^eMRY MeLCHIOR MlJHL€NB€RG.fti). Wijliam K.rrick'.D.D, Columbia Mniner^itp intljfCitpofilfttigork THE LIBRARIES 'V"f/' ECCLESIA NON PLANTATA, SED PLANTANDA Hcinrich Mclchior Miihlcnbcr^, D. D, Horn September 6th, A. D. 1711. Died October 7th, A. D. 1787. BV FAITH HE BEING DEAD YET SPEAKETH HENRY MELGHIOR MUHLENBERG, "PATRIAKCH OF THE LUTHERAN CHURCH IN AMERICA." BY Rev. WILLIAM K. FRICK, D. D., Pastor of the Church of the Redeemer, Milwaukee. "He never trifled with a duty."— Dr. IV. J. Mann. "The Lutheran Church in this country is his en- during mouument." — Dr. E. T. Kretschmann. ; I ^eCoSid fHCUSlVI^D. PHILADELPHIA, PA.! LUTHERAN PUBLICATION SOCIETY. ^38. II V^^^j> Copyright, 1902, BY The Lutheran Publication Society. NOTE.— Muhle^b^r^*^ (jfe%trqh^ wj^re.^it 'Philadelphia (and Germantow^.); UI^\JVt^K)S/islence;(7' TheiTrappe "), and New Hanover* C"T1iS 3w&tTip»"'). ' The Swedish " Gloria Dei " ^^•at» y\(«i«;a^,, «ow in Philadelphia. Cbc ifiatriarcb /Iftubtenberg. CONTENTS. I.— IN TRAINING. 1711-1742. PAGE Chapter I. — The Hanoverian Youth ... 5 Chapter II. — Student Life 12 Chapter III. — Teacher and Pastor . . . .19 Chapter IV.— The Emigrant .... 26 Chapter V. — In the South. 36 Chapter VI. — A Sheaf of Dates .... 44 II.—'' PLANTING THE CHURCH." 1742-1748. Chapter I. — Getting Possession of the Vineyard . 52 Chapter II. — Setting Things to Rights ... 61 Chapter III. — Co-laborers in the Vineyard . . 72 Chapter IV. — Grubbing and Pruning . . .83 Chapter V. — Nurturing the Tender Vines . . 91 Chapter VI. — CUisters of Ripe Grapes . . . 102 Chapter VII. — Exploring a Neglected Corner . . 109 Chapter VIIL — Building the Hedges . . .114 III.— ''THE CARE OF ALL THE CHURCHES." 1748-1776. Chapter I. — First President of the First American Synod 123 Chapter II. — Among the Lutherans of New York 133 Chapter III. — Years of Tribulation .... 145 Chapter IV. — Philadelphia Labors and Friendships 155 Chapter V.—'' The End Crowns the Work " . .168 (iii) IV CONTENTS. IV.— IN RETIREMENT. 1776-1787. Chapter I.— During the War of 1776 . . .176 Chapter II. — Light at Eventide .... 184 Chapter III.— In Memoriam 189 ** From THE Cradle TO THE Grave" . . 195 HENRY MELGHIOR MUHLENBERG. I.-IN TRAINING. 1711-1742. CHAPTER I. THE HANOVERIAN YOUTH. The Pennsylvania Call — Religious Destitution in North America — Sources of this Biography — IMuhlenberg's Ancestry and Birth — Death of his Father — Hard Work — Spiritual Diagnosis. (1711-1731.) Also T heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I ; send me. — Isaiah vi. 8. It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.— Lam. iii. 27. On the sixth of September, 1741, more than one hundred and sixty years ago, two clergymen, at Slipper in Halle, Germany, had a conversation which entirely changed the career of the younger man, and still powerfully affects the course of things in the Lutheran Church of America. The elder speaker was the second Dr. Francke, Director of the world-renowned Halle Orphan House. This institution was at that time the great centre of missionary activity in the Luth- eran Church of Europe. To it had come the appeal for missionaries to lay the foundations of (5) 6 HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. Protestant and Lutheran missions in India, and it had supplied two worthy men in the persons of Ziegenbalg and Pliitschau. To it the West was now looking with equally anxious eyes. Francke and the Lutheran court chaplain, Ziegenhagen, of London, had for seven years been in correspondence with the German Lutherans of Pennsylvania with reference to a spiritual shepherd, and several delegations had visited Europe to press upon the Mother-Church the duty of caring for these neglected children of the New World. In an open letter to a clergyman in Hanover, Dr. Ziegenhagen copied this description of the destitution in Pennsylvania in 1733 : ' ' We live in a country that is full of heresy and sects. As far as our religious interests are con- cerned, w^e are in a state of the greatest destitu- tion ; and our own means are utterly insufficient to effect the necessary rehef. ... It is truly lamentable to think of the large numbers of the rising generation who know not their right hand from their left ; and, unless help be promptly af- forded, the danger is great that, in consequence of the great lack of churches and schools, the most of them will be led into the ways of destructive error. ' ' Five years later the Pennsylvanians wrote : ''There is not one German Lutheran preacher in the whole land except Casper Stoever, now sixty miles distant from Philadelphia" — in Lancaster County. They were mistaken ; but the preachers were, in fact, few, and not one of them had the loftiness of character to command the confidence of the Lutheran dispersion, or the breadth of view to grasp the situation and bring order out of most lamentable confusion. THE HANOVERIAN YOUTH. 7 Three congregations of about five hundred com- municants each, in and near Philadelphia, were clamoring for a pastor ; yet, though so strong in numbers, they hesitated to pledge a fixed salary. Francke had his ' ' doubts about sending a good man to America upon such an uncertainty. ' ' One thing, however, was clear to him : the conditions in sect-ridden Pennsylvania called for "a man of solid, commanding character. " " And where, ' ' asks Francke, ' ' can we find such a man ? ' ' This evening, as the conversation drifted from Halle to India, and from India to America, the Lord opened Francke' s eyes. He turned to his guest with some such c[uery as this : ' ' Will you go as missionary to the scattered Lutherans in Pennsylvania, ' ' adding, ' ' for a -few years on trial?" The young pastor' s instant reply was, ' ' If it is the wdll of God, I not only will but must go where Providence points the way." Who and what was this prompt and decisive individual, destined in the providence of God to write his name in large characters across the page of Eighteenth Century American Lutheran- ism ? By birth and baptism Heinrich Melchior Muehlenberg, he is known and honored in Ameri- can history as Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, Patriarch of the Lutheran Church in America, It happened to be his thirtieth birthday on which this momentous decision was reached. For his early life we have an autobiography, entitled ' ' Observations upon the Love, Goodness, Mercy, 8 HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. Long-suffering, Patience, and Forbearance of God, Shown, for the Sake of Christ the Saviour of the World, Toward a Single Condemned Sinner up to his Seventieth Year." This narrative, v/ritten after his retirement from active missionary and pastoral work, breaks off with his first year in the New World. Its place is admirably supplied by the minute Reports to the Reverend Fathers at Halle, reprinted in their entirety in 1787 in Germany, and republished in this country in 1884 in two stout volumes, entitled ''Hallesche Nachrichten, " with notes by Drs. Mann and Schmucker. They are a perfect mine of accurate and interesting information. With the additional aid of T^Iuhlenberg's numer- ous diaries and letters, neatly written, and rever- ently preserved in the archives of the Orphan House at Halle, Dr. William J. Mann has, in a most painstaking way, wrought out the standard "Life and Times of Henry j\Ielchior Muehlen- berg," published October 7th, 1887, on the cen- tenary of the Patriarch's death. To it we are constantly indebted for facts and quotations. This simple narrative is designed for the youth of the Church. Besides encouraging them to lead useful Christian lives, and teaching them at what a cost the foundations of our American Church ■were laid, it will enable them the better to sympa- thize with the struggling home and foreign mis- sionaries of our Church to-day. To the pastor who may glance through these pages it will present, as far as joossible in the Pa- triarch's own w^ords, a sketch of a model pastor, a successful missionary, and a conservative American Church leader, who dominated his century. Muhlenberg was born September 6th, 1711, in THE HANOVERIAN YOUTH. 9 the town of Eimbeck — now spelled Einbeck — in the electorate of Hanover, since absorbed by Prus- sia. This manufacturing town (of twelve thousand inhabitants at that time) is situated on a tributary of the Elbe in northwestern German)^ The sur- roundings are unromantic : neighboring hills ob- scure the view of the bolder Hartz Mountains toward the South. The house in which Muhlen- berg was born was consumed in the fire of 1826. On the day of his birth he was inducted into the kingdom of grace by the Sacrament of Holy Baptism. His father was Nicolaus IMelchior ; his mother, Anna Mary Kleinschmid, daughter of a retired German army officer. His middle name, Melchior, is the name given in the legends of the Middle Ages to one of the three Wise Men (Matt, ii. 1, 11). Venerable Bede says that Melchior was an old man with a long white beard, and was the one who carried the gold offered to the infant Jesus. Our IMelchior came to resemble him (minus the beard), and brought to his Lord what was better far than gold — precious souls. From a hint given in the baptismal record there is a possibility that Nicolaus was a descendant of the noble family of Von jMuehlenbergs, who once lived at Muehlenberg ("Muehlen" = mills; "berg" = hill; "Muehlberg," or "Muehlen- berg," = "mills on a hill") in Prussian Saxony. The family lost its possessions in the wars of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries. Nicolaus' only patent of nobility now Avas honest labor. He was honored with a place in the town coun- cil and with the position of deacon in the Lutheran Church of Eimbeck. His pious inclinations are seen in his naming one son John Arndt, after the author of the great Lutheran devotional book, 10 HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. *'True Christianity." The father vras stricken with apoplexy, and died suddenly, soon after Henry's confirmation, in 1723, leaving a large family, a small estate, and an honored nam.e. His widow lived to see Henry in the ministry, and died in 1747, some years after his departure to America. From seven to twelve his father sent him to the German and Latin school of the town. At twelve he was admitted by the rite of confirmation to the Holy Communion. During the catechetical in- struction and at his father's death he Avas deeply impressed with divine truth, and his conscience was awakened to his relations to God. His holy resolutions were, alas ! ' ' more and more smothered, because father was dead and mother was too yield- ing, the allurements to evil too seductive, and evil example too strong. ' ' This is the lamentation of the mature Christian over years of spiritual bar- renness. ' ' There is nothing worse than when half-grown boys are allowed to run with other boys of their age without any oversight. One rowdy in such a crowd can poison all the rest.'' We need not think of the grossest sins, then or later ; but it is plain that the boy Muhlenberg had to run the gauntlet of temptation that assails all boys. That he kept his ' ' hands clean, ' ' that is, lived an outwardly moral life, is certain from the friends he made ; but, in his own opinion, he did not keep a ^ ' pure heart, ' ' nor preserve the fresh-* ness of his early love of God. Of that early love, Dr. Mann thinks he finds evidence in some short rhymes in Muhlenberg's handwriting. They refer to the healing of the man with the withered hand (Matt. xii. 10-13). THE HANOVERIAN YOUTH. ll " Two hands, both fresh and strong, did my Creator give ; They shall not idle be, as long as I may live ; First I will raise them up to God to praise and pray. And then they may begin what labor brings each day ; In truth, I'll ne'er' forget the Ora, And with it, hand-in-hand, I'll practice the Labora,** In after years he was proficient enough in Latin to address sy nodical meetings in that tongue, and he more than once indulged in sacred poetry. He had abundant opportunity to put the motto, ^'Ora et labora ^^ — '' Pray and labor'' — into prac- tice. From the time of his father's death up to his eighteenth year he assisted his brothers at their trade. He was learning in this school of reality and poverty lessons of humility, industry, and re- spect for honest manhood that stood him in better stead in the Western wilderness than a title and a fortune would have done. That the student and preacher was stirring in this Hanoverian lad is evidenced by the diligent use he made of every moment he could snatch for his books, and by some bojdsh efforts at preach- ing carried on in the barn. CHAPTER 11. STUDENT LIFE. Classical and Musical Studies — Leaves Home — Student and Tutor at Zellerfeld — Latin Prose — Beneficiary Stu- dent at the University of Goettingen — Temptations — Spiritual Awakening — Dr. Oporin's Amanuensis — Noble Friendships — Theological Studies — Charity School— Preaches— Graduates. (1732-1738. ) The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and the knowledge of the Holy is ucderbtauding — Prov ix. 10. My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not. — Pkov. i. 10. At last his perseverance won recognition. He was granted the undisturbed use of his evenings for study. Rector Schuesster, of the local acad- emy, became interested in the studious youth, gave him private instruction, and finally admitted him to the highest class. The boys of the school did not relish having this big fellow promoted over their heads, nor, we may be sure, was it quite to Muhlenberg's taste to be classed with boys so much younger. However, he threw him- self ardently into the study of mathematics, Latin, and Greek. Besides, he showed a talent for music, both vocal and instrumental. In order to pay his way he Avas not ashamed to take his i)lace, like Luther, in the boy choir that sang in front of the houses of the leading citizens. His tenor voice was much admired. He also learned to play on the clavichord — the forerunner of the ])iano — and the organ, and made three unsuccess- ful attempts to obtain a place as organist. His (12) STUDENT LIFE. 13 skill in music, combined with his courteous and dignified bearing, was to open many a door for him in Germany, and much more in the American *' wilderness," where he in fact supported himself for the first half-year ])y giving music lessons. His spiritual life, however, seems, during this period, to have been at a standstill. How was it possible, he asks, to read so many heathen authors (while learning Latin and Greek), without im- bibing many a heathenish notion? So, tossed about between hope and fear, success and disap- pointment, he entered his twenty-second year with a mind hungering for knowledge and the future all a dull blank. Like hundreds of American boys who have gone from the bench or the plow to the college, he had a sound mind in a sound and vigorous body, and once fairly started on an educational career he made rapid progress. He now left home to make his way in the wide, wide world. He first tried Clausthal, over in the Hartz Mountains, but, though he spent several weeks looking for employment, nothing offered there. Then on to Zellerfeld, east of Eimbeck, where there was a classical school of high grade. Rector Raphael examined him, and agreed to receive him if he would consent to forego singing in the choir and stick to his books ! How was he to live ? See the hand of God in his affairs ! The student became a teacher. A class of eighteen children from the mountains was made up. He taught them four hours a day in the Catechism, writing, arithmetic, and playing on the clavichord. He also gave some private les- sons in the evening. Thereby he certainly earned his board and tuition, and at the same time took another step forward in his providential prepara- tion for his Ufe-work. In fact, this biography will 14 HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. exhibit Muhlenberg as one who was specially- fond of catechisation, and specially gifted in that method of imparting knowledge. During the eighteen months spent at Zellerfeld, in 1733 and 1734, he mastered a list of books such as Freshmen and Sophomores delight in, namely, Caesar, Virgil, Horace, Terence, the Epistles and Orations of Cicero, etc. He also studied New Tes- tament Greek, and acquired the elements of the Hebrew and Greek languages, so that he was ex- ceptionally strong in the department of languages. His modest demeanor won him friends among the richer students, who were glad to open their homes to the bright young tutor. To curry favor with them and to repay their kindness, he would entertain them with all sorts of abominations drawn from classical sources. This coming to the Rector's ears, Muhlenberg received some fatherly advice, not without good effect. Home again in the fall of 1734, he set about re- viewing his studies, taking up also Latin prose com- position under Rector Schuesster, little dreaming that he would find abundant use for it among the German dispersion in far-off America ! Rector Raphael wrote to him : " Go to some university." Where ? How ? Now, that very winter, the TJni- versity of Goettingen was opened. Eimbeck had a scholarship good for a year's free board and tui- tion. The city fathers, perhaps partly out of respect for his father's memory, oft'ered the use of it to their talented young townsman. ' ' In this way, ' ' he records in his Autobiography, '' did God, out of pure compassion, make provision for my temporal wants." His widowed mother gave him what assistance she could, no doubt stinting herself greatly for his benefit, and so, T>Iarch 19th, 1735, he started, as a "beneficiary," for Goettingen, STUDENT LIFE. 15 and matriculated among the earliest students of that now famous university. Now we are to see him as a university student, away from home, thrown into close contact with a herd of fellow-students bent on mischief. A new and dangerous step, he calls this, for a young fellow with darkened understanding, per- verted and unregulated desires — with a sword dan- gling by his side — a man who had all his life heard nothing else but that one strives for bread, honor, etc., and that at schools and universities a fellow must have ' ' a lively time. ' ' He says that he was drawn into being present at one or two frolics, but withdrew in time on hearing that an- other crowd of students had one night in a drunken brawl killed a watchman. His riper years — he was now twenty-four — his good common-sense, but, much more, the mercy of God, rescued him from these temptations. Grace, which, despite his severe judgment of his youthful life, had never been completely resisted — grace, which had restrained him from many a sin, and disposed him to give heed to serious coun- sel — divine grace was now triumphant. Muhlenberg had mapped out for himself a pro- gramme that included Logic, Hebrew, and Greek, pure Mathematics, and the History of Literature. Meanwhile Rev. Dr. Oporin joined the faculty as Professor of Dogmatics and Ethics. IMuhlenberg heard his very first lecture in Ethics on the un- speakable corruption of the unregenerate heart. It proved the means of his spiritual awakening from the spiritual torpor of his college days. " By the lectures of Dr. Oporin," he remarks, ^' on the total corruption of our nature, I was much moved, and so convinced of my sinfulness, that I loathed myself on account of my folly. I was 16 HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. convinced, by the Word of God, that up to this period my understanding had been dark in spirit- ual things ; that my will was disinclined to that new life which proceeds from God ; that my mem- ory had been employed only in collecting carnal things, my imagination in discovering sinful ob- jects for the gratification of my perverted affec- tions, and my members by habitual use had be- come weapons of unrighteousness. But as I learned to recognize sin as sin, there followed sor- row, repentance, hatred of it — shame and humil- iation on account of it — hunger and thirst for the righteousness of Jesus Christ. In this state of mind I was directed to the crucified Jesus, who had been wounded for my transgressions and bruised for my iniquities. The wounds of Jesus healed my wounds ; the merits of His death gave me life ; my thirst was quenched in Him, the living spring." Would that all college and university men learned to know themselves and their Saviour as well as Muhlenberg did. Providentially three Eimbeck youths came to the university from the Halle Orphan House. Their words and example showed him what a truly upright Christian life should be. And Dr. Oporin's exemplary life con- firmed the pure doctrine he taught, according to his favorite motto, ''Where the life is lightning, the doctrine is thunder." Muhlenberg, who had evidently long had the ministry in view, also attended Dr. Oporin's lec- tures on Dogmatics and Homiletics (doctrine and preaching). This led to another important step. He became the Doctor's private secretary, with free board and room. He was thus admitted to the privilege of the table conversation of his pre- ceptor, and to an acquaintance with a circle of worthy friends of higher social standing. No man STUDENT LIFE. 17 knew better how to profit by such advantages. Muhlenberg was a sociable man, and shone in con- versation and argument. A memento of his con- nection with Dr. Oporin is still preserved in the Muhlenberg family in the shape of a Bible pre- sented by the Doctor to his former amanuensis in 1738. It contains the Scriptures in Hebrew and Greek, with a Latin interlinear translation. In 1786 he gave it to his son, Henry Ernest. Muhlenberg's virtues and diligence attracted the favorable notice of Herr von Muenchhausen, High Sheriff of Hanover, who secured him a scholarship for the remainder of his three years' course. This was but another illustration of the proverb that " A good name is rather to be chosen than riches and loving favor than silver and gold." He also won the friendship of some pious noblemen at- tending the university, such as the Count of Wernigerode and Count Reuss. His new friends soon had an opportunity to show their good-will. INIuhlenberg's piety was of a practical character. His energies must find an outlet in doing good. What he did for money at Zellerfeld he can do for Christ at Goettingen. So, associating with him two other theological stu- dents, Muhlenberg gathered the '' street Arabs" of Goettingen, rented a room, secured books, and devoted his spare time to teaching the ' ' three R's," not forgetting the Catechism. This was nearly half a century before Robert Raikes began his Sunday school work among the gamins of Gloucester, England. When objection was made, Count Reuss handed the case over to his lawyer, also a Christian. The movement now received of- ficial sanction, and was put under the supervision of the theological faculty. Out of this charity school, begun by our American Patriarch in his 2 18 HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. student days, in 1736, grew the Goettingen Orphan House, still existing. Had the Lord called him from earth before his theological training was complete, he would not have lived in vain. In 1737 he was enrolled among the students who were permitted to preach in the University- Church, and to catechise there from week to week. This year also he was invited by Count Reuss to dehver BibUcal addresses before a number of noblemen and others, who gathered in the count's rooms, for the upbuilding of their spiritual life. His course in theology was rounded out by lec- tures on the Symbolical Books, which set forth in a learned and devout way what the Lutheran Church believes and preaches, and consist of the Three General Creeds (the Apostles', the Nicene, and the Athanasian); the Augsburg Confession and its Apology ; the Schmalcald Articles ; the two Cat- echisms of Luther (Small and Large); and the Formula of Concord. With such a fund of knowledge and experience, and with these warm friendships, Muhlenberg, though somewhat advanced in years — he was now in his twenty-seventh year — stood on the threshold of life, ''A workman that needeth not to be ashamed/' CHAPTER III. TEACHER AND PASTOR. Jewish "Work Considered — Jena University — Fifteen Months at Halle Orphanage as Teacher — Acquires Med- ical Knowledge — Thoughts of the India Field — Two Years' Pastorate at Grosshennersdorf — Business Train- ing — Controversial Pamphlet — A Chain of Providences. (1738-1741.) Feed my lambs .... Feed my sheep.— John xxi. 15, 16. They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament : and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars, for ever and ever. — Daniel xii. 3, Here we note a new link in the chain of provi- dences. Through his noble friends Muhlenberg became acquainted with two missionaries, who were laboring for the conversion of the Jews. En- couraged by his patron, Count Reuss, to prepare for Jewish work, he was minded to enter Prof. Callenberg's Jewish Institute, at Halle, but, strange to say, was commended by the count to Dr. Francke, of the Orphan House. Before he finally settled down to work at Halle, he spent some time at the University of Jena, visited the homes of his noble patrons, and preached at Eimbeck. His sermons in his native place awakened many souls and brought them to him for spiritual conversation. It would have been no mistake had he accepted either of two churches whose pulpits were offered to him, but the Lord had him in training for larger things than mere parish work. (19) 20 HENRY MELCHIOR MXHILENBERG. At Halle he was at the headquarters of Pietism, that spiritual movement in the Lutheran Church of Germany, begun by Spener in the Seventeenth Century, and fostered by the elder Francke in the Eighteenth. On its healthier side it stood for a living faith and a holy life, with a devout use of the Word and constant communion with God. Its noblest fruit is the Orphan House at Halle, a group of institutions in which over a hundred thousand pupils have been educated and from which missionaries and Bibles have gone forth to the ends of the earth. Muhlenberg's coming to Halle determined the whole future course of his life, and gave him that large interest in the affairs of God's kingdom which fitted him to mould the fortunes of the Church in America. Not only was his personal piety quickened by contact with the life and spirit of the institution, but here he touched every phase of Christian activity for the redemption of fallen humanity, and widened his spiritual horizon until it embraced alike the venerable nations of the remote East and the struggling settlements of the remote West. Here Muhlenberg remained from May, 1738, to June, 1739. The university graduate and com- panion of noblemen was given a thorough spirit- ual test. Francke set him to teach the smallest children. As he showed no pride and was faith- ful, he was promoted by rapid steps to the teach- ing of Greek, Hebrew, and theology in the upper classes. And thus what he had gotten as a stu- dent was clinched by his having to impart it to others, and remained a firm and ready possession through all the laborious 3'ears of his after life. We have seen how he acquired facility in lan- guages and music. Now he was to acquire some TEACHER AND PASTOR. 21 knowledge of the healing art. As "inspector," or superintendent, of the sick ward, he picked up many hints on diseases and medicine, which en- abled him to give simple medical aid and dispense the Halle medicines to his Pennsylvania parish- ioners, without, however, pretending to be a doctor. The Halle Orphanage had the recipes for several proprietary medicines. They were extensively advertised, and a thick book was issued in connec- tion with them that practically enabled every man to be his own doctor. A large and lucrative trade was built up, not only in Germany, but in America as well. Long before Muhlenberg thought of em- igrating to Pennsylvania, these medicines were sold by the printer, Sauer, in Germantown, and Halle Bibles, too. The loss of much of his trade in both these articles when the Halle pastors be- gan to work in Pennsylvania, and to act as agents for the medical and literary output of the Orphan House, did not a little to embitter this sectarian printer against Muhlenberg and his colleagues. But we anticipate. Muhlenberg was still in training. Cellarius was his best friend here, cor- recting his faults in private, and advising him with reference to his future. When he was urged to return to the charity school at Goettingen, Cel- larius confided to him that the Reverend Fathers had selected him for the new Bengal mission field. His mind seems to have been wedded to this plan. There was delay in the correspondence with Den- mark and England. Meanwhile his dear friend Count Reuss sent a pressing call to Grosshenners- dorf, a town in Upper Lusatia, in the northeastern corner of Saxony. Muhlenberg was troubled with doubts about accepting, and would only agree for the present to visit the new field and await de- velopments. In his absence imperative letters 22 HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. came, and other men had to be sent without delay. Had these letters come three weeks sooner Muhl- enberg might have been the forerunner and co- laborer of Christian Frederick Schwartz in India, but, then, who would have cared for America? Thus does an all-wise heavenly Father overrule vexatious delay and seeming defeat for His greater glory. Muhlenberg failed to get an organist's po- sition, but got a tutor's ; failed to get his training as a Jewish missionary, but got into the Halle Orphan House instead ; failed to go to East India as a foreign missionary, and was sent instead to a country parish in Germany : but each step brought him nearer his life-work, for God was pointing out the way and he was following the indications of an overruling Providence. On the borders of Bohemia, and not far from Hernnhut, the headquarters of Count Zinzendorf and Moravianism, Muhlenberg now enters on what appears to be his life-work. He is co-pastor of the parish and sole inspector of the Orphan House. The most important person in the parish is his patroness, the pious and educated Baroness of Gersdorf, Zinzendorf s aunt. The necessity for ordination led to a visit to Leipsic, the university cit}^ of Saxony. His ex- amination was thoroughgoing. It covered the exegesis of the Old Testament, the doctrines con- cerning Christ, regeneration, and justification, and the Symbolical Books of the Lutheran Church. Muhlenberg having satisfactorily stood the test, Rev. Dr. DeyHng, the Superintendent (equivalent to president or bishop), on August 24th, 1739, or- dained him as Deacon, in the presence of the assembled ministers of the city. His ordination certificate bound him to teach according to the re- vealed Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments TEACHER AND PASTOR. 23 and the S3'mbolical Books of our Church ; and this oath he kept inviolate. He never departed from the Lutheran doctrine. Here he stood to his dying day ; he could not do otherwise. He speaks thus modestly of his admission to the min- istry : ' ' It can be seen ho\r few experienced la- borers in the Lord's vineyard there must have been that a mere babe, who had but four years before seen the light of grace, and still fed on the milk of the Word, should be called and ordained to the ministry." The return trip, through Halle and Hanover, Brandenburg and Saxony, made him still better acquainted with central Germany. Incidentally he was becoming acquainted with the various church usages and liturgies that were in vogue in northern Germany, and acquiring that refinement and self- reliance that come alone through travel and inter- course with men. And so, Muhlenberg, turned aside from the Jewish work and the foreign field, settles down as a village pastor in a town of but two thousand souls, in a remote corner of the land. Here, too, the Lord gave him children to look after. There were several departments in the Orphan House. One was a high school for the children of impov- erished noble families ; another contained thirty- two orphan boys ; a third, orphan girls ; and a fourth, aged widows. The generous baroness expended S3000.00 a year out of her private purse on this blessed charity. Muhlenberg spent two years in this field, acquiring at the same time a training in administration and accounts. Two interesting facts may be mentioned at this point. Muhlenberg had learned some English at the university. At Grosshennersdorf he ventured to deliver an English oration, which was under- 24 HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. stood by just one other man, whose English was gotten at the university also. Here, too, he ap- peared as an author for the only time in his life. Superintendent Mentzer had issued ' ' Words of Warning " against Pietism. ^'D. ]\I." (Diaconus Tduehlenberg) replied in a pamphlet, defending the private meetings of the Pietists as called for v/hen the regularly appointed pastors neglect the spiritual interests of their flocks. One sentence will suffice to show how satirical ''D. M." could be : "A fire cannot be put out with paper, even if it is written full of ' Words of Warning.' " When, owing to her heavy outlays, the baroness became financially involved, a call reached INIuhl- enberg to preach in a vacant pulpit. He would not desert his post. He now took a more decisive step, one which reflects credit on his generous heart. He resolved to return to Eimbeck, in or- der to secure part of his inheritance to tide over the trouble. It was while following the prompt- ings of his unselfish nature that he passed through Halle at the very time when the Pennsylvania call was engaging Francke's mind. In the light of all that we have now learned concerning Muhlenberg's spiritual development and personal inclination to the foreign mission work, the promptness of his reply is not so astonishing. It is, however, none the less creditable to his character. Humanly speaking, wdth such patrons as he had among the nobility, honor and advancement were assured to him in Germany. He might, wdth his gifts and thoroughness, have risen to the head of the Halle Orphan House or have filled the office of Super- intendent ; but, as Dr. Mann says, ''He never trifled with a duty." The finger of God plainly pointed across the Atlantic ; across the Atlantic he would go. TEACHER AND PASTOR. 25 In all Germany there was not a fitter man than he for the work. He was in the prime of life ; ' ' not a novice, ' ' yet not too old to be transplanted to another soil ; a well-balanced man ; robust in body and acute of mind ; a happy combination of the self-made man and the university-bred scholar ; gifted in the learning of languages ; a practical man, with unusual adaptability to all grades and situations in society ; withal, a Chris- tian of the best type, "fervent in spirit," and ready to serve the Lord at any cost, in any post — an optimist, whose creed was : ' ' The Lord of hosts is with us ; the God of Jacob is our refuge." CHAPTER IV. THE EMIGRANT. Terms of the Call — A Moment of Indecision — Farewell to Mother — Petty Persecution — A Far-reaching Vindi- cation — First Lesrion in Dutch — The German Lutheran Churches of London — Three IMonths with Ziegenhagen — The American Lutheran Gown — '* Doctor" Muhlen- berg — ''In Perils in the Sea" — Salzburger Emigrants —The Chaplain's Tact— The First English Sermon— Eedeeming the Time. (1741-1742. ) Now the Lord God had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee. — Gen. xii. 1. As we have therefore opportunitv, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the iiousehold of faith.— Gal. vi. 10. The formal call issued by Ziegenhagen laid down these conditions : 1. Muhlenberg was to go to Pennsylvania for three years, on trial. 2. He was to receive his traveling expenses both ways. 3. Expenses and salary were to be paid out of funds collected by Ziegenhagen. 4. The formal call was to be extended in Lon- don. Muhlenberg found parting painful. Every effort was made to retain him. His patrons offered him another parish in case he felt constrained to leave Grosshennersdorf. Muhlenberg was much cast down, and, as in every emergency, had recourse to prayer. His hesitation did not spring from any unwillingness to make the sacrifice, but from (26) THE EMIGRANT. 27 sheer uncertainty as to his duty. His friends tried to make it appear that he had acted hastily. He wrote to Francke, and enclosed a letter to Ziegenhagen. Francke replied, " I do not think it expedient to forward the letter. Make up your mind in one way or the other soon. If you de- cline the Pennsylvania call, your own conscience will have to answer to God for it." Again, "You had better accept the call. It is easier to find a man for Grosshennersdorf than for America." That settled the matter for Muhlenberg. He would give up the easier place in Christian Ger- many, and take up the more difficult work in distant, wild America. December 17th, 1741, he left the sheep and the fold at Grosshennersdorf. His farewell sermon was based on Hosea xi. 6, 7. He spent a few days with the Counts Reuss and Henkel, and arrived badly frost-bitten at Halle, January 9th, 1742, where he remained nearly a month. Then, b}^ way of the princely residence of Count Wernigerode, and dear Goettingen, with its Dr. Oporin and its charity school, he reached Eimbeck. Another month passed in intercourse, never to be renewed on this side of heaven, with his aged mother and his brother and sisters. The thought of separation almost overwhelmed his mother. She said that she would rather follow him to the grave than hear that the Indians had torn him to pieces, a danger by no means purely imaginary in 1742. Wherever the missionary-elect went, he was called upon to exercise his eminent gifts as a preacher. As the result of an earnest sermon at Eimbeck on Luke xi. 14-28, "The Diverse Effects Produced on the Spectators by Christ's Miracle," many called on him for religious conversation. Next morning he was summoned before the burgo- 28 HENKY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. master, and warned under threat of imprisonment "not to hold Pietistic conventicles, as it was con- trary to law." He proceeded straightway to Hanover, where he laid his ordination certificate and his testimonials from Goettingen before the Superintendent. Of this incident Dr. Jacobs says: ' ' Both before him and before the consistorium at Hanover, he successfully defended himself against all accusers. Hanover had the same ruler as Great Britain (George II.). The approval of Muhlenberg by the consistorium was his endorse- ment by the ecclesiastical authorities of the king, whose German subjects in America jMuhlenberg was on the way to serve. His call came not merely from the three congregations, but was thus supported by that of the highest civil authority in the country, and, therefore, there was no intru- sion into the territory of another. He could assert the same legal right for himself and those acting with him as the Church of England had. This explains the statement which Muhlenberg afterward made, that Uhe English laws do not allow any sect or any religious party to build churches [with steeples and bells — Dr. Mann] except the Episcopalians, and besides them the Lutherans.' " At Hanover, too, he had to refute the slander that he was ' ' a heretic who had recently returned from Pennsylvania," not the last slander he was to endure for Christ's sake and the Church's. He paid his respects to Frau von Muenchhausen, whose husband had befriended him at Goettingen, and who herself for many years showed an in- terest in Muhlenberg's Pennsylvania work. On April 1st, 1742, he preached his last sermon on German soil in a parish church in the city of Hanover. The critics acknowledged it to be THE EMIGRANT. 29 '' orthodox," ''in agreement with the Formula of Concord." Thus honored and harassed, the emigrant left his fatherland, not for three years, but forever. "The Lord," he says, "had sym- pathy with my sufferings, and directed everything in such a way that I was compelled silently to adore and to ascribe ail to His special providence and care." His first destination was London. His route lay through Holland. In the stage-coach, Muh- lenberg, ever alert, picked up a few lessons in Dutch, a language he was destined to use in America. At Briel he chose lodgings in an Eng- lish hotel, but, despite his Grosshennersdorf ora- tion, he was unable to understand a word of Eng- lish as it was rattled off by the English. He took the situation good naturedly. If he had been a Frenchman, he says, he could have helped him- self out with gestures, but "the ' Platt-Doutsch ' are too stiff for that!" Aboard the packet from Helvoetsluys to Harwich, England, he had some pious discourse in Latin with a Hungarian Roman Catholic official of the court at Vienna, and prayed with him. April 17th, he reached London, the London of his gracious German Sovereign, George II., King of Great Britain, etc., etc., as well as Elector of Hanover. Though but a fourth of its present size, London was a wilderness of streets, through which a drunken driver dragged the emigrant preacher, with boisterous songs, until late in the evening, before he set him down at Ziegenhagen's house in Kensington. At this time London contained three German Lutheran Churches. They presented certain feat- ures new to Muhlenberg. The mother-church was Trinity in Trinity Lane, dating from 1618. Its 30 HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. ministry and membership were from Hamburg, Germany. "St. Mary's in the Savoy" was organized in 1692. It was the most flourishing of the churches, and contained the best famiUes. The services were conducted according to an Order drawn princi})ally from that of the Amster- dam Church in Holland, then the largest and most influential Lutheran congregation in the world. There was some modification of the Order of Morning Service to conform it to the Book of Common Prayer. In the southwestern section of the city is the German Court Chapel at St. James' Palace. It was founded and endowed in 1700, by Prince George of Denmark, the husband of Queen Anne. It was attended by the Hanover officials and Ger- man persons of rank visiting London. It is a private chapel of the English sovereigns, and con- tains seats for the German embassy. This chapel was under the general supervision of the Bishop of London. A translation of the Book of Com- mon Prayer was used in conjunction with the Halle Hymn Book. During the incumbency of Rev. Anthon William Boehme, thousands of persecuted Palatinate Lu- therans from up the Rhine flocked to London. He interested Queen Anne in their v/elfare. Many of them were settled b}^ the English government along the Hudson, in 1710. Among his writings is an " Address to the Scattered Palatines and Other 'Germans in Pennsylvania, New York, Caro- lina, and other American Provinces." His successor. Rev. Frederick M. Ziegenhagen, D. D., then in his forty-ninth year, was a man of the same stamp, being also from Halle. During his long pastorate, which ended only in 1776, he was profoundly interested in missions, both those THE EMIGRANT. 31 in India, and, because of his situation in London, especially those in the North American colo- nies. Ten years before he had aided the perse- cuted Lutheran Salzburgers, who had fled to Lon- don, and were, in 1734, settled by Gen. Ogle- thorpe in Georgia. In that same year he circu- lated an appeal in Germany on behalf of the Penn- sylvania Lutherans. He saw his answer in Muhl- enberg' s fresh countenance, framed in by the usual wig worn at that day. For three months Muhlenberg tarried in the metropolis, getting his mind accustomed to the new point of view from which he had now to look at the world. Neither the attractions of London nor the presence in Ziegenhagen' s house of the dis- tinguished scholar Michaelis interested him as did the pious Court Chaplain himself. In his ser- mons, his private conversation, and his fruitful explanations of Scripture, Muhlenberg found con- stant delight and refreshment. More than that, Ziegenhagen must have understood, far better than Francke, the whole American situation in relation to the English Government, Church, and language. In their discussions Ziegenhagen must have been impressed with the new missionary's breadth of mind, as well as with his ripeness of character. Muhlenberg, in turn, gave to Ziegenhagen a con- fidence never shaken through years of perplexing correspondence. As to the rest, we note that IMuhlenberg preached and assisted in administering the Lord's Supper, on English soil ; that he was taken to the rooms of the S. P. C. K. C' Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge"), an Episcopalian So- ciety which had heartily supported the Lutheran missions in India, and which gave important assistance to the Swedish and Salzburger pastors d2 HENEY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. in America ; and, finally, that he had a clerical gown made. This last circmiistance is important, because it explains why the English Lutheran clergy of America wear a gown differing from both the German and the Scandinavian. Muhlenberg set the style. All his pictures show a black gown with flowing sleeves, open in front, revealing the cassock and the bands. That he received his formal call, and that he added largely to his stock of English during these nine weeks, is a matter of course. Nature, expe- rience, and grace fitted him for promotion from a subordinate position to what was in all but name the position of Missionary Bishop of the German Lutheran Church in the Middle States. With few precedents to guide or friends near at hand to counsel, he was to "blaze" the way through Penn's woods for the chariot of the Lord. The last farewells were spoken, the last letters written to friends and dear ones in the fatherland. On June 13th Muhlenberg embarked aboard a Georgia packet, for it was deemed best that, be- fore settling down in the North, he should visit the congregations established in the South, and, perhaps, secure the assistance of one of the pas- tors m getting started in Pennsylvania. For a hundred and two days this stuffy old two-master was his parish, and, but for the mercy of the Lord, might ha,ve been his coffin, too. Besides the usual annoyance of seasickness, which is no respecter of parsons, there was danger of Spanish pirates, and Muhlenberg had to do military duty with the rest. Bodily disorders brought him near his end at one time. Then, "the lack of water was so ex- treme that the very rats suffered from it. It had been noticed that some of them had gnawed out THE EMIGRANT. 38 the stoppers of bottles containing vinegar, then introduced their tails into the liquid, and then sought to allay their thirst by drawing their tails through their' mouths. Others would mount the beds at night and lick the perspiration off the brows of the people who were asleep." Of his military duty, he says : " I girded a sword about me, took my post, loaded my swivel gun, but prayed God not to allow us to fall into the hands of our enemies I felt a little trepidation, however, when the enemy's ships came near our weather-bow, but my heart was comforted and composed, as I thought, per- haps, I would have the privilege of being that day with my Lord in Paradise." As he came aboard the ship, dressed in a cleri- cal suit and wearing a rosette, he w^as dubbed "Doctor Muhlenberg." He did, indeed, have opportunity to use his medical knowledge ; his chief concern was with the six and twenty souls on board. From the profanity of the cabin he found refuge in the piety of a family of Salzburg- ers in the steerage. It is recorded of them that, when the whole ship's company was in an uproar one day that a supposed Spanish privateer was bearing down on them, Muhlenberg found the mother and her children comforting themselves with ' ' Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott. ' ' When the weather w^as fine, he sat with them on deck, sing- ing their favorite German Lutheran hymns, and during the voyage he held daily w^orship with the family and gave the children religious instruction. . His hght could not be hidden. The passengers engaged him in conversation and argument. They found that, though at times ironical, his speech was seasoned with grace and good humor. He axgued against dancing, prevented a duel, and an- 8 34 HENRY MELCHIOB MUHLENBERG. swered some questions about the Prodigal Son in a way that fitted the case of several prodigals on board. In reply to a query as to the meaning of ''Protestant," he gave a short sketch of Luther and the Lutheran Reformation. In general, he made himself felt as a scholar and clergyman. At last he was virtually installed as chaplain, and on Sunday, July 18th, in mid-ocean, ven- tured on his first English sermon, based on Isa. xxiv. 16-17. When he hesitated for a word, he gave it in Latin to the Scotch captain, who helped him to the English word. The service was read from the Book of Common Prayer, whose noble language was famihar to the worshipers and not in conflict with the Word of God, which Muhlen- berg had sworn to make the rule of worship as well as of preaching. The themes of his sermons show his pastoral fidelity. He preached a series of sermons on Ezek. xviii. 27, ending with the words, "He shall save his soul ahve." Other texts were : " Blessed are the poor in spirit ;" "If any man thirst;" and the Publican and the Pharisee. He will surely be able to answer in the Judgment Da}^ for the souls of his fellow- voyagers. If they have perished, their blood is not on his skirts. His care extended to individuals. Now we find him administering bodily and spiritual comfort to a frivolous lieutenant who is suffering with a fever. And now, admonishing a young Scotch- man who, by his reckless behavior, is disgrac- ing the honored name of a pious father. Nothing more affecting occurred on this voyage than the lengthy conversation (minutely recorded in his wonderful diary) in which he engaged with the profane Spanish cook, about the errors of his Ro- man faith, leading this poor waif to turn from THE EMIGRANT. 35 Mary to the Saviour of sinners, '* While others/^ says Dr. Mann, ' ' trifled away the precious days, he was always ready and active in throwing out his net into the waters of the deep to catch souls and to bring them to Christ." What most distressed Muhlenberg was the im- pure jesting and the profane wrangling of the cabin passengers. One evening the lawyer of the company said that they should miss Muhlenberg when they came to separate. He parried the compliment, and replied quite frankly that they would no doubt be glad to get rid of him, as he had kept their consciences stirred up by the Word of truth. They did not, it appeared to him, care for life, but would rather die in their sins and be lost ; the fault, however, would not be his. Verily this emigrant parson has a straight aim. He can give a reason for the hope that is in him, and he is not afraid of the face of man. The champion of true Lutheranism in America has now been found, and his days of training are almost at an end. CHAPTER V. IN THE SOUTH. America at Last — Views on Negro Slavery — Hunts Up Ciiarleston Germans — English Preaching En Route to Georgia — Meets Gronau and Boltzius — Salzburg Exiles for Lutheranism — A week at Ebenezer Among Ameri- can Lutherans — Stranded at Charleston — Disturbing Tidings from Pennsylvania — Always on Duty — " De Profundis" — Arrives at Philadelphia at the Age of Thirty -one — "The Lord Doeth All Things Well." (1742.] Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. — Ps. cxxxiii. 1. O taste and see that the Lord is good : blessed is the man that trusteth in him.— Ps. xxxiv. 8. One evening the captain came to Muhlenberg's room, crying out, '' Welcome to the coast of Caro- Hna. We have sighted land. " " Bless the Lord, ' ' responded Muhlenberg, ' ' and forget not all His benefits." Fear of the Spanish, supposed to be cruising in those waters, determined the captain to stand for Charleston rather than Savannah. It was on September 23d, 1742, and at Charleston, S. C. , that Muhlenberg first set foot on American soil. True to his missionary instincts, he at once hunted up the Germans. He found two families of Palatines, who lamented the lack of German Lutheran service. On his return to the ship he found two negro slaves on board. He asked them if they were acquainted with the true God that made heaven and earth, and sent His Son as the Saviour of the (36) IN THE SOUTH. 87 world. They knew not what to reply. Deeply pained, he made this entry in his diary: ^' Will it not call down the severe judgment of God that a people which pretend to be Christian bring their fellow-creatures, yea their fellow-men, into bond- age, and concern themselves not a whit about their souls? The future will show." The future has shown. The blood atonement began in 1861 in that very harbor ! This was not a passing sentiment. Firmly be- lieving that God had "made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth," he took a deep pastoral interest in the negroes he found in Pennsylvania. In the fol- lowing century his descendants were profoundly interested in the emancipation of the slave. As the ship was to remain at Charleston several weeks, arrangements were made to forward Muh- lenberg and the Salzburgers in a Georgia sloop. Before leaving the ship Muhlenberg wrote let- ters to his friends in Europe, and to his '' sor- rowing mother." The sloop was more than a week in creeping through the inner passage to Savannah. Even here he found work for the Master. He gently admonished an old English trader, who cursed and swore, by reminding him of the Day of .Judgment. The master of the craft seemed glad to bring his religious difficulties to Muhlenberg. So deep a subject as the doctrine of election was discussed and explained in the light of John iii. 16. Wherever they stopped long enough, Muhlenberg broke the bread of life to the English people on the plantations. He had now been living among the English for half a year, and must have gained considerable proficiency in ex- pressing religious ideas in English. It is quite remarkable that the first sermon 38 HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBEBQ. preached by the Patriarch on American soil was delivered to a number of Presbyterians gathered for Sunday service on a Carolina plantation, and was delivered in the English tongue. The text was Matt. v. 1, '' The Beatitudes." By the next Sunday he had landed at Savannah, paid his respects to Col. Stephens, the representative of Governor Oglethorpe, and met Rev. J. Christian Gronau, one of the two Ebenezer pastors. Services were held in a private house, Gronau preach- ing. Next day he and Gronau proceeded up the Savannah River to Ebenezer, twenty-four miles west of the city. There they met Rev. J. M. Boltzius, who with Gronau had come over in the first transport in 1754. There is thrilling history connected with this colony. The picturesque duchy of Salzburg in Austria was their native land. For two hundred years the attempt had been made to suppress the Lutheran faith there. In cellars and in mountain fastnesses the brave Lutherans continued to wor- ship God after the manner of their fathers. But at last the Roman Catholic archbishop succeeded in driving out the "heretics." Protestant Europe was aroused on their behalf. Germany opened her doors to twenty thousand of them. The King of Prussia spent a million thalers in caring for them. Through the intervention of Rev. Dr. Samuel Urlsperger, of St. Anna's Church at Augs- burg, the S. P. C. K. of London became interested in them, and acted as treasurer for the funds col- lected all over Europe to send some of the exiles to America. The pathetic story of their journey to the New World may be read in the pages of Bancroft's "History of the United States." There was a charming simplicity in the life at IN THE SOUTH. 39 Ebenezer. Daily vesper sen'ices were maintained. It seemed as thousrh this were but an outpost of the Halle Orphan House, from which both pastors had come and in which both liad been teachers. There was even a small Orphan House here, in which Wesley and Whitefield had shown consider- able interest. God's blessing rested en field and factory. The "Plantations" were prosperous. Successful experiments were being made in the culture of silk. The flour mill, driven by water- power, was the wonder of the province. What pleased ^luhlenberg most was the devout behavior of the Salzburgers and their attention to the Word. In the Orphan House he met an Alsatian mer- chant by the name of Mr. J. Fr. Vigera, who was engaged in raising silkworms. In a few years this man was to foilov/ Muhlenberg to Pennsylvania, and devote his time to the school children. What a precious week at Ebenezer, despite the fever with which IMuhlenberg was suffering ! He handed over Ziegenhagen's letter, and a solid silver chalice, for which a pious youth in Germany had left money on his death-bed. He preached at their devotional meetings, and partook with them of the Lord's Supper. Blessed sacrament that binds together the saints at Grosshennersdorf and Eimbeck, in London and Ebenezer, and — in Pennsylvania, too ; the saints of the First Century with those of the Eighteenth, and both with those of the Twentieth. Gronau, eight years in the mission field, is think- ing of Europe too. In his diary he writes : ''I hope the Lord will reunite and once more bless us. A more gracious season we have never had at Ebenezer, for never before was this special favor granted us of a visit from one of the dear friends in Germany." Muhlenberg v/as somebody from 40 HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. ''home" and from the home church — a ''Hving epistle" of their constant love. To Muhlenberg, destined to a distracted Penn- sylvania field, what a refreshing sight this pros- perous Lutheran colony, undisturbed by sect or schism ! What a lively interest he would take in a church independent of state control ! What a variety of practical hints he would treasure up as to the best methods of religious work in the New World ! A duller man might have learned noth- ing. Muhlenberg was always wide awake, and learned everything that was to be learned in what- ever situation he was placed — Dutch stage-coach, London parsonage, Atlantic sailing vessel, or Georgia colony. That is the stuff of which suc- cessful missionaries and missionary leaders are made. After earnest prayer the congregation yielded to Ziegenhagen's request that Boltzius should accom- pany Muhlenberg to Pennsylvania, inasmuch as Pennsylvanians had corresponded with him in former years. As the boat pushed off, Muhlen- berg struck up the choral, ' ' Follow Me, says Jesus Christ, our Captain." "The quiet even- ing, the moonlight, the beautiful voices, the en- trancing sentiment of the hymn, and the sweet echoes made the departure affecting and impres- sive, the very picture of a blessed departure from this world." By the twentieth of October they were in Charleston, seeking passage northward. They lodged with a German innkeeper, and held morn- ing and evening devotions, in which some up- country Germans participated. IMuhlenberg's difficulties now began in earnest. He could not get his checks cashed. His read 3^ cash was run- ning low. He was nine hundred miles from his IN THE SOUTH. 41 destination. The town was full of soldiers. War and winter confronted him. To ride across coun- try through wilderness and swamp was impracti- cable. It was deemed best that Boltzias should return to Ebenezer, and, in case no vessel for Phil- adelphia offered, Muhlenberg was to winter among the Lutherans at Frederica, on the island of St. Simon, south of Savannah. Two disturbing documents from Pennsylvania fell into his hands. They related to the confusion that Zinzendorf was creating in Muhlenberg's fu- ture parish. His comment is: "Such gourds of wild vines enable me to see from afar death in the pot (2 Kings iv. 39, 40). and to realize the serious nature o! my call thither. ' ' Another characteristic entry in his diary is : "From October 25th to 30th I instructed some children." He always did the duty nearest to him, not asking whether it was small or great. Reformation Sunday, October 31st, he celebrated in his lodgings with two services, repeating the substance of his sermon, by request, in English. Next day he debated the question. Shall I risk my life in a one-masted sloop? He bethought him of the East India missionary's saying : "Shall death be my lot, here I am, my God. Is it Thy will that I live, into Thy hands I commit my spirit. ' ' He engaged passage on a one-masted sloop, bought a bed and some provisions, and went aboard, to find that of the nine passengers five were exchanged prisoners of war, profane beyond description. Yet he turned not back, but dared to make the voyage in this comfortless bark, "en- during hardness," as did Paul on the Mediter- ranean. The winds being contrary, they soon anchored opposite the fort. Muhlenberg was invited to 42 HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. supper by the commandant. While at table, he heard the tune, ' ' Freue dich sehr, meine Seele ! ' ' ' ' I forgot the supper, and begged permission to see those Germans," twenty-three in number. They were " redemptioners," bought from the ship, after the custom described later. When told he was a German preacher, they embraced him and cried for joy. As there were twenty- three, he explained the twentj^-third Psalm, and prayed with them. He sent them a volume of Schubert's Sermons on the Gospels. This was verily ' ' sowing beside all waters. ' ' The next two weeks were probably the most wretched and perilous that he ever passed through. It was late in the fall. Violent storms and chill- ing rains overtook them. Nauseated with seasick- ness, wet to the skin, packed in the cabin ''like herrings," and kept awake by the vermin, the pas- sengers, I'.Iuhlenberg included, thought the boat would surely go to the bottom ; but, as they neared the Capes of the Delaware Bay, the sun shone out, the spirits of the company revived, and Muhlenberg had leisure to study the land of his adoption. He was coursing through what w^as once " New Sweden." The farms and dwellings in sight belonged mostly to Swedish Lutherans. On Tinicum Island, below Philadelphia, had been erected, one hundred 3'ears before, the first Luth- eran church in the New World. With the coming of this emigrant pastor a new chapter was to open in American Church history. The day when he set foot in Philadelphia was Thursday, November 25th, 1742, ten years after the birth of AVashing- ton, nineteen after the arrival of Franklin in the city, and sixty after William Penn laid it out. His weary pilgrimage was at an end. He came, not to sojourn, but abide. The places to which he IN THE SOUTH. 48 was commissioned bore such precious names : ''Philadelphia," "The City of Brotherly Love;" '' New Hanover," suggestive of his native land; and "Providence," in whom Muhlenberg trusted implicitly. In a letter to Germany Muhlenberg thus ex- presses himself about that long journey of eleven months over land and sea : ' ' Your Excellency was pleased to say, ' The Lord do well for you, upon your voyage across the sea and in all other cir- cumstances.' Truly, our Father, reconciled in Christ, has, according to the riches of His mercy, done well for me, an unworthy and unprofitable worm ; — well, when I was in London with the Court Preacher Ziegenhagen ; — well, when I was enabled, on the voyage, to preach to sinners, my brethren, the great salvation through Jesus Christ and the judgment that is sure to overtake the de- spisers of His grace, and that preaching, too, in the English language ; — well, when on board ship we were afflicted with distressing heat and raging thirst ; — well, when in the winter season, I sailed by sea in a miserable sloop through storms and great hardships and in severe sickness until my arrival in Philadelphia. 0, my revered friend, help me to join with other followers of our Lord, and help me to praise and extol the mercy and forbearance of God." One who can write thus will not be utterly dis- heartened though he meet with coldness and revil- ing in "the City of Brotherly Love," or find ' ' New Hanover " in a forest near a swamp, or reach ' * Providence ' ' only at the risk of his life. CHAPTER VL A SHEAF OF DATES. Philadelphia and Pennsylvania in 1742— The Mingling of Nationalities and Sects — Dutch and Swedish Luther- ans — Four Periods of German Immigration — The Falckners, the Stoevers, and the Weisers — Beginnings of the Philadelphia Church — Various Appeals to the Mother-Church in Europe — The Man for the Hour. Look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged. — Isa. li. 1. Will the Lord cast off forever? and will he he favorable no more? Is his mercy clean gone forever? does his promise fail for evermore? — Ps. Ixxvii. 7, 8. Muhlenberg had come to a city of practically the same size as his native Eimbeck. But what a difference in all else : Eimbeck, a provincial town, ''unhonored and unsuna:," buried in the depths of Germany ; Philadelphia, the busy me- tropolis of America, with the ships of all northern Europe riding at anchor in the harbor, and, throughout the whole Eighteenth Century, the statesmen of all the colonies treading her streets. The city extended from South Street to Vine and from the Delaware River to Fifth Street. It was the Philadelphia of Benjamin Franklin, who, only five years Muhlenberg's senior, was coming to be the most considerable man in the province — printer, editor, politician, and, this very- year, founder of the Philadelphia Library. Whether these two men, Avho must have known so much of each other, ever met cannot be ascer- tained. They moved in such different planes. (44) A SHEAF OF DATES. 45 Both rose to eminence. Franklin went to Eu- rope, to stand before kings ; Muhlenberg came to America, to serve the King of kings. The one was the prudent man of the world ; the other was the sincere child of God. The one planted a State ; the other planted a Church. The Pennsylvania to which this emigrant-pastor came was an English colony of 150,000 souls, three-fifths of whom were Germans. The English and the Quakers were found in and near Philadel- phia. The Swedish settlements extended down into Delaware and up the Schuylkill Valley. The Welsh were scattered here and there. The Scotch and the Irish were pressing out toward the Cum- berland Valley. But the Germans were everywhere, even in the outlying towns of Lancaster and York. They gave their name to Philadelphia's oldest suburb, Germantown. And among the Germans the Lutherans were in the majority, so that, taking the German and Swedish Lutherans together, the historian Sachse makes bold to maintain that ' ' from the very out- set Pennsylvania was a Lutheran colony, and down to some years after the adoption of the Federal Constitution the Lutheran Church, so far as in- fluence was concerned, was the dominant one in the Province." At this time, alas ! it was a most disorganized Church, especially so far as the Germans were con- cerned. "Unionism, indifferentism, rationalism, fanaticism, deadness, reigned supreme " (Rev. Dr. M. H. Richards). Baron von Reck visited Philadelphia in 1734, after seeing the Salzburgers established in their new home. The religious portrait which he draws is distressing : ''It is the abode of all religions and sects : Lutherans, Reformed, Episcopalians, 46 HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. Presbyterians, Seventh-Day Baptists, Separatists, Boehmists, Schwenkfeldians, Tuchfelder, Wohl- wuenscher, Jews, heathen, etc." Since then the city had grown numerically, and so had the as- sortment of religious notions kept on sale. This seems to be a fitting point for a review of the German emigration and of the efforts to plant the Church of the Augsburg Confession in Amer- ica. It is drawn principally from ' ' The Luth- erans," by Rev. Dr. H. E. Jacobs, in ''The American Church History Series." It is not well to pass it over, for all the rest of the volume becomes more intelligible in the light of this chapter. Be- sides that, it enables us to look at the New World from Muhlenberg's point of view after his confer- ences vv^ith Francke, Ziegenhagen, and Boltzius, supplemented by a few years' residence in the land. Only the Roman Catholics (Spanish), the Episcopalians (Jamestown, 1607), and the Puri- tans (Plymouth Rock, 1620), preceded the coming of the Lutherans. Within the Seven- teenth Century three streams of Lutheran immigra- tion set in, none of them from England. The Dutch was the earliest. With the Dutch Re- formed immigrants to New Amsterdam in 1624 came some Lutherans, and later some North Ger- mans. Service had to be conducted in a private house. Even this was finally forbidden, some of the members imprisoned, and their first minister sent back to Holland. With the surrender to the English, in 1664, came liberty of worship, the building of a church, and a settled but unworthy I)nstor. A second congregation was founded at Albany. These churches and others were served in Dutch and English, Ix^tween 1700 and 1750, by the Swede Rudman, the German Justus Falckner, A SHEAF OF DATES. 47 ordained in 1703 by the Swedes in Gloria Dei, and two other Germans, Berckenmeyer and Knoll. Under the last the Germans far outnumbered the Dutch, and a language strife broke out which Muhlenberg was called in to settle. More important and honorable was the Swedish stream. In fulfillment of a plan originating with Gustavus Adolphus, the first vessels, " Key of Cal- mar ' ' and ' ' Bird Griffin, ' ' brought the Swedish Pilgrim Fathers to America in 1638. Fort Chris- tina (Wilmington, Del.) was built, and within it a block-house, used as a church. Rev. Reorus Torkillus was the first pastor, and Rev. John Campanius, translator of Luther's Catechism into the Delaware language, the second. A frame church was built in 1646 at Tinicum Island, nine miles southwest of Philadelphia. Even after the English, in 1664, conquered and annexed the for- mer " New Sweden," the Swedish crown provided and supported clergymen, over whom Swedish provosts presided until the close of the Revolu- tionary War. A block-house, built in 1769 at Wicaco, now in the southern part of Philadelphia, was converted into a church. Swedish kindness and fair-dealing won the confidence of the Indians and made it possible for Penn, who came in 1682, to make favorable treaties with them. The century closed with the dedication of two famous churches, still standing, but now in Epis- copalian hands. They were Holy Trinity, Wil- mington, dedicated July 4th, 1699, and "Gloria Dei," at Wicaco, dedicated July 2d, 1700. Rud- man and Bjorck were the pastors. Swedish im- migration had ceased. The Swedish pastors oc- casionally supplied vacant Episcopalian pulpits with English service, for which compensation was sometimes allowed. The English spoke of the 48 HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. Swedish Church as ' ' the sister-church of the Church of England." As marking the transition period, and the two influences — the German Lutheran and the English Episcopalian — by which the Swedes were to be drawn, now toward and now away from their Lutheran faith, we note that Rev. John Dylander, of Wicaco (1737-1741), preached in three languages : in German at the Matin Service ; in Swedish at ' ' high mass," or Morning Service ; and in English at Vespers. He even looked after the interests of the German Lutherans of Lancaster. This brings us to the days of Tranberg, Sandin, and Naesman, Muhlenberg' s friends. According to a heart-rending Appeal sent to Germany in 1754 by Muhlenberg and his co- laborers, four periods may be distinguished in the German immigration. William Penn was the in- stigator of German immigration, which, from 1680 to 1708, may be called sectarian. German town became a centre for German Quakers, Mennonites, etc., though it is claimed that orthodox Luth- eran service was commenced on St. John's Day, 1694, by the religious enthusiast, Heinrich Bernhard Koster, one of a band of German Pietists. This was the first German Lutheran ser- vice in America, and was held not far from the site of St. Michael's Church, Germantown. (Mr. Julius F. Sachse hkewise maintains that Koster also held English Lutheran services, which were soon transferred to Philadelphia, and held on Sec- ond Street, below Arch. Out of them grew Christ Episcopalian Church. ) Another of that company was Daniel Falckner, land agent. He organized the first American German Lutheran Church, in 1703, at " Falckner' s Swamp," in Montgomery County. It was one of the three churches that A 6HEAF OF DATES. 49 extended a call to Muhlenberg. The younger brother's (Julius) ordination has already been mentioned. He exercised his ministry among the Dutch. The second period extended from 1708 to 1720, that of the Palatinate immigration. Certain dis- tricts on the upper Rhine had never recovered from the desolations of the Thirty Years' War, and were subject to exacting levies of money and cruel con- scriptions on the part of France. A succession of severe winters and failures of harvest made the in- habitants an easy prey to the glowing representations of Pastorius and other land agents. An advance guard settled German Valley, N. .J., on the Rar- itan River, in 1707. Pastor Kocherthal that same year brought over a small flock, who settled at Newburg, N. Y. In 1710 he brought three thousand more, who were settled on the Hudson, on Livingstone's Manor. Victims of the selfish- ness and extortions of their English masters, they fled northward to the Schoharie region without the permission of the authorities. The IMohavrk Indians were kind to them. To obtain a clear title to their lands John Conrad Weiser, Sr., in 1718, undertook a mission to England, but in vain. Then, with heroic resolution, two companies, in 1723 and 1729, abandoned their homes, floated down the Susquehanna to the mouth of the Swatara Creek, and, passing up that stream, set- tled in the beautiful Tulpehocken Valley. Conrad Weiser, Jr., was the leading spirit. The Palati- nates were partly Lutherans and partly Reformed. While there were stray settlements of Germans all along the Atlantic coast from Nova Scotia to Georgia, the main current set toward Pennsylva- nia after 1712. The immigration of the third period, 1720 to i 50 HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 1730, was more varied and more earnest. Besides the Palatinate, Wiirtemberg, Hesse-Darmstadt, and Alsace sent recruits. The preachers were all too few. Henkel, Falckner, and Stoever, Jr., in Pennsylvania ; Berckenmeyer, Knoll, Wolf, and Hartwig, in New York, are mentioned. The most active in Pennsylvania was John Casper Stoever, Jr. He came over with his father, of the same name, and was ordained at Providence " in a barn ' ' by one Schultze in 1733. tie was an indefatigable missionary. His homes were in Lancaster and Lebanon Counties. During this period some schoolmasters cam^e into the country, who could read sermons, but who also presumed to act as pastors and adminis- ter the sacraments. Rev. Gerhard Henkel, pro- genitor of a distinguished family of clergymen, preached at Germantown before 1726 ; the corner- stone of a church was laid four years later. In that year a log church was built at Indianfield. In the same year the town of Lancaster was laid out, a German town, indeed, for Stoever performed baptisms there in 1729, and served the new con- gregation 1733-1742. In 1727 a small frame church was built at Tulpehocken, and Stoever was pastor there some years later. The last period, 1730 to 1742, saw a great in- crease in the German population. The Salzburg colony, 1734, has been sufficiently noticed. The Philadelphia congregation now comes into exist- ence. For a long time the Germans were depend- ent on the Swedes for such service as they could or would render. In 1732 Rev. J. C. Schultze gathered the Lutherans together, and, after six months, departed in the spring of 1733 to Europe, commissioned by the three churches at Philadel- phia, Providence, and New Hanover to collect JL SHEAF OF DATES. 61 funds. (The '' West " was then in Pennsylvania, and the ' ' East ' ' in Europe. ) The parish was placed in the care of Stoever, who remained but a short while. The place of worship in Philadelphia, 1733 to 1742, is variously designated as " a carpenter shop " and " a barn," but it is probable that in so large a town a private house would be secured. Whatever the structure, it contained an altar and a pulpit, with proper vest- ments, and a silver chalice was used to administer the communion. There appears to have been a separate school-house. This decade was made notable by earnest efforts and frequent failures to secure European help. The elder Stoever, indeed, succeeded in collecting £3000 for the Virginia churches, but Schultze and his lay associates were not thoroughly trusted. Ziegenhagen' s letter (see the first chapter) helped little. Years were wasted in correspondence. The Pennsylvanians scolded ; the Fathers at Lon- don and Halle delayed ; the sects played havoc among the churches ; the youth grew up without pastoral instruction or regular service. After 1739 there was silence, broken only by the unannounced arrival of Muhlenberg. II.-" PLANTING THE CHURCH." 1742-1748. CHAPTER I. GETTING POSSESSION OF THE VINEYARD. Getting His Bearings — Through " the Forest Primeval " — First Sermon in His Parish— Exit Schmidt— Recogni- tion at " The Trappe "—Koch and Schleydorn— Shakes Off Kraft — His First American Home — Formal Accept- ance at "The Swamp" Church — Swedish Recognition at Gloria Dei Church — Cross-examination by " Mr, von Thiirnstein "—Exit Count Zinzendorf. ( 1742. ) Return, we beseech thee, O God of hosts : look down from heaven and behold, and visit this vine ; And the vineyard which thy right hand hath planted, and the branch that thou madest strong for thyself. Let thy hand be upon the riian of thy right hand, upon the son of man whom thou madest strong for thyself.— Ps. Ixxx. 14, 15, 17. At my first answer no man stood with me, but all men forsook me: I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge.— 2 Tim. iv. 16. The vineyard is in a desperate state. Briars and thorns abound, and wild grapes in plenty. The hedges are broken down. ''The boar out of the wood doth waste it, and the wild beast of the field doth devour it." Yet God's set time for de- liverance has come, and the man of the splendid imperative is at hand with his motto : ' 'Ecclesia Plantanda. ' ' "The Church Must Be Planted." September 6th, 1741, he had at Francke's table, (52) GETTING POSSESSION OF THE VINEYARD. 68 in Halle, accepted the call to ' ' the dispersed Luth- erans in Pennsylvania ; ' ' and now, November 25th, 1742, he is standing in what his dear patron, the baroness, called ' ' the extensive uncultivated field in America," looking about him for his Luth- erans. He is just thirty-one years of age — thirty years of general and one year of most special train- ing for his life-work, which is to be, we may say, bishop or overseer of the Lutheran Church in America. He has already come into contact with. the southern and weaker part of the field ; he ii3 soon to explore the whole extent of the northern part of it. His immediate duty is to regain thai particular portion to which he is called, now ip the possession of impostors and interlopers. Other American pastors and missionaries thought of individual souls or particular congregations, Muhlenberg, while second to none in caring fot these, was able by his breadth of mind and pro- vidential training to rise to a more comprehen- sive thought, and say, ''The Church must be planted." Muhlenberg came to Philadelphia almost ag much of a stranger as Franklin himself. He knew what to do, and lost no time in doing it. He arrived at eight o'clock in the morning, spent a busy day in getting the lay of the land, and was off to his country churches before sundown. Depositing his baggage at an inn, he inquired for Druggist Zwiefler, formerly of Ebenezer. This man happened to belong to the new Moravian congregation, but he treated Muhlenberg courte- ously. The Lutheran congregation, he said, was split in twain. The more spiritual majority had gone over to Zinzendorf : the minority had called old Valentine Kraft, a vagabond preacher. What to do now ? Muhlenberg rented a room, and re- 54 HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. turned to his inn for his baggage. ' ' Eternal Providence, not chance, as some would say, had lodged a countryman conveniently at hand, from whom the new-comer discovered that the objects of his search (New Providence and New Hanover) were known as 'The Trappe' and 'The Swamp,' and that his informant would guide him thither that very day" (Prof. M. H. Pvichards, D. D., a descendant of Muhlenberg). Brandt told him, too, that "The Swamp" Church had ' ' hired ' ' N. Schmidt, a quack doctor and dentist, as its preacher. Sore as he was from the voyage, Muhlenberg pushed on immediately on horseback, and made ten miles that evening. His guide was a good Christian, and acted in a friendly way throughout the trip. Next day they pressed on through "the forest primeval," with which all eastern Pennsylvania was covered clear down to Philadelphia itself, and forded two creeks, the Schippach and the Perkiomen. Muhlenberg's small horse nearly sank in the swollen Perkiom.en. His comment is : "I believe in Providence. ' ' At last, quite late on Friday night, they arrived at "The Swamp." On Saturday four elders and two deacons were gotten together. Ziegenhagen's letter was read. No special enthusiasm was exhibited. Some even throught that he could not serve all three congrega- tions, as Philadelphia was thirty-six miles distant, and the roads in winter were wretched. He now learned how thoroughly disorganized the Church was. There was a Schmidt party and an anti- Schmidt party, and not a few would have nothing at all to do Avith churches and parsons. ' ' Poor consolation," is the missionary's terse entry in that faithful diary. Next day was the First Sunday in Advent. His GETTING POSSESSION OF THE VINEYARD. o5 pastorate opened with the new Cliurch Year, but without any Hosannas. Before he set out for church, he had to put a stop to the traffic which a Jew i^eddler Vv'as carrying on in the deacon's house on Sunda}^, and to the rough and profane language that Jew and Gentile meted out to each other over the bargains. The Jew assured Muhlenberg that that was nothing ; he did not understand the cus- toms of the country j^et ! Then to the church, an unplastered log building erected the year before. The text with v/hich he opened his ministry in America was a sweet mes- sage to the sinful and the sorrowing : ' ' God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself. . . . Now then we are ambassadors for Christ," etc. (2 Cor. V. 19, 20). The ambassador then read his credentials. The abashed Schmidt kept quiet ; it was not the credentials that silenced him, but the " man" behind the credentials. The afternoon was spent in spiritual conversa- tion with individua.ls — a department of pastoral activity in which Muhlenberg shone — and in learn- ing their views. Schmidt's party wanted the tip- pling druggist retained as an assistant. Some grumbled at the £40 yearly salary, or ' ' tax. ' ' Some boor even hinted that the credentials were forged. Muhlenberg was content with the impression he had made, and took this talk as a moral emetic, good for his soul ! On ^Monday, with three deacons, he rode over to ' ' The Trappe, ' ' nine miles south of ' ' The Swamp. ' ' ''The Trappe" is nine miles north of the present city of Norristown, and halfway between Phila- delphia and Reading, in Upper Providence Town- ship, Montgomery County. It forms the upper portion of Collegeville, a station on the Philadel- phia and Reading Railroad. Here an old deacon 56 HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. recognized Ziegenhagen's handwriting. He ex- plained that, despairing of a reply from Germany, they had accepted Kraft on his own representa- tion. On Wednesday, Muhlenberg met Kraft in Philadelphia, and had a specimen of his impudence and arrogance. Here, too, Muhlenberg acted with dignit}^ and stood on his instructions. His first week in Pennsylvania brought the mis- sionary little comfort or honor. Was it for such suspicious and ungrateful souls that he had given up place and preferment in Europe and endured the perils of the sea ? Another man might have wasted time in moping ; not Muhlenberg — he was a man of faith and action. The second week opened brighter. He made the acquaintance of two prominent laymen. One was Peter Koch, the most influential member of Gloria Dei Church. He w^as opposed to both Kraft and Zinzendorf. The other was Henry Schleydorn, a devout German sugar-refiner. He had formerly been a member of the Dutch Church in New York. These men recognized Muhlenberg's worth, and the Swedish layman invited jMuhlen- berg to preach at Wicaco, on Sunday, December 5th. So Muhlenberg preached two sermons on that Sunday — one for the Germans in their quar- ters on Mulberry, now Arch Street, near Fifth Street ; and a second in German also, in the vacant Gloria Dei pulpit. To see him and hear him was sufficient. The more intelligent mem- bers of the congregation rallied to his support, but were slow in taking any official action. He had to teach all parties a lesson. Before leaving the city he had the tilt with Zinzendorf related fur- ther on. Kraft hung to him until Muhlenberg got a good opportunity to shake him off. At New Provi- GETTING POSSESSION OF THE VINEYARD. 5' denc3, next Sunday, Muhlenberg preached in the ' ' barn ' ' that served as a church, and Kraft under- took to read Ziegenhagen's letter and to "com- mend" Muhlenberg to them — m order to keep him away from Philadelphia ! The inevitable clash came at an infant baptism at New Hanover. Here Kraft acted very officiously. Muhlenberg now read his call to the assembled elders, deacons, and church members, and asked whether they con- sented to receive him. A unanimous ' ' Aye ' ' purged this part of the vineyard of the notorious Kraft. At New Hanover the cramped quarters of a lean-to were assigned ]\Iuhlenberg as study, bed- room, and reception-room. This was his first Amer- ican home. Humble though it was, he entered it with thanksgiving that he could be alone and meditate. On December 19th, he preached in the morning on infant baptism (on account of the sects thereabouts), and then rode off to New Provi- dence, when he preached on the Epistle for the last Sunday in Advent. The next week he made a brief visit to Philadelphia. He had another taste of Kraft's bluster and officiousness. To the mortification of his own friends, Muhlenberg de- clined to honor an appointment for a Christmas service because it had been made by Kraft ; but, by Koch's prudent advice, he graciously yielded to • make an appointment of his own for Monday, December 27th, at the Swedish Church. He spent Christmas, then, with those who had accepted him, at New Hanover, preaching and administering the communion to over a hundred communicants. That evening "the elders and deacons of the Protestant Lutheran congregations at New Han- over and Providence" signed an official document acknowledging him as their pastor, ' ' sent by the 58 HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. Eev. Frederick Michael Ziegenhagen, His Majesty's German Chaplain and Member of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge." The ' ' Gloria Dei ' ' service was a virtual instal- lation. Rev. Mr. Tranberg, the Swedish pastor at Wilmington, came up to attend it. After Muh- lenberg's sermon, he read aloud Ziegenhagen's call, Muhlenberg's ordination certificate, his uni- versity testimonials, and the document subscribed at "The Swamp" Church, whereupon the church council pressed forward and gave the new pastor the right hand of recognition. "Thus the Salz- burgers, the Dutch (in the person of Schley dorn), and the Swedes united in establishing Muhlen- berg's position." Philadelphia Lutheranism at its most critical period received a man capable of defending the vineyard and clearing it of inter- lopers. Next day he paid visits of courtesy to the Eng- lish Colonial Governor and the resident Epis- copal rector. Governor Thomas read his creden- tials, and promised him all the assistance in his power. He could not forbear an Englishman's patronizing air toward a foreigner, but he found that the "Dutch" were not all "dumb." He asked Muhlenberg why the Germans beat their wives? "In order," replied the latter, without a smile, "that in this Quaker community they might keep in practice against a time of war." "Politicians," he says, "consider preachers like scarecrows — a mark to throw stones at." His method of disposing of Count Zinzendorf remains to be mentioned. It is passing strange that a man of the high rank and acknowledged piety of this renowned Moravian missionary should stoop to such double-dealing as characterized his GETTING POSSESSION OF THE VINEYARD. 59 course in Philadelphia, and, indeed, in the whole Lutheran field in Pennsylvania. Before leaving Europe, he had ostentatiously resigned his dignity as Moravian bishop, and in Philadelphia with equal parade laid aside his title as count. Hum- ble "Brother Ludwig," self appointed "Pastor and Inspector of the Lutheran Church in Phila- delphia," got possession of the Lutheran pulpit for a time, and still retained the church records even after the erection of a Moravian Church. With great pretense of spiritualit^y he intermed- dled at German town and other places, and con- cocted a grand scheme to unite Moravians, Re- formed, Lutherans, and Baptists in one organiza- tion. The only result was to add another denomi- nation to the many already found in the colon}^, and to give Muhlenberg work for m.any years in cleansing the vineyard of obtrusive growths. Zin- zendorf tried in vain to prevent Muhlenl)erg's preaching in Gloria Dei pulpit, from which Koch had shut him out. On December 8th, Muhlenberg went unattended to what he supposed to be a private interview with " Mr. von Thiirn stein," but which turned out to be a cross-examination and severe castigation before a hall full of the count's adherents. Zinzendorf tried to browbeat Muhlenberg, called him "in- sane," and gave him the "lie" repeatedly. But he found his match in this village parson, not two weeks in the city. Wishing the count "a happy voyage to Europe," Muhlenberg bade him "fare- well," and " escaped out of the snare of the fowler." Brother Ludwig lingered in the city until New Year's Day. By Koch's advice the church council demanded the records through the Mayor of the city. January Ist, 1743, Zinzendorf 60 HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. left for Europe by way of New York, and Muh- lenberg remained in possession of the Lutheran vineyard as vine-dresser thereof. Next day he installed the Philadelphia Church Council ; a\erage men, he says — like people, like deacons. But he was content to labor on with such helpers as Prov- idence sent him, until, under the faithful preach- ing of the Word, a devouter people and broader- minded deacons should be developed. CHAPTER 11. SETTING THINGS TO RIGHTS. Starving Out the Enemy — Pennsylvania Described Physi- cally and Spiritually — A Fourth Church Added to the Parish — " Halle Reports " — Open-air Preaching in January — Boxes from Halle — The ]\Iany-sided Mis- sionary — The First English Lutheran — Corner-stones at " The Trappe " and Philadelphia — An Empty Purse and a Full Larder — Both Churches in Use bv Fall— Spiritual Results. (1743.) Blessed be the Lord, who hath not given us as a prey to their toeth Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the suare of the fowlers : t'uo snare is broken, and we are escaped. Our help is iu the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth.— Ps. cxxiv. ti-8. For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city, as I had appointed thee, — Tit. i. 5. Let lis follow the missionary step by step dur- ing the two years in which he stood alone in this unkempt vineyard. He had a hard time of it physically and financially. The Providence con- gregation presented him a horse, and a little salary came in from Philadelphia ; but his European funds were soon exhausted, and his room rent at Philadelphia remained unpaid. The people were depending on the "dear fathers at Halle," instead of reaching into their own pockets. In order to put an end to opposition churches by vagabond school- masters, supported by fees for ministerial acts, Muhlenberg, notwithstanding the desperate state of his finances, early in January, 1743, coura- geously abolished all fees for baptism and the (61) 62 HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. customary '^ offerings" for the minister laid upon the altar on communion days. For at least half a year he eked out a living by giving private les- sons in music, but he did not desert his post. His description of Pennsylvania is very inter- esting : ' ' There is not much money here ; but the land is so rich in all kinds of productions that it maybe said to flow with milk and honey." Probably, when this was read, they said : " Poor fellow, he has the Western fever." " On the one side we have the Indians, who are yet heathens ; on the other side, the ocean As far as regards the climate, Pennsylvania is the best part of all America for the Germans Here the houses do not stand near together, as in the villages of Germany. There are always several thousand acres in one body, and these are then di- vided so that one man may own from twenty up to five hundred acres. At first, such a strip of land is simply woods, forest ; but, after it has been settled and cultivated, it becomes a township or a borough, and is provided with streets and roads leading to Philadelphia. In traveling on the highways you are continually passing through woods ; but you come to one house, standing near the road, and then, some miles further on, to an- other. But the houses generally stand off a con- siderable distance from the road In the country there are several streams that some- times suddenly rise very high, and then again abate. As there are no bridges over them, they have to be crossed on horseback or in a canoe. When I go from Philadelphia to the churches in the country I have always to cross three streams (the Wissahickon, Perkiomen, andSkippach), and in winter this is often dangerous." If we glance over his shoulder as he writes in SETTING THINGS TO RIGHTS. 63 his diary on January 5th, 1743, we shall get a spiritual photograph of the vineyard : "It seems to me as if the time had come for God to visit us, here in Pennsylvania, with special favor. In- deed, it is high time. If affairs had continued a few years longer as they have been, our poor Lu- theran people would have wandered off completely into heathenism. Some of them have never been baptized ; they have married, have children around them, and even the children are not bap- tized ; besides this, the sects and misleading opinions that prevail are more than can be num- bered. ' ' More pointedly yet : ' ' There is no lack of Atheists, Deists, Materialists, and Free Ma- sons You find people of every na- tion on the' earth, and often what is not tolerated in Europe asserts itself here openly You may sometimes hear the most shameful utterances against God and His Holy Word, in public and unrestrained Throughout the land there are thousands who, according to their baptism, their training, and their confirma- tion, ought to be Lutherans, but, in great measure, they have strayed away. So sad, so degraded is the condition of the poor Lutheran people that you could hardly bewail it enough with tears of blood." To the three " United Churches" a fourth was added, Germantown, which was served during Philadelphia's week. On Epiphany Day, accord- ing to European and Lutheran usage, service was held at Providence. There was only a log school- house here : service had to be held in a barn. The question of a church building soon became a press- ing one. It must be of freestone. It would cost £200. The people can raise £100, besides their hibor. ' ' To see them haul the stone for the 64 HENRY MELGHIOR MUHLENBERG. church is a very joy to me. ' ' This congregation was entitled to ope-third of certain church exten- sion funds at Halle. Even this left a deficit. " May the Lord," writes Muhlenberg to Halle, '' move the hearts of the people in Europe so that they may render us needed help." Thus he be- sieged the throne of grace, and, while not sparing his own people, did not hesitate frankly to tell their needs to the Mother-Church across the water. The fact is, that in Pennsylvania, though produce was plenty, it fetched a low price in the city, so that ready money was scarce. At Halle they understood the power of the press, and believed in keeping the mission cause before the people. Beginning with ' ' A Brief Re- port," in 1744, embracing extracts from Muhlen- berg's letters and diaries, the hardships, labors, and triumphs of the Pennsylvania missionaries were from time to time spi-ead before the Church. They served to keep up a continuous interest in the Church of the West, and bore fruit in men and money. i\Iuhlenberg' s contributions to these intensely interesting documents ohow him to have been a model pastor and a giant among mission- aries. They were reprinted from time to time. Finally Prof. Dr. Schulze, of the University of Halle, edited and reissued the whole series in 1787, the year of Muhlenberg's death. Two thorough American scholars. Rev. Dr. W. J. Mann, one of Muhlenberg's successors in Phila- delphia, and Rev. Dr. B. M. Schmucker, famous as the great liturgical authority, republished these " Hallesche Nachrichten," in 1884, with a mass of historical notes. A portion of their work was Englished by that prince of translators, Rev. Dr. C. W. Schaeffer, one of ]\Iuhlenberg's successors SETTING THINGS TO RIGHTS. 65 in the Germantown pulpit. It is published as " The Halle Reports." Than these Muhlenberg can have no nobler monument. To resume our narrative, next week another problem had to be solved at New Hanover, the educational one. ' ' Since ignorance is very great in this country and good schoolmasters are very scarce, I had to take this matter also into my hands. On the following Monday, January 10th, the parents brought me some of their children. It does not look very promising to see youths of 17, 18, 19, 20 years of age appear with the A, B, C book. Yet 1 rejoice to see their desire to learn something. Singing, also, has quite died out among the young people." The Halle pedagogue now became the Pennsylvania schoolmaster, taking the three churches week about "simply for the purpose of preparing the larger youth and the adults, whose instruction has been neglected, for confirmation." He took a common-sense view of the request made by some young fellows for in- struction in English. ' ' This also affords me an opportunity to do some good," words which are a key to his success as a missionary, "hence I read the New Testament with them in English." On Saturday, January 15th, he returned to Providence, to discuss with the church officers the character of those who had handed in their names for communion next day. Sunday was a hard day, as the great crowds forced him to speak in the open air — in January ! He caught a severe cold, which seriously affected his throat. OAving to his exposed life he frequently suffered in this way, especially this spring, when he had much outdoor preaching to do, and that before he was acclimated. What, if, on the very threshold of his career, he had lost his voice ! But One who 66 HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. doeth all things well was watching over His faith- ful servant. That week two boxes reached him from Halle. They contained medicine for body and soul, the latter some cheap popular devotional books. Muhlenberg readily disposed of the articles among his parishioners. The missionary played many parts, and played them all well. He was pastor, itinerant preacher, schoolmaster, singing teacher, organist, colporteur, precentor, church builder, and, at times, physician. That he was his own hostler was a matter of course. Whether the stu- pidity of his parishioners ever compelled him to act as janitor is not known, but, if necessary, he would have filled the part gracefully. He was quite willing to be " made all things to all men that he might by all means save some." The Fathers in Europe recognized the worth of their representative in the New World, and were not slow to let the church know of his faithful- ness. In the first missionary bulletin they say : ^' Now, although it might have seemed that the labors of one solitary pastor were altogether inad- equate to the task of restoring order, not only in one, but several different congregations, and giv- ing them a start in the direction of positive good, yet Pastor Muhlenberg, superior to the infirmity of fear, resolved, with the help of the Lord, to do his best, and to discharge the duties of his office with all fidelity and with unwearied patience, until it should please God to send him requisite assistance." This httle bit of not overstrained praise, coming in 1744, did the missionary more good than many honors after he was worn out with service, or a whole volume of glowing obitu- ary notices. In Philadelphia the church question was more SETTING THINGS TO RIGHTS. 67 serious than in the country. There is something quite modern, and western, about this entry un- der January 23d : ' ' Twenty or thirty years ago, a piece of ground for a church might have been bought at a very moderate figure. The price of land is constantly advancing, and the number of Lutherans is increasing year after year. The longer we delay building the costlier it will be." This, for European readers. At New Hanover there was a division of opinion on building a school-house and parsonage under one roof. Muhlenberg managed the matter tact- fully, and the meeting adjourned in peace and harmony. At the request of the congregation he audited the accounts of the church officers. Perhaps the first person confirmed by him was a young woman of twenty-three, " v>^ho, since her seventh year, had been living with English Quak- ers, and who proved to be not only totally igno- rant of Christian doctrine, but also to have for- gotten the German language." After a hurried private course of instruction by Muhlenberg — one more duty added to the many he already had — she, on February 6th, ' ' made a confession of her faith (in English), in the presence of the congre- gation, and partook with them of the Lord's Sup- per. This scene produced a very deep and happy impression upon the congregation itself." A funeral in the congregation nearly proved his death. There was a four-mile ride through the woods to church, and the people put Muhlenberg on a wild colt. How many forms of death this man of God escaped by the good hand of his Lord upon him ! About that time he was called to visit a sick woman six miles from Providence, west of the Schuylkill River, and preached there to the 68 HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. assembled neighbors. February 18th he made a visit to the village of Germ an town, ten miles northwest of Philadelphia, and preached in their " Kirchlein " (little church). Church b'nlding operations moved on apace, for the congregations grew in size and courage in the presence of a capable leader. * ' May 2d we laid the corner-stone of the first Lutheran Church at Providence ['The Trappe'], and had an im- mense concourse of people present, English as well as German." Notice how respectfully this German pastor speaks of his English neighbors, and what concern he shows for their spiritual well-being. Oh, that his generous policy and wise method could have been carried out continuously during that century. What sorrows it would have averted in the next. To continue : "The relig- ious exercises w^re begun by singing the hymn, * Commit thou all thy ways and cares into His hand ; ' then I preached in German, on the text, Zech. xiv. 7 ; after this I preached also in Eng- lish." The first service was held in the unfin- ished church in September, though the dedication did not occur until 1745. Of Philadelphia he writes : '' The week before Easter, God in His mercy gave us a lot in the centre of the city. [He had an eye for a promi- nent location ; it was on Fifth Street, between Arch and Race.] If we should sell it now, we would get an advance of £20 sterling." The corner-stone of St. Michael's w^'is laid on April 5th. As they ' ' must show consideration for those who are to come after" themselves, the dimen- sions were fixed at seventy feet in length, forty- five in breadth, and thirty-eight in height, with a steeple eighty-five feet high. The material was brick. ""The cost is estimated at £800 ster- SETTING THINGS TO iilGHTS. 69 ling"— $4000.00. "Our trust is in the living God." These extraordinary expenses in two of the three congregations made it impossible for them to give him any salary. The farmers were gener- ous with provisions. ' ' One man brings me a sausage, another a piece of meat, a third a chicken, a fourth a loaf of bread, a fifth some pigeons, a sixth a rabbit, a seventh some eggs, an eighth some tea and sugar, a ninth some honey, a tenth some apples, an eleventh some partridges, etc." For rent and clothing, and for two new horses in succession, he ran into debt £60 in two years, without, however, losing heart or temper. When money came from Germany, he did not look out simply for Number One, and take all he was en- titled to. "As debts troubled me and there was no feasible way I took £30, paid my indebtedness, gave £20 to New Hanover, and owe them £30 more. My salary had gone to the Philadelphians, who cannot repay it, yet those £30 must be paid." And paid they were. ' ' The Church must be planted." "Our trust is in the living God." Such a man makes an inspiring missionary. On September 12th, "The Trappe" congrega- tion left the barn, and worshiped for the first time within the bare walls of the new Augustus Church. By November, St. Michael's was under roof. ^ ' In this there seems to be something of a Divine appointment, for, as the Swedes have now their own pastor (Naesman), they will occupy their church themselves. " (It is an interesting fact that over a century later this very St. Michael's Church gave shelter to the revived Swedish work, now Zion Swedish Church, Philadelphia.) Though the scaffolding inside the building was still stand- 70 HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. ing, and the windows had to be boarded up, the first service was held October 20th. The dedica- tion was deferred until 1748. With full consci- ousness of the vital importance of a church build- ing in the metropolis, he adds, ' ' What a blessing this is, in a strange land, where wickedness so much abounds. Our enemies have been hoping all along that the four men who have made them- selves responsible for the payment would be cast into prison for debt before the work had advanced as far as it is." He makes grateful mention, too, of one hundred Rix dollars received from the Lan- caster congregation. (These people felt doubly near to the Philadelphia church, since the com- pletion of the public highway between the two places in 1741.) Concerning spiritual results he writes joyfully under date of June 6th, 1743 : "In Providence I have already instructed some twenty, confirmed them, and admitted them to the hol}^ com- munion. Amongst these there were several mar- ried persons. In New Hanover, also, I have in- structed and confirmed about twenty, of whom several were about twenty-five years of age. I have a small number in course of instruction at Philadelphia, who, however, have not as yet advanced very far." The city work was proving more difficult than that in the country. ' ' On Whitsunday I preached in New Hanover. The crowd was so great that they almost trod upon one another. After the sermon, I baptized eleven children in the presence of the congregation, also a married woman, to whose instruction I had pre- viously attended some time. The woman was the child of Mennonite and Baptist parents, and dur- ing the time of her instruction she attained to a happy, living knowledge of the truth. On Whit- SETTING THINGS TO RIGHTS. 71 monday I preached in Providence to a very large congregation, and administered the Lord's Supper. I confirmed six adults, some of them married persons, also two youths, and baptized two chil dren.'^ Under November 25th : ' ' I have baptized a mother and her five adult children in the church at German town. . . . They were so much affected that I might almost have baptized them with their tears. At the same place I baptized a married man. Through the grace of God these persons seem to be advancing in spiritual strength and faithful- ness." This is discriminating, modest, hopeful, and talhes with his record of January 5th. Between then and now he had made long strides in the difficult task of " setting things to rights ^* in his neglected and pillaged vineyard. CHAPTER III. CO-LABORERS IN THE VINEYARD. First Visit to Tulpehocken — Conrad Weiser and His Daughter — Proposed Synod of 1744 — Slanderers and Drunlvards — Reinforcements from Germany — ^^indica- tion — Field Divided — ]\Iuhlenberg a Country Parson — Views on Matrimony — Marries Weiser's Daughter — Sets Up Housekeeping at *' The Trappe." (1744-1745. ) Two are better than one ; for if they fall, the on^ will lift up his fel- low : but woe to him that is alone when he falleth ; lor he hath not another to help him up. And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him ; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken. — Ecc. iv. 9, 10, 12. I have planted, Apollos watered ; but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that water- eth ; but God that giveth the increase. — 1 Cor. iii. 6, 7. In the wide valley between Reading and Leb- anon is Tulpehocken. The Palatinate Lutherans who had settled there in 1723 and 1729 built a frame church, and had sermons read every Sun- day. Just now the congregation was split into three factions, thanks in part to the Zinzendorf influence. The fame of Muhlenburg as a wise councilor reached this place, fifty miles beyond his parish. In the summer of 1743 he visited the congregation, by request, and induced the factions to unite on Rev. Tobias Wagner. This impulsive and suspicious clergyman threw his influence rather on the side of Stoever, now in Lancaster County, and long averse to fellowship with IMuhl- enberg. Wagner annoyed Muhlenberg for many years, but he at least kept out that worthless clerical tramp, Andreae. (72) CO-LABORERS IN THE VINEYARD. 73 This visit was an eventful one for Muhlenberg in other respects. It won for him eventually the moral support of one of the foremost Germans in Pennsylvania, a man of heroic and romantic mould, yet deeply religious, the celebrated Indian agent, Conrad Weiser, Jr. His father, old John Conrad, was a consistent Lutheran, but the son had a peculiar history. Born in Germany, in 1696, emigrating with his father to New York State, spending eight months among the Six Na- tions, he had a strong hold on both the Germans and the Indians. In 1720 he married a German (not an Indian) maiden, Eva Anna, and nine years later came to Tulpehocken. According to Muhlenberg he was "first awak- ened by the reading of the Church-postils of the sainted Prof. Francke. Afterward he had some connection with the so-called Sabbath Friends, who insisted so much on the matter of self-de- nial. ' ' He was, in fact, quite a fanatical member of the Ephrata cloister, Lancaster County. In this community of Seventh-Day Baptists he was known as "Brother Enoch." Muhlenberg says that, when the writings of Dippel were spread among them, and they began to reject Jesus Christ, he left them. He now entered into politi- cal life as a Justice of the Peace, and was much trusted by the Governors of the State. Religiously he fell for a time under Zinzendorfs influence, without committing himself to him entirely. He now gave his life-long friendship to Muhlenberg, much the soberest friend he ever had. Owing to his sentimental nature and his lack of theological training, he did not draw sharp lines between the denominations, yet he loyally supported Muhlen- berg in his Lutheran work. Through him Muhl- enberg was brought into contact with the history 74 HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. of New York State Lutheranism for the past thirty years. Muhlenberg's singing of the Halle hymns, to his own accompaniment on the organ, capti- vated Weiser, and, possibly, also, his daughter Anna, just then "sweet sixteen." An attempt, made in May, 1744, at Gloria Dei Church, to unite the Swedes and the Germans in one organization failed. Koch and Schleydorn were bent on accomplishing the union, especially in order to keep out the Moravians, who were w^orrying the Swedish Churches. The plan failed because Nyberg, of Lancaster, was a secret Mo- ra\^an, and Naesman was impractical. So far, Muhlenberg found no kindred clerical spirits in America, save at remote Ebenezer. He needed helpers as well as sympathizers, for, with- out help, " he would be sure to sink under his labors," wrote the Halle Fathers. In all his let- ters he had been pleading for assistance ; so had the people. With Germans swarming in, ''the harvest was great, but the laborers few." The first arrival was in 1743, J. F. Vigera, from Ebenezer, Georgia. He was made schoolmaster at New Hanover, and for many years labored under Muhlenberg's direction, here and there, as teacher and lay-reader. Another excellent young man, employed by him at Providence, was J. J. Loeser. Both of these men were used at Lancas- ter. By July, 1744, three men were on their way from Germany, Rev. Peter Brunnholtz (from Schleswig-Holstein, quite familiar with Danish and Swedish), and two intimate friends, the Cate- chists J. Nicolaus Kurtz and J. H. Schaum. They journeyed by way of London. Prayer was offered every Sunday in the American churches for their safe arrival. They reached Philadelphia January 26th, 1745, a day annually commemorated by the CO-LABORERS IN THE VINEYARD. 75 United Pastors. When Muhlenberg met them face to face, they sang together ' ' Lobe den Her- ren, meine seele " ( " Praise the Lord, my soul " ) , and united in prayer. Muhlenberg wrote, out of the fullness of his heart, to Germany : "I know not whether to laugh or to cry at the arrival of our three assist- ants. O how hard to struggle against doubt, against despondency, and against other evils. No doubt I have been giving trouble and anxiety enough to my beloved Fathers in London and Halle by my frequent lamentations, for which I pray them kindly to forgive me. Now I have seen that the Lord can do, and does do, more than we can understand. It is not my work ; it is the Lord's working, therefore rejoice, O ye heavens, and be glad, O earth." He then mentions a succession of trials that bade fair to wreck his ministry. ' ' The German printer, Christopher Sauer," of Germantown, a rank sectarian, " sought both in private and in pubhc, ' ' through his paper and almanac, ' ' to make myself and ni}^ office odious." Muhlen- berg therefore warned his people to examine their Sauer Bibles, printed in 1743, lest they contain slanders against the Lutheran Church. An unprincipled woman had dared to bring a vile charge against Muhlenberg before the author- ities, but was compelled to ask public forgiveness of the congregation. ' ' If the devil had suc- ceeded, I would have had to resign my office ; but God was my defense. So the attack of the devil resulted at last in magnifying my office ; but to me it was a time of much suffering. ' ' This emi- grant missionary, who has climbed to the place of honor as ' ' the Patriarch of the Lutheran Church in America, ' ' knew what it was to be " troubled 76 HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. on every side. " ^ ' Without were fightings, within were fears." Then came trouble about a funeral at New Han- over. As Muhlenberg could not get up from the city in time, "Certain hard drinkers and men of base character engaged Preacher Andreae to at- tend the funeral. The congregation was divided. With what sort of weapons could I fight now ? The Quaker civil officers say, ' We have no use for preachers in this country.' The hard drinkers commonly say, ' As we have to hire a preacher for money, let us have a jolly one, for this Muhlen- berg is too strict for us.' Serious and earnest souls weep and sigh. ''Andreae prowls about and denounces me openly as a Pietist and a Herrnhuter (Moravian). Nothing was left for me save the love which most of them still bear toward me. Accordingly I laid hold of the matter from this side, and had the congregation informed that, if they would tolerate such disorders, I would leave them and never come again. This called forth weeping and lamentations. Some of the disorderly party begged to be forgiven, and the well-disposed peo- ple promised to be more careful of the interests of the church. So I went back to them again. "In Europe you can scarcely form a correct idea of circumstances as they exist here. The voyage across the ocean was very hard upon me, but the trials and burdens which I have had to bear in the two years of my pastoral experience here cannot be conceived. And yet I must chide my unbelief and say, ' The Lord is faithful, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.' " Brave soul, he is not reckoning that in another year his call will expire, and that he will be at liberty, like the men at "Gloria Dei" and Wil- CO-LABOEERS IN THE VINEYARD. 77 mington, to return to Fatherland and ^lother- Church, with his "expenses paid" and a com- fortable parish in Europe. The assistants did not arrive until 1745. He could not account for the delay, nor for the non- arrival of letters, addressed to him, from Germany and England. All this gave " his enemies occa- sion to insult and ridicule him, stating that his friends and benefactors in Europe had cast him off ; and, still worse, others spread slanderous re- ports to the effect that he had applied to his own use the money which had been collected for the churches. This calumny, however, was com- pletely silenced upon the arrival of the letters from Europe which contained also the balance of the moneys collected. " ( " Halle Reports. ' ' ) In a letter brought by Brunnholtz, and ad- dressed to the congregations, Francke admonished those " who, by failing to bring forth the fruits of true repentance, have been a grief to their pastor, to humble themselves in godly sorrow" — advice which is not out of date in the Twentieth Century. In view of all these things it is no wonder that, when Muhlenberg saw his colleagues, he "knew not whether to laugh or to cry. ' ' The days of his loneliness were over. There were now, in all, six vine-dressers in the vineyard. Opposition in his own parish collapsed in the presence of these re- inforcements. After a few months' trial of joint service, the two pastors divided the field, so that the more deli- cate Brunnholtz, who was beginning to break down under the strain of travel, was given Phila- delphia and Germantown, and the more robust Muhlenberg retained the country churches, to- gether with the general oversight of the field. Schaum was placed as teacher in Philadelphia, 78 HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. and Kurtz at New Hanover. For twelve years, or until his death, Brunnholtz continued in the Philadelphia pulpit. Muhlenberg had a high re- gard for his intellectual powers. He was a recent university graduate, a good linguist, and, like Muhlenberg, had been in the service of a noble family in Germany as pastor and tutor. Relieved of the onerous duty of teaching, Muh- lenberg could now more readily, with the aid of Brunnholtz and the schoolmasters, reach out- lying districts, and supply them with the means of grace. '■ ' Invitations to visit many other places were addressed to the pastors. They could not alwa5'S refuse, but readily went wherever it was possible for them. The people who approached them with these solicitations generally lived in thinly populated regions, for which reason, and especially because, like most of the Germans in the country, they are poor in this world's goods, upon their first arrival they cannot well support a pastor. May the Lord in His mercy regard these congregations that are yet to be provided for." ("Halle Reports.") All these men recognized the fact that Muhlen- berg had done the pioneer work, and was fitted by nature and experience, as well as by his official appointment from London and Halle, to act as their superior and guide. Brunnholtz was ever \0y2l to his superior. Thej^ agreed to exchange pul- pits every four or six weeks. Neither was to under- take anything of importance in his own parish without first having advised with the other. In fact, they had frequent pastoral conferences, out of which at last grew a Synod. Brunnholtz reports : ' ' The Lord did not per- mit Muhlenberg's enemies to succeed, but favored him the more powerfully in the conviction and CO-LABORERS IN THE VINEYARD. 79 conversion of many souls." Then some instances follow : ''In Philadelphia, he baptized an mi- married woman, twenty-five years of age, the daughter of Quaker parents ; in New Hanover a Quaker and four children ; in Providence a German of good social standing, with his five children. The man had for some considerable time been impressed with the Word of God ; at last he broke through all restraining bounds." Muhlenberg says that he might give other indications of good results, but he thinks that ' ' it might be better to wait so as to ascertain accurately whether they are sub- stantial and enduring." That Muhlenberg carried a cool head, as well as a warm heart, is seen in his judgment on the emotionalism of his day. ' ' You will see many signs of weakness, and, yet, evidences of good re- sults. We are not disposed to make such a dis- play of our affairs as others have a fashion of do- ing, who, out of three or four half -con verted peo- ple (yet God knows them), will create an aston- ishingly pious congregation. I have an abhor- rence of all such boastings, because an unsound principle lies at the bottom of it." His rejoicing over these first fruits is genuine, but, as befits a prudent mission ar)% not effusive. On April 22d, 1745, Muhlenberg took a step that told the world that he had come to America to stay. He had three homes in Pennsylvania, and yet no home. For thirty-four years he had been ' ' wandering about in the wilderness of this world" without finding an helpmeet for him. On the above date, he was united in marriage with Miss Anna Mary \\^eiser, daughter of Conrad Weiser, Esq., of Tulpehocken. Rev. Tobias Wagner was the officiating minister. Born June 24th, 1727, the bride lacked two 80 HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. months of being eighteen 3^ears of age. but atoned for this by her country hfe and experience on the frontier. She hved in wedlock forty-two j^ears, and survived her husband fifteen years, dying August 23d, 1802, at the age of seventy-five years. " It had always been my intention," writes Muhlenberg, "to remain unmarried; but very hkely the devil in his cunning tried to involve me in a dilemma. In the city I Avas told, ' Sir, j^ou must remain in this country. I know a good spouse for you.' In the country some blunt set- tler would say, ' The parson must become my son.' ''Besides, circumstances of a private nature often occurred in the course of my ministerial duty, visiting the sick and the like. Kow, had I yielded to the spirit and fashion of the world, and made wealth an object, I would have been in- volved very soon. But when I made up my mind to live unmarried, then the devil went to work in an infamous way with gross slanders to befoul me and my work." The instance of that wicked woman before mentioned is cited. ' ' I could not get along without some female attendant. I could not and would not employ young girls, and old women require servants themselves. Also, when a clerical brother visited me, such an atten- dant became necessary." His apology for mat- rimony ought to have been satisfactory to the Fathers. "As to the principle of selection, I consider nothing but piety as requisite. The Lord also regarded my prayers, and granted me a young woman, who is pure in heart, pious, unpretentious, meek, and active. . . . The whole affair was the occasion of much gossiping, but my congre- gations are well satisfied and extend to my wife many proofs of their regard and love." CO-LABORERS IN THE VINEYARD. 81 His faithful Anna fully sympathized with his missionary work, and did her full share in main- taining his home as missionary headquarters in America, frequented by pastors, schoolmasters, and students of theology at all hours and for in- definite periods of time. Owing to her husband's protracted absences the burden of the growing family devolved entirely upon her. Under it she showed sincere trust in God and ardent devotion to His kingdom. Col. Weiser, as he was called after the War of '55, was of great value to Muhlenberg as a friend and sage counselor. His friendship carried weight in political circles. Father-in-law and son-in-law frequently exchanged visits and correspondence, and took at least one important journey together. Muhlenberg was now anchored to his work and the land of his spouse. Though foreign-born, he was an American of the Americans, and became the head of a family illustrious in Church and State, and conspicuous for their intense loyalty to their native land. He took his bride at once to the city. Until a house could be built on the seven- acre plot that he had purchased at "The Trappe " (Provi- dence), he supplied the Philadelphia pulpit. In June they settled in the country, where they remained for sixteen years, or until 1761, when the country parson again became the city parson. At "The Trappe" eight of his eleven children were born. Thither he retired to spend the even- ing of his days, 1776 to 1787, and there he lies interred in the family burial plot. The simplicity of his character and his prefer- ence for rural surroundings appear from this en- try : " Although it brings us somewhat into debt, still I have a respectable home where I can raise 6 82 HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. the necessary grain for my bread, keep a horse and pair of horned cattle, and keep house with more comfort and economy. Here, then, we have our earthly abode, where we can dry our gar- ments after exposure to storms and rains. We re- joice in the lot assigned to us, that our home is in Providence until we reach the true Fatherland at last." Jesus, still lead on, Till our Rest be won ! And although the way be cheerless, We will follow, calm and fearless. Guide us by Thy hand To our Fatherland." CHAPTER IV. GRUBBING AND PRUNING. Briars and Thorns at Germantown — Arbitrator in the Earitan Parish— Open Doors — Nyberg, of Lancaster — Sets Out New Plants Toward Easton and Perkasie — Cures One Schoolmaster of Conceit, Another of Selfish- ness — "Augustus Church," at "The Trappe," Dedi- cated — Shuns Union Churches. ( 1745. ) And now go to ; I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard : I will tiike away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up ; and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down : And I will lay it waste ; it shall not be pruned, nor digged, but there shall come up briars and thorns ; I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.— Isa. v. 5, 6. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. — John xv. 2. The work of 1743 was but a feeble beginning. The desolations of many jears would require the energetic co-operation of many a laborer to cor- rect. The hedges were indeed broken down, or, rather, they had never been built up. The vine- yard lay exposed on all sides, ' ' a most unculti- vated field," with many a briary patch that needed to be grubbed up, and many a rank un- profitable growth that needed the pruning knife. IMuhlenberg, who conceived that his call by no means limited his activity to three or four churches in one corner of Pennsylvania, made war on the briars and thorns, from Mason and Dixon's Line and beyond, in a wide circle, clear to the Hudson. To begin near home, at a confessional service in Germantown^ he admonished the deacons to do (83) 84 HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. their duty with reference to certain offenders, prob- ably drunkards. This enraged them and they began to work against him. ' ' There is yet a con- siderable number of rough branches," he says, ' ' and if we come too close to their consciences they let loose and cry out, ' What right has the priest over me? Of course I pay him by the year ; but if his preaching does not please my taste I' 11 go to another church and get my preach- ing for nothing.' " Other people, " he adds, ''iire so friendly that, if they could, they would divide their own hearts with their pastor. Such persons often plead with tears that we should not let them suffer for the acts of their opponents. These devout persons are, for the most part, poor. It is a hard thing when the pastor has to depend for his support upon congregations, the larger part of the member- ship of which is yet unconverted." Toward the close of 1745 he writes joyfully : ' ' After great toil and trouble I have, with the help of God, brought the congregation at New Hanover into such a condition that it is now, per- haps, the largest congregation in the whole country ; and, although it yet may have some wild old branches, nevertheless the Divine bless- ing abounds upon it, and some of the members are specially rich in good works." Again, "Since the arrival of my brethren I have had very little leisure." He was the kind of man that could always find work. "I have been traveling upon my horse : the work grows larger and larger." Directly east of the '' Forks of the Delaware" (Easton), in New Jersey, in German Valley, on the upper waters of the Rari- tan River, were certain congregations to which Muhlenberg devoted more personal attention than GRUBBING AND PRUNING. 85 to any other distant point, save New York City. Kev. J. A. Wolf had come from Hamburg on their appeal ; but, though learned and orthodox, he lacked humihty and common-sense. He de- livered learned sermons from manuscript to plain farmers. He ill-treated his Avife, and got a sepa- ration from her. And the people were unable to oust him. Finally the matter was referred to Muhlenberg, Wagner, and Knoll, of New York City, as arbitrators. Wolf accepted £90 and gave up his office. Muhlenberg was able to pacify the officers and members, who had already spent much money in defending themselves at law against this clerical scamp. This trip of sixty miles each way had to be re- peated in the autumn. The church was exhausted spiritually as well as financially. Neither com- munion lior confirmation had been held for eight years. In his letter of November 17th, 1745, he savs : ' ' Several congregations are worrying us to help them ; the congregations on the Raritan are especially important. Delays are dangerous, for false teachers are sneaking about. I instructed and confirmed twenty-four adults, a short time ago, at that place. The people expressed their wishes to me with many tears. ' ' He also succeeded in establishing a joint vestry of four elders and two deacons from each of the four congregations, and induced them to build a central stone church of large dimensions. Thus he won name and fame east of the Delaware. His comment, in transmitting the request for a pastor, has a true missionary ring. ' ' Now, if the door be once opened for us here, we can extend our operations in the surrounding regions. But alas ! alas ! The congregations are open, and the Moravians are already on the borders and look- 86 HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. ing for opportunity to enter in. According to my experience the people in Jersey have much more reverence and respect for reHgion and Divine wor- ship than they have in rough Pennsylvania. " De- ploring the lack of competent laborers he says : "If I were one with the Moravians, I would soon have laborers and assistants enough. my God ! Thou hast all power to help, and wilt help in time of need. *' ' Thy every act is blessing, Thy course is perfect liglit.' I will sing with my brethren, " * CoEQmit to God thy ways.' how gladly would I see our Evangehcal Church set forward on a better course in this land. Here the old saying comes in, ' Either — or. ' If we sleep, others enters in." Trouble of another sort called him to the young town of Lancaster seventy-five miles off to the west. After Stoever ceased his ministrations there, Dylander gave the Lancastrians occasional ser- vice. In response to a petition sent through Koch to the Archbishop of Upsala, an attractive young man, named Nyberg, was sent to fill the pulpit. Within a year this popular young preacher came out openly in favor of the Moravians. The con- gregation was split in twain. The courts and even the Governor were appealed to ; the church was violently closed, and was broken open by force. Muhlenberg appears to have made a visit to Lan- caster in 1745. At any rate, he asked the fathers to get the opinion of leading German and Swedish Universities on Nyberg' s position, that "a man can be a genuine Lutheran and a genuine Mora- vian at the same time," so that he might be able GRUBBING AND PRUNING. 87 to give satisfactory testimony if summoned before the courts as witness. We shall hear later of this matter. A more congenial occupation was the setting out of new vines and the nursing of the tender shoots found here and there, in order that the vineyard might be extended. In this year we read of out- posts at Upper Milford and Saucon (in Lehigh County), which he visited once a month, "a cer- tain town more than a day's journey from New Hanover" (Easton), Perkasie, etc. A busy vine- dresser was he. As both men eventually developed into useful ministers, it will not be amiss to mention that the catechists, for a while, proved something of a thorn in the flesh, especially Kurtz. As they had little experience in preaching, they were instructed to memorize one of Rambach's sermons on the Catechism. Kurtz was flattered into preaching ''sermons partly extempore and partly his own composition." The young fellow even ventured to parade personal and private affairs in the pul- pit. " The old Adam grew so strong in him that he began to think that he was the only preacher in the land, and all the rest of us were blusterers. He bought a horse and saddle for himself for £12, of which I had known nothing, and prom- ised to pay the next autumn" — contracting a needless debt. Muhlenberg then describes the good income of the catechist. ' ' He can live like a nobleman in Germany. In my heart I wish that he may hve in meekness and walk in a humble spirit. My reverend Fathers, I have to say that if a preacher or catechist from Europe has not been thoroughly converted, then^ we can entertain poor hopes of him in Pennsylvania. The condition of affairs in this free, strange country 88 HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. is such that people are very easily seduced into carnal indulgence and dissolute habits, and for young beginners especially the danger is immi- nent." When Muhlenberg and Brunnholtz wrote out the young man's call — it was in English, as was Brunnholtz' s, and nearly all official documents drawn up by Muhlenberg — and designated him as "schoolmaster and assistant," he complained to Schaum that we had "put our heads together and spelled out a call for him, intending to make him a schoolmaster," instead of admitting him to the ministry, but he ''must have patience and put up with it !" Such conduct wounded and humiliated Muhl- enberg ; but he knew how to deal with such weak- ne'^'ses so as to save the offender. ' ' I took him entirely alone, and with the earnest heart of a brother I urged him to sincere repentance. He then promised, with tears, to follov/ the thread which the Fathers had given him." Schaum kept talking about returning to Ger- many when his three years expired. Muhlen- berg, in a fatherly way, explained to the young man that the Church had been at great expense in sending him to America, and set before him the gracious and wonderful leadings of God in the de- velopment of the American vineyard. This sat- isfied him. " To end this subject : Here is ' Ecclesia Plan- tanda ' in a juncture that is quite critical : and for this work experienced men, strong men, are needed, men who will stand in the breach, and in whom great patience and self-denial shall be joined with the daring of a hero. I am not the man," he says deprecatingiy, "as the reverend Fathers vrell know ; but I hold mv excellent col- GRUBBING AND PRUNING. OSf league, Brnnnholtz, to be such a man ; and my wish is that he had two or three assistants hke himself. Then the work would prosper. God could easily find work for me in some obscure corner." Muhlenberg's " obscure corner," as the Church well knows, would soon have become the brightest spot in America. It is this circumstance that lends so much in- terest to this venerable Augustus Church at The Trappe. There are earlier Lutheran Churches still standing, but their Episcopalian owners call them simply " Old Swedes' Churches." Larger Lutheran Churches were erected by Muhlenberg in Philadelphia : they have been swept away by the march of progress. But ' 'Augustus Church ' ' — probably named in honor of Hermann Augustus Francke — remains substantially as it was dedi- cated October 6th, 1745. Though long super- seded by a modern building, it is annually opened for a memorial service. The material is stone. A hip roof crowns the structure. A vestibule is built at one side of the church and another at the end. On the opposite side, against the wall, is tlie pulpit, with the usual sounding board over it. Affixed to the outer wall is a stone with this in- scription in Latin : " Under the auspices of Christ, Henry Melchoir Muhlenberg, together with his Council, I. N. Crosman, F. Marsteler, A. Heilman, I. Mueller, H. Haas, and G. Kepner, erected from the very foundation this temple dedicated by the Society holding the Augsburg Confession, A. D. 1743." Like all the churches that Muhlenberg erected this was a purely Lutheran Church. He stead- fastly resisted every proposal of the Reformed to erect a so-called " Union Church," which the two denominations should hold and use jointly. 90 HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. Muhlenberg was assisted at this dedicatory ser- vice by the Pastors Brunnholtz, Wagner, and Nyberg. After publicly examining them in the fundamental doctrines of the Church, he baptized three negro slaves of an Episcopal Church warden, who said that ''Dutch baptism was good enough for blacks. ' ' The other pastors acted as sponsors. ' ' This temple ' ' marked the fact that the days of uncertainty were at an end. A man of broad views and fixed purpose was in command. One can well imagine the joy that filled the hearts of the Mission Board, in Europe, when the Reports from Pennsylvania were received, announcing : ' ' The Success of Our Pennsylvania Mission As- sured — A Church Dedicated at The Trappe ! " CHAPTER V. NURTURING THE TENDER VINES. Muhlenberg as Preacher — Rules for an Edifying Sermon — Catechisation on the Sermon Preached — Muhlenberg as Pastor — His Method of Holding Preparatory Service and Holy Communion— Dealing with Backsliders— The Unmitred Bishop — Lancaster Troubles Ended — First Visit to York, Pa. — Petitions from Mohawk Val- ley, N. Y. — Grandfather Weiser's Visit— Schlatter's Visit — Birth of Peter INIuhlenberg — Personal Hard- ships and Accidents — No Time for Study — Correspond- ence. (1746.) And he answering said unto him, Lord, let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it and dung it : And if it bear fruit, well ; and if not, then "after that thou shalt cut it down.— Luke xiii. 8, 9. Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines : for our vine^ have tender grapes. — Sol. ii. 15. The Patriarch was not content with merely grubbing up the briars and thorns and pruning away the rank growths. Far more to his taste was the direct culture of the vine itself, which he accomplished by the preaching of the nourishing Word of God, in private as well a? from the pulpit. His usual custom at this period of his ministry was to preach a sermon of from thirty to forty-five minutes in length on the Gospel for the Day. That he frequently preached on other texts is evi- dent from previous chapters ; also, that he preached as much on the Third Article of the Creed as on the other two. It was, in fact, charac- teristic of the Halle men to lay the emphasis (91) 92 HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. rather on ''God's work in us" than on ''God's work for US." Without by any means faiUng to describe fully the Person and Work of Christ, Muh- lenberg dwelt at greater length on the condition of the inner life, on regeneration and conversion, repentance and faith, holiness and blessedness. IMuhlenberg was an attractive preacher, whom men crowded to hear. Less eloquent than Hel- muth, less learned than Kunze, he excelled both as an edifying, popular preacher. He used many illustrations, drawn from daily life, and many re- ligious anecdotes. At a certain synodical meeting he gave this opinion as to the correct mode of preaching : " In our sermons we ought to make no ostenta- tious display of learning, but come down to the level of the people. We should neither beat the air nor use low and vulgar expressions, not intro- duce too much matter into the sermon, but dis- cuss one fundamental truth fully, prove it thor- oughly, and apply it to the heart. Our sermons should not be too dry, but practical. Religion should be presented, not as a burden, but as a pleasure. Avoid personahties. Let not the love of Jesus be obscured by self-love. Let personal difficulties be settled in your pastoral visits. ' ' Error must be refuted. Since our church members dwell among all kinds of hostile sects, controversy cannot be avoided ; yet you should not mention names. The matter should be so treated that the unholy founts of heres}^ and sec- tarianism are exposed with due humility and moderation. As many parties dwell together, in- termarry, and have business relations with one another, a dangerous indifferentism easily arises. Therefore it is necessary at all times to point out [doctrinal] differences, as otherwise the suspicion NURTURING THE TENDER VINES. 93 of indifference may also fall upon the preacher. Carefully inquire into the moral condition of the members, and let it be a guide in the preparation of sermons. Above all, let us sow -with tears, and have the edification of each individual at heart, and take heed unto ourselves and unto the doc- trine." After the sermon, Muhlenberg, following the custom of the Halle men generally, would recapit- ulate the sermon in the form of questions ad- dressed to his hearers and answers obtained from them, ''so that both old and young might the better comprehend the matter and reflect upon it." It was his custom to preach funeral sermons, because it gave him an opportunity to press im- portant truths home upon tender hearts, and to reach outsiders. Formerly at weddings there was a dreadful racket, drunkenness, dancing, etc. Now a wedding sermon -w'as expected, and Muh- lenberg was asked to the feast. At table they engaged in edifying religious conversation and the singing of hymns. He mentions cases of wed- dings outside of his parish, where the licentious- ness was to begin after he left; but his own young people fled ancl went home. He celebrated the Lord's Supper twice a year in each country congregation, after this manner : "During the week preceding the Communion everyone who wishes to partake of it is expected to visit the pastor, either in the parsonage or in the school-house. The pastor then speaks with him faithfully and tenderly about the state of his heart and the character of his life. He inquires into his growth in grace, and gives him the neces- sary admonition, instruction, and consolation. "On the day before the Communion those whose 94 HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. names have been recorded attend the preparatory service in the church. After the sermon they all come forward and stand around the altar. If there be any amongst them who have been guilty of gross offense, these are then personally called to account. The pastor then reminds them of the evil they have done, and questions them about their repentance, their faith, and their promise of reformation. If their answers are satisfactory, the pastor asks the other communicants if they wall forgive their offending brother, and unite with him in imploring forgiveness for Christ' s sake. . . In conclusion, they are asked if anyone has yet any cause of complaint against another. If this happens to be the case, they then retire to the par- sonage, confer with each other, and are reconciled. "On Sunday there is a sermon on the Holy Supper. After the sermon the consecration and distribution take place. As there is but one preacher, and the administration lasts very long, we sing but one hymn at the beginning, and after- ward the schoolmaster reads the history of our Saviour's sufferings and death from the four Gos- pels, that we may make known the Lord's death, and consider how much it cost Him to redeem us. Sometimes we also read the prayers appropriate to the Sacrament from Arndt's ' Garden of Paradise,^ which are very edifying. [' The day is very burdensome for one preacher. In New Hanover I have several times had over three hundred German communicants, and after- ward the little company of English Lutherans. Then, besides that, the confirmants, who were first carefully examined and confirmed, and, in addi- tion, several weddings and baptisms. So that I begin at 8 a. m. and do not finish before 4 p. m. When we are through with that, there is often a NUBTURING THE TENDER VINES^ 95 sick person three to six English miles distant to be visited." We have an extended account of the confes- sional, or preparatory, service held at Tulpe- hocken. It shows his pastoral tact and faithful- ness, and his discriminating use of the Law and the Gospel : '^We examine the communicants with great rigor. We press home upon them both Law and Gospel. We preach repentance, faith, and the fruits of righteousness. We point out to them the benefits that faith may expect to find in the Sac- raments, and, with the help of God, we seek to keep our conscience clear. We dig about the old trees ; we plant and water, and pray God to send the increase. ' ' I had been previously informed that two per- sons, whose names I recorded, had been addicted to intemperance. I called first upon one of them to state before the congregation how it was at this time. Deep agitation prevented a direct answer from the individual, but certain members of the family replied that a reformation had been in prog- ress for some time already, and that, by the grace of God, they hoped for a complete recovery. ' ' The other one, whom I had myself seen under the influence of strong drink, was then called up and exhorted to repent. He replied that he had already refrained from intemperate drinking for the space of six months. I then told him that such an offense was an evidence that his heart was yet unconverted, and pointed out how he might, through grace, obtain the forgiveness of all his sins and adoption into the family of God. This, how- ever, enraged him, and, replying in offensive terms, he went off. *'I then exhorted the congregation with much 96 HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. warmth, telling them that they should by no means think that freedom from gross sin consti- tuted a worthy communicant ; because a heart truly penitent^ and hungering and thirsting after righteousness, was here the one thing needful. I taught them, too, how such a heart should be ob- tained." In this spirit, as a true, though unmitred bishop, he continued to visit vacant or disturbed congre- gations. In 1746 he made two trips to the Rari- tan churches, two more to Lancaster — the first with Brunnholtz in February and the other in April — continuing on to York, nearly one hundred miles from his home, and a special one in Novem- ber to Tulpehocken, half as far away. The Lancaster trips were most distressing to Muhlenberg's peace-loving nature. The Luther- ans had finally gained the victory in the courts. But the Nyl^erg party threatened trouble if Muh- lenberg ventured to preach in Trinity Church, not yet so designated. He asked for the use of the Court House ; but, being told by the Lutherans that noAV, if ever, they must insist on their right to the church, he yielded, and preached on Luke xiii. 6-8, ''The Barren Fig Tree." The enemy retired, and built a separate Mora- vian church. Trinity was saved. Except for an occasional visit by Philadelphia pastors, there was no service until Catechist Kurtz began to come down from Tulpehocken once a month in 1747, and Llandschah took pastoral charge in 1748. Nyberg had been meddling with the promising young vines at York, where there was a pastorless congregation of one hundred and ten famiUes, to whom an excellent parochial school-teacher read a sermon every Sunday. Hence Muhlenberg's first visit there. He baptized a number of children, KUETURIKG THE TEKDER VINES. 97 and confirmed some whom the teacher had in- structed. This year petitions came to him from Lutherans settled in the Mohawk Valley, New York. In fact, he was unable to find time for all the de- mands upon him for visits, not to speak of his extensive missionary correspondence. Lest the Fathers might think that, with two churches and three regular preaching points (Oley, near New Hanover, Upper Milford, and Saccum or Saucon, near Bethlehem), he could get along without missionary aid from the Mother-Church, he explains that both churches and farmers are poor and struggling with debt for lands and build- ings, and that the war between Spain and France has so kept down prices that the farmers get little money into their hands. Some time during 1746 the Muhlenberg family was honorecl with a visit by old Grandfather John Conrad Weiser, of New York State. Hearing of his children's prosperity in Pennsylvania, he would, like Jacob of old, see his Joseph ere he died. Though already past eighty years of age, he pressed on to Providence in order to converse with his clerical grandson about his soul. His infirmi- ties of sight and hearing m^^de it almost impossi- ble for him to understand Muhlenberg, but the old man kept repeating Bible passages like ' ' Surely He hath borne our griefs, " ' ' Come unto Me all ye that labor and are heavy-laden," and stanzas of hymns like *' Father, cover all my sins With Jesus' merits, who alone The pardon that I covet wins, And make His long-sought rest my own.*' ** My God, for Jesus' sake, I pray, Thy peace may bless my dying day." 7 98 HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. *'0, how good it is," remarks Muhlenberg, ''in one's youth to lay up treasures taken from the Word of God. Even if it does not at once produce the proper fruit on account of many im- pediments, yet God remains true to Himself, and brings all to pass in His own good time. Of that I had a beautiful instance in this soul. I could see that the Spirit of God is surely united with the Word. It affords sincere joy to meet with a soul that is alive to the old EvangeUcal Lutheran doc- trines." After receiving the Lord's Supper at the hands of Muhlenberg, the aged hero was conveyed in a wagon to his son's home, where he not long after fell asleep in Jesus. Another important family event was the birth of the first child, on October 1st, 1746. He was bap- tized John Peter Gabriel, and became famous as the fighting parson of the American Revolution. A fortnight later Muhlenberg was* visited by Rev. Michael Schlatter, who occupied the same re- lation to the work of the German Reformed Church in Pennsylvania as Muhlenberg to the Lutheran. He had just arrived in Philadelphia, and hastened on to Providence to reach an agreement with Muhlenberg about the frequent intermarriages be- tween Lutherans and Reformed. He himself later married the daughter of the Philadelphia Lutheran layman, Henry Schleydorn. Muhlenberg was pleas- antly impressed with Schlatter's open-hearted and straightforward ways. They became hfe-long friends. Schlatter was Muhlenberg's inferior in judgment, and passed through many trials. Dr. Mann says that he was ''more an agitator than an organizer," whereas Muhlenberg's claim to being the founder of our Church is his getting the numer- ous small assemblies of worshipers thoroughly or- ganized into congregations, furnished with proper NURTURING THE TENDER VINES. 99 constitutions, and then united into a Synod. Schlatter succeeded in getting a Reformed Synod organized in 1747. It must not be supposed that Muhlenberg's fre- quent Journeys were without hardship and acci- dent. In the winter of 1745-6 he was thrown violently from his horse upon the ice, and in the fall of 1746, when he was making a visit to a sick member at night, his horse fell upon him, so that it was only of the Lord's mercy that he escaped with no bones broken. He suffered all the hard- ships of a country pastor in a new country. The following August he came home from a thirty-mile drive and three or four days' exposure to cold rains. He at once became feverish and de- lirious, had two weeks of great pain, and suffered a relapse. He was absent from his pulpit for four Sundays. He nearly lost his life in February and March, 1747. The deep snow had completely ob- literated the road to Saucon. He was five hours in making ten miles. He fell into sloughs, had to break a way for his horse, and, tired out and in Sb profuse perspiration, with the sharp wind blowing, still did not dare to rest a moment. He felt repaid when he met his people. They, too, had floundered through the snow to attend the ap- pointed service. He had in mind, also, what the sects would say if he failed to keep his appoint- ment : ' ' Look at your parsons ; they promise much, and perform little." ^ In March, as he was riding along a precipice, his horse fell on the ice. Fortunately he threw his rider away from the precipice, and Muhlenberg saved himself by grasping the bushes. " In how many dangers has not the gracious God spread His arms over me ? " is his comment. Frankly, but uncomplainingly, he wrote to the 100 HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. Fathers concerning his widely extended parish, covering thirty miles : ' ' What distresses me most is this, that I get so little time, strength, and op- portunity for the personal care of souls. In the winter one is often glad to be able to attend to the routine public duties. The roads and streams, mud, snow, and storm, are often so bad that one would not drive a dog out into them ; yet the preacher must make his rounds. ' ' In the summer the whole family are at work, so that one finds scarcely anybody at home ex- cept the 3'oung children locked in the house. I find hardly any other time or chance except on Sunday, when I catechise the older folks on the sermon, and the younger folks after the sermon. '' Saturdays and Sundays I am constantly at work or on the road. During the week I rarely get three days in succession at home. On week- days there is a baptism to-day, to-morrow a sick man to visit, next day a funeral, etc. , and each act consumes nearly a full day. When is one to get time to study ? If there is a day left over, one gladly visits such souls as are under the strivings of the Spirit. Where, then, is one to find time for the necessary letters to the esteemed Fathers and patrons in Europe ? ' ' His European corre- spondents, it will be remembered, included, be- sides Francke and Ziegenhagen, some of the nobil- ity, like the Count Reuss and Frau von I\Iuench- hausen, his mother and brothers, Dr. Oporin, Dr. Fresenius, court preacher at Darmstadt, Dr. Sam- uel Urlsperger, of Augsburg, the friend of the Salzburgers, and many others. Muhlenberg was the man through whose clear eyes they desired to \dew the American field. No man could be pastor and overseer on this extensive scale and not feel the effects of it in later NURTURING THE TENDER VINES. 101 years. By the grace of God his iron constitution carried him through these pioneer years until helpers multiplied and the Church was indeed ''planted." " For all Thy saints, O Lord, Who strove in Thee to Hve, Who followed Thee, obeyed, adored, Our grateful hymn receive. '* They all, in life or death, With Thee, their Lord, in view. Learned from Thy Holy Spirit's breath To suffer and to do." CHAPTER VI. CLUSTERS OF RIPE GRAPES. Personal Narratives — The Converted Gambler — The A^ed Philadelphia Widow — Two Pious Youths — The Dying Choir Leader — ''Able to Give a Reason" — The Language Question — Preaching to Outsiders — White Slaves. (1742-1747.) And they came unto the brook of Eschol, and cut down from thence a branch with one cluster of grapes, and they bare it between two upon a staff: and they brought of the pomegranates, and of the figs. — Num. xiii. 23. Ye know the house of Stephanas, that it is the firstfruits of Achaia.— 1 Cor. xvi. 15. Muhlenberg's labor was not in vain in the Lord. The slender vines began to make new wood, the young cuttings took root, and the deso- lated vineyard yielded its first rich clusters of ripe grapes. Some of the pious souls constituted the ' ^ remnant ' ' that had overlived the dreadful times when "the foxes, the little foxes, spoiled the vines." Some of them were the first fruits of Muhlenberg' s planting. Besides the general mention of the great in- gatherings at confirmation and communion sea- sons, the "Halle Reports" contain scores, yea, hundreds of ' ' Personal Narratives ' ' of both con- verted and unconverted persons whose cases fell under Muhlenberg's pastoral care. In his early Philadelphia ministry he met a man, who, impoverished by drink and gambling, was compelled to emigrate. He was well versed in tlie Bible and the Catechism, and so strictly (102) CLUSTERS OF RIPE GRAPES. 103 "orthodox" that he swore at the Moravians and found fault with Muhlenberg because his sermons did not bristle with attacks on them. At last a lingering illness seized him. On his sick-bed he remembered his sins and Hstened gladly as his pastor ' ' pointed him to Jesus Christ, who bore the sins of the whole world, and consequently his sins also." He comforted himself with the words, ' * But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound" (Rom. v. 20). He was humbly thank- ful to the Fathers and benefactors in Europe, that they, next to God, had sent help. With songs of praise on his lips he departed, ''a poor sinner plucked as a brand from the burning : God's holy name be praised." In 1744, at New Hanover, lived the widow of a former deacon. The father had been too indul- gent, and the sons became scoffers. The mother and daughters were regular in attendance on the Word of God. With tears, the mother sought the consolations of her pastor. God soon delivered her from her sorrows, after she had been refreshed by the Lord's Supper, and had prayed a thousand blessings on the Fathers at Halle for their interest on behalf of neglected souls in America. ' ' An aged widow in Philadelphia expressed her great joy that she was able to hear again the Gos- pel in her native tongue. Although she had a stroke of apoplexy and trembled in her limbs, she very seldom missed worship. She employed a strong man to carry her to the church and take her home again. She told me that she had come to this country together with her husband many years ago. Arriving here they did not find any German Lutheran church, and therefore felt like in exile. Her husband learned Swedish in order to attend the Swedish church. She herself could 104 HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. not learn that language, and had to forego the op- portunity of hearing the preaching of the Word. She remembered the prayers, scripture-texts, and hymns she had learned in her early youth, and found great comfort in repeating them. She said, ' How often I went back in my thoughts to Ger- many, where they have spiritual food in abun- dance, but are not grateful for it.' The short prayer, 'Christ's Blood and His Righteousness,' was so dear to her that she would not sell it for all the world' s riches. It was a precious comfort to her for many years. She was a good soul, and I could not refuse to take her mite for the building-fund, when she said, ' Our venerable fathers and pa- trons in Europe show so much charity to us poor and forsaken people that I cannot do otherwise but contribute my mite too ; the Lord will not despise it.' God took her hom.e at last to her eternal rest." One of the parish school children, a lad of ten, was suddenly taken ill. He called for his New Testament. Turning to John iii. 16, he repeated it several times. *' Dear mother," he said, ''with this text I will go to heaven." Another lad, six years old, was ill. Before dy- ing, he called his father to his bedside, and said, "M}^ dear father, I am going from this wicked world to heaven, where my dear Redeemer, Jesus Christ, and all the holy angels dwell. There I will eter- nally praise my God who has created, redeemed, and sanctified me. Continue to be pious, dear father, to pray earnestly, and to love the Lord Jesus and His Word. Then He will soon take you too to that beautiful place. ' ' He sank to rest while his father was singing one of his favorite hymns. A young man of thirty, leader of the choir at CLUSTERS OF RIPE GRAPES. 105 New Hanover, was scoffed at by other young men on account of his piety. He hired him- self to a Quaker in order to pay off some debts of himself and father. While driving a team he had a fatal fall, and his pastor was sent for to pray with him. He saw that the man must, in a few minutes, appear before the judgment-seat of God to receive as he had done in the body, and asked him who would then intercede for him. He re- plied, '■ ' I have long since united myself by faith with my Intercessor, in w^eakness have loved Him, and know none other, in heaven or upon earth, who has mediated for me, and can do so, save Jesus Christ, my Lord." He asked for the Lord's Supper, and partook of it ; and, in the midst of the singing of the hymn, "Jesus, Thy Deep Wounds," fell asleep. In 1747 a woman in New Hanover was over- taken with epilepsy. When Muhlenberg arrived she had regained her senses. His questions and her answers ran somewhat as follows, and this may, perhaps, be taken as a sample of his cate- chisation of the older members after sermon at church : ' ' How is it with your heart and con- science before God, should He now call you into eternity ? " "I glory alone in the bloody wounds which Jesus received in His hands and feet. Therein will I wrap myself. " " What is it to in- wTap one's self in the wounds of Jesus ? " " If I confess and bewail all my sins before God, He for- gives them for the sake of the sufferings of Christ, casts them all into the depths of the sea, and looks upon me in His Son as if I had never sinned, and gives me strength to walk in my Saviour's foot- steps and to follow the guidance of His Spirit." ' ' Have you indeed experienced all this ? " " What I have not 3^et experienced, the Lord will permit 106 HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. me yet to experience through grace. " ' ' You have omitted one thing. Tell me, wherewith do we inwrap ourselves?" "Faith is the hand wherewith we lay hold and inwrap ourselves." ''Who worketh faith?" ''The Holy Ghost worketh faith in a penitent heart. " "I presented her case, ' ' continues Muhlenberg, ' ' in prayer to God, who soon granted her bodily recovery, and still carries forward the work of grace in her soul." A young man of ' between twenty and thirty years of age often visited his pastor for private re- ligious conversation and prayer. He ascribed his spiritual awakening to seek his soul's salvation in Christ to ]\Iuhlenberg' s custom of now and then reading an appropriate hymn at the close of the sermon and commenting on it. The people were astonished at the powerful Gospel truths contained in hymns that they had sung, without under- standing or feeling, a hundred times. In Providence he was called to visit a sick boy of twelve years of age in whom the grace of Bap- tism still continued. His mind was a treasure- house of choice texts and hymns. He knew his Catechism by heart, and knew how to apply its divine truths. One day his mother showed him how thin the winter wheat stood in the field. " Dear mother," he said, " do not grieve. ' Be- hold the fowls of the air ; they sow not, neither do they reap.' Reflect, too, how much bread the Lord Jesus had when He fed the four and the five thousand." Muhlenberg would fain have taken this youth under his personal care in order to make a teacher or a minister of him, but the father objected. He said that in America preachers are so despised by the sects and the newspapers, must endure so much hardship, and have no certain support, that CLUSTERS OF RIPE GRAPES. 107 he would rather have the boy learn a trade with which to serve God and his neighbor. Muhlenberg gives a minute description of some of the catechumens of this year. One was the Huguenot wife of a Lutheran husband, brought, by her marriage, under the influence of the Word. Another was a poor lad who lived across the Schuylkill among Quakers, Anabaptists, and the like, where there were no schools, or at least where the children learned only ' ' the three R' s, " but nothing of God's Word. A third was a girl of sixteen, whose instruction had to be given in English, whereas another was a young man of twenty-five, who came all the way from New Jersey to be instructed, and with whom Muhlenberg had to use Dutch, thus burdening himself with three languages, and consuming much time. Muhlenberg had no foolish prejudices on the language question. The only question with him was how many languages he could employ. At New Hanover, it will be remembered, he had his httle flock of English Lutherans. So, too, at a place called MuUaton (Manatawny), fourteen miles west of Providence, where there was an abandoned Swedish Lutheran Church in a com- munity composed of Swedes, English, Irish, and Germans, Muhlenberg was frequently called to at- tend funerals, and at last consented to make it a regular preaching-point. He visited it once a month on Sunday, and once a month during the week. After morning service at New Hanover was ended, at 12 or 1 o'clock, he would mount his horse and gallop away to Mullaton to hold service at 2 or 3 o'clock. First he would preach an Eng- lish sermon, and then deliver a German exhorta- tion for the benefit of the poor German ' ' ser- 108 HENEY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. vants " and others of the Lutheran and the Re- formed faith hereabouts. As this was rather a crude community, he at first chose the clearest texts in the New Testament, and preached to them repentance and faith. In later sermons he treated of the instances of Holy Baptism given in the Acts of the Apostles. On week-days he took oc- casion to catechise old and young, and deplored their lack of clearness and knowledge in divine things. ' ' Still they are attentive and in awe by reason of the many sudden deaths among them." These ' ' servants ' ' were poor people, decoyed from their homes in Europe by the emigration agents, called ' ' the Newlanders. ' ' These per- sons, being unable to pay for their passage, were sold from the ship into a sort of " white slavery," lasting from three to six years, until they could pay back the money advanced by their masters to the ship captains. Hence they were called ''Re- demptioners. " Many of the most prominent Pennsylvania families, English and Irish, as well as German, are descended from these Redemption- ers. Parents and children were often sej^arated. This custom began in 1740, and continued nearly a century. Muhlenberg opposed it, and his or- ganist at Providence, honest Gottlieb Mittelberger, exposed it in a book printed at Stuttgart in 1756. This sad condition of things added not a little to Muhlenberg's pastoral burdens and sorrows. CHAPTER VII. EXPLORING A NEGLECTED CORNER. Itinerary of a Journey to Frederick, Md. — Moravian Tactics — Meets Eastern Lutherans in Western Churches — Pledges Congregations to the SymboHcal Books — Carl Rudolph — An English Lutheran Pastor AVanted — Great Crowds at York — Benefits of this Journey — Nick- named '' Gachswungarorachs " — Brunnholtz and Hart- wig Await His Home-coming. (1747.) For God is my witnes'', whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son. that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers ; Fur I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift, to the end ye may be established. — Rom. i. 9, 11. If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed. — 2 John 10. After Whitsuntide, 1747, Muhlenberg undertook an extended tour of inspection as far southwest as Frederick, Md., a distance of one hundred and sixty miles. His itinerary, as we make it up, was as follows : June 10th. Started, with Teacher Loeser. June 12th. At Tulpehocken. Preached and administered Holy Communion here and at North- kill Church for Catechist Kurtz. June 19th to 21st. At Lancaster. Preached on Sunday morning in Trinity, held catechisation, baptized some children, and induced the member:^ to fill a vacancy in the church council. The same day pressed on to York, twenty-two miles, cross- ing the broad Susquehanna in a boat during a violent storm. Was welcomed at York at mid- night by the people. (109) 110 HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. June 22d. York. In preaching against the Nyberg faction, was treated by the Moravians as though he were sinning against the Holy Ghost. Distressed to find so many Lutherans more ortho- dox than pious. Preached in such a way that the true Christians of both parties rejoiced. Some took offense at his use of the words "law," "re- pentance, " " prayer, ' ' etc. , but he maintained that his explanations were in accordance with Scripture and the Symbolical Books. June 22d. Journeyed twenty-one miles south- west to the Conewago (Hanover) congregation (in York County). Tried to reconcile opposing par- ties. Promised that, when one of "the United Ministers" settled at York, he should serve Cone- wago also. Preached in a barn. Declined to ad- minister the Lord's Supper. Admonished them first to repent sincerely. Met some "Eastern" Lutherans, former parishioners in Philadelphia, who were "moved to tears" and deeply deplored their shepherdless condition since coming West. June 23d. After twelve hours' hard riding in a drenching rain, arrived at Monocacy, Md., thirty- six miles distant. Preached in a log church on the parable of the Prodigal Son. Succeeded in reconciling the jarring factions, and administered the Lord's Supper. In order that the English magistrate might clearly understand the Lutheran position, wrote, in English, in the Church Record, a statement that the German Lutherans profess their faith in the Holy Scriptures and the Unaltered Augsburg Confession and the other Symbolical Books ; and that they will tolerate no gross and willful sinners in their Church. Required all to sign this, and thus weeded out the troublesome element. June 25th. Ten miles further to Frederick, a EXPLORING A NEGLECTED CORNER. Ill town just laid out. Had the Monocacy articles signed here also. Completed the organization of the church by the election of deacons and elders. Preached to a large assemblage of English and German people. Baptized, administered com- munion, and married two couples. Heard the universal cry, ^' Send us a good minister." June 26th. On the return trip was entertained by an English gentleman who judged the ''Ger- man Lutherans ' ' by what he knew of that tramp preacher, Carl Rudolph. He thought that the Moravians were the true ''Friends of Jesus." Pleased with Muhlenberg's explanations, and dis- gusted with his own drunken rector, he begged Muhlenberg to send a sound evangelical preacher. (Oh, the "open doors" for our Church in that day, and the utter lack of men who, like Muhlen- berg, could and would use the two languages. ) June 27th. York. A busy day. Private in- terviews with officers and individuals until 4 p. m. Then the preparatory service, wdth sermon on Matt. xi. 28. After this the examination of fif- teen catechumens, and more religious conversation until bedtime. Sunday, June 28th. York. Church able to accommodate but half the crowd. Many come ten to twenty-five miles. Sermon on the Great Marriage Feast (Matt. xxii. 2), confirmation, com- munion administered to two hundred guests. The return trip by way of Lancaster and Tul- pehocken was of the same sort. Everywhere the Word was preached and the Sacraments were ad- ministered ; laxity was rebuked, treachery ex- posed, difficulties adjusted, and vital piety encour- aged. To the distracted churches it was Ufe from the dead ; to Muhlenberg, an assurance that the Lord was on his side, and a stimulus to the larger plans 112 HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. of 1748. It made him personally and accurately acquainted with the state of affairs on the frontier of civilization beyond the Susquehanna, and car- ried the weight of his authority into a neglected corner. It gave an effectual quietus to the demor- alizing w^ork begun by Zinzendorf and vigorously carried on by Nyberg. It brought the Western frontier churches into vital relations with the older Eastern parishes and with the Mother-Church of Europe. It saved them from clerical vagabond- age, and established Muhlenberg's position as the spiritual counselor of all Pennsylvania and Mary- land Lutheranism. His motto might have been that of King Edward VIL, " Ich dien" (''I serve"), but that he had a better one, ^'Ecclesia plantanda." Of his physical disabilities and of his general review of the year note has been taken in a pre- ceding chapter. Here v/e record a few interesting memoranda : One was his meeting with an Indian chief at Weiser's. Muhlenberg had considerable inter- course with the aborigines. A chief whom he once entertained at his home in Providence gave him the name ' ' Gachswungarorachs, " " The- teacher-whose-words-should-go-through-the-hard- hearts-of-men-like-a-saw-through-a-gnarled-tree, ' ' a pretty shrewd estimate of the most soul-stirring American Lutheran preacher of his day. Important visitors awaited his home-coming in July. Brunnholtz was there sick with the measles. Muhlenberg's Halle medicines soon set him right. The other visitor was Rev. J. C. Hartwig, the eccentric bachelor clergyman of New York, whose badly managed legacy formed the basis of the Hartwig Seminary. He was out of sympathy EXPLORING A NEGLECTED CORNER. 113 with Berkenmeyer, the stahvart Lutheran leader of his province, and yet he proved too unstable to be of much service to Muhlenberg. CHAPTER VIII. BUILDING THE HEDGES. The Eventful Year 1748— Eva (Mrs. Schultze) Born— Handschuh Arrives — Is Stationed at Lancaster — AVeiser Receives the Lord's Supper — Mrs. IMiihlenberg at Death's Door — The Unfenced Vineyard — A Uniform Liturgy — Visit to Blue Mountains — Reassignment of Catecnists — Dedication of St. Michael's — Ordination of Kurtz — Organization of Synod — The Day of Small Things — A Year's Parish Work — Weariness. (1748.) Now will I sing to my well-beloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard : my well-boloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful bill: And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein.— Is. v. 1, 2. Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.— Luke xii. 32. The year of years in Muhlenberg's life was 1748. It opened with the advent of a daughter, on January 29th, baptized Eva Elizabeth. She was destined to become the wife of Rev. Christopher E. Schultze and mother of a Pennsylvania gov- ernor. In January and February there was much pneu- monia in this part of the country. Muhlenberg took a pastoral view of it as a chastening of the Lord. It gave him much opportunity to speak earnestly, not alone with his own Germans, but also with the English and Irish, who sought out this warm-hearted Lutheran pastor to guide them into the way of life and salvation. He was even summoned to the house of a rich Quaker, where he met a .young man of twenty- (114) BUILDING THE HEDGES. 115 five, who, though confirmed in the Church of Eng- land, had been led to know Christ by a woman of the New Hanover church. He prayed with the man, instructed him, listened to his confession, and gave him the communion. The man recov- ered. " May God preserve this poor soul,'' writes Muhlenberg to the Fathers, ''amid so many thou- sand allurements in the world, and especially in Pennsylvania." With spring came "the care of all the churches." Kurtz was transferred to Raritan, Schaum was placed at York, and Lancaster re- ceived the new vinedresser. Rev. John F. Hand- schuh. He was reared in Halle, educated at Leipsic, and powerfully influenced by Bogatzsky, the author of " The Golden Treasury," an edifying Lutheran devotional book. He was nearly of Muhlenberg's age, but a very different type of man. Arriving at Philadelphia, April 5th, 1748, he reached Providence on Maundy-Thursday. Muhlenberg's greeting, "They that sow in tears shall reap in joy," was more apt than he dreamed, so far, at least, as the "tears " were concerned. Handschuh's preaching gave satisfaction. With Brunnholtz they set out to Lancaster — three "united pastors" — to propose Handschuh to the Lancaster people as their pastor. While at Weiser's they conversed with him about his scruples against coming to the Lord's Table. This was a remnant of the sectarian in- fluence under which he had been living — the mor- bid condition of a soul which turned its eye too much inward upon itself and too little outward upon its crucified Lord and Master. Sudden ill- ness overtook Weiser during the night, and was blessed of God to the removal of his scruples. At his request the Lord's Supper was administered to 116 HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. him, and Muhlenberg went on his way with a joy- ful heart. The Lancaster matter was tactfully handled. As a few expressed a preference for Kurtz, and some doubting Thomases questioned the congre- gation's ability to raise the money for Hand- schuh' s traveling expenses, the latter was placed on trial for six months or a year as temporary pastor. On his return Muhlenberg found Mrs. Muhlen- berg very low with the measles. She had been given the wrong medicine. He gave her what he thought best, and prayed with her. '' When this was done, she forced herself to pray, commended herself as a poor sinner to the reconciled Father in Christ, exhorted me to be faithful in my office and station, to fight the good fight, and finish my course, and also to take care of the children." Both she and the children presently recovered. We now come to the steps leading up to the formation of the Synod. We may call this the ' ' building of the hedges. ' ' Muhlenberg had been cultivating a vineyard which stretched from Rari- tan, N. J., to Frederick, Md. It lay exposed on all sides. It needed fencing in with synodical safeguards. The first step was taken in the parsonage at Providence, April 28th, when a uniform liturgy was agreed upon. The United Ministers had but one in hand, that used in the Savoy Church, Lon- don, but their retentive memories recalled the sound Lutheran Orders of Service which they had used as students and pastors in Northern Ger- many. The Order determined on is essentially "The Common Service" of the present day. It was subsequently adopted by the Synod, and was used in manuscript form by the pastors, until a BUILDING THE HEDGES. 117 modified and enfeebled Order was substituted toward the close of the Patriarch's life. In June he had to visit the scattered Lutherans up in the so-called Blue IMountains, fifty miles from home — fully equal to four times that dis- tance in these days of steam and electricity. He preached on the parables in Luke xv., the Lost Coin and the Lost Sheep. Some of these people had lived down at Providence, and could recall the outlines of some of Muhlenberg's sermons preached five years before, and assured him that many a night they pondered these truths upon their beds. He remarks, ^' When people have the Word of God in abundance they readily weary of it, but when for a time they suffer lack, they become so hungry that they would eat up the preacher together with the Word." In Jul}^ Muhlenberg was called to Raritan to settle difhculties that so young a man as Kurtz could not cope with. After studying the whole situation, he concluded on this course : to provide for Kurtz elsewhere, to allow them, for a year at least, to have Schaum, for whom matters were not running very smoothly at York, and to advise them not to expect aid from the Fathers, who had all they could do in bolstering up the city church, but to go ahead with church building, depending on themselves. There were, besides, many petty personal misunderstandings to be healed and many ministerial acts to be performed. Two weeks slipped away. Brunnholtz and Hart- wig were at Providence awaiting his return. Three important propositions were discussed: the dedica- tion of St. ^lichael' s, Philadelphia, the ordination of Kurtz for the Tulpehocken charge, and the organi- zation of a Synod. It was decided that the two 118 HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. former should take place, D. V., August 14th (August 23d, N. S.), the Tenth Sunday after Trinity, followed the next day by the organization of the Synod. A historian has pronounced this ''the most important event in the history of the. American Lutheran Church of the Eighteenth Century" (Professor Graebner). Muhlenberg was the leading spirit by virtue of his first call and commission, and equally by vir- tue of his solid merits and overshadowing wisdom and experience. From the reports of the Sunday services we construct the following Order of Service. Procession of Pastors, Delegates, and St. Michael's Church Council, headed by the Swedish Provost Sandin, from Pastor Brunnholtz's house to the church. 1. Hymn, "Come, Holy Spirit, God and Lord," sung antiphonally and in harmony. (The Preach- ers stood in a semicircle around the altar ; the Delegates formed a semicircle in the organ-loft. ) 2. Reading of an English Address of Congratu- lation, sent by Pastor Tranberg, of Wilmington. 3. Dedicatory Address by Rev. Henry Melchior Muhlenberg. 4. Dedicatory Act. ( ' ' The whole church and its parts — pulpit, baptismal font, and altar — were consecrated to the use of the only saving Word, and the Holy Sacraments, according to our Sym- bolical Books. The Church Council had to prom- ise publicly and orally that they would strive, with God's assistance, to keep the church accord- ing to the foregoing consecration, unto their chil- dren and children's children for the aforenamed purpose. ' ' ) BUILDING THE HEDGES. 119 5. Hymn, "Sing Praise to God Who Reigns Above." 6. Five German Praj'ers, one in Swedish. 7. Baptism. 8. Sermon by Rev. J. Frederick Handschuh on the Gospel for the Day (Luke xix. 41-48). 9. Holy Communion. At 3 p. M. Rev. J. C. Hartwig preached an ordi- nation sermon on Ezek. xxxiii. 8, "His Blood will I Require at Thy Hand." Muhlenberg read the liturgical formula, and John Nicholas Kurtz was ordained by the laying on of hands of all the pastors, the delegates standing in a semicircle be- hind him. Kurtz had to give a written pledge of adherence to the Symbolical Books. Next day the United Congregations held a meet- ing. Present : The Swedish Provost Sandin, Hart- wig from New York, Muhlenberg, Brunnholtz, Handschuh, and Kurtz — six pastors. Mr. Koch, as trustee of the Swedish "Gloria Dei" Church. Delegates from St. ISlichael's, Philadelphia (the whole Church Council); St. Michael's, German- town ; Providence, New Hanover ; the two ' ' fil- ials" at Upper Milford and "Saccum;" Tulpe- hocken and its ' ' filial, ' ' Nordkiel ; Lancaster and its " fihal," Earhngstown (New Holland). Total, ten congregations, six ministers, and twenty-four lay delegates, in addition to the Philadelphia Church Council. On account of the shortness of the notice, York could not be represented. As there were about seventy Lutheran congrega- tions in Pennsylvania and adjacent colonies, the above looks like a very small showing. The Dutch churches in New York were out of the question. The Swedish churches were spectators. rather than full-fledged members of Synod. The 120 HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. outlying stations covered by the United Ministers and their assistants were perhaps as many in number as the organized German churches here represented. But, all told, this was a feeble be- ginning after the Lutheran Church had been on this territory for half a century. Yet it was a beginning, a stride forward in the direction of ef- fective organization. Hitherto there had been ^'churches;" now there was a "Church" "planted" — a vineyard having well-defined boundary lines, and inclosed by a strong synod- ical hedge that might well dismay "the boar out of the wood," who tried to break through it in order to uproot the tender vines. Now that the "little one has become a thousand," and that this same Synod, after all its surrender of territory and membership to other Synods, still looms up as a body of over three hundred and fifty ministers and over five hundred and thirty congregations, not to speak of its immense communicant and baptized membership, it ill becomes anyone in America to speak lightly of the feeble congrega- tional and synodical beginnings in the Home Mis- sion field of to-day. An3^one can easily wax en- thusiastic while tracing the great achievements of the present back to their small beginnings. All honor to those of any age and in any portion of the Field who are faithful to the struggling vines and tiny hedges in "the day of small things," looking forward and upward with the eye of faith. Order of Synodical Business. 1. Hymn and prayer. 2. Muhlenberg occupied the chair by virtue of his call. Handschuh was appointed Secretary. (There was no formal constitution. Like the Brit- BUILDING THE HEDGES. 121 ish Constitution, it was at first unwritten, and grew into shape gradually.) 3. Opening Address by Muhlenberg : The fail- ure of the attempt in 1744 ; the importance of a closer union between the congregations — a twisted cord of many strands will not easily break ; the duty of providing for the rising generation ; the connection between our churches and the Fathers in Europe. 4. General Business. The lay delegates report concerning the efficiency of the Pastors. The condition of the Parochial Schools is noted. The new Liturgy is examined and adopted : it contains Orders for Public Service, Baptism, Proclaiming the Banns, Confession, and Holy Communion. The only objection heard is to the length of the services, especially in extremely cold weather. Attention is paid to the criticisms of certain preachers who had not been invited. ' ' Mr. Muh- lenberg shows that we can have no fellowship with them, for : 1. Without any reason, they decry us as Pietists. 2. They have not been sent hither, and have neither an internal nor an external ^calL' 3. They are not willing to observe the same Church Order, or Liturgy, as we do : each wants to conform to the ceremonies of his home. 4. Six years' experience has taught Mr. Muhlen- berg that they care for nothing but bread. 5. They are under no Consistorium [in Europe], and give no account of their official doings " (Minutes). 5. Hartwig and Sandin, who were merely ad- visory members, made congratulatory addresses, but did not sign the Minutes. 6. After a hymn, adjourned, to meet at Lancas- ter in 1749. Muhlenberg, at the age of thirty-seven years, 122 HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. after just six years' faithful labor, found himself at the head of a band of co-laborers, all in the prime of life, and harmoniously laboring in the American vineyard. This was but another illustration of his favorite text : ''The Lord doeth all things well." That, amid these manifold outside duties, he did not neglect his own parish is seen in this entr)^ in his diary : "In this year of my Pennsylvania pil- grimage I have baptized a hundred and thirteen children, confirmed thirt3'-eight young people, and buried twenty-nine persons." He was so exhausted by being so much in the saddle, and so anxious to get quiet time for study and to be home with his family, that he actually begged the Fathers to send a successor, and allow him to re- turn to Germany. Who will censure him? He was but flesh and blood. It was, however, only a momentary weakness and shows how heavy was the cross that he bore for Christ and His Church. ** O what, if we are Christ's, Is earthly shame or loss ? Bright shall the crown of glory be When we have borne the Cross. " Keen was the trial once, Bitter the cup of woe, When martyred saints, iDaptized in blood, Christ's sufferings shared below. * Bright is their glory now, Boundless their joy above, Where on the bosom of their God They rest in perfect love." III.-" THE CARE OF ALL THE CHURCHES." 1748-1776. CHAPTER I. FIRST PRESIDENT OF THE FIRST AMERICAN SYNOD. Immigration Increases — The Parochial vs. The Synodical View — Pennsylvania Climate — Thorns in the Flesh : Weygand, Schrenk, and Eauss — Sectarian Influences — Sprinkling or Immersion? — What is Success? — Red- letter Days— Lancaster Synod— The Virginia Field- Ground Bought in Germantown for Orphanage and Theological Seminary— Frederick Muhlenberg Born— Handschuh's Blunders — Synod at Providence — Provost Acrelius — Muhlenberg's Care for His Catechumens. (1748-1750.) Besides those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is offended, and I burn nof —2 Cor. xi. 28. ^9. Take heed, therefore, unto yourselves, and to all the flock of God, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the Church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. — Acts XX. 28. It was high time that the * ' Church ' ' was becom- ing organized and that laborers were increasing in the vineyard, for Germans were pouring into the colonies by the thousands. The number reached 12,000 in 1749, and immigration continued un- checked until the breaking out of the French and Indian War in 1756. Schlatter estimated in 1750 that there were twice as many Lutherans as Re- formed, which would give the former a population of 60,000 souls to care for in Pennsylvania alone. (123) 124 HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. It was a grand outlook, if one views only the quan- tity of the material available ; but when its qual- ity is considered, and the labor necessary to ' ' call, gather, enlighten, and sanctify ' ' this mass by the Word and Sacraments, it becomes an enormous burden. How heavily the situation lay on Muhlenberg's heart is seen from comments made when called, shortly after Synod, to Brunnholtz's sick bed. He was much depressed by the possi- ble loss of his ablest colleague. "The other brethren are faithfully doing their work, each at his particular post, according to the talents God gave to each ; but they do not as yet understand the connection and interest of the whole." They took the narrow, parochial view of things ; but Muhlenberg — Brunnholtz, too, presumably — the larger, synodical view. Praising Brunnholtz' s ' ' spirit, faith, and char- ity," as he ever did, but lamenting his "weak body," he says : "The character of the climate is so severe that steel and iron will get brittle. ' ' (The Pennsylvania climate is, indeed, quite changeable, and must have been much rougher in olden times when the forests stretched clear down to Philadel- phia. This was written, too, long before the days of railroads, bridges, furnace-heated houses, and other modern conveniences. ) "I had such a robust, farmer-like nature that I knew of no sick- ness or weakness, but the climate and the never- ending traveling broke me down." During the winter of 1748-9 he suffered with inflammation of the right eye, and, in addition to other ailments, had spells of fainting. The Lord had mercy upon Brunnholtz, lest Muh- lenberg should have sorrow upon sorrow, for some of his other helpers were to prove hinderers, es- PRESIDE^'T OF FIRST AMERICAN SYNOD. 125 pecially certain theological students whom he be- friended. One was named Weygand. He was a Halle man. He had been duped by some " New- landers ' ' into immigrating to America. Here was a quandary. To reject a Halle man was unwise and unkind. So, regarding him as Abraham did the ram caught by his horns in the thicket (Gen. xxi.), Muhlenberg took him into his own house to test him. His theological knowledge and per- sonal piety proved satisfactory. Muhlenberg then allowed him to offer free prayers at family worship, and found that he could pray without a book, and used good. Biblical terms. Then he gave him charge of some catechumens. He observed that Weygand was diligent^nd persevering, but, like all 'beginners, he preached more than he cate- chised, and "did not chew the questions small enough for the children's comprehension.'' His preaching was more satisfactory. His voice and manner were good, his matter plain and Biblical. In fine, ]\Iuhlenberg concluded that the man was no impostor, and, though, as he suspected, possi- bly a trifle unsteady, was deserving of a place. As the York trouble was settled and Schaum re- tained, Wevgand was sent to the Raritan (churches. He was allowed to preach, to teach, to baptize, and, in extreme cases, to administer the Lord's Supper to those in peril of death. All went well for a year. Muhlenberg visited him in August, 1749, to confirm thirty catechumens. In December, Weygand was guilty of a series of blunders that nearly wrecked his career, and caused the President of Synod much anxiety. He first made a precipitate proposal of marriage to the daughter of a well-to-do elder with whom he was lodging, and, when the father asked for 126 HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBEKG. time to consider the matter, rushed into a hasty alHance with another family of doubtful standing. This, and his ill-advised burdening of an already burdened congregation with the purchase of a farm for his use, caused Synod to defer his ordination for a season. Another thorn in the flesh was one Schrenk, a student of philosophy, who was financially stranded in Philadelphia. In April, 1749, there was a wedding in Muhlenberg' s house. His ' ' dear Vigera," then teacher in Philadelphia, was married b}^ Muhlenberg to Miss Anna Stevenson, by birth a Quaker, by baptism a Lutheran. Brunnholtz brought young Schrenk to the wedding. Muhlen- berg gave him free board and theological instruc- tion for six months, and then used him in the outlying stations. Muhlenberg had him write one sermon in three weeks, and revised it for him. This was memorized and preached in turn in the four congregations. When stationed at the Saucon Church and shown his lodgings, Schrenk said he was afraid he could not get along with them ; he was not used to such humble surroundings. While Muhlenberg records this, he frequently praises Schrenk' s faithfulness. The man was finally ordained, but proved most ungrateful. He laid the blame of his ministerial failure on Muh- lenberg, slandered him, and worried him for nearly ten years. In 1759 he played the penitent, and was permitted to live at the parsonage during Muhlenberg's absence. In one of his par- oxysms of rage he actually laid violent hands on Mrs. Muhlenberg. The mild Muhlenberg sums up the matter thus: "If ever a mortal creature abused my kindness and took advantage of my forbearance, it was that man Schrenk." He PRESIDENT OF FIRST AMERICAN SYNOD. 127 drifted finally to the German congregation at Dublin, Ireland. Muhlenberg suffered similar ingratitude from another student named Rauss, whom he befriended also in 1749. From first to last Rauss showed a violent temper and a suspicious and selfish dispo- sition toward those who were doing their utmost to assist him. When placed at York, in 1754, he accused Muhlenberg and others of being false to him, and trying to get him out of the way by put- ting him out on the frontier. He even made grave charges at a later Synod against Muhlen- berg's character and orthodoxy. He had to be dropped from the brotherhood. But ''none of these things moved" Muhlen- berg. They did not render him harsh or sus- picious, though they were hard to bear, because these men were trying to tear down what he was so laboriously trying to build up. Sectarian and separatistic movements receive this notice in a letter of December to Francke and Ziegenhagen : ' ' Daily experience in my office teaches me that it is not an easy matter to bring about true repentance and conversion according to the Word of God. How easy it is to convert un- converted people to Quakerism, for in this coun- try so many ' respectable ' persons who possess honor, power, and riches belong to it. In this denomination the people need not trouble them- selves with the written Word of God and with the Sacraments. They pay the preacher no salary ! They wear the very plainest garb, and all can teach and preach. They love one another — if they are loved in turn. They help the poor — of their own denomination — and regard a naturally honest life as a sufficient ground of eternal happiness, and 128 HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG are counted good, converted members if they ap- pear in meeting once or twice a year." After paying his respects to a number of other sects he conchides : " I must also lament over those of our own rehgion, and confess that the greater part entertain the erroneous notion that they are already converted when they have performed the ' opus operatum ' of the external worship of God, although at other times they curse, get drunk, and join in other worldly follies. These poor people are strengthened in their folly by some nine or ten Lutheran preachers w^ho were turned out of office in Germany on account of gross vices — they are falsely assured by these men of their salvation for the sake of a handful of barley, and lulled to sleep. Yea, they are diligently taught that other preachers, who earnestly insist on repentance, have deviated from the Lutheran doctrine ! " In counteracting Quaker and Anabaptist (Bap- tist) influences Muhlenberg spent many an hour in argument with the English as well as the Ger- mans. Before an English widow at Mullaton could conscientiously submit to baptism by sprinkling he had to explain the matter from Scripture, church history, and the Greek usage of " baptism." To the reasonable question, ' ' What have we accomplished up to this time?" he replies by speaking of the difhculties to be first removed, and then gives a general survey of the years 1742-9. "So, then, whether many souls are won and saved, or whether our labor among them amounts to mere w^itness-bearing, your efforts and gifts of love, venerable Fathers and Benefactors, will not go unrequited." This is the language of one who does not measure everything with the yardstick of mere outward success. PRESIDENT OF FIRST AMERICAN SYNOD. 129 Among the pleasant events of 1749 was the an- nual celebration on January 26th of the first ar- rivals. These reunions were red-letter days. On this occasion the party was enlivened by the pres- ence of Mrs. IMuhlenberg and her honored father. Lancaster had grown to be a town of 4000 in- habitants. At the Synodical meeting held here June 4th-5th, Muhlenberg preached in the morn- ing on Luke xiv. 16, in German. For the sake of the pastorless Episcopalians, "the English," he preached, by request, in English in the evening, but, of course, in the Lutheran Church. Schaum, of York, was ordained. In December he was married. Muhlenberg contributed a festal ode. At Muhlenberg's suggestion it was resolved to elect annually an ' ' overseer ' ' of the ' ' United Churches." The Fathers at Halle quietly ig- nored this infringement of the European superin- tendency of the American churches. Though Brunnholtz nominally held the post for a few years, and then Handschuh, Muhlenberg was ever the leading man of the Synod, and its President again from 1760 to 1771. Muhlenberg's attention was drawn to the Vir- ginia field by the visit of Rev. George S. Klug. This brother came three hundred miles to pay his respects to his eastern Pennsylvania brethren. In later years Peter Muhlenberg settled in Virginia. ' ' In the archives of the Ministerium there is a copy of an indenture showing that in October, 1749, Muhlenberg purchased and transferred to Ziogenhagen and Francke forty-nine acres of ground in Philadelphia, first of all for a Christian school and seminary, then for a burial place, and then also for a home for superannuated ministers and the widows of pastors of the United Lutheran Congregations" (Dr. Jacobs). 9 130 HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. He makes frequent mention in his letters from 1750 to 1760 of his desire to estabhsh such an in- stitution, but the times vvere not propitious. This was the decade of the French and Indian War ; then came the building of Zion Church, and then Muhlenberg was too old for any new enterprise. Over a century passed before his plan was actual- ized by the erection of the Germantown Orphan Home and Asylum for the Aged, and the estab- lishment of the Philadelphia Theological Semi- nary. By the removal of the latter to Mt. Airy, quite near the Orphans' Home, Muhlenberg's idea has been almost literally realized. His views on this subject and on the use of the English lan- guage prove him to have been the most far- sighted man of his age in the American Church. Would that he had had associates capable of un- derstanding and seconding his efforts. Exactly in the middle of the century, January 1st, 1750, there was born a second son, to whom the name of Frederick Augustus Conrad was given : Frederick in honor of Dr. Ziegenhagen, Augustus for Dr. Francke, and Conrad for Colonel Weiser, his grandfather — his three sponsors. This son was destined to shine in the halls of Congress. Matters were going ill with poor Handschuh at Lancaster. While a godly man and most edifying preacher, he lacked judgment. This kept Muh- lenberg busy correcting his blunders. He became engaged to his servant, a perfectly moral person, yet not one whom the congregation cared to see pre- side over the parsonage as " Frau Pastor." Muh- lenberg attended the wedding. It was more like a funeral. As he foresaw, Handschuh could no longer maintain his position there. He was called to Germantown, too distracted a congregation for one of his lachrymose disposition. PRESIDENT OF FIRST AMERICAN SYNOD. 131 From spring on Muhlenberg served the "Swed- ish-English ' ' Mullaton Church. "I see quite plainly that, in addition to my other work, this is dragging me down. I am not afraid of death, but I have hardly the inclination or the means to live a useless cripple, ' ' writes Muhlenberg quite frankly. In 1750 Providence entertained the Synod. Five ministers and two catechists, together with sixty laymen, represented the fifteen congregations. The work was growing. To accommodate the throng, the church win- dows were removed, and green boughs placed about the building. After the sermon Muhlen- berg made a short German address on "The Foot- steps of God, " seen in the history of these last eight blessed years, and then gave evidence that he had not neglected his Latinity in this western wilder- ness by a brief Latin address to the clergy. The delegates crowded the parsonage in the evening to enjoy the edifying discourse of their pastors. Muhlenberg regaled them with foreign missionary anecdotes of work among the Malabars, the Jews, and the like. How few of his hearers realized how near Muhlenberg had come to being a Jewish or an East India missionary ! Acrelius, celebrated for his "History of New Sweden," had just arrived in America to assume the office of Provost, or overseer, of the Swedish Lutheran churches. Nyberg thought to make trouble by unfavorable comments on his absence from the German Lutheran Synod. The matter was satisfactorily explained in some Latin corre- spondence between Muhlenberg and Acrelius. We close this chapter with Muhlenberg's ac- count of his catechetical class of 1750 at New Hanover. There were twenty youths and two adults. About seventeen of the number came 132 HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. from distant places. Concerning one of the adult catechumens, he writes to Europe : "He was weak in grasping and remembering things, but still desirous of obtaining a new heart ! I taught him in the simplest way how to approach God in prayer and what to ask of Him. When I once asked him whether he followed my advice, he told me how" and what he had prayed to the reconciled Father in Christ, in the privacy of his home, and, while at work, out in the field. " I have frequently admonished the young, one and all, during the catechetical instruction, to make each day's lesson the subject of prayer at home, and to apply it to themselves. When I inquired of each one, privately, whether he had followed my advice, they, for the most part, con- fessed in all simplicity of heart that they bowed their knees and in secret asked of God a new heart — one in the barn, another in the field, a third in the stable, etc., wherever they could be free from intrusion. Although I see innumera- ble obstacles and temptations that w^aylay these youths, and that I cannot remove, but only fear and deplore ; yet it cheers my heart when I ob- serve that the young people during instruction and confirmation receive a living impression of the Order of Salvation. I commit all into the hands of our Heavenly Father and the faithful Chief Shepherd, Jesus Christ, who will leave nothing undone to save all who are willing to be saved/* CHAPTER II. AMONG THE LUTHERANS OF NEW YORK. En Route to New York with Weiger — Carl Rudolph Again — Muhlenberg Vindicates Hartwig — Meets Ber- kenmeyer — Four Periods in New York Lutheranism — A New Fulcrum for Muhlenberg — Six Months in the Dutch Lutheran Pulpit in New York City, 1751 — Uses Three Languages Every Sunday — Lutheran Church a Refuge for the English — English Prayers and Hymns — Monthly Visits to Hackensack — Returns Home via Philadelphia — Margaretta (Mrs. Dr. Kuuze) Born — Three Months' Work in New York in 1752— "Metho- distic" Disturbances — Muhlenberg's Conception of His Call to America. (1750-1752. ) For I have no man likeminded, who will naturally care for your For all seek their own, cot the things which are Jesus Christ's.— Philip, ii. 20, 21. I have learned, in whatever state I am, therewith to be content. 1 know looth how to be abased, and I know how to abound ; every- where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hun- gry, both to abound and to suffer waut. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.— Philip. iv. 11-13. Muhlenberg never outran Providence, nor did he shrink from following where God pointed the way. Duty had called him, a few years previous, to Frederick, Md. Now it called him just as cer- tainly to the great Province of New Y^ork, with its many Lutheran Churches and their troubles, not a few waiting for a peacemaker like T'.Iuhlenberg to adjust them. Muhlen])erg had long felt it his duty to return the courtesy show^n by his frequent visilor, Hartwig, but the opportunitv, hitherto (133) 134 HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. lacking, was now afforded by his father-in-law's trip to New York. Weiser had been appointed to confer with sonie Canadian Indians at Albany. On the wa}^ he pro- posed visiting the scenes and churches of his child- hood along the Hudson. He ofiered to take his son-in-law with him, free of expense. This was quite to Muhlenberg's liking. He was desirous of learning more concerning the condition of the Church in the North, as he was already familiar with that of the South and of the West. It was over two hundred miles to Hartwig's. The travelers met at Bethlehem, August 17th, 1750. They made a polite call on the Moravian Bishop, Cammerhof. Muhlenberg noted the beau- tiful Lehigh and the high mountains. Their route lay through Nazareth and across the Delaware. It was a painful journey on his stiff old horse. Be- sides, ^luhlenberg was sufiering from several dis- abilities. In those days bleeding was in vogue. Mrs. Muhlenberg, who had performed the opera- tion, had made too deep an incision. Muhlen- berg's arm was swollen and painful. His throat, too, was sore, and for some days he could hardly use his voice. During the four weeks which he spent along the Hudson, he preached at Rhinebeck and in the neighboring churches of Hartwig's charge. Here again he came upon the trail of Carl Rudolph, the pretended Prince of Wittenberg. This fellow scented the prey from afar, and wandered wher- ever he could find a vacant and unguarded pulpit. He had been the last one to preach in the Camp Church. So Muhlenberg gave it a spiritual fumi- gation. Before commencing his sermon he pub- licly prayed that God would purify the house for His own honor ; that He would gather the scat- AMONG THE LUTHERANS OF NEW YORK. 13S tered sheep ; and that He would forgive those who had allowed this impostor to preach there. He performed a great service in quieting the factious opposition to Hartwig. It is true that Hartwig was altogether too stiff and pedantic. He came late to service and preached too long, and, by his pointedly anti-Calvinistic sermons, need- lessly wounded the feelings of some of his mem- bers who had married into Calvinistic families. Hartwig was, in truth, an eccentric bachelor. The gravest charge against him was that he was a secret Moravian and not a staunch Lutheran. Muhlenberg knew better. He bore testimony to his friend which allayed the strife, and then took him off to Pennsylvania with him for a while. "It is easier, ' ' observes jNIuhlenberg of this case, " to be a cowherd or a shepherd in Germany than a pastor here, where every peasant acts the part of patron of the parish, for which he may not have the proper intelligence or the necessary skill." Muhlenberg's movements were carefully re- ported to ' ' old Father Berkenmeyer, ' ' at Loonen- burg (Athens), on the Hudson. He was the ecclesiastical leader in this province and a pro- found theologian. He had avoided a clash with Muhlenberg in the affair of Wolf, at Raritan, by remaining away. He was prejudiced against Muhlenberg because he was a Halle man. Ber- kenmeyer disliked Pietists ; and verily one who had seen some of the sickly exhibitions of the later Pietism in Germany — what we should now call IMethodistic extravagances — may be excused for his caution. But Berkenmeyer could be fair. When asked his opinion of Muhlenberg, he had the grace to reply that he had nothing to say against him — he was an Evangelical preacher. These two 136 HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. leaders met face to face, for the only time, a few weeks later, in New York, but Muhlenberg has neg- lected to transmit to posterity their conversation. At this point IMuhlenberg had to part company with the faithful old horse that had carried him thousands of miles, summer and winter, for seven years past. Hartwig and he now went by boat to New York, "that ancient, renowned city" — an expression of Muhlenberg's that smacks of New World patriotism. The Lutheran Church there had four periods in its history : A Dutch period, followed by an Anglicizing period ; then a German period, followed by a second Anglicizing period. At present several periods overlapped and three languages were needed. The language war con- cerned both the Dutch and the Germans. The latter had already secured half of the services in their language, but some disgruntled members, of none too spiritual a character, had seceded and started an opposition German Church, with Rev. J. A. Reuss as pastor. Muhlenberg had warned him against being made a tool of to injure the Dutch Church. Hence he declined Reuss' invi- tation to preach in his pulpit. The Dutch pulpit had been vacated by Knoll. By invitation of the officers Muhlenberg preached two sermons here — in German and in English. ''It is a distressing condition of things : There is a fine, well-built church, in a good locality, in the city. They have £400 at interest, and there is a comfortable parsonage But now it seems as if the end were not far off." Yet it was very far off. The New Yorkers were impressed with the fact that IMuhlenberg, to whom they had written sev- eral times about their difficulties, was the only man in America strong enough to solve them. In a letter of November 8th they sounded him AMONG THE LUTHERANS OF NEW YORK. 137 about assuming the pastorate. In December he rephed, that, willing as he was to make the sacri- fice, he would have to be assured that his own congregations were not left a prey to the wolves. Furthermore, he would have to secure permission from the Fathers in Europe to make the change. He also insisted on liberty to attend the annual syn- odical meetings and to do missionary work among the vacant congregations in the Province of New York. It was plain that he was seeking for a new fulcrum for his lever, and found it in the second city of America. Matters in the Pennsylvania churches were in a fairly good condition, but, in Muhlenberg's own parish, owing to the death and removal to the West of many of the founders of the church, his salary was not keeping pace with his increasing expenses and he Avas running into debt. He felt that a younger man might now be able to carry on the work there, while he threw himself into the breach in New York. He tells the Fathers that the call was wholly without his seeking, and that he would not willingly hinder God's wise de- signs. ''Alas," he writes, "how afraid I often become, when I reflect upon the grave responsi- bilities of the pastoral office and my great unfit- ness for it. Ah, Lord, be Thou not severe with me, but merciful, and, for the sake of Jesus Christ and His merits, cast my sins of office and station behind Thee, and let grace be instead of justice and mercy instead of judgment. Amen. Kyrie Eleison." In a matter of such gravity Muhlenberg would not act without obtaining the opinion of his clerical brethren. Despite his position and expe- rience he would not arrogate to himself all wis- dom or authority. A pastoral conference was 138 HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. called at Tulpehocken. On his way thither he visited the new town of Reading, where Weiser, with an eye to the future, had secured a church lot for the Lutherans. At Tulpehocken a pretty incident took place. The preachers climbed to the summit of South Mountain. As they were surveying the splendid panorama for thirty miles around, three eagles circled above their heads, rising higher and higher until lost to view in the splendor of the sun's rays. To these children of Halle this sight would call to mind an emblem on the front of the Orphan House at Halle — an eagle, couch- ing in front of the widespread golden raj^s of the sun. The brethren granted Muhlenberg leave of absence for six months. His people were loath to assent to the plan. He left his family behind as a pledge of his return. By the middle of May, then, he was installed in a scantily furnished parsonage in New York. A lad prepared his oreakfast. He dined and lodged at a deacon's house. For a family man of forty, in love with the country, to be separated from his household, and shut up in a city where he could not get a drink of good water, and to be compelled to spend the hot summer there, was a real hardship, but, then, " Ecclesia Plantanda." "The poor souls in New York were," he says, '^ accustomed for so many years to be quieted and comforted with 'opus operatum,' that they imagined that a two hours' church service was quite sufficient for justifi- cation. Whatever did not sound like the old tune they were accustomed to, but called for conversion to God and a living faith in the Lord Jesus, that they accounted dangerous doctrine." His presence brought unity and new life to the AMONG THE LUTHERANS OF NEW^YORK. 139 distracted church. On May 19th he began his important work with two German sermons, given with a clearness of voice and distinctness of enun- ciation that proved rather annoying to the neigh- boring Episcopahan Church. On Whitsunday he dehvered the morning sermon in Enghsh, and in the afternoon ventured on a Dutch sermon. Pres- ently he took upon himself the burden of three sermons a Sunday, in as many different lan- guages. It cost him no little trouble, with Bible and dictionary, to provide himself with a stock of apt words and Biblical quotations in Dutch and English. This remarkable linguistic feat is a credit to his heart as well as to his head : not every- one that would do this could ; and not everyone that could do it would shoulder such a burden. Muhlenberg was willing to be anything and to do anything that would advance the interests of the kingdom of God. The Dutch sermons were written out in full and memorized. At first this took half the week. The English evening sermon was partly for the benefit of outsiders, whose English churches were closed in the evening or who were averse to the strict Calvinism preached there. It is a startling idea to think of the Lutheran Church, so often looked down on by the native Americans, as a place of spiritual refuge for the English Presbyterians, Reformed, and Episcopahans, and that, in one of our foremost cities, as far back as 1750, — the preacher, too, not a native American, but an im- ported ''foreigner." The explanation is to be found in the man as well as in the doctrine. He was a warm-hearted man as well as a sound Lutheran, and so preached Christ as to win the confidence of all parties and to feed their souls. He cemented the Dutch con- 140 HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. gregation ; and wherever he appeared in the prov- ince he rescued the name of Lutheran pastor from reproach. He remarks that he must be more careful of his EngUsh among critical city people. He felt the want of a large print quarto English Bible. In a year or two we find him using spectacles. The purchase of the Bible had to be delayed. His first quarter's salary, £20, or ^100.00, kindly prepaid, had to go for clothing and furniture. The evening services crowded the sanctuary. For lack of an English Lutheran liturgy he was compelled to compile prayers from the Book of Common Prayer, conforming them as much as possible to German and Dutch usage. He had to line the hymns from a soHtary copy of what he calls ''the Lutheran Hymn Book," namely, the " Psalmodia Germanica," or, "The German Psalmodia, Translated from the High Dutch, To- gether with Proper Tunes and Thorough-bass,'^ published at London, 1732. A specimen verse of " Jesu, Deinen tiefe Wunden," reads thus : " Christ, Thy holy wounds and passion, Bloody sweat, cross, death, and tomb, Be my daily mediation, Here, as long as I live from home. When Thou seest a sinful thought Rise within to make me naught, Show me that my own pollution Caused Thy bloody execution." He mingled freely with the most prominent persons in the city, and exchanged visits of cour- tesy with pastors of other denominations. The limited size of the city in 1751 would in part ac- count for this. His Honor, the English Judge, found in Muhlenberg a well-bred, representative Lutheran clergyman, with clear credentials and AMONG THE LUTHERANS OF NEW YORK. 141 respectable family connections (the Weisers), who impressed him so favorably that he sent him home in his own coach. The Judge's prophecy, however, that in a few j^ears all the foreign lan- guages would die out in New York must have amused his guest. The parson knew better than the judge, and builded according to his better knowledge. Once a month he spent a Sunday with the Dutch Church at Hackensack, on the Jersey side of the Hudson. Services had been kept up by the reading of a sermon, but the singing had gone to ruin. Muhlenberg could, on occasion, be his own precentor, and, if need be, his own organist, too. One communion day he preached on the Words of Institution. He says in his diary : "I refrained from all scholastic fancies, and rested simply on the clear testamentary words of our Lord Jesus Christ, acting therein like Queen Eliz- abeth, who, when questioned by the Romanists about this article of faith, answered : " It was the Word that spake it ; He took the bread and brake it, And what the Word did make it, That I believe and take it." By way of Philadelphia he returned to Provi- dence late in August. On September 17th his second daughter was born. She was baptized Margaretta Henrietta, in honor of the wife of Dr. Francke. She became the wife of the celebrated Rev. Prof. J. C. Kunze, D. D., next to Muhlen- berg the ablest man in the German-American Church of the Eighteenth Century. During the winter of 1751-2 Muhlenberg was in the treadmill of duty. He had to fetch up his missionary correspondence, and to make copies of 142 HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. his diaries for Europe. Two new recruits came from Halle — Heintzelmann and Schultz. The former died after a few years' labor, and the latter soon dropped from the ranks. Muhlenberg would have accepted a permanent call to New York, but the Fathers would not con- sent to his leaving Pennsylvania. So he con- tented himself with another three months' visit during the summer of 1752. He now introduced his Pennsylvania custom of catechising the adult members. One old man begged to be excused, as he could no longer pubhcly repeat the Catechism, and was afraid that the children would laugh at his mistakes. iMuhlenberg consoled him, and said that, if he were in a state of grace, he might answer from his personal experience. To prevent bashfulness, IMuhlenberg next Sunday questioned old and young indiscriminately. In those days the preaching of Whitfield was producing disturbances similar to those produced by Methodism a little later. The Reformed Church at Hackensack had two pastors. "The younger man," says Muhlenberg, ''encouraged those who were spiritually awakened to meet among themselves from week to week for devo- tional exercises. His intentions were undoubt- edly good ; but, as he did not regularly attend the meetings, various disorders crept in. They attempted at every meeting to interpret and apply a chapter of the Bible, which was beyond their ability. They used, in praying, terms of an offensive character, set up a false standard of re- generation, and looked for extraordinary or super- natural things. " One of the consequences of such assumptions was a hasty judgment and condemnation of those who did not experience the same state of feelings. AMONG THE LUTHERANS OF NEW YORK. 143 Those who thought themselves in a state of grace considered all those who did not belong to their circle, 'publicans and sinners,' and the elder pas- tor a dead literahst, while they were in turn called, by the old, conservative party, ' Pharisees,^ 'enthusiasts,' etc. ' ' Wherever I went, the talk was about these measures and exercises, and my opinion was asked. I answered that, according to the Word of God, services held for the increase of godliness were necessary and useful, provided they were conducted in the presence of experienced teachers and pastors, for the honor of God, the best inter- ests of the Church, the advantage of our fellow- men, and the edification of awakened souls." His friend, Schlatter, called one day, with six Reformed missionaries, whom he had brought over from Germany. JMuhlenberg' s significant greet- ing to them was : ' ' Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves. Be ye, therefore, wise as serpents and harmless as doves." His time had expired. He found a pastor for New York in the person of Weygand of Raritan, and returned home, for thus had he Vv^itten before going to New York the second time : ''My first and lawful call is for Pennsylvania. My call and business in America have been, these nine years past, to gather our poor and scattered Lutherans into congregations, and to introduce lawfully called, ordained, and pious ministers. If I can do the same, by the help of God, in New York, I will not fear or mind any trouble, persecution, or evil report. But, then, good people must not depend upon my stajdng here or there, but thank God if they be provided with sound and faithful ministers, and give me liberty to go from one place to another, and see how far, 144 HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. by the assistance of the Lord, I may add my mite to the upbuilding of our Lutheran Church in America." Note, not ''German," or ''English," or ' ' Dutch, ' ' but ' ' Lutheran ' ' Church. Note, again, that his thought and care were not for the North or the South, the East or the West, but for "Amer- ica." To build up his beloved Lutheran Church "in America" this loyal Lutheran, and no less loyal American, would "not fear or mind any trouble, persecution, or evil report." Glorious ideal ! Inspiring example ! " God bless our native land ! Firm may she ever stand, Through storm and night ; When the wild tempests rave, Ruler of winds and wave, Do Thou our country save By Thy great might." CHAPTER III. YEARS OF TRIBULATION. St. Michael's, Germantown, Dedicated — ]Muhlenberg as Poet — Troubles in Germantown — Gerock to Lancaster — A Grateful Beneficiary — Trip to Frederick, 1753 — De- clines a £300 Anglican Pulpit — 1754, Appeal to the Mother-Church : Difficulties Frankly Stated — ^luhlen- berg Under a Cloud at Halle — Acrelius Sketches the Crisis in the German Churches — " Society for the Pro- motion of the Gospel Among the Germans" — Weiser a Lieutenant-Colonel — Henry Ernst, the Botanist, and Other Children Born — An Extensive Journey Planned — Declines Call to Xova Scotia — 1758 and 1759 (with Family) at Earitan — Suffers Insult in St. Michael's, Philadelphia— Slanders. (1752-1759. ) But in all things approving ourselves, as the ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses. In stnpes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in watchings, in fasiings —2 Cor. vi. 4-5. In j uriieyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the lieathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, iu perils in the sea, in perils amoug "false brethren.— 2 COR. xi. 26. Occasionally Muhlenberg felt moved to poetry. He contributed a poem to Shaum's wedding, and a hymn of thirty-six stanzas to the dedication of the enlarged St. Michael's Church, of German- town, October 1st, 1752. Of these the pastors sung the twenty-second and twenty-third, to a harp accompaniment : " 22. Lass, Jehovah, Dein gefallen, AVass Dir Herz and Zunge singt. Hore, wie Dein Volk mit Lallen Dir dies Haus zuin Opfer bringt, 10 (145) 146 HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. Und es widnet Deiner Eh re Zum Gebraiich des reinen Lehre, Die durch Deines Geistes Kraft In uns neue Herzen schafft." Provost Acrelius consecrated the church. Muhl- enberg preached the sermon, on John v. 1-9. Next day the Fifth Synodical Meeting was held, with twelve preachers and sixty-eight laymen present. Acrelius expressed his gratification in a Latin address, to which Muhlenberg responded in the same tongue. Handschuh records in his diar}^ : ''Nothing so pleasant, edifying, and in- spiring as this service have I ever before expe- rienced in this country." But there were ' ' breakers ahead. ' ' Muhlenberg, long after, said of the event, that ''the United Preachers edified themselves, as the disciples at the Transfiguration of Christ on the mountain (Matt. xvii. ), because they were afterward to accompany Him to Geth- semane. ' ' The Synod held two more meetings, and then slumbered soundly for six years. Al- most its last act was to appoint a day of repent- ance, prayer, and thanksgiving, to be observed in all the Swedish, German, and Dutch churches. 1 Sam. vii. 12 was to be used for the introduction, and Joel ii. 12-17 to be taken as the text for the sermon. Muhlenberg's tribulations began at the annual congregational meeting at German town, in 1753. He failed to heal the strife. The church divided into two factions. There was much pettiness and bitterness against both Handschuh and the "United Pastors," that is, the Synod. The Handschuh party withdrew and rented a house near the church. Muhlenberg gave this move- ment his countenance by preaching for ' ' the little flock ' ' on the following Sunday. YEARS OF TRIBULATION. 147 Secret efforts were made to foment disturbances at Philadelphia and other places. Muhlenberg's clerical enemies made their appearance on the scene. The whole affair gave him no end of trou- ble. A slight blaze was, likewise, kindled in the Raritan churches. A document against the Synod was read there during the Good Friday services. Muhlenberg's visit quenched the incipient flame. Just then a new pastor arrived for Lancaster, a Wurtemburger, Rev. J. S. Gerock. He prudently kept aloof from the Germantown trouble, but he also for years held aloof from the Synod. This meant the practical Avithdrawal of the strong Lan- caster church. In the case of Wagner, Muhlenberg had an op- portunity of returning good for evil. When the log church at Reading was ready for dedication, Muhlenberg was invited to preach the dedica- tory sermon. (His father-in-law, Weiser, it will be recalled, now lived there. ) Wagner published a furious pamphlet against ^luhlenberg, accusing him of heresy. Muhlenberg's only reply was to endeavor to persuade the Reading congregation to recall Wagner as their pastor. Of another crabbed clerical neighbor who ''hated him without a cause," Muhlenberg says with Christian charity, ' ' Though Mr. Scherlin avoided intercourse with me, I always loved him, because I was occasionally informed that he was diligent in preaching and catechising." Again, "I was living in hope that beneath the rough shell a good kernel might 3^et grow under the influence of suf- fering, and through the working of the Good Spirit." He, therefore, invited Scherlin to a Sy nodical meeting, with the happiest results. During the winter of 1753 another waif cast anchor in the Muhlenlieri? home — a 148 HENKY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. of twenty-six, named William Graaf. Muhlenberg awakened in him the religious impressions of his youth. He helped him on to school-teaching, and ultimately into the ministry. Graaf became a useful servant of the Church. Had Muhlenberg desired it, he might have be- come the pastor of the Anglican Church at Fred- ericktown, Md. , with £300 a year salary. He had made a hasty trip in December, 1753, to secure the release of the Lutherans from the heavy tax which they had to pay toward the support of the Enghsh Established Church. As the Lutherans had no house of worship, Muhlenberg on this occasion preached in the vacant Episcopalian pul- pit, and also in the Reformed Church, with the result mentioned above. Before it went to sleep in 1754, the Synod ap- pointed ' ' the three oldest pastors ' ' to prepare an Appeal to the Fathers in London and Halle. The gist of it was presented to Synod, and approved by it. Muhlenberg, the pioneer missionary, signed it first as ' ' Senior Minist. , ' ' that is, Senior of the IMinisterium, an honorary position still retained by the Body. It is an exhaustive document, that would cover thirty or more pages like this. It describes the whole field, from the beginning of German immigration in 1680 to the date of writ- There is something quite modern in the re- minder that the Episcopalians and the Presby- terians and the Sw^edish Lutherans have received foreign help, but that comparatively little has been done for the German Lutherans. The difficulties of each parish are candidly stated. In Philadelphia, for instance, a modest church has been built, but S8000.00 debt remains, and the people can do no more than keep up the interest. YEARS OF TRIBULATION. 149 Three serious dangers threaten the inner Hfe of the churches : 1. The presumption and tyranny of one or two rich men in certain congregations, who think that their contributions give them the right to dictate. 2. The lawlessness of many immigrants, who turn liberty into license, and rail against a regular ministry, divine worship, and good order as ' ' pa- pacy " itself. 3. The introduction of scamps as pretended *' ministers " by the " Newlanders," w^ho sell their services from the ship to Lutherans in search of a cheap minister (Jer. v. 30, 31 : viii. 21, 22). The hardships under which the "United Min- isters ' ' labor are also three : 1. The poverty of the people. In a congrega- tion of three hundred souls scarcely fifteen can be found able to contribute toward the erection of a church. The financial responsibility falls upon the pastors. 2. The necessity of preaching in barns, where the bleating of sheep and the lowing of cattle interfere with divine worship. Also the lack of school-houses and of time to devote to teaching. The pastors have to be in the saddle most of the time. 3. Many thousands of Lutherans are scattered throughout North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Jersey, New York, etc. There is no provision for traveling expenses, and no one to fill the home pul- pit. People often come one and even two hundred miles to hear a sermon and to enjoy the sacra- ments, and weep bitterly over the destitution which the United Pastors are powerless to help. They contrast the condition of the pastors in the Mother-Church in Europe with their own condi- 150 HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. tion. The former have an assured support, com- fortable churches and school-houses, security in office, etc. The latter, none of these things. Some of the American preachers are getting old (Muhlenberg was now forty-three) and worn out; others, sickly (Brunnholtz). The uncertainty and insufficiency of support are depressing to the spirits. Out of ten families there is scarcely one that pa3^s up its annual subscription in full. The sects (Quakers, Dunkards, Mennonites, etc.), through newspapers, in company, and at taverns, diffuse among the peojjle the idea that the preach- ers, as well as their hearers, ought to Avork at a trade, cut wood, sow, and reap during the week, and then on Sunday preach to the people gratui- tously. ''That is water on their mill: that is what the people want to hear." The picture is such a gloomy one that one might imagine it the work of Handschuh, but here, as everywhere, Muhlenberg was the ' ' first among equals. ' ' The pastors feel that they are ' ' stand- ing at the base of a vast mountain." How to clamber up its rugged sides and reach its cloud- kissing summit they see not ; yet there is no hint of retreat. "Theirs but to do and die." And what came of this earnest petition ? For a time Muhlenberg was under a cloud at Halle. The Fathers deemed him visionary and eccentric. This petition was only wild Western talk ! But Acrelius, Provost of the Swedish Churches, 1749-1756, and author of the celebrated " History of New Sweden," wrote home to Sweden in pre- cisely the same vein : ''It is yet a doubtful matter whether our Ger- man Lutheran Church will stand or fall ; and it YEARS OF TRIBULATION. 161 is improbable, if it were to fall, whether it could be revived. The means to build churches, sup- port ministers, build and sustain schools are al- together inadequate for needy emigrants and a people scarcely recovered from long servitude ( Redemption ers). What wonder if our weak powers are altogether incommensurable with our godly desires." This is not the language of a scoffing Ammonite, but of a faithful fellow-worker. In the above Appeal mention is made of a * ' So- ciety for Propagating the Gospel Among the Ger- mans " — really to establish charity schools among them. The prime movers were Dr. William Smith, Provost of the new college, now the Uni- versity of Pennsylvania, and Benjamin Franklin. Conrad Weiser, Muhlenberg's father-in-law, was made one of the Trustees. Franklin's underlying motive may be gauged by an article published in 1751 : ''Why should the Palatine boors be suf- fered to swarm into our settlements, and, by herd- ing together, establish their language and manners to the exclusion of ours ? Why should Pennsyl- vania, founded by the English, become a colony of aliens who will shortly be so numerous as to Germanize us instead of our Anglicizing them, and will never adopt our language or customs any more than they can acquire our complexion ? ' ' Here we note that on September 24th, 1754, Muhlenberg and his friend. Rev. J. C. Hartwig, proceeded to the Supreme Court at Philadelphia, certified that they had taken the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper on September 15th, and, taking the required oath, became naturahzed subjects of Great Britain. Schlatter was appointed inspector of the charity schools. Schools were established. The people 152 HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. at Lancaster petitioned for a teacher who could instruct not only in English and German, but also in Latin and Greek. Sauer, of course, bitterly op- posed the idea of ' ' free " or " charity ' ' schools as an insult to the Germans. Franklin wrote to Muhl- enberg for advice. He approved of the plan, and, as he was not able to carry out his intention of buying a press and printing an anti-Sauer paper to instill into his countrymen ' ' sound notions con- cerning the inestimable privileges they enjoy under the British Protestant Government," he ad- vised the Trustees to do it. He would assist in editing such a paper, etc. The paper was issued by Franklin. Handschuh edited it. Schools were established at prominent Lutheran centres. Lutheran and Reformed pastors were engaged as catechists to attend to the religious instruction of the children according to the denomination to which they belonged. Muhlenberg himself accepted ap- pointment as one of the catechists for schools at The Trappe and other places, and signed at least one receipt for £15. This curious, elaborate plan dragged on for a few years, then failed. It was just as well. It was not a case of pure charity. Politicians and Episcopalians were interested in it for very different reasons, but the German Lu- theran Church was bound to be the loser in the end. The French and Indian War was already in pro- gress in 1755. "VVeiser was made Lieutenant- Colonel and given command of the First Bat- talion, Pennsylvania Regiment. His duty was to protect the frontier along the Blue Mountains from the Susquehanna to the Delaware. Washington was winning fame by his campaign in western Pennsylvania. Church and State were alike dis- turbed. Muhlenberg's program for the spring of 1756 YEARS OF TRIBULATION. 163 was, in case he could secure a supply for his pulpit, to make a general visitation among the scattered Lutherans in Maryland, Virginia, Sorth Carolina, New York, and Jersey. It would have been a journey of hundreds of miles. His reason for planning it was this : ' ' How can we give ac- count to God for neglect to sow when He has ploughed the field and prepared it for seeding?" Whether it was Heintzelmann's death or the In- dian troubles that prevented the carrying out of the plan, we do not know ; it remained an un- realized dream. He had an opportunity of escaping the Penn- sylvania troubles and the ^'continual riding," when, in 1759, Schlatter brought him a call from the Governor of Nova Scotia. The duties were to conduct German and English service in the churches at Lunenberg, Halifax, etc. He gave it prayerful consideration, but could not recognize in it the gracious will of God. In 1758 he spent the summer with the Raritan churches. As he had to repeat the visit next year, he took his wife and four of the children with him. The other three were left at home with William Graaf and his wife. Peter Muhlenberg was now old enough to accompany his father on horseback. Samuel was the baby. Gotthilf Henry Ernst, the future botanist, born November 17th, 1753, and Maria Catharine, born November 4th, 1755, who was to become the wife of Major Swaine, were with their parents. It w^as a total change of life for Muhlenberg. He had to turn schoolmaster once more. For recreation he did a little gardening and farming, and even lent a hand in haying time. He spent the fall and winter there also. It suited him to be far enough away from Phila- 154 HEXKY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. delphia at this time. After the death of his be- loved Brunnholtz in 1757, Muhlenberg was called to preside at an election for pastor. He was so out- raged at the insolence of the leading elder, who first objected to a salary being named in the call, and then to Muhlenberg's ofhcial connection with the congregation, that the long-suffering Patriarch cut his original call out of the minute book and threw it into the fire. Though he helped to arrange the call for Handschuh, he would liot go near the congregation for three years. Thus left to him- self, Handschuh, with his sentimental, melancholy nature, floundered on with his twenty different kinds of Germans in St. Michael's, until all par- ties were glad to call for the return of the old pas- tor to straighten out the tangle. Add to this estrangement the slanders of Schrenk and Rauss, and it will be seen that these were bitter days for the Patriarch. Still he lost no time in fretting. His solace was prayer and work. CHAPTER IV. PHILADELPHIA LABORS AND FRIENDSHIPS. Wrangel Arrives, 1760 — Comrades and Co-laborers — Synod Revived — Corner-stone of Trinit}', Lancaster, Laid, 1761 — Muhlenberg's Defense of his Orthodoxy — Reappears in St. Michael's Pulpit — The English Catechism — Eng- lish Question Among the Swedes — Muhlenberg Re- movesto Philadelphia— Younger Children— Frames Con- gregational Constitution — Sends Three Sons to Halle — Relations to Other Denominations and Other Clergy- men — Whitfield — Schlatter — The Episcopalians — Eva Muhlenberg Married — Mrs. Muhlenberg's 111 Health — ''Autobiography" — Muhlenberg Carries a Church Debt — Publishes a Sermon — Peter Returns from Halle. (1760-1768.) And it came to pass when he had made an end of speaking unto Saul, that the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David, and Jona- than loved him as his own soul. — 1 Sam. xviii. 1, But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry. — 2 Tim. iv. 5. An interesting chapter could be written upon Muhlenberg's friendships. The most notable and satisfying was that which existed between him and Rev. Charles Magnus Wrangel de Saga, the new Provost of the Swedish Lutheran Churches and pastor of Wicaco Church, Philadelphia. It was based on mutual respect for each other's tal- ents, education, and spiritual ambitions. It was a case of *'love at first sight." Even when Wrangel returned to Sweden, in 1768, they main- tained a friendly correspondence until the last. They met August 24th, 1760. Muhlenberg's entry in his diary was : ''I was greatly moved (155) 156 HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. by his mild and humble manners, and edified b}- his weighty conversation relative to the kingdom of God." Muhlenberg w^s just forty-nine. Wran- gel was also in the prime of life, and in energy the counterpart of ]Muhlenberg. He took a most affectionate and solicitous in- terest in the welfare of the German Churches. Immediately on his arrival, he hastened on to Providence to invite Muhlenberg to the yearly convention of the Swedes in September. He him- self attended every meeting of the Germans. His preaching was fervent and attractive. His coming at this juncture in Muhlenberg's career was provi- dential, and sensibly raised the Patriarch's spirits. Side b}^ side these two men of heroic mould and comprehensive views labored for the upbuilding of the Church as a whole. Neither took an im- portant step in his parish or his general work with- out consulting the other. To Wrangel is due the resuscitation of the Synod in 1760. It met at Providence, October 19th. Gerock preached in German, tbe Provost in English. (Query, Where had he learned English enough to use it in preach- ing?) That night the brethren sat up until three in the morning, edifying one another with hymns and spiritual discourse, and discussing congrega- tional affairs. ''Oh, if poor souls, on this side eternity, can find so much pleasure in brotherly discourse, what must it be in Heaven ?" William Kurtz was examined for ordination. He translated Greek and Hebrew into Latin. The Provost was delighted ; he had not expected any- thing like that in " Penn's Woods." Muhlenberg was chosen President, and held the office eleven years. He calls the body ' ' The Annual Preachers' Assembly of the United Swedish and German Ministerium. " Twelve pastors and catechists PHILADELPHIA LABORS AND FRIENDSHIPS. 157 were present, and laymen from Philadelphia, New York, and Lancaster. This w^as a more comprehensive movement than that of 1748. Scarcely half of the men in 1760 were Halle men. At the meeting held May 17th, 1761, at Lan- caster, the corner-stone of the present Trinity Church was laid. Muhlenberg preached on Isa. Ix., "Arise, shine for thy light is come," etc. Rauss charged ^Muhlenberg with false doctrine. Wrangel and Borrell were appointed arbitrators to hear the case. It was a heresy trial founded on pure malice. Muhlenberg's defense, still extant, w'ould fill a hundred pages of this size. It may be summed up in his own intense w^ords : ' ' I defy Satan and all the lying spirits who serve him to prove against me anything in coniiict with the doctrine of the apostles and prophets, and of our Symbolical Books. I have often and again said and written that I have found in our Evan- gelical doctrine, founded on the apostles and pro- phets, and set forth in our Symbohcal Books, neither error, fault, nor anything wrong." The charge fell^flat. In response to a general demand Muhlenberg again appeared in St. Michael's pulpit. This may be traced to the influence of Wrangel and to the perplexity of the congregation. He preached on "The Causes of Christ's Tears Over Jeru- salem," and yet more pointedly on "The Strife and Misunderstanding between the Tribes of Is- rael." The Philadelphia strife called for many visits, and at last for his permanent presence. He again became the "first" or chief pastor, and Handschuh was his assistant. While on one of his visits in town he paid £4 for a dozen copies of an English edition of Luther's Small Catechism, pubhshed by his friend Wrangel. 158 HENRY MELCHIOB MUHLENBERG. In this connection we may recall an address de- livered by Muhlenberg at a Swedish Conference. He lauded Wrangel's diligencCj and his influence outside of his own nationality. For instance, ' ' All those Swedes who had connected themselves with the High Church at Chester had returned to the Church of their fathers ; and a number of influ- ential English residents had declared their readi- ness to join the Lutheran congregation in case a church would be built and there would be Eng- lish services in addition to the Swedish." To the Wicaco vestr^^'s question, whether in connection with the Swedish language the Lutheran doctrine could be advantageously propagated in English, he gave an elaborate affirmative reply. Beyond occasional English sermons there by these two friends, we hear nothing more of the matter. That would have been the time to begin the Eng- lish Lutheran work in Philadelphia. The delay may have been unavoidable, but it cost the Church a century and the loss of all the Swedes and many of the Germans. Nothing short of a theological seminary furnishing preachers trained to think and preach in English could have solved the diffi- culty, and that did not come until well on in the next century. Sacrificing his preference for the country, Muhl- enberg sold his house at Providence, bought a town house on Vine Street, and, October 29th, 1761, removed his family, consisting of his wife and six children, to Philadelphia. He remained here until 1776. Here the last three children were born. There were eleven children in all, of Avhom six reached maturity. The youngest of them was Maria Salome, born July 13th, 1766. She married Mr. Matthias Reichart, Anglicized PHILADELPHIA LABORS AND FRIEJN'DSIIIPS. 159 as Richards, a name still honorably borne in the Lutheran Church. The presence of Wrangel near Philadelphia brightened Muhlenberg' s life there. During those golden years, 1761-8, these men were often to- gether, running into each other's homes at all hours and remaining late into the night or all night. Muhlenberg still continued to visit his country churches once in six weeks. In town the work of pacification was completed, when ]\Iuh]- enberg prepared, and the congregation adopted, a new constitution. Dr. Mann says that, ' ' if, in his whole life, he had done nothing else of a re- markable character, the framing of that constitu- tion would suffice to cover his head with lasting honor." It brought order out of dire confusion, gave stability to the Philadelphia work, ancl served as a model for many other congregational constitutions. The congregation grew so rapidly that the large school-house had to be thrown open for additional services. Immigration revived during this peaceful decade. It was well that Muhlenberg was in personal command to put the right stamp on things during this formative period. His frequent absences from home on official business were not relished by the people. He met their murmurings by relating the parable of the man, who, also away from home, on the way to Jericho, fell into the hands of thieves first, and then into those of the Samaritan. As he was ab- sent not to seek his own comfort, but to do the work of the King, which required haste, the point was well taken. A permanent break now occurred in Muhlen- berg's family. April 27th, 1763, after careful in- quiry at Halle, but with a heavy heart, the father 160 HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. dispatched his three sons to Europe to be trained nnder the firm discipline and reHgious spirit of the Halle institutions. Peter was fourteen, Fred- erick twelve, and Henry Ernst but nine. They traveled to London in the charge of Hon. William Allen, later Chief Justice of Pennsylvania. Zieg- enhagen forwarded them via Hamburg and Eimbeck to Halle. The following extract of a letter from Muhlen- berg to Ziegenhagen gives a general outline of the eldest son' s character and shows his apprehension, afterward realized, that Peter would prove a troublesome subject: " My son Peter has, alas! enjoyed but little of my care and control, on ac- count of my extensive official duties, but he has had no evil example from his parents. His chief fault and bad inclination has been his fondness for hunting and fishing. But, if our Reverend Fathers at Halle observe any tendency to vice, I would humbly beg that they send him to a well- disciplined garrison town, under the name of Peter Weiser, before he causes much trouble or complaint. There he may obey the drum, if he will not follow the spirit of God. My prayers will follow him, and if his soul only is saved, be he in what condition he may, I shall be content. I well know what Satan wishes for me and mine." Muhlenberg made friends with many outside of the Lutheran Church, especially with those who, like Whitfield, preached a living Christianity, and with the clergymen of the Episcopalian Church. At the Philadelphia Synodical meeting in 1763, there were quite a number of English clergymen present, as the two Tennents (Presby- terians), Revs. Messrs. Duchee and Peters, of the "High Church" (Episcopalians), and the cele- brated Evangelist, Whitfield. Doubtless Wran- PHILADELPHIA LABOPvS AND FRIENDSHIPS. 161 gel was largely responsible for this. While these men were not made advisory members of the Synod, they were asked for a word of encourage- ment. The elder Tennent presided at the noon repast, "and refreshed us with edifying dis- course." Whitfield was invited to address the school children from the pulpit the next day. In 1770 he was, though reluctantly, asked by Muhl- enberg to hold an English evening service in the new Zion Church. He admired Whitfield's fervor and remembered the collections he made in Eu- rope for the impoverished Salzburgers, but he dissented from Whitfield's low views of the grace of baptism. Neither Muhlenberg nor Wrangel imitated his extravagances or substituted emotion- alism for faith. Any additional devotional meet- ings that Muhlenberg may have held were con- ducted b)^ himself or some other minister. The solid chorals of the Church were used, and an ex- planation of some passage from the Word of God formed the basis of the prayers. He was frequently visited by persons, not of his own congregation, for spiritual counsel. One evening he had a scholarly visitor from New England, a pious man, too, who desired him to explain the distinctive doctrines of the Lutheran Church, and in conclusion requested him to read some Greek and Latin, that he might know how the Germans pronounced these languages. Muhlenberg's relation to the Episcopalians was peculiar. It must be understood in the light of the German Court Chapel at London. He recog- nized the Episcopalian Church as an Established Church, having Articles of Faith and a Liturgy of a Lutheranizing character. He occasionally filled vacant Episcopalian pulpits, as the Swedes had done before him. In a letter to Nova Scotia, 11 162 HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. in 1771, he says : '' Our nearest and best friends are the upright teachers and members of the Es- tabhshed Church. They love and stand by us wherever they can, and we do for them whatever lies in our power. They favor us and give us perfect liberty, according to the Word of God, both to teach and to live according to the articles of our faith. We accord to them, cheerfully, the preference, because they have the Mother-Church, which is established by law." His most extreme acts took place at the time when Zion Church was dedicated, in 1760. As an act of courtesy toward the community-at-large, which was much interested in this imposing edi- fice. Dr. Peters, a clergyman of the Episcopalian Church, was asked to conduct a service in the evening. The Governor and the professors in the Academy were present as invited guests. This was in recognition of the free use for three years of the Academy chapel. During that same year Muhlenberg accepted a trusteeship in the "Society for the Relief of Widows and Children of Episcopal Clergymen." Doubtless these things awakened some thoughts in Episcopalian breasts which did not exist in Muhlenberg's, and doubtless, too, they had some- thing to do with the state of mind which after- ward led German Lutherans into the Episcopal Church, his own grandson, William Augustus, among them, for propinquity is often a basis for love ; but we have no evidence that, even in the darkest hours, Muhlenberg thought of a union between the two denominations. He could, in 1774, write to a Charleston Lutheran who thought of leaving his church : "During the thirty-two years of my sojourning in America, time and again occasions were given me to join the Episco- PHILADELPHIA LABORS AND FRIENDSHIPS. 163 pal Church, and to receive four or five times more salary than my poor German fellow-members of the Lutheran faith gave me ; but I preferred re- proach in and with my people to the treasures of 'Egypt.' I remember," he continues, "that many years ago a proud German tailor left our Church and joined the Episcopalians, giving as his reason that he had few customers among the Germans — many among the English. On the other hand, a captain of high standing, who had studied German, joined our Church, telling me that he sat with more pleasure on the rough benches, with the poor God-fearing German Lu- therans, than on those high seats where all glittered with gold, silver, and the like.'' Least of all did Muhlenberg entertain any high- church notions. At a time of great confusion, when the Revolutionary War had orphaned the American Episcopalian Church by cutting it off from the Bishops in England, Muhlenberg con- sented to examine a Mr. John Wade for the Episcopalian ministry. As to his ordination, he thought it could be obtained by " a regular united Protestant ministry nearest related to your Episco- pal Church" — his own S}' nod. "For why," said he, " should congregations be neglected and destroyed only for want of an Episcopal ordination ? which is but a piece of pious ceremony, a form of godli- ness, empty of power, and may be of service, when it is established by law, though it does not appertain to the essential parts of the holy function [or ministry] itself." His relation to Schlatter and the Reformed may be seen from an incident occurring at Barren Hill, some miles north of Germantown. After Muhlen- berg' s sermon Schlatter delivered a communion address, and then the Reformed withdrew to the 164 HENRY :\rKLCHIOR MUHLENBERG. schocl-house to receive the communion at their own pastor's hands. While, in these primitive days, the tv/o denominations at times used each other's churches, Muhlenberg did not build union churches, nor did he practice altar fellowship. Not even the members of his own congregation were admitted to the Lord's Su]3per without a personal conference with the pastor at the parson- age or the church. This was a very arduous task, but Muhlenberg observed the custom, as well on his visitations as at home. On this delicate question Dr. Jacobs remarks : ''Never hesitating to enter the pulpits of other denominations, when there was no warfare against or antagonism to his own Church, or denial of its truly Scriptural character, he was faithful at the same time in preaching, maintaining, and defend- ing the Word of God as taught in the Lutheran Confessions." And again, speaking of Muhlen- berg' s co-laborers as well, he says : ' ' The perfect naturalness and frank sincerity of their Lutheran convictions made ihem indifferent to inferences from their conduct, concerning which others would have been more painfull}^ exact, whose regard for the reputation of maintaining, might sometimes exceed their regard for the real possession of the Lutheran faith. They were not, on the one hand, men of such broad liberalitv as to ignore the ex- istence of ecclesiastical distinctions ; their pulpits were occupied only by ministers authorized and indorsed by the pastors of the United Congrega- tions But, on the other hand, they were not only courteous, but cordial, and some- times even intimate with many Christians outside of the Lutheran Church. Their very fidelity to the Lutheran faith rendered them glad to recog- PHILADELPHIA LABORS AND FRIENDSHIPS. 165 nize the most vital and important elements in tliat faith wherever found. ' ' Muhlenberg was fond of children to the last. He attended a parish school examination at King- sessing, West Philadelphia, in 1763. "I told the children that I was pleased with their diligence and was willing to send them something, either a cake or a booklet, for each one ; they should tell me which they preferred. One answered that a book lasted longer and was more useful, to which the rest agreed ; I am, consequently, a debtor." 1763-4 were years of tribulation once more. With a sick colleague — Handschuh died in the fall of 1764 — Muhlenberg's labors can be con- ceived from these statistics : Infant baptisms, 330 ; funerals, 129. There were 700 heads of families in the congregation. Germantown and Reading caused him many journeys. But with the new arrivals, Krug at Reading and Voigt, at Ger- mantown, and Christopher Emanuel Schultze as his assistant in St. Michael's, all went well again. In 1766 Schultze became his son-in-law, marrying his oldest daughter, Eva, then only eighteen. This was the first wedding in the family. After a few happy 3"ears in Philadelphia the couple re- moved to Tulpehocken. But sorrow came, too. Muhlenberg's wife, from this time on, was subject to hysterical paroxysms. At his wife' s suggestion Muhlenberg set to work on his Autobiography, which, however, never got beyond his arrival in Philadelphia. Mrs. Muhlenberg knew when to exercise the veto power. Her husband. Dr. Wrangel, and Henry Keppele, of St. Michael's, Philadelphia, were carrying the debt of the Barren Hill Church 166 HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. among them. All parties were financially strait- ened, for Wrangel was building churches of his own and Keppele was burdened with the very ex- pensive Zion Church. Muhlenberg proposed to use some of his wife's patrimony to relieve him- self at Barren Hill. As £300 had already been consumed by family expenses, Mrs. Muhlenberg emphatically said ' ' No. ' ' For two years more the Patriarch, now ap- proaching sixty years of age, struggled on under this debt, and then the Lord sent wonderful rehef. First came £90 worth of Halle medicines, then a draft of £100 from Ziegenhagen, and, finally, £284 from a godly German Count, Roedelsheim. Out of these funds Muhlenberg and his family were entirely relieved. Before narrating his generosity toward The Trappe Church, we mention that September 9th, 1763, when on a visit to that church, he baptized the child of John Billing, one of the three negroes whom he had baptized nearly twenty years before. In November the question of the £40 sterling annually, which had not been paid during any of the nineteen j^ears he served them, came up for discussion. They were much distressed. "To- morrow, so please God, I will untie this hard knot for you." To-morrow he publicly and generously forgave them all that debt, and at the same time publicly and earnestly reminded them of their duty to abide by the unaltered Augsburg Confes- sion to the latest generation. Muhlenberg committed nothing to the press but one sermon, with this self-explanatory title : ''A Testimony of the Goodness and Zeal of God To- ward His Covenant People in the Old and New Times, and of the Ingratitude of His People Toward Him, Given at the Occasion of the Thanks- PHILADELPHIA LABORS AND FRIENDSHIPS. 167 giving in Consequence of the Repeal of the Stamp Act, August 1st, 1766. By the Rev. H. Muhlen- berg. Philadelphia : H. Miller. ' ' He kept free from party alliances. His diaries have hardly a political reference. His only re- corded vote was given during the Indian excite- ment, and was cast for his friend Keppele, a can- didate of the war party. The patriotism of his sons, Peter and Frederick, and the father's pro- nounced admiration for Washington are a sufficient guarantee of his own patriotism. When Peter was a lad of fourteen his father noted that ' ' he does not care much for female so- ciety, but is bent on fishing and hunting." At Halle he was very restless, and finally ran off with a military company. A British colonel, whom his father had once entertained, happening to pass through Hanover, recognized Peter, secured his discharge, and took him along with him to Amer- ica. On Peter's return, in 1766, Wrangel came to the father's aid, and took him into his house, as the first student in a sort of private theological school. Thus he was led to a more spiritual life, and when, to the father's great distress, Wrangel was recalled, in 1768, Peter's face was decidedly set toward the Gospel ministry. The Synod, after slumbering several years, again convened, in 1768, for the dedication of the church at New Hanover, Rev. Lewis Voigt, pastor. The President preached the sermon. Text, 1 Kings viii. 37-39. Theme, '' A Divinely-approved Means to Rescue and Save from Destruction a Sinful People and Land." CHAPTER V. Muhlenberg's International Reputation — Zion, Phila- delphia, America's Largest Church — Dedication, 1769 — A Stilted Address — Helmuth and Schmidt — Kunze, the Scholar — Frederick and Henry Ernst Muhlenberg — Peter Called to Virginia — A Few Happy Years — Trip to Georgia — Saves Charleston Church — Arbitrates Dispute at Ebenezer — Backbiting in Pennsylvania — Peter Dons a Colonel's Uniform — In 1776 Muhlenberg Moves to Providence — " Pise Desideri^e " — Review of the Phila- delphia Pastorate. (1769-1776.) Therefore, my brethren, dearly beloved and longed for, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved.— Phil. iv. 1. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.— 2 Tim. iv. 7. The second half of Muhlenberg's Philadelphia pastorate was a fitting crown of his arduous mis- sionary career. He had a secure position in the two foremost cities and colonies of America. As far as such a thing was possible for a man who lived apart from war and politics, he had a na- tional and even an international reputation. Ger- many and Sweden and the Lutherans of London knew of Muhlenberg. Wherever the fame of the Halle Orphans' Home carried the ' ' Halle Re- ports," which was even to the mission fields of India, the name of Muhlenberg went. At home, as Quaker and Episcopalian, mer- chant and assemblyman passed up and down Arch Street or glanced across the two-story m.an- sions of that da v. and saw the rising walls of the (168) 169 new ^ ' Zion, ' ' they were reminded of that, devout German parson whom the Germans regarded as then' spiritual guide. The German immigrant now found himself preacher in the largest and finest house of worship in all America. Zion Church was seventy feet wide and one hundred and eight feet long. It stood at the southeast corner of Fourth and Cherry Streets, opposite the school-house. The corner- stone was laid June 11th, 1766. The dedication took place June 25th, 1769, the anniversary of the Augsburg Confession. The church stood exactly a century, a monument to Muhlenberg's powerful influence. Muhlenberg's diary tells the story of the dedi- cation daj'. On Saturday ' ' evening, at ten, the par- sonage was vacated by strangers, and I wrote, med- itated, and prayed until half -past three. " ' ' Mb. , Sen., preached the first sermon in Zion. The text was Isa. xliii. 1-6. He had the sermon writ- ten, was weak and distressed in body and sor- rowful in spirit, sore and oppressed in his chest, felt the strong vapor of the fresh plaster and paint in the church, and the news was whispered into his ear just w^hen he entered the pulpit that his Httle grandchild, Mr. Schultze's daughter, had died. " On account of his weakness, the crowded room, the intolerable heat, etc., he omitted the explanation or paraphrase of the text and treated of only two doctrines in it : 1. That God, the Lord, would preserve His kingdom of grace in this world amid all hostile attacks, sorrows, and persecutions, until the end of days. 2. And in these last days greatly increase and glorify it." As the result of this overexertion, he was sick abed in the afternoon. On Monday, the Governor, the High Church 170 HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. clergy in their vestments, the Doctors of Theology, the Professors of Philosophy and Medicine, and other graduates of the University, in festive garb, several military officers, etc. , etc. , marched in pro- cession to this German Lutheran Church to hold an English service. Rev. Mr. Peters preaching. In conclusion, Muhlenberg addressed ''The Honorable, Reverend, and Worshipful Conven- tion," in language sufficiently exalted to suit their excellencies : ' ' What a glorious lustre doth it spread and reflect upon State and Religion, when, in an infant Christian Republic, framed in a re- mote part of the transient world, the excellent Rulers and Patriots of the State, the Catholic- spirited Ambassadors for Christ, the eminently learned Faculties of the College .... when all these condescend to comply with an humble invitation of their inferiors," etc., etc. That speech ought to have brought a larger collection than £16. Their "inferiors" had contributed £200 on dedication day. Two of those present had lately come over from Germany — Helmuth and Schmidt. When Hel- muth preached in St. Michael's the people said : ' ' This youth must stay in Philadelphia. The old man must be pleased with an easier position ! ' ' Schmidt was called to Germantown, Helmuth to Lancaster. The latter was one of the most popu- lar and eloquent of our clergy. After the ' ' old man" had retired, Helmuth, in 1779, filled Zion pulpit. Instead of Helmuth a still stronger man was sent by the Lord to help the "old man." It was Rev. John Christopher Kunze, " the most gifted and scholarly" of the German clergy. He mar- ried Muhlenberg's daughter, Margaretta Hen- rietta. He filled the chair of Oriental Languages **THE END CROWNS THE WORK." 171 in the College, and, in 1784, accepted a call to The United German Lutheran Churches of New York, with a professorship in King's College, now Columbia University. He was the first Lutheran pastor to make stated provision for English services, in which he reflected his father-in-law's spirit. With him returned to America the two young Muhlenbergs. They had been absent seven long years, of which the last two were spent in the University of Halle, so that they were well quali- fied to carry on their father's work. They were scholarly and musical, but, whereas, Frederick was ambitious and drifted into politics, Henry Ernst was quiet and studious, and clung to the sacred office. Frederick was ordained and became assistant to his brother-in-law, Schultze, at Tulpe- hocken. When he had gained experience he be- came pastor of Christ Church, New York, in 1773. He founded the New York Ministerium. Henry Ernst was still a mere stripling of seven- teen when he began to assist his father, and not twenty-one when, in 1774, he was made third pas- tor with Muhlenberg and Kunze. Peter was meanwhile doing good service in the Raritan Churches, since 1768. A call came from the congregation at Woodstock, Va. Owing to the peculiar laws of that colony, he could not be recognized as a minister and draw his salary with- out Episcopal ordination. This he obtained from the Bishop of London in 1772, involving a journey to England. Nevertheless he was not regarded as having repudiated his Lutheranism. That is the faith which he preached in Virginia, and in which he lived and died. Ecclesiastical matters were never in so comfort- able a condition in Muhlenberg's career as in 1774, when good men and true were distributed 172 HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. throughout the field, many being of the Patriarch's own family. But Muhlenberg was aging fast. ' ' His last molar was gone. ' ' His race was almost run. Then came Urlsperger' s commission and the Fathers' request to him to proceed to Ebenezer and adjust certain difficulties that had arisen be- tween the pastors there, chiefly through the blun- der of the European authorities in placing an im- perious and irascible young man over an experi- enced and mild older pastor. Muhlenberg accepted the commission, j^artly as a matter of unpleasant duty, partly hoping that a sea voyage would benefit his wife's health. Little Salome went along to wait on her mamma. Satur- day, August 27th, provided with a passport and safe-conduct from Governor John Penn, he em- barked. The ' ' old-fashioned, unattractive Ger- man parson," as he described himself, was able to persuade his fellow-cabin passengers to give up SAvearing on board ship. They were twelve days on the ocean, and seven weeks in Charleston. Muh- lenberg's presence saved the congregation there from destruction. His handling of the Ebenezer matter was judicious. He insisted upon a pre- liminary private interview with the pastors, the reduction of all charges to writing, and the placing of the witnesses under oath. After a month's in- vestigation of documents, he established to the satisfaction of the whole settlement the integrity of Rabenhorst, the older man, and the vanity and untruthfulness of his accuser. He unearthed a flaw in the title to their property. It read ' ' for the use of ministers exercising divine service, according to the rites and ceremonies of the Church of England," instead of " the Church of the Augs- burg Confession." He secured a legal change in the document at Savannah, and thus made it im- 173 possible for the Governor to step in and end the dispute by seizing the property. He also required all parties holding and handling the properties to give legal bonds showing that they held them " in trust, ' ' etc. Finally he secured the adoption of a church constitution. Muhlenberg observed little improvement in Ebenezer in a third of a century, save that the colony now supported four churches. That he preached many an edifying sermon from those pulpits is understood. For an old, worn-out man like Muhlenberg, suffering from asthma and other ailments, the anxiety, physical hardships, and mental labor in- volved in this business were a great burden. This was anything but a vacation trip. He reached home March 6th, 1775, without incident or acci- dent, until overtaken by a storm outside the Dela- ware capes. "I must confess," he writes, ''that I secretly sighed : ' Lord ! suffer the tree to re- main this year also, and dig anew around it and fertilize it. Cast my sins, and not me and the ship's company, into the depths of the ocean ! I know not what and how I shall pray. let Thy Spirit itself make intercession for me Avith groan- ings that cannot be uttered.' " He was again made the target of abuse. Scan- dalous reports emanated from Reading : ' ' The King had turned papist, and Muhlenberg w^as called to read mass ! " " Muhlenberg ran away to escape hanging, and was punished by God with being shipwrecked." This, against the eminent and venerable head of the Lutheran Church in America, after a third of a century's service in the cause of God and man ! His presence in Reading in May set all this at rest, yet many seriously asked him if it was true that he had been tarred and feath- 174 HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. ered in Philadelphia and drummed out of the city ! '' In consideration of the war-like times," Muh- lenberg preached on 1 Kings viii. 37-39 at the dedication of the Pikestown Church. Muhlen- berg's strength was fast failing. Philadelphia was too stirring a place for him during war times. He longed to exchange the bustle of the capital for the quiet of the country. The military spirit seized one of his own sons. Peter Muhlenberg, at the solici- tation of his friends, Washington and Patrick Henry, accepted a commission as colonel. Then took place that historic scene in which he is often erroneously described as an " Episcopalian " min- ister. He preached his farewell sermon to a crowded house. After eloquently setting forth his country's wrongs, he said, ''In the language of Holy Writ, there is a time for all things, a time to preach and a time to a pray, but there is also a time to fight, and that time has now come." He pronounced the benediction, laid aside his gown, and stood before them in a colonel's uni- form. Then, ordering the drums to beat at the church door, he enlisted three hundred men of his congregation as members of the Eighth (or Ger- man) Regiment of the Virginia Line. March 18th, 1776, the Patriarch moved for the last time during his earthly pilgrimage. He had bought a roomy two-story house and a seven-acre plot at Providence, and planted an orchard for posterity. This purchase was made possible by the transfer of £200 of the Roedelsheim lagacy by the Philadelphia vestry, the loan of £100 without interest by Mr, Schaeffer, of Philadelphia, Frede- rick Muhlenberg's father-in-law, and the £160, still remaining, out of Mrs. Muhlenberg's patrimony. For several years ''Rector" Muhlenberg had 175 been supported out of the interest of the Roedels- heim legacy, bestowed on him by the Fathers in recognition of his extraordinary service. He was thus made measurably independent of the whims of ungrateful and narrow-minded vestrymen. The Philadelphia vestry also settled on him an annuity of £50, and henceforth regarded him as an assist- ant pastor. With the War those ''piae desideri®" (pious desires) of the Patriarch — a theological seminary, and the projected orphans' home, and asjdum for aged and infirm ministers and school-teachers and their widows — came to an end. Kunze brought the former, Muhlenberg the latter subject before the Synod in 1773. The home was never undertaken. The seminary project got no further than the first pubhc (preliminary) examination of thirteen seminary students. Muhlenberg's public work was finished. His failing strength and the distractions of the Revolu- tion forbade any more large enterprises. During the fifteen years of his Philadelphia pastorate he gave the congregation a stable constitution, built a large church, and placed safe men at the head of affairs both inside and outside of the city. It was fitting that his labors should be crowned with that successful visit to Georgia as a peacemaker. " Blest are the pure in heart, For they shall see our God ; The secret of the Lord is theirs, Their soul is Christ's abode." IV -IN RETIREMENT. 1776-1787, CHAPTER I. DURING THE WAR OF 1776. In Philadelphia, July 4th, 1776 — Infirniities at 67 — Occa- sional Pastoral AVork — AVar's Alarms — Brigadier-Gen- eral Muhlenburg — Soldiers and Fugitives at The Trappe — Brandywine and Valley Forge — The Patri- arch's Wrath Against an Infidel Scribbler — Philadel- phia Vestry's Second Blunder— The "Old Man" Defends His Honor — Made Emeritus Pastor — American Church Independent, 1779 — An American Hymn- book — A Common Service Suggested — Last Appearance in Zion's Pulpit. (1776-17820 For when we were come into Macedonia, our flesh had no rest, but we were troubled on every side ; without were fightings, within were fears.— 2 Cor. vii. 5. Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me: for my soul trusteth in thee : yea, in the shadow of Thy wings will I make my refuge until these calamities be overpast.— Ps. Ivii. 1. The Patriarch outlived the Revolutionary War, and saw some of its depressing effects on the manners and morals of the land. It may be asked, Where was Muhlenberg on the glorious Fourth of July, 1776 ? Statements made in letters prove that he was in Philadelphia at the time, as was also his son Frederick. In a letter to Ziegen- hagen, October 31st, 1778, Muhlenberg, who was now in his sixtj^-eighth year, describes his condi- tion thus : "Concerning myself, the supernumer- ary, or 'fifth wheel of a wagon,' it may be said that I daily and hourly expect the call to eternity. (176) DURING THE WAR OF 1776. 177 Last winter, 1777-8, I was obliged to stay up many a night, and, in consequence of having taken cold, was troubled with neuralgia of the head ; the military salutes at a funeral in Phila- delphia, July 28th, last, nearly destroyed the rest of my hearing, so that since that time I have suffered continually with giddiness and ringing in the ears, as if I were in a mill or alongside of a cataract. I can occasionally preach, but am unable to hold public catechisation, because of the loss of my hearing." He occasionally preached for Pastor Voigt, at Providence, and for a time had charge of New Hanover. He might even be found at the organ when Voigt preached, a mark of his humility and of his affection for the house of the Lord. Voigt removed to Chester County, but the vacant pulpit was filled by Frederick and Henry Muhlenberg, who were driven from their posts in New York and Philadelphia by the pres- ence of the British. Henry made his escape from Philadelphia, disguised as an Indian, in a blanket, with a rifle on his shoulder. ''The years 1777 and 1778," says Helmuth, ' ' were two sad years for Muhlenberg. The theatre of war was transferred to Pennsylvania, and his house was continually filled with fugitives, friends and strangers, the poor, the hungry, the sick, the wounded, rich and poor. The hungry never went away an hungered or the suffering un- consoled. There was no lack of danger and loss. He suffered frequently from the American troops as they passed by, and frequently the enemy drew near his home and threatened him. He was warned on all hands to withdraw further into^ the country, because the British and the Hessians were making daily threats. But he was immov- able. In humble prayer he cast himseK under 12 178 HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. the gracious protection of the Most High, and his God wonderfully protected him in all his danger. ' ' No wonder that he was in danger : he was the father of one of the keenest fighters in the army. Colonel Muhlenberg, after taking part in the cam- paign of 1776, in Georgia and South Carolina, was called north, and, February, 1777, was made Brigadier-General. It was now " Strike for your altars and your fires." September 11th, 1777, the father records in his diary : ' ' This morning we heard hard and long- continued cannonading, which seemed to be about thirty miles off, toward the Brandy wine." Gen- eral Muhlenberg was in the thick of that fight. As he charged upon his own former regiment the Hessians cried out, "Here comes Devil Pete." Every hour of the next month was filled with anxiety. ''Sunday, September 14th. A restless Sabbath. No end to chaises, coaches, and wagons, with fugitives." "Wednesday, September 17th. The poor children of men in both armies are badly off, and must bear the cold wind and rain without tents or shelter, which, particularly at this period of the equinox, causes serious illness. Here am I, old and worn out, with a sick wife, subject to hysterical paroxysms, have with me two daugh- ters, two sons' Y^^ives, with two infant children, and my sons' parents-in-law, and expect every day that a British division will cross the Schuylkill and treat us without distinction, as the providence of God has ordered and will allow." "Friday, September 19th. His Excellency General Washington was with the troops who marched past here to the Perkiomen." " Satur- day, September 20th. Our weaker vessels have DURING THE WAR OF 1776. 179 baked bread twice to-day, and distributed all the food we had to the sick and ailing." "Sunday, September 21st. We were advised to fly, as a battle might take place and our house be plundered and burned. Henry's wife determined to go to New Hanover. I wished my sickly wife to go and leave me behind alone. She was not to be persuaded, but would rather live, suffer, and die with nie in Providence." ' ' Wednesday, September 24th. A portion of the British Army is still lying five miles from our house." " Thursday, September 25th. There- port is that the British soldiers behave barbar- ously. They yesterday hanged up an old man, of sevent}^ or eighty years of age, and, when nearly dead, cut him down again ; to-day will have its own evils. Yesterday evening we had plenty of visitors, and to-day we had to breakfast Lord Sterling, General Wayne, their aids, and other officers." " Saturday, September 27th. To-day I was requested to bury the child of one of our vestrymen. I went to the church, but found, to my sorrow, that a regiment of Pennsylvania Militia had quartered in the church and school- house. It was full at the organ, on which one was playing, and others singing to it ; below was an abundance of straw and manure, and on the altar they had their victu^als. I went in ... . they began to mock. My lot of three acres, near the church, which was full of buckwheat in blossom, and from which I had hoped a frugal supply for the winter, had twenty horses in it, wasting far more than they consumed ; and, if one says a word, you are called a Tory. " " Tues- day, September 30th. I can neither read nor write in these restless times, and cannot be thank- ful enough for the gracious goodness, protection, 180 HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. grace, and mercy of our Saviour, which have gov- erned us miserable worms up to this time. My children and family are scattered one here and an- other there. Mrs. Kunze and family have remained in Philadelphia. " ' ' Saturda}', October 4th. Early in the morning ^ve heard several field-pieces. The advanced forces of both sides [including General Muhlenberg's brigade] had fought. The British advance, on this side of Germantown, had planted cannon about our Lutheran Church and fired out of the windows, but were driven out at the first attack. It may easily be imagined in what con- dition it is. The church at Barren Hill is not likely to be better off . " During the following winter, Washington's army lay encamped at Valley Forge, a few miles nearer Philadelphia. General IMuhlenberg w^ould fre- quently ride over to spend the night w4th his father, and thus narrowly escaped capture. Several of the w^omen ventured into the city to visit their desolated homes. The}^ brought back wdth them some salt, a contraband article, quilted in the lin- ing of their dresses. ''They report that the name of Muhlenberg is made very suspicious among the Hessian and British officers in Philadelphia." ''The British threaten bitterly with prison, tor- ture, and death, if they can catch the old fellow. I have kept myself as quiet as possible, and would not do otherwise, as I had no call to meddle with political affairs." That the fire had not entirely died out of the old man's breast may be seen from an incident or two. Some scoffer had published a scurrilous article on the fall of Adam in Dunlap's "Packet," to which Muhlenberg made an indignant reply : "Concerning the anonymous writer, we wish he may be admitted into a charity school, there to DURING THE WAR OF 1776. 181 learn that the almighty and omniscient God had no need to ' call a jury ' to inquire into the trans- gression of Adam, and that He does not want any harlequin or fool to inquire, What kind of wood ? etc." As he appeared in Philadelphia but rarely, the vestry undertook in March, 1779, to declare the rectorship (the position of chief pastor) vacant, and to elect Kunze to fill it. The Patriarch's sons were furious. Henry resigned his pastorate in Philadelphia. Kunze was in despair. The con- gregation was in an uproar. Apologies were offered the old man, but he took his own dignified way. He went down to Philadelphia, preached on ^' Peace be unto you," demanded the rescinding of the obnoxious resolution, which, he said, would greatly damage his pubUc reputation in Europe and America, and then offered his resignation. The resignation was accepted, and an annual pension of £100 was settled on the beloved emeritus pastor. The blunder was forgiven, and strife was at an end in the congregation, though it was several years before the sons would be reconciled. Henry went off to his long and honorable pastorate at Lancaster and to his botanizing. That winter the father entertained for a time the General' s wife, children, and servants. ' ' Of human beings we have, pro tem. , under our roof ... in all twenty-six mouths and stomachs. ' Vox populi ' had called Frederick from the New Hanover pas- torate to the Halls of Congress, ' ' as the represen- tative of the Germans of Pennsylvania. The Synodical meetings were much disturbed by the war. Either they were not held at all, or Muhlenberg could not be present. The last one he attended was in 1781, but the Minutes were 182- HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. alwaj^s sent him to read. The ' ' little flock ' ' of 1748 had in 1781 no less than twenty-six under- shepherds, besides the Patriarch himself. In 1779 the Halle correspondence was inter- rupted by the war, and the church of America naturally and peaceably obtained its independ- ence. The outward sign and token of this inde- pendence was the compilation of an American Hymn-book, ordered by Synod in 1782. Muhlen- berg was made chairman of the committee. It was to follow the general lines of the old Halle Hymn- book. The new book appeared in 1786. The Liturgy and Ministerial Acts were those in use since 1748, but now for the first time printed. The writing of the preface and the chief task of select- ing the hymns fell on the Patriarch. He passed by hymns ' ' which, following the language of Solo- mon' s Song, use terms having a taint of the sen- sual ; also those which speak of Jesus in a playful manner, in diminutive terms, and admitted some of the older hymns despite their harsh style and rhythm." He made a suggestion in 1783, in part real- ized in the ' ' Common Service, ' ' that it were well if all the Evangelical Lutheran Churches of the North American States were united with one an- other, and used the same Order of Service. The General Synod was not established until 1820, and it was not until 1888 that the "Common Service" was agreed upon by all the General Bodies using the English language. The Common Hymnal, the last of Muhlenberg's ''pise desid- erise," has not as yet been adopted, although action looking toward this has been taken by three of the General Bodies. His final public appearance away from Provi- dence was at the reconsecration of Zion Church, DURING THE WAR OF 1776. 133 1782. It had been used as a hospital during the British occupancy of Philadelphia, and was re- fitted at considerable expense. Muhlenberg' s text was Gen. xxviii. 17, "And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place ! this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven. ' ' And so his last word in Philadelphia That we should look, poor wanderers, To have our Home on high ! That worms should seek for dwellings Beyond the starry sky ! And now we fight the battle, But then shall wear the crown Of full and everlasting And passionless renown," CHAPTER II. LIGHT AT EVENTIDE. Unabated Interest in the World — Admirer of Washing- ton — Enjoys Children and Books — His Busy Pen — D. D. — Defender of the Faith — Gathering Infirmities — Triumphant Departure. (1783-1787. ) But it shall be one day which shall be known to the Lord, not day, nor night : but it shall come to pass that at evening time it shall be light.— Zech. xiv. 7. Thou Shalt rise up before the hoary head, and honour the face of the old man, and fear thy God : I am the Lord. — Lev. xix. 32. Night did not suddenly descend npon the Pa- triarch. After the sun of his public usefulness had set, he lived on in the prolonged afterglow and enjoyed a calm and beautiful eventide. From his study windows he kept a watchful eye on the great outside w^orld. To his beloved Voigt, the pastor and comfort of his declining days, he, in 1783, gave decisive advice against ad- mitting a Methodist into his pulpit. To Streit, who had lost his wife, he wrote : ' ' You have not created, nor ransomed, nor adopted her in Holy Baptism, not crowned her with glory. She be- longs to God. He alone has the right to give and to take as it may please Him. You have more cause to adore God in truth and to offer thanks to Him in humility than to give way to depressing and melancholy thoughts. Be nol faithless, but believing, manly and strong in the Lord Jesus, and beware of disorders of the mind which change gnats into elephants. " He was an ardent admirer (184) LIGHT AT EVENTIDE. 185 of General Washington, and copied into his diary the concluding paragraph of the General's Fare- well Address on resigning his high military posi- tion in 1783. He appreciated a man who in so exalted a position could confess Christ before men. He enjoyed the companionship of his children and grandchildren. He employed some of his leisure in theological reading, securing the recent works from Germany. A few titles will show how widely he read : Hess, " Last Three Years of the Life of Jesus;" Crusius, ^'Morals;" Mo- sheim, "Church History;" Goecking, "History of the Salzburg Emigration ;" Moser's "Monthly Contributions to the Advancement of True Chris- tianity ; " the writings of Gellert, Bengel, etc. ; and the "Missionary Reports" of East India. And so he kept abreast the times, a growing man- until his spirit took its flight from earth. ^ As befit those later years, he paid special attention to the prophetic portions of Scripture. His pen was constantly busy. Those marvel- ous diaries were continued up to within ten days of his death. His son, Henry Ernst, of Lancas- ter, wrote freely to his father, giving the frankest details of his pastoral activity and his inner spirit- ual life, which was not only a mark of honor to his venerable parent, but doubtless called _ forth earnest and helpful words of counsel. This son was in fact his theological heir, and the father had the satisfaction, in the last year of his hfe, of see- ing his son elevated to the Presidency of the Synod and also to that of Frankhn College at Lancaster. The American Philosophical Society had already made him a member. He was on the high road to international fame as a botanist — "the Ameri- can Linnaeus." 186 HE^'RY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. Correspondence with Europe was resumed. Halle had not forgotten its most distinguished Western missionary. His last recorded letter to Halle bears date of December 6th, 1782. It fitly crowns his life-work : " It is just forty years since I landed the first time at Philadelphia, and I be- lieve that my end is no longer very far off. Had I, during these forty years, been as faithful to my Lord and Saviour as Jeremiah, I might await a joyful end. Now, however, I must count it the greatest act of mercy, if my dear Redeemer, for the sake of His own all-sufhcient merit, over- looks my faults and infirmities and receives me into grace." His own beloved Wrangel sent him a letter and some of his literary productions. Muhlenberg's reply is signed " Candidatus mortis" (candidate for death). His own title was ' ' Senior ' ' of the Minis- terium. The University of Pennsylvania, in 1784, bestow^ed a tardy ''D. D." upon him, which he requested his friends to ignore. There was no vanity in his composition, yet he was a true Doc- tor of Divinity, even to the end. Hearing that one of the young clergymen, affected by the grow- ing rationalism of the times, had undertaken to denounce Paul as a teacher of false doctrine, and to raise the cry ' ' Back to Jesus, ' ' Muhlenberg sent him an aggrieved but cutting letter. He called him " an apprentice in theology," and pro- posed, in case the error was not recanted, to cite the man before the Synod, *■ ' For such cancers seem at first only trifling excrescences, but are soon enlarged unless the root is cut out in proper time." After September, 1784, he could not venture into the pulpit. Dropsy and dizziness increased, LIGHT AT EVENTIDE. 187 and, toward the end, asthma was added ; but, in all his sufferings, not a murmur escaped him. In rare cases he delivered funeral addresses or per- formed marriages or baptized children in the ab- sence of Pastor Voigt, or where old members de- sired to have their old pastor, who was bound up with the spiritual life of their families. The proof sheets of the hymns were read and corrected by him. Occasionally, too, he would give gratu- itous medical advice to his neighbors. Clerical visitors made frequent pilgrimages to Providence to pay their respects to the Patriarch. The closing scene came in 1787. He kept the use of his faculties to the last. To this year we owe an affectionate letter to a lad, whose godfather he was, urging him to prepare for confirmation. As showing that he did not make his inability to perform great tasks an excuse for neglecting smaller duties and opportunities, we note that the venerable Doctor of Divinity gave some of his evenings to instructing a servant girl in spelling, reading, and the Catechism. A few days before his death he bade the ever- welcome Voigt "Farewell," repeating in Ger- man the words : " A heavy road before me lies Up to the heavenly Paradise ; My lasting home is there with Thee, Bought with Thy life-blood once for me." His wife and most of his children were with him on Saturday, October 6th. Between twelve and one o'clock Sunday morning, he recited the last verse of Paul Gerhardt's " Befiehl du deine Wege.'* 188 HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. " Haste, Lord, to end our sorrow, Our feeble hands support ; Each day and each to-morrow Be Thou our soul's resort. May we to Thy great mercy Till death commended be, Then shall our earthly footsteps Us safely lead to Thee." And then he gently fell asleep, to wake " Where evermore the angels sing, Where Sabbaths have no end." "Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his." — Num. xxiii. 10. CHAPTER III. IN MEMORIAM. Memorial Inscription — Funeral Honors — His Illustrious Posterity— ;Muhlenberg College — Tributes by Drs. Kunze, Krauth, Jacobs, and Mann— A Living Memo- rial : " Ecclesia Plantata." Remember them which have the rule over 3'ou, who have spoken unto you the word of God : whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation. — Heb. xiii. 7. And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry. This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners ; of whom I am chief.— 1 Tim. i. 12, 15. His remains were interred in the churchyard by the side of Augustus Church, which he had erected in the first year of his missionary activity. A white marble slab marks the spot. It bears this simple inscription : HOC MONUMENTUM SaCRUM ESTO Memori^ Beati AC Venerabilis HENRICI MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG SACEiE Theologi^ Doctor et Senioris Ministerii Lutherani Americani. NATI SEPT. 6, 1711. DEFUNCTI OCT. 7, 1787. QUALIS ET QUANTUS FUERIT NoN Ignorabunt Sine Lapide FUTURA S^CULA. 190 HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. SACRED Be this Monument to the Memory of the Blessed and venerable HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG Doctor of Sacred Theology and Senior of the American Lutheran MiNISTERIUM. BORN SEPT. 6, 1711. DIED OCT. 7, 1787. "Who and What he Was Future Ages Will Know Without a Stone. Beneath the same stone rest the earthly remams of his wife, who died August 23d, 1802. His exact age was seventy-six years and thirty- one days. Delegations came from a great distance to do him honor. Twenty ministers stood about his grave. The text of Rev. Mr. Voigt' s address under the open sky was exceedingly appropriate, Ps. XV. 1-2 : " Lord, who shall abide in thy taber- nacle? Who shall dwell in thy holy hill? He that walketh uprightly and worketh righteousness and speaketh truth in his heart." In this Pennsyl- vania wdlderness, overrun with sects and clerical impostors, Muhlenberg conquered, less by his tact and learning than by the openness and upright- ness of his character. The muffled church bells at Lancaster tolHng on the day of the funeral, the draped churches at Lancaster, Philadelphia, and New York, and the two Memorial Sermons by Drs. Kunze and IN MEMORIAM. 191 Helmuth on the same text, 2 Kings ii. 12, told the world ' ' A good man has fallen. ' ' Dr. Hel- muth' s discourse was issued in pamphlet form, with a brief sketch of Muhlenberg's life. This account would be incomplete without some mention of the Patriarch's posterity, illustrious ahke in Church and State. Like their ancestor, they were Americans of the Americans. The widow survived her husband fifteen years. She saw her son, the General, elected Vice-President of Pennsylvania (with Franklin as President), and thrice a member of Congress. He was Collector of the Port of Philadelphia at the time of his death. He was a leading advocate of English in the ser- vices of the Church, though to the end a member of St. Michael and Zion's corporation. Frederick A. C. Muhlenberg, after occupying the Speaker's chair in the Pennsylvania Assembly, was elevated to the position of Speaker in the First and Third Congresses. In his illustrious grandson, William Augustus Muhlenberg, D. D., the Epis- copalian divine, two strains of the great-grand- father's disposition appear. He is noted equally as an educator and a philanthropist. He is the author of ' ' I would not Live Alway ' ' and other fine hymns. G. H. E. Muhlenberg, D. D., inherited the tastes of his father in theology, music, and science. It is said of the father, by Helmuth, that he had a good insight into chemistry, anatomy, and medicine, and that he played on the organ, the harp, the zither, and the violin. The son is called ' ' the American Linnaeus. ' ' He was the discoverer of a hundred new species of plants, and published many learned botanical articles. There was even a physical likeness between father and son, both being of medium stature, florid complexion, and 192 HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. robust frame. The father was famous for his long rides, the son for his long walks. After a lengthy pastorate in Reading, his oldest son, Rev. H. A. P. Muhlenberg, on account of fail- ing health, entered political life, and went from the halls of Congress to Austria, as American Minister. The other son, F. A. Muhlenberg, M. D., ''the beloved physician" of Lancaster, was the father of the venerable Rev. Prof. Frederick Augustus Muhlenberg, D.D., LL.D., who carried over into the Twentieth Century the lustre of that imperish- able name and adorned it with distinguished clas- sical scholarship and exalted piety. Occupying chairs in five educational institutions, he will be best remembered as the first President (1867-1877) of Muhlenberg College, Allentown, Pa., a monu- ment alike to his own and his ancestor's virtues. Through the oldest daughter Muhlenberg be- came the grandfather of a Pennsylvania Governor John Andrew Schultze. The youngest daughter wife of Matthias Reichart, Member of Congress was the mother of Rev. J. W. Richards, D. D. and the grandmother of Rev. Prof. Matthias H Richards, D. D., the brilliant and versatile pro- fessor of the English language and literature at Muhlenberg College. Dr. Kunze in his funeral sermon calls Muhlen- berg ' ' the Luther of America. ' ' He speaks of Muhlenberg's good humor, unaffected wit, most retentive memory, penetrating judgment, and solid and comprehensive erudition. He not only preached conversion ; he was himself a converted man. He was a man of rare humility. By his prudence he escaped many snares laid for him. There was no selfishness in him. His disinter- estedness and liberality rested on the firm con- viction that God would never forsake him, and IN MEMORIAM. 193 those belonging to him for whom he could gather no earthly riches. He also speaks of Muhlenberg's readiness to forgive and to be reconciled. While he was very mild and tender of heart, he was firm and unyielding in his convictions and principles. There was in him a spirit of prayer, and all those who heard him pray felt his nearness to God. Conjoined with this was a purity of life which even his bitterest enemies could not successfully assail. Of his labors, Kunze rightly says, that all the supervision of a European diocese would never amount to the work which he had to perform here. He was indefatigable in preaching — and this in the most attractive manner — in teaching the young, in watching over soundness of doc- trine, and in willingness to suffer most distressing losses, and to bear the cross which God in various ways laid upon him. Rev. Dr. C. Porterfield Krauth sketches the Patriarch in a sentence : ''In missionary zeal, in pastoral tact and fidelity, in organizing ability and personal piety, he had no superior. ' ' Rev. Dr. H. E. Jacobs sums up his character thus : ' ' Depth of religious conviction, extraordi- nary inwardness of character, apostolic zeal for the spiritual welfare of individuals, absorbing devotion to his calling and all its details were among his most marked characteristics. These were com- bined with an intuitive penetration and extended width of view, a statesman-like grasp of every situ- ation in which he was placed, an almost prophetic foresight, coolness and discriminating judgment, and peculiar gifts for organization and adminis- tration. The pietistic fervor of his earlier years, which called forth his Defense of Pietism against 13 194 HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. Dr. B. Mentzer, his only book, in 1741, and which is not without extravagance in the Halle Reports, was much tempered in his later years." In his ' ' Life and Times of Henry Melchior Muhlenberg," an extensive literary monument to the Patriarch's memory. Rev. Dr. W. J. Mann writes : ' ' Among the people he had grown up. A man of the people, a popular man in the very best sense of the term, he was ; and this he had to be amid crude material which he was obliged to mould. But popular as he was, there was no one who in his presence did not feel that, like Saul, though in a different sense, Muhlenberg ' from his shoulders and upward was higher than any of the people. ' ' ' In a word, he had what others lacked, that com- bination of qualities essential to leadership — the power of initiative, resourcefulness, indomitable energy, and sublime Christian courage. He found his field wherever he was, and sought it wherever he went. Always and everywhere he was ' ' on duty. ' ' His best memorial is the ' ' Church ' ' itself. His ' ' Ecclesia Plantanda ' ' has become ' ' Ecclesia Plantata :" the church that " was to be planted " ' ' has been planted. ' ' Out of the soil so dili- gently cultivated and the vines so tenderly nurtured by this model Home Missionary of the Eighteenth Century has come a Church, respect- able in numbers, history, and doctrine — a Luth- eran Church — an American Lutheran Church, for the centuries yet to be. **Mc63c^ is tbe man tbat cnOuretb temptation; tor wben be batb been approved, be 6baU receive tbe crown of life, wbicb tbe XorO promised to tbem tbat love bim/^— 5ame6 i. 12 (1R. V.), FROM THE CRADLE TO THE GRAVE. Germany. 1711 September 6th. Bom at Eimbeck, Hanover. 1718-23 Sent to German and Latin School. 1723 Is confirmed. Father dies. Works at his brother's trade. 1727 June 24th. Anna Mary Weiser born at Tulpehocken, Pa. 1732 Enters public school at Eimbeck. 1733 Student- tutor under Rector Raphael, at Zellerfeld, eighteen months. 1734 Reviews studies at home. 1735 March 19th. Matriculates at University of Goettingen. Becomes amanuensis of Dr. Oporin. 1736 Helps to found Charity School at Goet- tingen. 1737 Preaches and catechises at University Church. Private chaplain of Count Reuss. 1738 Graduates at Goettingen. Visits University of Jena. 1738 May to 1739, June. Instructor at Halle Orphan House. 1739 Awaits call to India. August 24th. Or- dained at Leipsic. Becomes Assistant Pastor at Grosshennersdorf and Inspector of Orphan House. (195) 196 HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 1741 Publishes a '^Defense of Pietism." Sep- tember 6th. Visiting Dr. Francke at Halle, accepts call to Pennsylvania. December 9th. Farewell sermon at Grosshennersdorf. 1742 April 16th to June 13th. With Dr. Ziegen- hagen in London. June 13th. Embarks for America. During twelve weeks' voyage acts as Chaplain. America. 1742 September 23d. Lands at Charleston, S. C. Spends a week at Ebenezer, Georgia. November 25th. After two weeks' voyage, lands at Philadelphia. November 28th, December 5th and 11th. First sermons at "The Swamp," " The Trappe," and Philadelphia. 1743 April 5th. Lays corner-stone of St. Michael's, Philadelphia. Church occu- pied in October. May 2d. Lays corner- stone of Augustus Church, ' ' The Trappe. ' ' Church occupied in September. Confirms first Catechumen (in English) at ''The Trappe." 1745 January 26th. Brunnholtz, Kurtz, and Schaum arrive in Philadelphia. April 22d. Marries Anna Mary Weiser, and settles at ''The Trappe." October 6th. "The Trappe" Church dedicated as ' ' Augustus Church. ' ' 1746 Oley, Saucon, Upper Milford, taken as "fiiials." Visits Perkasie, Easton, and Macungie. Two trips to Raritan, N. J. ; two to Lancaster, and one to York. Old Conrad Weiser visits Muhlenfoerg. Octo- ber 1st. (Gen.) John Peter Gabriel M. ''from the cradle to the grave.'' 197 born. Schlatter's first visit to M. Suf- fers many accidents and much hardship, 1746-7. 1747 June. Journeys to Frederick, Md., via Hanover and York. July. Hartwig' s first visit to M. Mother dies in Germany. 1748 January 29th. Eva Elizabeth (Mrs. Rev. C. E. Schultze) born. Handschuh arrives ; is assigned to Lancaster. 1748 April 28th. Uniform liturgy adopted by United Ministers at " The Trappe." Visits Blue Mountain region. August 14th. Dedicates St. Michael's, Philadelphia. August 15th. Ordains J. N. Kurtz. Or- ganizes Ministerium of Pennsylvania. Is ex-officio President. 1749 Shelters and instructs three theological students. Buys ground at Germantown for Theological Seminary and Orphans' Home. Adds Mullaton to his parish. 1750 January 1st. Frederick Augustus Conrad (first Speaker of Congress) born. Delivers Latin address at Synod, ' ' The Trappe. ' ' August and September. Trip to New York with Weiser. Visits Hartwig. Meets Berk- enmever. Preaches in Dutch Church, New York City. 1751 Visits Reading. May 17th to August 26th. Supplies pulpit of Dutch Churches, New York City, and Hackensack, N. J. Preaches in German, Dutch, English. Sep- tember 17th. Margaretta Henrietta (Mrs. Dr. Kunze) born. 1752 May 9th to August 3d. Again serves Dutch churches, as above. October. Re- dedication of St. Michael's, Germantown. Sermon by Provost Acrelius. Muhlenberg 198 HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. contributes German hymn. Gerock arrives ; settles at Lancaster. 1753 William Graaf studies with Muhlenberg. November 17th. Gotthilf Henry Ernst ( ' ' the American Linnasus ' ' ) born. De- cember. Trip to Frederick, Md. 1754 Issues lengthy "Appeal" to Mother- Church in Germany. September 24th. Becomes naturalized as a subject of Great Britain. 1755 Weiser made Lieutenant-Colonel in French and Indian War. November 4th. Maria Catharine (married Major Swaine) born. 1 757 St. Michael' s Church Council offends Muhl- enberg. He remains away three years. 1758 Spends nine weeks in Raritan parish, N. J. 1759 Four months more in Raritan parish. De- clines call to Nova Scotia. 1760 August 24th. Meets Wrangel. October 19th. Synod revived. Muhlenberg Presi- dent, 1760-1771. 1761 May 17th. At Synod, corner-stone of Trin- ity, Lancaster, laid. . Makes elaborate de- fense of his orthodoxy in reply to Rauss. October 29th. Removes to Philadelphia. 1762 Furnishes the Philadelphia church with a model church constitution. 1763 April 27th. Sends Peter, Frederick, and Henry to Halle. 1766 June 11th. Corner-stone of Zion, Phila- delphia, laid. July 13th. Maria Salome (married to Matthias Reichart) born. Eva married to Rev. C. E. Schultze. August 1st. Thanksgiving* Sermon for repeal of Stamp Act. Sermon printed. Carries Barren Hill church debt. Peter returns : studies under Wrangel. M. begins "Autobiography." 199 1768 New Hanover Church dedicated. Peter M. to Raritan. Farewell to Wrangel. 1769 June 25th. Dedicates Zion, Philadelphia. July 11th. Emanuel Samuel, eleventh child, born ; died 1774. Helmuth and Schmidt arrive. 1770 Kunze arrives, bringing Frederick and Henry M. Kunze becomes M.'s assistant. Schultze goes to Tulpehocken. 1771 Collin, the last minister sent from Sweden. 1772 Peter M. to Woodstock, Va. 1773 Frederick M. to Christ Church, New York City ; organizes New York Ministerium. M. proposes Orphans' Home to Synod ; Kunze, Theological Seminary. Latter begun, but interrupted by the War. 1774 Henry Ernst, third pastor in Philadelphia churches. August 27th. Sails for Georgia. Seven weeks at Charleston. Spends winter at Ebenezer. 1775 March 6th. Returns to Philadelphia. Slan- derous reports about M. Visits Reading. 1776 January. Peter preaches famous farewell sermon ; becomes Colonel of 8th Virginia Regiment. March 18th. Removes from Philadelphia to '' The Trappe." July 4th. Is in Philadelphia with Frederick M. 1777 February. Peter made Brigadier-General. September. ' ' The Trappe ' ' parsonage filled with refugees. September-October. A month of alarms. Frederick and Henry at home. Battle of Germantown. 1777-8 Winter. Peter with troops at Valley Forge. 1778 Hearing impaired. Philadelphia Vestry blunders again. M.'s sons furious. Henry resigns. 200 HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG. 1779 April. Formally resigns as first pastor at Philadelphia. Made ' ' Emeritus, ' ' with £100 per annum. Frederick M. elected to Congress. Halle correspondence ceases. !'.780 Henry pastor at Lancaster until 1815. 1781 Last time at Synod, in Philadelphia. 1782 Zion reconsecrated after War. M, preaches last sermon in Philadelphia. December 6th. Last letter to Halle. Maria Salome married to Mr. Reichart. Chairman of Committee to issue new hymn book ; writes preface and selects the hymns. 1783 Suggests a " Common Service" and a Gen- eral Synod. Weinland, the last minister from Halle. 1784 May 27th. " D. D. " by University of Pennsylvania. September 26th. Last ser- mon in Augustus Church. Kunze removes to New York City. 1786 Henry, ''D. D.,'' President of Synod, and President of Franklin College, Lancaster. 1787 October 7th. Dies. Aged 76 years. Buried near Augustus Church, ' ' The Trappe. ' ' Memorial Sermons by Kunze and Hel- muth. '* So tcacb us to number our ^al25, tbat we ma^ appli? our bearts unto wisOom/'— p6. ic, 12. THE e:^d. 938.11 Frick M8943 S5&A1 n?a-A3 BRITTLE DO NOT PHOTOCOPY