself recognized a bulwark against the incoming waves of French frivolity and rational- ism in the sober orthodoxy of the German Luth- eran Church." FIRST THINGS AND NOTEWORTHY FACTS. The first confession of faith, adopted on this Continent, was the unaltered Augsburg Confes- sion, by the German Colony in 1532, in Venezu- ela, who had emigrated from the city of Augs- burg in 1529. Historically the Lutheran Church of America dates but two years after that of Germany. The first Protestant Minister buried in an American grave was Rev. Rasmus Jensen, the Lutheran Pastor of Nova Dana on the Hud- son, who died Feb. 20th, 1620. The first colony to prohibit the instroduction of slavery was the Swedish Lutheran Colony, founded in 1637. And had the genial spirit of Lutheranism been dominant everywhere, the Emancipation Proclamation would never have been required, and the Civil war and its blood- shed would have been forestalled. The first Lutheran Church was erected in con- nection with Fort Christiania, in Wilmington, Delaware, in 1638. The first Protestant Missionary to the Indians was the Lutheran Rev. John'Campanius, in Penn- sylvania, in 1642. The first book translated into the Indian lang- uage was Luther's Catechism, in 1646. 22 ' The first man ordained to the Protestant min- istry was the Lutheran Rev. Justius Falkner, in Gloria Dei Church, Philadelphia, November 24, 1703. The first missionary to the negro slave was Rev. Christian Fisher, in the island of St. Thomas in 171 3. The first orphanage in America was estab- lished by the Lutheran Saltzburgers in Georgia in 1736. This and its model in Halle inspired the celebrated Evangelist George Whitfield to like deeds of mercy. The Lutherans of St. Matthew's Parish sent their delegation to the Provincial Congress, held at Savannah, Georgia, July 4th, 1 774, to con- sider action with reference to English ag- gression, with the words: "We have ex- perienced the evils of tyranny in our own land ; for the sake of liberty we have left home, lands, houses, estates, and have taken refuge in the wilds of Georgia; shall we now submit again to bondage ? No, never !" The first President of the Philadelphia German Society, which was organized in the Lutheran School House, Cherry St., Philadelphia, and did so much for freedom's cause, was Peter Muhlen- berg, a Lutheran. The sexton who rang the Liberty Bell on July 4th, 1776, with the prophetic inscription, "Proclaim liberty throughout the land unto all the inhabitants thereof," was a Lutheran. The first news of the Declaration of Independ- ence was published by a German paper. The first American flag was made by Betsy Ross, a descendant on the Maternal side of the £5 Swedish Lutherans. The Stars and Stripes were first unfurled amid the roar of artillery and the smoke of battle, when General Herkimer and his Mohawk Vallev Germans, at Oriskany, repulsed the Brit- ish and their devilish Indian allies, after what Fiske calls the most desperate battle of the Rev- olution. Revs. Frederick and Earnest Muhlenberg were driven from their Parishes because of their devo- tion to the colonies when the British army occu- pied New York and Philadelphia, respectively, and the latter, during his exile in the country, began those botanical investigations which have made him famous. The surrender of Lord Cornwallis, at York- town, the ending of the conflict, was celebrated by order of Congress in a Philadelphia Lutheran Church. Michael Hillegas, the first Treasurer ot the United States, had a Lutheran mother. The first Speaker of the House of Representa- tives, was the Lutheran, Lion. Frederick A. Muhlenberg. The funeral services in connection with the burial of Benjamin Franklin were conducted in Zions Lutheran Church, Philadelphia, April • 79°- It was in a Lutheran Church that Major Gen- eral Lee, by resolution of Congress, Decem- ber 26, 1799, delivered the funeral oration in honor of the memory of George Washington, first President of the' United States, and Com- riander of its armies. The first Protestant Deaconess of America was 26 Consecrated by the Rev. Dr. W. A. Passavant, the great Lutheran Philanthropist, in 1852. John Peter Zueger was "the father of that bul- wark of American liberty, the freedom of the press." Rev. John Bachman, D. D. LLD., the learned pieacher and faithful Pastor of St. John's Church, Charleston, S. C, was the modest schol- ar who wrote the text for Audubon's "The Quad- rupeds," and the "Birds of America," and his sister, Maria painted the pictures. Cyrus Townsend Bradley recognized the world-wide influence of Germany in the dedica- tion of his book, "Hohenzollern", "To the de- scendants of the great Germanic Race who, in Europe and in America and in the Far East, rule the world." THE CIVTL WAR. Though the War of In- dependence was successful and the constitution was finally adopted, we were still a divided na- tion. Slavery, opposed to every thought and feeling of a German, was the bone of contention. To Lincoln's declaration: "A nation divided against itself cannot stand, we cannot continue half slave and half free," the Lutheran con- sciousness of the North rallied. The German and Scandinavian Lutheran, not Catholic, votes in the five pivotal States, Ohio, Illinois, Michi- gan, Wisconsin and Iowa, elected Lincoln Pres- ident. The influence of the Germans in Louis- ville and St. Louis preserved Kentucky and Mis- souri to the Union. The first regiment to reach Washington April 16th, 1861, at Lincoln's call for the defense of the Union were Pennsvlvania 27 Germans from Berks County. Out of a German population of 1,118,402 in 1S60, there were 187,- 858 German-born soldiers in the Northern army. Afore than one-third of the soldiers from Ohio were Germans. From the prairies of the West the German, Swedish and Norwegian Lutherans rallied to our standard. General Herman Haupt, one of the first graduates of West Point, was chief of the bureau of United States Military Railroads. He discovered Lee's movements and purposes, and moved the Union Generals to pre- pare for the battle of Gettysburg. I. N. Wil- liams, Esq., of New York City, calls him "one of the greatest characters of the Civil War." And time would fail us to name the brave Gen- erals which the land of Luther furnished to give success to our army. It is a singular fact that only 2.V2 per cent, of the population of the seced- ing states were foreign-born and few of these were German. All during the protracted strife there was at least one Lutheran Pastor beyond the Mason and Dixon Line, down' in Tennessee, pray- ing every day in the week and on Sunday, in the German language for the success of the Union cause. In the Mexican war, and in the Spanish- Amer- ican, where Protestant civilization was constrain- ed to decide the issue by the stern arbitrament of the sword, our Lutherans marched side by side with the Puritan and Cavalier. At Manilla Bay, Santiago Harbor and San Juan Hill, the un- heeded warnings of Luther at the diet of Worms, uttered in the presence of Charles V. of Spain, went into effect and that long reign of persecu- Hon and tyranny had a "disastrous and fatal end- ing." THE FUTURE OF OUR CHURCH AND NATION JUDGED BY THE PAST. Our Na- tion and Church from feeble beginnings have reached their present greatness and have large possibilities before them. Though the first per- manent settlement within the territory of the original thirteen colonies was made in 1607, in 1790, 14 years after the Declaration of Independ- ence, our entire possessions were 843,799 square miles and our population 3,929,214, living along a small fringe of the Atlantic coast. Up to the year 190O we added 2,772,685 square miles to our continental territory and 71,639,472 to its popu- lation, and 129,708 square miles and 8,664,383 of a population to our foreign possessions. Glad- stone has said that we have "a natural base for the greatest continuous . empire ever established by man." When Henry Clay was returning from Wash- ington to his home in Kentucky, he alighted from his carriage near the summit of the Allegheny mountains. As he stooped to drink of the spring purling at his feet, and placing his ear to the ground to hear the sound of approaching foot- steps, he exclaimed, "I hear the tramp of mil- lions more to come." They have come from 1790 to 1825 at the rate of 12,000 per year: from 1825 to 1850 at the rate of 100,000, from 1850 to 1875 at the rate of 260,000, from 1875 to 1900 at the rate of 400,000, from 1900 to 1903 at the rate of 665,000, and in the year 1904, 1,026,499 im- "migrants came to our shores. They have settled 29 the Mississippi Valley, clambered over the Rockies, crossed the drylands, scaled the Cas- cades and established themselves on the Pacific coast. When we compare the increase of i,- 379,269 in the first decade of our census with the increase of 21,253,303 in the last, we have but a faint idea of the mighty population which will fill our land by the middle and end of the 20th century. From six cities numbering 131,472 of a population in 1790 we have grown to 545 in 1900 numbering 24,992,199, thus adding more than 24^ millions to our urban population. And today New York City alone contains more peo- ple than did the entire 13 colonies in 1776, when we became an independent Nation. Our internal development and external influ- ence among the nations surpass our unexampled numerical growth. What it took the nations of Europe Milleniums to attain, we have exceeded in one century. In the last 40 years we have opened to cultivation 16,000 acres of land daily and more than two millions of farms. In the last 100 years we have built more than 500 cities and equipped them with all the appliances and improvements of modern civilization. We have become both the leading agricultural and manu- facturing nation of the World. Our natural re- sources and inventive genius will continue to keep us in the forefront. In the same period of time we have established more institutions of higher education and added to their endowments more than all Europe combined. By a bloodless vic- tory we opened the ports of Japan and set the Sunrise Kingdom on its upward march. Hawaii stretched out her hands for our protection and 30 our flag was carried far out into the Pacific. By the fortunes of an unselfish war, we liberated Cuba and planted our humane sway at the gates of the East. We sprang at once into the posi- tion of the most dominant power of the age. Our generous policy prevented the dismemberment of China and the exaction of large indemnities during the Boxer uprising. Our unselfishness enabled President Roosevelt to stop the fiercest of wars and constrain Russia and Japan, in this land of good will, to come to peace. For force of initiative, for comprehensive grasp, for precis- ion and rapidity of movement, for genius of com- bination and invention, for intensity of action and unflagging endurance and for intelligence and generosity among our people, we stand without a rival. Marvelous though our national develop- ment has been, it is exceeded by the commanding position and influence we have attained in inter- national affairs. THE LUTHERAN CHURCH. The growth of our Church in this country has also been phe- nomenal. With no educational institutions for the first 200 years of our history in North America we have established within the last 80 vears 38 Academies, 41 Colleges and 24 Theological Seminaries. From 22,- 000 communicants in 1800 we have grown to 1,844,339 m 1906; far more wonderful growth than that of our population. Our proportionate increase has been larger in the last decades than that of any denomination, Protestant or Catho- lic. President Roosevelt, in his address in the Luther Memorial Church, in Washington, D. C, 3i January 29th, 1905, after referring to the great power of the Lutheran Church in this country by reason of the number, thrift, and intelligence of its members said : "It is destined to be one of the two or three greatest Churches and most im- portant National Churches in the United States ; one of the two or three Churches most distinctly American, among the forces that are to tell for making this country even greater in the future. Therefore a peculiar load of responsibility rests upon the members of this Church." And, when the members of this Church array themselves to realize their destiny they will win an empire greater than that which stirred the conquering energy of Alexander. OUR PRESENT FIELD AND OPPORTU- NITIES. Whilst the denominations about us have almost attained their fulness, and must henceforth grow, if grow at all, more slowly ; we are just entering on the period of our increase, and before our vision stretches fertile soil of wonderful productiveness. To the North of us lie the British possessions, with such provinces as Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Assiniboia, Al- berta, Columbia and those to the north, into whose cities and unoccupied land and rich mines 40,000 Lutherans from the fatherland and from the States are annually entering. In this terri- tory, larger than the United States, there are only two English Lutheran Missionaries and those sent within the last year. In the New England States, our Lutherans are rehabilitating the worn- out farms and crowding the cities, whilst the de- scendants of the Puritans are marching to race 32 suicide graves. In New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, which with the above compose the North Atlantic Division, we have a most import- ant Mission field, and one which, with proper cul- tivation, will add more than one million to our communicant list. The South Atlantic Divis- ion, the District of Columbia, Maryland, West Virginia, North and South Carolina offer to us a fruitful field. In the North Central Division in which lie the States which are most thoroughly Lutheran, English Lutheran Missions ought to be started by the thousand. The South Central and Western Divisions of states, with few excep- tions, are virgin soil to our English Lutheran Church. Alaska and the isles of the sea, beyond a single .Missionary in Porto Rico, we have not yet touched. In the two cities — New York and Chicago — alone we have an unchurched Lutheran popula- tion of more than one million of souls, whilst in each of these cities, we have today a larger Com- municant membership than we had in the entire United States one hundred years ago. Could we have a mission force and means sufficiently ample to occupy the above and the the other 543 cities, and the towns, villages and rural districts, where the unchurched masses , born of Lutheran parents by the millions, are living without Christ and dy- ing without hope, we could stand first among Pro- testant denominations in America as we stand first in the world. Truly this is a great field. It is paralizing in its magnitude and in our impotence. We must enlarge our conceptions, multiply our resources and unite our forces. We must get power from on high. The Church of faith. must 33 believe that it can do all things through the strengthening Christ and set itself to meet the conditions. See those unlettered fishermen as thev shake the world. Behold Paul as he lifts up his voice in the cities of Asia Minor and Greece and is determined to establish the Church in Rome, the Capital of the World. Mark Luther as he challenges the world to gainsay the truth of his 95 Theses and hurls his thunderbolts at Kings and Popes. Follow Muhlenberg as he. crosses the ocean with the motto "Ecclesia Plan- tanda" and establishes "an Evangelical Ministeri- um" whose blessed ministrations shall extend to all people "in North America.'' The time has come for a return to the spirit of the fathers, to aggression against our own indifference and the forces of evil*. The time has come for all Luther- ans to sacrifice preference for duty and unite as Brethren to save the souls for which we are re- sponsible. HOW W r E CAN SUCCEED. To accomplish this work on this vast territory, there must be united and concerted action. There must be in- tense devotion, wise and experienced generalship, thorough organization of every department and harmonious co-operation of every portion of the Lutheran Church concerned. Without such an arrangement neither the General bodies nor the Independent Synods, nor all of them, can success- fully do the Mission work of our beloved Church. The Synodical Conference can teach how to se- cure a sufficient native [Ministry; the- General Synod how to secure the means for Home Mis- sions and Church Extension for our large cities ; and the United Norwegian Church and the Au- 34 gustana Synod how to utilize the laity, but neith- er nor all of them in their present isolation and estrangement, can garner the great harvest which God has ripened for our Evangelical Lutheran Church. As well attempt to harvest the wheat fields of North America with opposing harvest- ers and colliding implements. The whole Church must adapt herself to pres- ent conditions. She must join with her charac- teristic harmlessness of the dove the wisdom of the serpent. She must equip her Pastors and Missionaries to meet the questions of the day and adjust her methods to the conditions of the hour. The rural and semi-rural conditions of ioo years ago have become urban and metropolitan, and these, in turn, complex. To put the destiny of the great soul-saving, the Missionary work, into the hands of men with no special preparation and qualification is more culpable than to place an engine hauling thousands of lives into the charge of a man void of understanding. And to con- duct local and general Missions by separate and uncommunicating Boards is like running local and general trains of a railroad by separate and uncommunicating dispatchers — wreck and block- ades innumerable. But the free Conferences are the harbingers of a better state of affairs for the Church in general and the unification agitation for the General Council in particular. She must be thoroughly American. She dare not cease to be. thoroughly Lutheran, and thus lose her value as an evangelizing force ; but she must be to America what Luther was to Ger- many. She cannot neglect to unfold her precious heritage to the immigrant in the language beyond 35 the sea, but she must preach to his more numer- ous descendants and to the vast majority of our population in the language of this land. We •rejoice that, in the days of the Reformation, Lutherans were the first Missionaries and Mar- tyrs to the truth in England. We justly censure Henry VIII. who, by chicanery, then prevented our Church from adding the English, the most widely spoken language of civilization, to her numerous tongues. But we cannot too highly laud and magnify the providence of God by which in this age and in this land of greater pos- sibilities, that loss has been, regained. We may be naturalized but we must become native. That alone is permanent in our growth which is both Lutheran and American, and all else is foreign and transitory. You might as well attempt to build up an American National Church in Ger- many, Sweden or Norway as to attempt a Ger- man, Swedish or Norwegian National Church in America. She must have a realizing sense of the signifi- cance of her presence in and opportunity through America. We would not deprecate the import- ance of the Lutheran lands and their populations in the Old World ; and for that very reason we dare not underestimate this. They were that America might be. "Westward the Star of Em- pire wends its way." Dr. Josiah Strong emphat- ically and truthfully says : "He does most to Christianize the world and to hasten the coming of the Kingdom who does most to make thor- oughly Christian the United States. I do not imagine that an Anglo Saxon is any dearer to God than a Mongolian or an African. My plea is 36 hot, Save America for America's sake, but, save America for the World's sake." John Fiske says, "The World's center of gravity has been shifted from the Mediterranean and the Rhine to the At- lantic and the Mississippi, from the men who spoke Latin to the men who speak English." Emerson's observation is well known : "We live in a new and exceptional age. America is an- other same for opportunity. Our whole history appears like another effort of the Divine Provi- dence in behalf of the human race." Prof. Phelps writes, "The nations whose conversion is the most pressing necessity of the world today are the Occidental nations." Matthew Arnold says, "America holds the future." Prof. Park, "If America fail the world will fail." Alexan- der Hamilton declared : "It is ours to be either the grave in which the hopes of the world will be entombed : or the pillar of cloud that shall pilot the race onward to its milennial glory. Let us not forget our immortal trust." Prof. Hoppin claims that "America Christianized means the world Christianized." This land furnishes the key for the world's evangelization, and the Luth- erans of the world look to the Lutherans of Amer- ica for encouragement and leadership. The rep- resentative of the Iowa Synod, at the recent con- vention of the General Council, stated that the intelligent Lutherans of Germany realize that the hopes of Ltitheranism are wrapped up with the hopes of our Church in America. If we trifle away our heritage and lose our opportunity here, we wrong not only the illustrious dead, but we vacate the citadel and rallying centre of Luther- anisiiL We have a Mission both national and in- 37 ternational. We expect the Pan-Lutheran Con- vention to prepare the way for a Pan-Lutheran Confederation and world-wide activity. Of this we are convinced. As goes the Lutheran Church in America, so goes the Lutheran Church in the world. And as goes America so goes the world. I behold a vision. Before me stands America. "The gem of the ocean, the land of the brave and the free." Its Christian civilization and freedom are the offspring of the Reformation. Every step in its advancement has been consecrated by the blood of our Lutheran forefathers. On every page of its wonderful history is the handwriting of God. Health and vigor in its air, fertility in its soil and wealth in its mines. A land of plen- ty and comfort, stretching between the two oceans, the highway of the world's commerce and prosperity and the zone of power — enjoying the respect and admiration of earth's population and wielding an influence beyond that of any Na- tion. As I gaze, I hear a voice from heaven, it is the voice of my God saying: "Righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin is a reproach to any peo- pie/' I turn to the religious forces for help. Here is Romanism numerically strong, spiritually weak ; much worldly wisdom, little from above ; scheming for influence among men to the loss of power with God. Here are the denominations still busy and zealous, cutting loose from the his- torical past and drifting to an unknown future. Here is the great Mother Church of the Reforma- tion, united on the faith confessed at Augsburg and divided on active work and practical inter- ests. In the centre stands the General Council 38 with its English, German and Swedish wings, too harmonious in doctrine to separate and too fearful and unconscious of their interests to con- centrate. As T gaze upon these religious forces, I am confronted with the question, Can they promote that righteousness which will exalt this continent and check the sin which disgraces and destroys a people? Rome has not succeeded in Italy, in Spain, in France, in Cuba and the Philippines; and what hope could we have that she could suc- ceed here? The denominations have exalted England, and her dominions extend to the ends of the earth, but it was because they had convic- tions and stood with more or less admixture of error upon the principles confessed at and de- rived from Augsburg. Gustav Freitag says : "All confessions have reason to trace back to Luther all that which today is making their faith soul- inspiring and a blessing for their life in the world.'' But a creedless Protestantism of recent origin and rapid growth, is a mere negation, bearing no witness, confessing no truth and without vitality. Here is the Luth« eran Church, still true to its faith, with her ener- gies dormant and her forces disorganized and un- trained. She has Conviction but she has not seized her opportunity. She has the faith, the truth which America needs and longs for, but she must make that faith a living reality in the lives of the Masses by her work — her Mission work. Talmage said : "Germany's religion has much to do with her prosperity. Luther still stands with Thble in his hands, with lips of mar- 39 blc or of bronze, still preaching the Gospel with which he shook the earth, and preaching a re- ligious emancipation which will yet grant all na- tions a right to worship God in their own way." The call of this 20th century comes with tremen- dous force to the Evangelical Lutheran Church. It is no idle sign that the President of these United States, January 29th, 1905, noting "the forces of evil" "strong and mighty in this centu- ry and in this country" turns to the Lutheran Church, asserts its great load of responsibility, and asks it to assume "an attitude of generous rivalry in the effort to see how the most good can be done to our people as a whole". And we will hear other voices, in increasing number and volume, calling, calling, calling, and will not be silenced until this Evangelical Lutheran force shall become conscious of its destiny and put on its strength. I am convinced that the Church of the pure faith will arise and that there will be a religious awakening whose influence will be felt throughout America and the world. Young men will flock to her Academies, Colleges and Theological Seminaries crying "Here am I, send me." All the past history will repeat itself on a grander scale. There will be enthusiasm like that in the days of Luther ! There will be a re- turn to the Evangelical faith, like the Los Von Rom movement in Austria, and the Church will rejoice over the recovery of the losses she once mourned. Thousands, weary of error, half- truths and doubt will flock to her altars and crowd her sanctuaries. When James Russell Lowell and his friend, in the .year 1871, were returning from a visit to 40 Rome, they crossed the Alps. As they reached the summit and were about to descend on the farther side, Lowell looked back upon the "city which once stood upon her seven hills and from her throne of beauty ruled the world ;" and as the achievements of her Caesars, her monuments and ruins passed before his mind, he exclaimed: '''Glories of the past, I salute you." His friend turned to the North and looking toward a united Germany, the home of Luther, the cradle of the Reformation, the land of learning, art and sci- ence, and catching visions of her rising great- ness, exclaimed, "Glories of the future, I salute you." Thus we think of the Venezuelian colony of 1529, of the French Martyrs of 1565, of our pesecuted Holland Brethren of 1623, of the Swedes of 1637, and of our Germans of Saltz- burg and other parts of Germany, of Muhlen- berg and his co-laborers, of Weiser and of the long line of Lutheran Patriots, of our later Scan- dinavians and brethren from every country of Europe, and of what they achieved, and we may exclaim in the language of Lowell, "Glories of the past, 1 salute you." But when we turn to the position which our Church has attained from those feeble beginnings and behold the possibili- ties opened to a united and aggressive Lutheran Church in this, the greatest and best of all Na- tion's, the most genial and productive soil for her labors and increase, we devoutly and joyfully ex- claim in the words of Lowell's friend : "Glories of the future, I salute you." ' And inscribing on our banners as our watchword Muhlenberg's motto : Ecclesia Plantanda, these glories will be ours and through us be the glories of God. Date Due ii&&j*®$ & Tfr^ *=*^ tHr **** l; d PRINTED IN U. S. A. v. '"■ ■ PAMPHLET BINDER Manufactured by 6AYLORD BROS. Inc. Syracuse, N. Y. Stockton, Calif.