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American Lutheranism, Volume 1

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Title: American Lutheranism, Volume 1

Author: F. Bente


        
Release date: March 30, 2007 [eBook #20941]

Language: English

Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/20941

Credits: Produced by (Rev.) Kurt A. T. Bodling Concordia Senior College, Class of 1976


*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AMERICAN LUTHERANISM, VOLUME 1 ***




Produced by (Rev.) Kurt A. T. Bodling Concordia Senior
College, Class of 1976






AMERICAN LUTHERANISM

Volume I
Early History of American Lutheranism
and
The Tennessee Synod
By
F. BENTE
St. Louis, Mo.
CONCORDIA PUBLISHING HOUSE
1919


PREFACE.
Essentially, _Christianity_ is the special divine faith in the truth
revealed by the Bible that we are saved, not by our own efforts, works,
or merits, but alone by the pure and unmerited grace of God, secured by
Christ Jesus and freely offered in the Gospel. And the Christian Church
is the sum total of all those who truly believe, and therefore confess
and propagate this truth of the Gospel.

Accordingly, the _history_ of Christianity and of the Christian Church
is essentially the record concerning this truth, _viz.,_ how, when,
where, by whom, with what success and consistency, etc., it has been
proclaimed, received, rejected, opposed, defended, corrupted, and
restored again to its original purity.

_Lutheranism_ is not Christianity _plus_ several ideas or modifications
of ideas added by Luther, but simply Christianity, consistent
Christianity, neither more nor less. And the Lutheran Church is not a
new growth, but merely the restoration of the original Christian Church
with its apostolic, pure confession of the only saving Christian truth
and faith.

The _history_ of Lutheranism and of the Lutheran Church, therefore, is
essentially the story concerning the old Christian truth, restored by
Luther, _viz.,_ how, by whom, where, when, etc., this truth was
promulgated, embraced, rejected, condemned, defended, corrupted, and
restored again to pristine purity.

As for _American Lutheranism,_ it is not a specific brand of Lutheranism,
but simply Lutheranism in America; for doctrinally Lutheranism, like
Christianity, with which it is identical, is the same the world over.
Neither is the American Lutheran Church a distinct species or variety of
the Lutheran Church, but merely the Lutheran Church in America.

The _modified_ Lutheranism advocated during the middle of the nineteenth
century as "American Lutheranism" was a misnomer, for in reality it was
neither American nor Lutheran, but a sectarian corruption of both.

Hence, also, the _history_ of American Lutheranism is but the record of
how the Christian truth, restored by Luther, was preached and accepted,
opposed and defended, corrupted and restored, in our country, at various
times, by various men, in various synods and congregations.

In the history of American Lutheranism _four names_ are of special
significance: Muhlenberg, Schmucker, Walther, Krauth.

H. M. Muhlenberg endeavored to transplant to America the modified
Lutheranism of the Halle Pietists. S. S. Schmucker's ambition was to
transmogrify the Lutheran Church into an essentially unionistic Reformed
body. C. F. Walther labored most earnestly and consistently to purge
American Lutheranism of its foreign elements, and to restore the
American Lutheran Church to its original purity, in doctrine as well as
in practise. In a similar spirit Charles Porterfield Krauth devoted his
efforts to revive confessional Lutheranism within the English portion
of our Church.

The _first volume_ of our presentation of American Lutheranism deals
with the early history of Lutheranism in America. The second, which
appeared first, presents the history of the synods which in 1918 merged
into the United Lutheran Church: the General Synod, the General Council,
and the United Synod in the South. The third deals with the history of
the Ohio, Iowa, Buffalo, and the Scandinavian synods, and, _Deo
volente,_ will go to press as soon as Concordia Publishing House will be
ready for it. In the fourth volume we purpose to present the history and
doctrinal position of the Missouri, Wisconsin, and other synods
connected with the Synodical Conference.

As appears from the two volumes now in the market, _our chief object_ is
to record the principal facts regarding the doctrinal position occupied
at various times, either by the different American Lutheran bodies
themselves or by some of their representative men, such comment only
being added as we deemed indispensable. We have everywhere indicated our
sources, primary as well as secondary, in order to facilitate what we
desire, _viz.,_ to hold us to strict accountability. Brackets found in
passages cited contain additions, comments, corrections, etc., of our
own, not of the respective authors quoted.

As collateral reading, especially to pages 1 to 147 of Vol. I, we
urgently recommend the unique, thorough, and reliable work of our
sainted colleague _Dr. A. Graebner:_ "Geschichte der Lutherischen
Kirche in Amerika. Erster Teil. St. Louis, Mo. Concordia Publishing
House, 1892."

While, as stated, the immediate object of our presentation is simply to
state the facts concerning the questions, theologians, and synods
involved, it self-evidently was an _ulterior end_ of ours also, by the
grace of God, to be of some service in furthering and maintaining the
unity of the Spirit, an interest always and everywhere essential to
the Lutheran Church.

"May the almighty God and Father of our Lord Jesus grant the grace of
His Holy Spirit that we all may be One in Him and constantly abide in
such Christian unity, which is well-pleasing to Him! Amen." (_Form, of
Conc_., Epit., 11, § 23.)

F. Bente,
Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, Mo.
July 28, 1919.


TABLE OF CONTENTS.

AMERICAN LUTHERANISM............................page
Introduction....................................1-10
EARLY HISTORY OF AMERICAN LUTHERANISM.........11-147
Lutheran Swedes in Delaware....................11-16
Salzburg Lutherans in Georgia..................16-20
Lutherans in New York..........................20-24
Justus Falckner................................24-29
Joshua Kocherthal..............................29-32
William Christopher Berkenmeyer................32-35
Deterioration in New York......................35-39
New York Ministerium...........................39-42
John Christopher Hartwick......................42-46
Germantown, Pennsylvania.......................46-50
Slavery of Redemptioners.......................50-55
Lutherans in Pennsylvania......................55-59
Henry Melchior Muhlenberg......................59-64
Further Activity and Death of Muhlenberg.......64-70
Muhlenberg's Confessionalism...................70-73
Muhlenberg's Pietism...........................73-77
Muhlenberg's Hierarchical Tendencies...........77-83
Muhlenberg's Unionism..........................84-91
Training of Ministers and Teachers Neglected...91-99
Deterioration of Mother Synod.................99-103
Unionism in the Ascendency...................103-110
Typical Representatives of Synod.............110-113
Synod's Unlutheran Attitude Continued........113-116
Lutherans in South Carolina..................116-119
The North Carolina Synod.....................119-122
Critical Conventions.........................122-128
Gottlieb Shober..............................129-131
North Carolina Rupture.......................131-134
Lutherans in Virginia........................134-140
Special Conference in Virginia...............140-144
Synod of Maryland and Virginia...............144-147
TENNESSEE SYNOD..............................148-237
Organization.................................148-158
Objections to General Synod..................158-167
Attitude as to Church-fellowship.............167-173
Efforts at Unity and Peace...................174-184
Tennessee Justifying Her Procedure...........184-191
Doctrinal Basis..............................192-195
Confession Enforced..........................195-198
Anti-Romanistic Attitude.....................198-207
Anti-Methodistic Attitude....................207-213
Anti-Unionistic Attitude.....................213-217
Tennessee and Missouri.......................217-221
Peculiarities of Tennessee Synod.............221-232
The Henkels..................................232-237


American Lutheranism.


INTRODUCTION.

1. Christianity the Only Real and True Religion.--Religion is man's
filial relation to, and union with, God. Natural religion is the
concreated relation of Adam and Eve in their state of innocence toward
their Creator. Fallen man, though he still lives, and moves, and has his
being in God, is, in consequence of his sinful nature, _atheos,_ without
God, and hence without true and real religion. His attitude toward God
is not that of a child to his father. Heathen religions are products of
the futile efforts of men at reconciling God and restoring union with
Him by their own penances and works. They are religions invented and
made by men. As such they are counterfeit religions, because they
persuade men to trust either in fictitious merits of their own or in
God's alleged indifference toward sin. Christianity is the divine
restoration of religion, _i. e.,_ of the true spiritual and filial
relation of fallen man toward God. Essentially, Christianity is the
divine trust and assurance that God, according to His own merciful
promise in the Gospel, is, for the sake of Christ and His merits, my
pardoning and loving Father. It is the religion of justification,
restoration, and salvation, not by human efforts and works, but by
divine grace only. Paganism believes in man and his capacity for
self-redemption; Christianity believes in the God-man and in salvation
by His name and none other. From Mohammedanism, Buddhism, and all other
religions of the world Christianity differs essentially, just as Jehovah
differs from idols, as divine grace differs from human works.
Christianity is not one of many species of generic religion, but the
only true and real religion. Nor is Christianity related to other
religions as the highest stage of an evolutionary process is to its
antecedent lower stages. Christianity is divine revelation from above,
not human evolution from below. Based, as it is, on special divine
interposition, revelation, and operation, Christianity is the
supernatural religion. And for fallen man it is the only availing and
saving religion, because it alone imparts real pardon, and engenders
real and divine assurance of such pardon; because it alone really
pacifies the conscience and fully satisfies the heart; and because it
alone bestows new spiritual powers of sanctification. Christianity is
absolute and final, it is the _non plus ultra,_ the Alpha and Omega, of
religion, because its God is the only true God, its Mediator is the
only-begotten Son of God, its ransom is the blood of God, and its gift
is perfect union with God. Compare John 8, 24; Acts 4, 12; John 14, 6;
3, 36; Gal. 1, 8. 9. Romanism, Rationalism, Arminianism, Synergism,
etc., are heathen remnants within, and corruptions of, Christianity,
elements absolutely foreign to, and _per se_ subversive of, the religion
of divine grace and revelation.

2. The Church and Its Manifestations.--The Christian Church is the sum
total of all Christians, all true believers in the Gospel of salvation
by Christ and His merits alone. Faith always, and it alone, makes one a
Christian, a member of the Church. Essentially, then, the Church, is
invisible, because faith is a divine gift within the heart of man, hence
beyond human observation. _Dr. Walther:_ "The Church is invisible because
we cannot see faith, the work of the Holy Spirit, which the members of
this Church have in their hearts; for we can never with certainty
distinguish the true Christians, who, properly, alone constitute the
Church, from the hypocrites." (_Lutheraner,_ 1, 21.) _Luther:_ "This
part, 'I believe a holy Christian Church,' is an article of faith just
as well as the others. Hence Reason, even when putting on ever so many
spectacles, cannot know her. She wants to be known not by seeing, but by
believing; faith, however, deals with things which are not seen. Heb.
11, 1. A Christian may even be hidden from himself, so that he does not
see his own holiness and virtue, but observes in himself only fault and
unholiness." (Luther's Works. St. Louis, XIV, 139.) In order to belong
to the Church, it is essential to believe; but it is essential neither
to faith nor to the Church consciously to know yourself that you
believe. Nor would it render the Church essentially visible, if, by
special revelation or otherwise, we infallibly knew of a man that he is
a believer indeed. Even the Word and the Sacraments are infallible marks
of the Church only because, according to God's promise, the preaching of
the Gospel shall not return without fruit. Wherever and only where the
Gospel is preached are we justified in assuming the existence of
Christians. Yet the Church remains essentially invisible, because
neither the external act of preaching nor the external act of hearing,
but inward, invisible believing alone makes one a Christian, a member
of the Church. Inasmuch, however, as faith _manifests_ itself in the
confession of the Christian truths and in outward works of love, the
Church, in a way, becomes visible and subject to human observation. Yet
we dare not infer that the Church is essentially visible because its
effects are visible. The human soul, though its effects may be seen,
remains essentially invisible. God is invisible, though the
manifestations of His invisible power and wisdom can be observed in the
world. Thus also faith and the Church remain essentially invisible, even
where they manifest their reality in visible effects and works. Apart
from the confession and proclamation of the Gospel and a corresponding
Christian conversation, the _chief visible effects_ and works of the
Church are the foundation of local congregations, the calling of
ministers, the organization of representative bodies, etc. And when
these manifestations and visible works of the Church are also called
churches, the effects receive the name of the cause, or the whole, the
mixed body, is given the name which properly belongs to a part, the true
believers, only. Visible congregations are called churches as quartz is
called gold, and a field is called wheat.

3. Visible Churches, True and False.--The objects for which Christians,
in accordance with the will of God, unite, and should unite, in visible
churches and local congregations, are mutual Christian acknowledgment
and edification, common Christian confession and labor, and especially
the establishment of the communal office of the public ministry of the
pure Gospel. This object involves, as a divine norm of Christian
organization, and fellowship, that such only be admitted as themselves
believe and confess the divine truths of the Bible, and who are not
advocates of doctrines contrary to the plain Word of God. Christian
organizations and unions must not be in violation of the Christian unity
of the Spirit. Organizations effected in harmony with the divine object
and norm of Christian fellowship are true visible churches, _i. e.,_
visible unions as God would have them. They are churches of the pure
Word and Sacrament, professing the Gospel and deviating from none of its
doctrines. Christians have no right to embrace, teach, and champion
error. They are called upon and bound to believe, teach, and confess
all, and only, Christian truths. Nor may they lawfully organize on a
doctrinally false basis. Organizations persistently deviating from the
doctrines of the Bible and establishing a doctrinally false basis, are
sects, _i. e.,_ false or impure visible Churches. Yet, though error
never saves, moreover, when consistently developed, has the tendency of
corrupting the whole lump, false Churches may be instrumental in saving
souls, inasmuch as they retain essential parts of the Gospel-truths,
and inasmuch as God's grace may neutralize the accompanying deadly
error, or stay its leavening power. Indeed, individuals, by the grace of
God, though errorists in their heads, may be truthists in their hearts;
just as one who is orthodox in his head may, by his own fault, be
heterodox in his heart. A Catholic may, by rote, call upon the saints
with his lips, and yet, by the grace of God, in his heart, put his trust
in Christ. And a Lutheran may confess Christ and the doctrine of grace
with his lips, and yet in his heart rely on his own good character.
False Churches as such, however, inasmuch as theirs is a banner of
rebellion in the kingdom of Christ, do not exist by God's approval, but
merely by His sufferance. It is their duty to reform on a basis of
doctrinal purity and absolute conformity with the Word of God.

4. The Lutheran Church the True Visible Church.--The Lutheran Church
is the only known religious body which, in the Book of Concord of 1580,
confesses the truths of the Gospel without admixture of any doctrines
contrary to the Bible. Hence its organization is in perfect harmony
with the divine object and norm of Christian union and fellowship. Its
basis of union is the pure Word and Sacrament. Indeed, the Lutheran
Church is not the universal or only Christian Church, for there are
many believers belonging to other Christian bodies. Nor is it the only
saving Church, because there are other Churches preaching Christian
truths, which, by the grace of God, prove sufficient and powerful to
save men. The Lutheran Church is the Church of the _pure_ Word and the
_unadulterated_ Sacraments. It is the only Church proclaiming the
alone-saving truth of the Gospel _in its purity_. It is the Church with
a doctrinal basis which has the unqualified approval of the Scriptures,
a basis which, materially, all Churches must accept if they would
follow the lead of the Bible. And being doctrinally the pure Church, the
Lutheran Church is the true visible Church of God on earth. While all
sectarian churches corrupt God's Word and the Sacraments, it is the
peculiar glory of the Lutheran Church that it proclaims the Gospel in
its purity, and administers the Sacraments without adulteration. This
holds good with regard to all Lutheran organizations that are Lutheran
in truth and reality. True and faithful Lutherans, however, are such
only as, being convinced by actual comparison that the Concordia of 1580
is in perfect agreement with the Holy Bible, subscribe to these symbols
_ex animo_ and without mental reservation or doctrinal limitation, and
earnestly strive to conform to them in practise as well as in theory.
Subscription only to the Augustana or to Luther's Small Catechism is a
sufficient test of Lutheranism, provided that the limitation does not
imply, and is not interpreted as, a rejection of the other Lutheran
symbols or any of its doctrines. Lutheran churches or synods, however,
deviating from, or doctrinally limiting their subscription to, this
basis of 1580, or merely _pro forma,_ professing, but not seriously and
really living its principles and doctrines, are not truly Lutheran in
the adequate sense of the term, though not by any means un-Lutheran in
every sense of that term.

5. Bible and Book of Concord on Christian Union and Fellowship.--
Nothing is more frequently taught and stressed by the Bible than the
truth that church-fellowship presupposes, and must be preceded by, unity
in the spirit, in doctrine. Amos 3, 3: "How can two walk together except
they be agreed?" According to the Bible the Word of God alone is to be
taught, heard, and confessed in the Christian Church. Only true teachers
are to preach, in the Church: Deut. 13, 6 ff.; Jer. 23, 28. 31. 32;
Matt. 5, 19; 28, 20; 2 Cor. 2, 17; Gal. 1, 8; 1 Tim. 4, 16; 1 Pet. 4, 11.
Christians are to listen to true teachers only: Matt. 7, 15; John 8, 31;
10, 27. 5; Acts 2, 42; Rom. 16, 17; 2 John 10; 1 Tim. 6, 3-5; Eph. 4, 14;
Titus 3, 10; 2 Cor. 6, 14-18. In the Church the true doctrine, and only
the true doctrine, is to be confessed, and that unanimously by all of
its members: 1 Cor. 1, 10; Eph. 4, 3-6. 13; 1 Tim. 5, 22; Matt. 10,
32. 33. Christian union and fellowship without the "same mind," the
"same judgment," and the "same speech" with respect to the Christian
truths is in direct conflict with the clear Scriptures. The unity of the
Spirit demanded Eph. 4, 3 requires that Christians be one in doctrine,
one, not 50 or 75, but 100 per cent. With this attitude of the Bible
toward Christian union and fellowship the Lutheran symbols agree. The
Eleventh [tr. note: sic!] Article of the Augsburg Confession declares:
"For this is sufficient to true unity of the Christian Church that the
Gospel be preached unanimously according to the pure understanding, and
that the Sacraments be administered in agreement with the divine Word.
And it is not necessary to true unity of the Christian Church that
uniform ceremonies, instituted by men, be observed everywhere, as St.
Paul says, Eph. 4, 4. 5: 'One body, one Spirit, even as ye are called in
one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one Baptism.'" "Pure
understanding of the Gospel" is here contrasted with "ceremonies
instituted by men." Accordingly, with respect to everything that God
plainly teaches in the Bible unity is required, while liberty prevails
only in such things as are instituted by men. In this sense the Lutheran
Church understands the _"Satis est"_ of the Augustana, as appears from
the Tenth Article of the Formula of Concord: "We believe, teach, and
confess also that no church should condemn another because one has less
or more external ceremonies not commanded by God than the other, if
otherwise there is agreement among them in doctrine and all its
articles, as also in the right use of the Sacraments, according to the
well-known saying: 'Disagreement in fasting does not destroy agreement
in faith.'" (Mueller 553, 7.) It cannot, then, be maintained
successfully that, according to the Lutheran symbols, some doctrines,
though clearly taught in the Bible, are irrelevant and not necessary to
church-fellowship. The Lutheran Confessions neither extend the
requirements for Christian union to human teachings and institutions,
nor do they limit them to merely a part of the divine doctrines of the
Bible. They err neither _in excessu_ nor _in defectu_. Accordingly,
Lutherans, though not unmindful of the admonition to bear patiently
with the weak, the weak also in doctrine and knowledge, dare not
countenance any denial on principle of any of the Christian doctrines,
nor sanction the unionistic attitude, which maintains that denial of
minor Christian truths does not and must not, in any way, affect
Christian union and fellowship. In the "Treatise on the Power of the
Pope" the Book of Concord says: "It is a hard thing to want to separate
from so many countries and people and maintain a separate doctrine. But
here stands God's command that every one shall be separate from, and not
be agreed with, those who teach falsely," etc. (§42.)

6. Misguided Efforts at Christian Union.--Perhaps never before has
Christendom been divided in as many sects as at present.
Denominationalism, as advocated by Philip Schaff and many Unionists,
defends this condition. It views the various sects as lawful specific
developments of generic Christianity, or as different varieties of the
same spiritual life of the Church, as regiments of the same army,
marching separately, but attacking the same common foe. Judged in the
light of the Bible, however, the numerous sects, organized on various
aberrations from the plain Word of God, are, as such, not normal
developments, but corruptions, abnormal formations, and diseased
conditions of the Christian Church. Others, realizing the senseless
waste of moneys and men, and feeling the shame of the scandalous
controversies, the bitter conflicts, and the dishonorable competition of
the disrupted Christian sects, develop a feverish activity in
engineering and promoting external ecclesiastical unions, regardless of
internal doctrinal dissensions. For centuries the Pope has been
stretching out his arms to the Greek and Protestant Churches, even
making concessions to the Ruthenians and other Uniates as to the
language of the liturgy, the marriage of priests, the cup to be given to
the laity, etc. In order to present a united political front to the Pope
and the Emperor, Zwingli, in 1529, offered Luther the hand of fellowship
in spite of doctrinal differences. In political interests, Frederick
William III of Prussia, in 1817, forced a union without unity on the
Lutherans and Reformed of his kingdom. In America this Prussian Union
was advocated by the German Evangelical Synod of North America. The
Church of England, in 1862, 1874, and 1914, endeavored to establish a
union with the Old Catholics and the Russian Church even at the
sacrifice of the _Filioque_. (The Lutherans, when, in 1559 and again in
1673 to 1681, negotiations were opened to bring about an understanding
with the Greek Church, insisted on unity in the doctrines of
Justification and of Free Will, to which Jeremiah II took exception.)
Pierpont Morgan, a number of years ago, appropriated a quarter million
dollars in order to bring the Churches of America under the leadership
of the Protestant Episcopal Church, which demands as the only condition
of union the recognition of their "historical episcopate," a fiction,
historical as well as doctrinal. In 1919 three Protestant Episcopal
bishops crossed the seas seeking a conference with the Pope and the
representatives of the Greek Orthodox churches in the interest of a
League of Churches. The Evangelical Alliance, organized 1846 at London,
aimed to unite all Protestants against Rome on a basis of nine general
statements, from which the distinctive doctrines were eliminated. The
Federal Council, embracing 30 Protestant denominations, was organized
with the definite understanding that no Church, by joining, need
sacrifice any of its peculiar doctrines. The unions effected between the
Congregationalists and Methodists in Canada, and between the Calvinistic
Northern Presbyterians and the Arminian Cumberland Presbyterians in our
own country, were also unionistic. Since the beginning of the last
century the Campbellites and kindred sects were zealous in uniting the
Churches by urging them to drop their distinctive names and confessions,
call themselves "Christians" or "Disciples," and accept as their
confession the Bible only. Indeed, the number of physicians seeking to
heal the schisms of Christendom is legion. But their cure is worse than
the disease. Unionistic henotics cannot but fail utterly, because their
object is not unity in the Spirit of truth, but union in the spirit of
diversity and error.

7. Lutherans Qualified to Head True Union Movement.--Most of the
union-efforts are failures _ab initio_. They seek outward union without
inward unity. They proceed on a false diagnosis of the case. They
observe the symptoms, and outlook or intentionally ignore the hidden
cause, the deviations from the Word of God, which disturb the unity of
the Spirit. And doctrinal discussions, which alone can bring about a
real cure, are intentionally omitted and expressly declared taboo, as,
_e. g._, by the Federal Council. The Church, suffering from
blood-poisoning, is pronounced cured when the sores have been covered.
They put a plaster over the gap in Zion's wall, which may hide, but does
not heal, the breach. Universally, sectarian henotics have proved to be
spiritual quacks with false aims, false methods, and false diagnosis.
Nowhere among the sects a single serious effort to cure the malady from
within and to restore to the Church of Christ real unity, unity in the
true doctrine! Indeed, how could a genuine unity-union movement
originate with the sects? Can the blind lead the blind? Can the beggar
enrich the poor? Can the sects give to Christendom what they themselves
are in need of? The Lutheran Church is the only denomination qualified
to head a true unity-union movement, because she alone is in full
possession of those unadulterated truths without which there can be
neither true Christian unity nor God-pleasing Christian union.
Accordingly, the Lutheran Church has the mission to lead the way in the
efforts at healing the ruptures of Christendom. But in order to do so,
the Lutheran Church must be loyal to herself, loyal to her principles,
and true to her truths. The mere Lutheran name is unavailing. The
American Lutheran synods, in order successfully to steer a unity-union
movement, must purge themselves thoroughly from the leaven of error, of
indifferentism and unionism. A complete and universal return to the
Lutheran symbols is the urgent need of the hour. Only when united in
undivided loyalty to the divine truths of God's Word, will the American
Lutheran Church be able to measure up to its peculiar calling of
restoring to Christendom the truths of the Gospel in their pristine
purity, and in and with these truths the true unity of the Spirit and a
fellowship and union, both beneficial to man and well-pleasing to God.

8. Lutheran Statistics.--God has blessed the Lutheran Church in
America abundantly, more than in any other country of the world. From a
few scattered groups she has grown into a great people. In 1740 there
were in America about 50 Lutheran congregations. In 1820 the Lutheran
Church numbered 6 synods, with almost 900 congregations, 40,000
communicants, and 175 pastors. In 1867 about 1,750 pastors, 3,100
congregations, and 332,000 communicants. Twenty-five years later, 60
synods, with about 5,000 pastors, 8,390 congregations, and 1,187,000
communicants. In the jubilee year, 1917, the Lutheran Church in America
embraced (besides about 200 independent congregations) 65 synods, 24 of
which belonged to the General Synod (350,000 communicants), 13 to the
General Council (500,000 communicants), 8 to the United Synod South
(53,000 communicants), and 6 to the Synodical Conference (800,000
communicants). The entire Lutheran Church in America reported in 1917
about 9,700 pastors; 15,200 congregations; 2,450,000 communicants; 28
theological seminaries, with 112 professors and 1,170 students; 41
colleges, with 640 professors and 950 students; 59 academies, with 404
teachers and 6,700 pupils; 8 ladies' seminaries, with 72 instructors and
340 pupils; 64 orphanages, with 4,200 inmates; 12 home-finding and
children's friend societies; 45 homes for the aged, with 1,650 inmates;
7 homes for defectives, with 430 inmates; 9 deaconess homes, with 370
sisters; 50 hospitals; 19 hospices; 17 immigrant homes and seamen's
missions; and 10 miscellaneous institutions; a large number of
periodicals of many kinds, printed in numerous Lutheran publishing
houses, in English, German, Swedish, Norwegian and Danish, Icelandic,
Finnish, Slavonian, Lettish, Esthonian, Polish, Portuguese, Lithuanian,
etc., etc.


Early History of American Lutheranism.

LUTHERAN SWEDES IN DELAWARE.

9. New Sweden.--The first Lutheran pastor who set his foot on American
soil in August, 1619, was Rasmus Jensen of Denmark. He was chaplain of
a Danish expedition numbering 66 Lutherans under Captain Jens Munck,
who took possession of the land about Hudson Bay in the name of the
Danish crown. In his diary we read of the faithful pastoral work, the
sermons, and the edifying death, on February 20, 1620, of this Lutheran
pastor. However, the first Lutheran minister to serve a _Lutheran
colony_ in America was Reorus Torkillus. He was born in 1609 at
Faessberg, Sweden, educated at Linkoeping, and for a time was chaplain
at Goeteborg. Gustavus Adolphus already had entertained the idea of
founding a colony in America, chiefly for the purpose of carrying on
mission-work among the Indians. Peter Minuit, a German, who had come to
Manhattan Island in 1626 to represent the interests of the Dutch West
India Company (organized in 1621), led also the first Swedish expedition
to Delaware in December, 1637. Nine expeditions followed, until the
flourishing colony was captured by the Dutch in 1655. The work of
Torkillus, who died September 7, 1643, was continued by John Campanius
(1601 to 1683), who arrived on February 15, 1643. Three years later, one
hundred years after the death of Luther, he dedicated the first Lutheran
Church in America at Christina (Wilmington). His translation of Luther's
Small Catechism into the language of the Delaware Indians antedates
Eliot's Indian Bible, but was not published till 1696. Returning to
Sweden in 1648, Campanius left about 200 souls in the charge of Lars
Lock (Lockenius), who served them until his end, in 1688. In 1654,
Pastors Vertunius and Hjorst arrived with 350 additional souls. Both,
however, returned to Sweden when Stuyvesant took possession of the
colony in 1655, permitting the Swedes in Delaware to retain only Lars
Lock as pastor. Jacob Fabricius, who, after rendering his stay in New
Amsterdam (New York) impossible, was laboring among the Dutch along the
Delaware from 1671 to 1675, before long also began to do mission-work
among the Swedes and Finns, at the same time intriguing against Lock,
whose cup of sorrow was already filled with family troubles and other
griefs. In 1677 Fabricius took charge of the Swedes at Wicaco
(Philadelphia), where he, though blind since 1682, continued faithfully
to wait on his office until his death in 1693 (1696). He preached in
Dutch, which, as reported, the Swedes "spoke perfectly."

10. Succored by the King of Sweden.--In 1692 the now orphaned
Lutherans in Delaware addressed themselves to Karl XI, who promised to
help them. However, four years passed before Pastor Rudman arrived with
two assistants, Bjoerk (Bioerck) and Auren, as well as with a
consignment of Bibles and other books. New life entered the Swedish
colony. In 1699 the new Trinity Church was erected at Christina, and in
1700 Gloria Dei Church in Wicaco (Philadelphia). From the very
beginning, however, a spirit of legalism, hierarchy, and of unionism
wormed its way into the promising harvest. The congregations were not
taught to govern themselves, but were ruled by provosts sent from
Sweden. In the interest of discipline, Andreas Sandel, who arrived in
1702, introduced a system of monetary penances. In his _History of the
Lutheran Church in America_ Dr. A. Graebner writes: "Whoever came to
church tipsy, was to pay 40 shillings and do public penance. Blasphemy
of the divine Word or the Sacraments carried with it a fine of 5 pounds
sterling and church penance; to sing at unseemly hours was punished by
a fine of 6 shillings; such as refused to submit to the discipline were
to be excluded from the congregation and to be refused interment at its
cemetery." (86.) Eric Unander, who returned to Sweden in 1760, employed
the same methods to keep order in the congregational meetings. A.
Rudman, after his brief pastorate among the Dutch Lutherans in New York
during 1702, returned to Philadelphia. From 1707 to his death, in 1708,
he served an Episcopal church without severing his connection with the
Swedes. His successors followed his footsteps. From 1737 to 1741 J.
Dylander preached at Gloria Dei Church in German, Swedish, and English
every Sunday, served the Germans in Germantown and Lancaster, and, in
the absence of their pastor, ministered also to the Episcopalians. The
same practise was observed by the provosts: Eric Bjoerk, who was
appointed the first provost in 1712, and returned to Sweden in 1714;
A. Sandel, who also served Episcopalian congregations and returned in
1719; A. Hesselius, who left in 1723, and in Sweden, 1725, published a
short report of the conditions prevailing in America; Peter Tranberg,
who was stationed at Raccoon and Pennsneck, N. J., from 1726 to 1740,
and at Christina till his death in 1748; J. Sandin, who arrived in 1746,
dying two years later; Israel Acrelius, who arrived in 1749, saw the
language question become acute, served Episcopalian congregations, and
returned to Sweden in 1756, where he published (1759) a description of
the conditions in New Sweden; Olaf Parlin, who arrived in 1750 and died
in 1757; Dr. C. M. Wrangel, who was provost from 1759 to 1768, assisted
in rejuvenating the Pennsylvania Synod in 1760, and began a seminary
with Peter Muhlenberg, Daniel Kuhn, and Christian Streit as students;
Nils Collin, whose activity extended from 1770 to 1831, during which
time he had eight Episcopalian assistant pastors in succession.

11. Church-fellowship with Episcopalians.--In 1710 Pastor Sandel
reported as follows on the unionism practised by the Swedes and
Episcopalians: "As pastors and teachers we have at all times maintained
friendly relations and intimate converse with the English preachers, one
always availing himself of the help and advice of the other. At their
pastoral conferences we always consulted with them. We have repeatedly
preached English in their churches when the English preachers lacked the
time because of a journey or a death. If anywhere they laid the
corner-stone of a church, we were invited, and attended. When their
church in Philadelphia was enlarged, and the Presbyterians had invited
them to worship in their church, they declined and asked permission to
come out to Wicaco and conduct their services in our church, which I
granted. This occurred three Sundays in succession, until their church
was finished; and, in order to manifest the unity still more, Swedish
hymns were sung during the English services. Also Bishop Swedberg [of
Sweden], in his letters, encouraged us in such unity and intimacy with
the Anglicans; although there exists some difference between them and us
touching the Lord's Supper, etc., yet he did not want that small
difference to rend asunder the bond of peace. We enter upon no
discussion of this point; neither do we touch upon such things when
preaching in their churches; nor do they seek to win our people to their
view in this matter; on the contrary, we live in intimate and brotherly
fashion with one another, they also calling us brethren. They have the
government in their hands, we are under them; it is enough that they
desire to have such friendly intercourse with us; we can do nothing else
than render them every service and fraternal intimacy as long as they
are so amiable and confiding, and have not sought in the least to draw
our people into their churches. As our church is called by them 'the
sister church of the Church of England,' so we also live fraternally
together. God grant that this may long continue!" (G., 118.) Thus from
the very beginning the Swedish bishops encouraged and admonished their
emissaries to fraternize especially with the Episcopalians. And the
satisfaction with this state of affairs on the part of the Episcopalian
ministers appears from the following testimonial which they gave to
Hesselius and J. A. Lidenius in 1723: "They were ever welcome in our
pulpits, as we were also welcome in their pulpits. Such was our mutual
agreement in doctrine and divine service, and so regularly did they
attend our conferences that, aside from the different languages in which
we and they were called to officiate, no difference could be perceived
between us." (131.)

12. Absorbed by the Episcopal Church.--The evil influence which the
unionism practised by the Swedish provosts and ministers exercised upon
the Lutheran congregations appears from the resolution of the
congregation at Pennsneck, in 1742, henceforth to conduct English
services exclusively, and that, according to the Book of Common Prayer.
In the same year Pastor Gabriel Naesman wrote to Sweden: "As to my
congregation, the people at first were scattered among other
congregations, and among the sects which are tolerated here, and it is
with difficulty that I gather them again to some extent. The great lack
of harmony prevailing among the members makes my congregation seem like
a kingdom not at one with itself, and therefore near its ruin." (335.)
The unionism indulged in also accounts for the trouble which the Swedes
experienced with the emissaries of Zinzendorf: L. T. Nyberg, Abr.
Reinke, and P. D. Bryzelius (who severed his connection with the
Moravians in 1760, became a member of the Pennsylvania Synod, and in
1767 was ordained by the Bishop of London). Unionism paved the way, and
naturally led to the final undoing of the Lutheran Swedes in Delaware.
It was but in keeping with the unionism advised from Sweden, practised
in Delaware, and indulged in to the limit by himself, when Provost
Wrangel gave the final _coup de grace_ to the first Lutheran Church in
America. Dr. Wrangel, the bosom-friend of H. M. Muhlenberg, openly and
extensively fraternized not only with the Episcopalians, but also with
the Reformed, the Presbyterians (in Princeton), and the Methodists,
notably the revivalist Whitefield. And, evidently foreseeing the early
and unavoidable _debacle_ of Swedish Lutheranism in Delaware, von
Wrangel, at his departure for Sweden, suffered the Episcopalians to use
him as a tool to deliver the poor, weakened, and oppressed
congregations, whose leader he had been, into the hands of the
Anglicans. (392.) On his way home Wrangel carried with him an important
letter of introduction from the Episcopalian Richard Peters to the
Bishop of London, the ecclesiastical superior of the Anglican ministers
and congregations in the American Colonies. The letter, dated August 30,
1768, reads, in part: "Now Dr. Wrangel intends to utilize properly the
general aversion [in Delaware] to the Presbyterians in order to unite
the great mass of Lutherans and Swedes with with the Church of England,
which, as you know, is but small numerically and in humble circumstances
in this province; through union with the German Lutherans, however, we
both would become respectable. According to Dr. Smith's and my opinion
this could be effected through our Academy. In it we could establish a
theological professorship; then German and English young men could be
educated, and as their training would embrace both languages, they could
preach German as well as English at places where both nations are mixed.
That would unite us all and make us one people in life and love. It is a
happy thought. I would desire your Excellency to speak with Dr. Wrangel,
and encourage him as much as possible. In this matter I have written to
the two archbishops, asking them to consider it carefully together with
your Excellency. I am sure that now the opportunity is good to bring
this desirable affair to a happy conclusion." (394.) In a document dated
June 25, 1789, the Swedish government served official notice on the
congregations in America that in future they could no longer expect help
from Sweden, alleging that, whereas "the purpose, the Swedish tongue,"
had come to an end, it was but just that in future also the
disbursements in Sweden should be discontinued. (401.) The result was
that one congregation after another united with the Episcopalians. By
1846 the Lutheran name had disappeared from the last charter. Thus the
entire Swedish mission territory, all of whose congregations exist to
the present day, was lost to the Lutheran Church. The chief causes of
this loss were: unionism, hierarchical paternalism, interference from
Sweden, the failure to provide for schools and for the training of
suitable pastors, and the lack of Swedish and, later, of English
Lutheran literature. The report of the Pennsylvania Ministerium of 1762
remarks: "For several generations the Swedish schools unfortunately have
been neglected in the Swedish congregations; Dr. Wrangel, however, has
organized an English school in one of his parishes where Luther's
Catechism is read in an English translation." From the very beginning
the foundations of the Lutheran structure along the Delaware were both
laid insecurely and undermined by its builders.


SALZBURG LUTHERANS IN GEORGIA.

13. Banished by Archbishop Anton Firmian.--Like the Swedes in
Delaware, so also the Salzburg Lutherans in Georgia, as a Church, have
disappeared in the course of years. The story of their vicissitudes and
especially of their colony Ebenezer, however, has retained a peculiar
charm. On Reformation Day of 1731 the cruel Archbishop Anton, Knight of
Firmian, issued a manifesto which ordered the Evangelicals of Salzburg,
Austria, either to return to the bosom of the Catholic Church, or to
emigrate, leaving their property and their young children behind them.
Some eighteen thousand Lutherans chose banishment rather than deny the
faith that was in them. On their journey the exiles awakened lively
sympathy by singing their _Exulantenlied_ (Hymn of the Exiles) which
Joseph Schaitberger had composed for those banished In 1685. The eleven
stanzas of this hymn read in the original as follows: "1. I bin ein
armer Exulant, A so tu i mi schreiba; Ma tuet mi aus dem Vaterland Um
Gottes Wort vertreiba. 2. Das wass i wohl, Herr Jesu Christ, Es is dir a
so ganga. Itzt will i dein Nachfolger sein; Herr, mach's nach deim
Verlanga! 3. A Pilgrim bin i halt numehr, Muss reise fremde Strossa; Das
bitt i di, mein Gott und Herr, Du wirst mi nit verlossa. 4. Den Glauba
hob i frei bekennt, Des derf i mi nit schaema, Wenn ma mi glei ein
Ketzer nennt Und tuet mir's Leba nehma. 5. Ketta und Banda wor mir en
Ehr Um Jesu willa z' dulda, Und dieses macht die Glaubenslehr Und nit
mei boes Verschulda. 6. Muss i glei in das Elend fort, Will i mi do nit
wehra; So hoff i do, Gott wird mir dort Och gute Fruend beschera. 7.
Herr, wie du willt, i gib mi drein, Bei dir will i verbleiba; I will mi
gern dem Wille dein Geduldig unterschreiba. 8. Muss i glei fort, in
Gottes Nam! Und wird mir ales g'nomma, So wass i wohl, die Himmelskron
Wer i amal bekomma. 9. So muss i heut von meinem Haus, Die Kinderl muss
i lossa. Mei Gott, es treibt mir Zaehrel aus, Zu wandern fremde Strossa.
10. Mein Gott, fuehr mi in ene Stodt, Wo i dein Wort kann hoba, Darin
will i di frueh und spot In meinem Herzel loba. 11. Soll i in diesem
Jammertal Noch laenger in Armut leba, So hoff i do, Gott wird mir dort
Ein bessre Wohnung geba."--The cruelly persecuted and banished
Salzburgers were hospitably received in Prussia and Holland, where many
found a permanent home. Others resolved to emigrate to Georgia, where,
through the mediation of Dr. Urlsperger of Augsburg and the court
preacher Ziegenhagen of London, the British government promised them
religious liberty and other advantages.

14. Ebenezer in Georgia.--The first ninety-one persons of the
Salzburg colony, which later numbered about 1,200 souls, landed at
Savannah, March 10, 1734. They were accompanied by Pastors John Martin
Bolzius and Israel Christian Gronau, who had received their education at
Halle. Governor Oglethorpe led the immigrants twenty-three miles
northwest of their landing-place, where they erected a monument of
stones and called the settlement Ebenezer. Seven years later (1741)
Jerusalem Church was built, for which also Whitefield had made
collections in Europe. In 1743 a second church was dedicated in the
country. Dr. Graebner records the following statistics: "In 1743 the
congregation numbered 279 souls: 81 men, 70 married women, 6 widows, 52
boys, 59 girls, and 11 maid-servants." (554.) In 1744 the Salzburgers
celebrated the tenth anniversary of their deliverance on the tenth of
March, a day which was annually observed by them as a day of
thanksgiving. Sorrow followed the joyous celebration, for in the
following year, January 11, 1745, their beloved Pastor Gronau was called
to his eternal reward. Dwelling on Gronau's edifying death, Bolzius
wrote in a letter dated January 14, 1845: "His heart was in deep
communion with the dear Savior. With profound desire he received the
Lord's Supper a few days before his dissolution. He distinctly
recognized all who surrounded him [when he was dying], and exhorted them
to praise God. It seemed, and such was also inferred from his words, as
though, like Stephen, he saw something extraordinarily beautiful and
glorious. At last, after stretching forth his hands and taking leave of
all, he directed his folded hands toward heaven, praying and praising
God. Finally, saying, 'Do come, Lord Jesus, Amen, Amen, Amen!' he closed
his eyes and mouth, and entered peacefully into the joy of God." (556.)
Gronau was succeeded by Pastor H. H. Lemke, of Schaumburg, who
previously had been active in the institutions at Halle. His diploma of
vocation was signed by Samuel Urlsperger in the stead and name of the
English Society for the Promotion of the Knowledge of Christ. Thus
Ebenezer was actually the foundation of a mission society whose members
were for the most part adherents of the Reformed Church. In 1742 Pastor
John Ulrich Driessler had been called to the congregation of Frederica,
south of Savannah. He entered upon his labors in 1744, and died three
years later. In the following years several ships arrived bringing
emigrants from Swabia. To meet the growing needs Pastor Chr. Rabenhorst
was sent to the colony in 1753. In 1765 Pastor Bolzius died, sixty-two
years old, repeating the words: "Father, I will that they also whom
Thou hast given Me be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory
which Thou hast given Me." (John 17, 24.) None of the three pastors, who
were easily able to minister to the spiritual needs of the colony,
displayed a missionary spirit in any marked degree.

15. Dissension and Disintegration.--While Bolzius, Lemke, and
Rabenhorst had labored together in harmony, dissension and strife began
to blast the blissful peace and quiet contentment of Ebenezer, when,
after the death also of Lemke, Pastor C. F. Triebner arrived in 1773.
The congregation was torn by factions, the minority siding with Triebner
in his bitter opposition to Rabenhorst. When the majority refused
Triebner permission to officiate in the church, the minority forced the
doors. After a new lock had been secured by the majority, the minority
began to conduct separate services in the home of John Wertsch, and
entered suit before the Governor of Georgia. This brought about the
loss of their church property, the Governor, in accordance with the
express wording of the patent grant of April 2, 1771, deeding Jerusalem
Church to the Episcopalians. The patent contained the provision: "...
for the only proper use, benefit, and behoof of two ministers of the
Gospel, residents within the parish aforesaid, using and exercising
divine service according to the rites and ceremonies of the Church of
England within the said parish and their successors forever." (599.) In
1774 Muhlenberg arrived, commissioned by the "English Society" to
conduct an investigation and restore peace. A reconciliation was
effected, and articles of agreement were signed by the pastors and the
members of the congregation. Before long, however, the old discord broke
out again and continued unabated until the death of Pastor Rabenhorst in
1777. Triebner now secured a firm footing in the congregation. But new
storms were brewing for the poor people. In 1775 the War of Independence
had broken out, in which Triebner not only espoused the cause of England
himself, but urged his congregation to do the same, thereby bringing
untold misery upon Ebenezer. Triebner, taken captive and severely dealt
with, finally found his way back to Europe. After the war Ebenezer
presented a sad spectacle. Soldiers had used the church as a hospital
and stable; Rabenhorst's home had been given to the flames; fields were
laid waste; and the inhabitants were scattered and despoiled of their
property. The congregation, however, recovered, and through the
endeavors of Urlsperger received a new pastor in the person of John
Ernest Bergmann, who had studied at Leipzig. In 1785 he assumed the
duties at Ebenezer, formerly discharged by two and three pastors. But,
though a diligent worker, Bergmann was not a faithful Lutheran, nor did
he build up a truly Lutheran congregation. There came a time when but
very little of Lutheranism was to be found in the old colony of the
Salzburgers. (600.) During Bergmann's long pastorate, which was
conducted in the German language exclusively until 1824, the
Americanized young people gradually began to drift away from the mother
church. However, to the present day descendants of the Salzburgers are
found in the Lutheran congregations of Savannah and of the Georgia
Synod.


LUTHERANS IN NEW YORK.

16. Persecuted in New Amsterdam.--In the first part of the seventeenth
century the Lutheran Church was by law prohibited and oppressed in the
United Netherlands. When the power of the papists had come to an end,
Reformed tendencies gained the ascendency, and Calvinists reaped where
Lutherans had sowed with tears. While claiming to be adherents of the
Augsburg Confession, they persecuted the Lutherans, forbidding all
Lutheran worship in public meeting-houses as well as in private
dwellings. Nevertheless the Lutheran Church not only continued to exist,
but even made some headway in Amsterdam, Antwerp, and other places. The
greatest handicap, however, which also prevented the Dutch Lutherans
from developing any missionary activity, was the lack of a native
ministry thoroughly conversant with the language of the people.
Conditions similar to those in Holland obtained in the American
colonies. Like the mother country, New Amsterdam had a law prohibiting
the exercise of any religion save that of the Reformed faith. Sanford H.
Cobb, in his work _The Rise of Religious Liberty in America_, quotes the
law as follows: "No other religion shall be publicly admitted in New
Netherland except the Reformed, as it is at present preached and
practised by public authority in the United Netherlands; and for this
purpose the [Dutch West India] Company shall provide and maintain good
and suitable preachers, schoolmasters, and comforters of the sick
(Ziekentrooster)." (303, 321 f.) However, the report of the Jesuit
Jogues, who sojourned in the colony in about 1642, shows that this law
was not strictly enforced during the first part of the century. Also the
Lutherans were permitted to conduct reading-services in their homes. But
when the Dutch and German Lutherans (the former having arrived in New
Amsterdam probably as early as 1624) had organized a congregation in
1648, and in 1653 requested the authorities to grant them permission to
call a Lutheran pastor, they received a curt refusal at the hands of the
governor, Peter Stuyvesant. The two Reformed domines, Megapolensis, who
had arrived in 1649, and Drisius, who came in 1652 (the successors to
Michaelius, who came over in 1623, and Bogardus, who followed him in
1632), proved to be the most bigoted and fanatical in the opposition to
the request of the Lutherans. Instead of their petition being granted,
the Lutherans were now forced to have their children baptized in the
Reformed churches by Reformed pastors, and to promise to bring them up
in the Confession of Dort; and private services in dwellings were made
punishable with severe penalties. Peter Stuyvesant, who was also deacon
of the Reformed Church, declared at the close of a session of the
church council, that, if any one ever dared to appeal from his decision
to the authorities in Holland, he would reduce his stature by the
length of his head and send him back to the old country in pieces. But
the Lutherans were not intimidated. When Stuyvesant denied their
request for a Lutheran pastor, they appealed to the authorities
overseas. The two Reformed domines also sent a letter to Holland,
setting forth the dire consequences which were bound to follow in the
wake of such religious toleration.

17. Moderation Advised.--The authorities in Holland agreed with the
intolerant domines and directed Stuyvesant to allow none but the
Reformed religion. Yet, while denying the request of the Lutherans,
they, at the same time, urged the governor to employ mildness and
moderate means in dealing with them. Cobb gives the following
translation of these instructions: "We have decided absolutely to deny
the request made by some of our inhabitants, adherents of the Augsburg
Confession, for a preacher and free exercise of their religion, pursuant
to the custom hitherto observed by us and the West India Company, on
account of the consequences arising therefrom; and we recommend to you
also not to receive any similar petitions, but rather to turn them off
in the most civil and least offensive way, and to employ all possible,
but moderate means to induce them to listen and finally join the
Reformed Church." (313.) The letter was dated February 26, 1654. But
notwithstanding this rebuff, the Lutherans persisted in their demand,
and held religious services in their houses without a minister,
declaring that "Heaven was above law." This excited the wrath of the
autocratic governor, who was not accustomed to brook opposition, nor
knew how to employ mildness, wisdom, and "moderate means" in dealing
with anybody, least of all with the Lutherans. Instead of persuasion he
employed force; and instead of trying "the most civil and least
offensive way," he resorted to harsh and most offensive measures. On
February 1, 1656, a stringent "Ordinance against Conventicles" was
posted, which ran: "Some unqualified persons in such meetings assume the
ministerial office, the expounding and explanation of the holy Word of
God, without being called or appointed thereto by ecclesiastical or
civil authority, which is in direct contravention and opposition to the
general Civil and Ecclesiastical order of our Fatherland, besides that
many dangerous heresies and schisms are to be apprehended. Therefore,
the director-general and council . . . absolutely and expressly forbid
all such conventicles and meetings, whether public or private, differing
from the customary, and not only lawful, but scripturally founded and
ordained meetings of the Reformed divine service, as this is observed
. . . according to the Synod of Dordrecht." The penalties imposed by the
act were 100 _Flemish_ Pounds for the preacher and 25 Pounds for every
attendant at such services. (317.) A number of Lutherans were cast into
prison. Realizing that such harsh measures would prove hurtful to their
business interests, the authorities in Holland, in an order dated June
14, 1656, rebuked Stuyvesant for his high-handed procedure, saying: "We
should have gladly seen that your Honor had not posted up the
transmitted edict against the Lutherans, and had not punished them by
imprisonment, . . . inasmuch as it has always been our intention to
treat them with all peaceableness and quietness. Wherefore, your Honor
shall not cause any more such or similar edicts to be published without
our previous knowledge, but suffer the matter to pass in silence, and
permit them their free worship in their houses." (314.)

18. Johannes Ernestus Gutwasser.--Evidently, to the Lutherans the time
seemed favorable to renew their urgent requests for a pastor of their
own. And in July, 1657, Johannes Ernestus Gutwasser (not Goetwater, or
Gutwater, or Goetwasser), a German, sent by the Lutheran Consistory of
Amsterdam, arrived on Manhattan Island. Great was the fury of the
Reformed domines and vehement their clamor for his immediate return.
They wrote a letter to the classis in Amsterdam in which, according to
Cobb, "they relate that 'a Lutheran preacher, Goetwater, arrived to the
great joy of the Lutherans and the especial discontent and
disappointment of the congregation of this place, yea, of the whole
land, even the English. We went to the Director-General,' who summoned
Goetwater, and found that he had as credentials only a letter from a
Lutheran consistory in Europe to the Lutheran Church in New Amsterdam.
The governor ordered him not to preach, even in a private house. The
domines lament, 'We already have the snake in our bosom,' and urge
Stuyvesant to open the consistory's letter, which, oddly enough, he
refused to do, but consented to the ministers' demand that Goetwater be
sent back in the ship that brought him. [']Now this Lutheran parson,'
the Dutch ministers conclude, 'is a man of a godless and scandalous
life; a rolling, rollicking, unseemly carl, who is more inclined to
look into the wine-can than to pore over the Bible, and would rather
drink a can of brandy for two hours than preach one.'" (315.) But,
though maligned and persecuted, Gutwasser did not suffer himself to be
intimidated, and even begun to preach. So great and persistent, however,
was the fury of the fanatics that he was finally compelled to yield and
return to Holland, in 1659. The second Lutheran pastor to arrive on
Manhattan Island while the Dutch were still in power was Abelius
Zetskorn, whom Stuyvesant directed to the Dutch settlement of New Amstel
(New Castle) on the Delaware. The tyranny of Stuyvesant, however, was
abruptly ended when in 1664 the English fleet sailed into the harbor and
compelled the surrender of New Amsterdam. In the Articles of
Capitulation it was specifically agreed that "the Dutch here shall enjoy
the liberty of their consciences in divine worship and church
discipline." And according to the proclamation of the Duke of York, also
the Lutherans were granted religious liberty, "as long as His Royal
Highness shall not order otherwise."


JUSTUS FALCKNER.

19. Fabricius, Arensius, Falckner in New York.--In 1669, five years
after the fall of New Amsterdam, Magister Jacobus Fabricius was sent
over by the Lutheran Consistory of Amsterdam to minister to the
Lutherans in New York and Albany. Being of a churlish and quarrelsome
nature, he soon fell out with the authorities of Albany and was banished
from the town. The New York congregation was torn by factions, many
demanding the resignation of Fabricius on the ground of "deportment
unbecoming a pastor." The matter was even carried before the governor. A
solution of the problem was brought about through the arrival of a new
pastor from Holland in the person of Bernhardus Arensius (Arnzius).
Fabricius obtained permission to install Arensius as his successor, and
went to Delaware, where he labored among the Dutch and Swedish
Lutherans. Arensius continued to serve the Lutherans in New York and
Albany from 1671 to 1691. The mildness and firmness which he displayed
in trying circumstances repaired the harm done by Fabricius. Dr.
Graebner says: "In Pastor Arnzius the Dutch Lutheran congregations on
the Hudson had an excellent preacher and pastor, a man of whom they had
no cause whatever to be ashamed. Above all he was a sound Lutheran,
whose opposition to any and all church-fellowship with the Reformed was
so decided that he abstained even from cultivating social intercourse
with the pastor of the Dutch Reformed Church, although it would seem
that the existing conditions called for it." (70.) After the death of
Pastor Arensius, in 1691, a long vacancy ensued, lasting till 1702, when
Pastor Rudman, a Swede from Philadelphia, acceding to their repeated
requests, took charge of the congregation in New York. But finding
himself unequal to the task of regulating their deranged affairs, he
resigned in 1703. Rudman was succeeded by Justus Falckner, who was
ordained November 25, 1703, in the Swedish Gloria Dei Church of Wicaco,
by Rudman, Bjoerk, and Sandel, the first Lutheran ordination in America.
The new pastor, who arrived in New York on December 2, 1703, proved to
be a true Lutheran, a faithful shepherd of the flock committed to his
care, among which he labored with much blessing for a period of twenty
years. Graebner says: "It is a most pleasing, captivating figure that
we behold in Pastor Justus Falckner during the twenty years of his
activity, a man of excellent parts, of splendid knowledge, of a delicate
disposition, of a truly pious frame of mind, of a decidedly Lutheran
standpoint, of active and enduring diligence in his office, in short, an
all-round pastor. He had assumed the duties of his office with the
consciousness that he was able to accomplish nothing without the
gracious assistance of God; that God would grant him sufficiency was the
fervent prayer of his heart." (94.) Justus Falckner, born November 22,
1672, was the fourth son of Daniel Falckner, Lutheran pastor at
Langenreinsdorf, Crimmitschau, and Zwickau, Saxony. He entered the
University of Halle, January 20, 1693, and studied theology under A. H.
Francke. He completed his course, but shrank from assuming the
tremendous responsibility of the ministry. On April 23, 1700, he
acquired the power of attorney for the sale of William Penn's lands in
Pennsylvania, and left with his older brother, Daniel, for America. In
1701 ten thousand acres of Penn's lands were sold to Provost Rudman and
other Swedes. Probably this transaction brought Rudman into closer
contact with J. Falckner, who also had attended the Swedish church in
Philadelphia. The result was that Falckner was ordained and placed in
charge of the congregations in New York and Albany. While a student at
Halle, Falckner wrote the hymn: "Auf! ihr Christen, Christi Glieder--
Rise, Ye Children of Salvation." (_Dict. of Hymnology_, 363.)

20. Falckner's Spirituality.--Falckner was of a spiritual and truly
pastoral frame of mind. He was a faithful and humble shepherd, who loved
the flock entrusted to him with all his heart. "God, the Father of all
goodness and Lord of great majesty, who hast thrust me into this
harvest, be with me, Thy humble and very weak laborer, with Thy special
grace, without which I must needs perish under the burden of temptations
which frequently descend upon me with violence. In Thee, Lord, have I
put my trust, let me not be confounded! Render me sufficient for my
calling. I have not run, but Thou hast sent, hast thrust me into this
office. Meanwhile forgive whatever, without my knowledge, my evil nature
may add; pardon me, who am humbly crying unto Thee, through our Lord
Jesus Christ. Amen." Such was the prayer with which, in classic Latin,
Falckner prefaced his entries in the church register. Following are some
of the prayers which he appended to his entries of baptisms: "O Lord,
Lord, may this child, together with the three aforementioned Hackensack
children, be and remain recorded in the Book of Life, through Jesus
Christ. Amen." "God grant that also this child be and remain embraced in
Thy eternal grace and favor through Jesus Christ. Amen." "O Lord, may
this child be commended unto Thee for its temporal and eternal welfare,
through Jesus Christ. Amen." "May this child also, O Lord God, be and
remain an heiress of Thy Kingdom of Grace and of the glory which Christ
has obtained for us. Amen." "God grant that this child may overcome
Satan, the world, and its own corrupted nature, and with Christ reign
and triumph eternally for Christ's sake. Amen." "Lord Jesus, grant that
this child may taste and enjoy Thy sweet love and grace in time and
eternity." In 1704 Falckner baptized in his congregation at New York
"Maria, the daughter of Are of Guinea, a negro, and his wife Jora, both
Christians of our congregation." To the record of this baptism he added
the prayer: "Lord, merciful God, who regardest not the person of men,
but in every nation, he that feareth Thee and doeth right is accepted
before Thee: let this child be clothed with the white garment of
innocence and righteousness, and so remain, through Christ, the Redeemer
and Savior of all men. Amen." In later years, Falckner, after recording
the baptisms of an entire year, would add a prayer like the following:
"Lord, Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in
goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquities
and transgressions and sin: do not let one of the names above written be
blotted out of Thy Book, but let them be written and remain therein,
through Jesus Christ, Thy dear Son. Amen." One of the intercessions
recorded with the entries of confirmations reads as follows: "Lord Jesus
Christ, should Satan seek to sift as wheat one or the other of these
members of Thy congregation, then do Thou pray for them to Thy heavenly
Father that their faith may not cease, for the sake of Thy holy merit.
Amen." Marriages are recorded with prayers like the following: "Grant,
Lord God, that also this union may redound to the honor of Thy holy
name, to the promotion of Thy kingdom, and to the temporal and eternal
blessing of those united, through Jesus Christ. Amen." Graebner remarks:
"What a gifted and sincerely pious pastoral frame of mind appears in the
entries of the noble man, whom God, in wonderful ways, led from far-away
Saxony to New York and here made a shepherd and teacher of the Dutch
Lutherans!" (94 ff.)

21. Distinctive Doctrines Stressed.--Tender love for his flock did not
silence Falckner's confessional Lutheranism, nor did it induce him to
keep doctrinal differences in the background. He was no unionist. On the
contrary, in order to protect the souls committed to his care from the
Reformed errors with which they came into contact everywhere, and to
enable them to confess and defend the Lutheran truth efficiently, he
emphasized and preached also the distinctive doctrines of the Lutheran
Church. Naturally, his congregation was imbued with the same spirit of
sound and determined Lutheranism. "The straitened circumstances of our
Dutch Lutherans," says Graebner, "might have suggested to their flesh to
seek a better understanding with the Dutch and English Reformed of the
city, and to sacrifice some of their Lutheranism, in order to win the
friendship as well as the support of these people. Indeed, we hear that
these Lutherans manfully confessed their Lutheran faith whenever they
came in contact with their Reformed compatriots. And Pastor Falckner was
repeatedly urged by members of his congregation to compile a booklet for
his parishioners in which the chief doctrines, especially the
distinctive doctrines concerning which they were often called upon to
make confession, would be briefly set forth, together with the necessary
proof-passages. Falckner acceded to these requests. In 1708 he published
a book entitled 'Thorough Instruction (Grondlycke Onderricht) concerning
Certain Chief Articles of the True, Pure, Saving, Christian Doctrine,
Based upon the Foundation of the Prophets and Apostles, Jesus Christ
Himself Being the Chief Corner-stone.'" It was the first book to appear
from the pen of a Lutheran pastor in America, and till the awakening of
Confessional Lutheranism the only uncompromising presentation of
Lutheran doctrine. V. E. Loescher praised it as being an
"Anti-Calvinistic Compend of Doctrine, Compendium Doctrinae
Anti-Calvinianum." The chapter on the "Freedom of the Will," which is
embodied in Graebner's _History of the Lutheran Church in America_,
bespeaks theological acumen and clarity on the part of the author. In
simple catechetical form, together with most appropriate Bible-passages,
Falckner presents the following truths: Having lost the divine image,
man, by his own natural free will, can neither understand, will, nor do
that which is spiritually right, good, and pleasing to God. Man is
converted to God and to all that is "thoroughly good" only by the grace
and power of God. It is God's pleasure to work in every man in order
that he may will and do that which is good. The reason why this is not
accomplished in all men is, because many wilfully resist the work of
God's grace, despise the means of conversion, and thus, by their own
stubborn and evil wills, frustrate the good and gracious will of God.
Man has a _free_ will; for he does the evil and rejects the good freely
and without constraint, without any compulsion on the part of God.
Furthermore, in external matters, which reason comprehends, man also has
a free will, in a measure. The will of a regenerate Christian is set
free, inasmuch as he is able to will that which is pleasing to God, by
faith in Jesus Christ, although, in this world, he is not able perfectly
to do that which is good. Falckner says: "I conceive this doctrine of
free will as follows: All the good which I will and do I ascribe to the
grace of God in Christ and to the working of His good Spirit within me,
render thanks to Him for it, and watch that I may traffic with the pound
of grace, Luke 19, which I have received, in order that more may be
given unto me, and that I may receive grace for grace out of the fulness
of grace in Jesus Christ. John 1, 16. On the contrary, all the evil
which I will and do I ascribe to my own evil will alone, which
maliciously deviates from God and His gracious will, and becomes one
with the will of the devil, the world, and sinful flesh. And I am
persuaded that if only my own will does not dishonestly, wilfully, and
stubbornly resist the converting gracious will of God, He, by His
Spirit, will bend and turn it toward that which is good, and, for the
sake of Christ's perfect obedience, will not regard, nor impute unto me,
the obstinacy cleaving to me by nature." In the introduction of the
book, which was written in the Dutch language, Falckner unequivocally
professes adherence to the Symbols of the Lutheran Church, the
confession of his fathers, "which confession and faith," he says, "by
the grace of God and the convincing testimony of His Word and Spirit,
also dwell in me, and shall continue to dwell in me until my last,
blessed end." (91 ff.)


JOSHUA KOCHERTHAL.

22. Palatinates in Quassaic, East and West Camp.--Wearying of the
afflictions which the Thirty Years' War, the persecutions of Louis XIV,
and Elector John Wilhelm, who was a tool of the Jesuits, had brought
upon them, hosts of Palatinates came to America in quest of liberty and
happiness. The cruelties and barbarities which the French king, the
French officers, and the French soldiers perpetrated against innocent
men, women, and children are described by Macaulay as follows: "The
French commander announced to near half a million of human beings that
he granted them three days of grace. Soon the roads and fields, which
then lay deep in snow, were blackened by innumerable multitudes of men,
women, and children flying from their homes. Many died of cold and
hunger; but enough survived to fill the streets of all the cities of
Europe with lean and squalid beggars, who had once been thriving farmers
and shopkeepers. Meanwhile the work of destruction began. The flames
went up from every marketplace, every hamlet, every parish church, every
country seat, within the devoted provinces. The fields where the corn
had been sown were plowed up. The orchards were hewn down. No promise of
a harvest was left on the fertile plains where had once been
Frankenthal. Not a vine, not an almond tree, was to be seen on the
slopes of the sunny hills round what had once been Heidelberg." (Wolf,
_Lutherans in America_, 175.) Great numbers of emigrants from Hesse,
Baden, and Wuerttemberg whose fate had been similar to that of the
Palatinates, joined them. Permission to settle in the New World was
sought from the authorities in London, where in 1709, according to
various authorities, from ten to twenty thousand Palatines, as they were
all designated, were assembled, waiting for an opportunity to emigrate.
Joshua Kocherthal, Lutheran pastor at Landau in Bavaria, was the leader
of the emigrants from the Palatinate. In 1704 he went to London to make
the necessary arrangements. Two years later he published a booklet on
the proposed emigration. In 1708 he sailed for the New World with the
first fifty-three souls, landing in New York at the close of December,
1708, or the beginning of January, 1709, after a long and stormy voyage
lasting about four months. It was the first German Lutheran congregation
in the State of New York. After spending the winter in the city, they
settled on the right bank of the Hudson, near the mouth of the Quassaic,
where Newburgh is now located. Every person received a grant of fifty
acres and the congregation five hundred acres of church land, which,
however, the British Governor in 1750 awarded to the Episcopalians. In
July, 1709, Kocherthal, entrusting his congregation to the care of
Falckner, whose acquaintance he had made during the winter in New York,
returned to London to obtain, through a personal interview with the
Queen, grants of money which were needed to supply the utterly
destitute colonists with the necessary means of subsistence until the
land was made arable. He returned in June, 1710, with a multitude of
emigrants in eleven ships. But, while 3,000 had sailed from London,
only 2,200 were destined to reach their homes in the New World, 800
having died while en route and in quarantine on Governor's Island. A
tract of land comprising 40 acres for each person was assigned to them
at the foot of the Catskill Mountains, about 100 miles north of New
York. They settled on both sides of the Hudson, naming their settlements
East and West Camp, respectively.

23. Hewing Their Way to the Mohawk Valley.--The immigrants had been
promised prosperity; but the English officials were actuated by selfish
motives and shamefully exploited the colonists. They were ordered to
engage in the production of tar and pitch, and were treated as slaves
and Redemptioners, _i.e._, emigrants, shamefully defrauded by "the
Newlanders (Neulaender)," as Muhlenberg designated the conscienceless
Dutch agents who decoyed Germans from their homes and in America sold
them into slavery, at least temporarily. The contract for provisioning
the Palatinate colonists was let to Livingston, a cruel and greedy Scot,
from whom (Governor Hunter had purchased the land on which the
Palatinates were settled. Livingston now sought to enrich himself by
reducing both the quantity and quality of the food furnished to the
colonists. Hunger was common among the settlers, becoming especially
acute in winter, as they had not been given sufficient time to plant
crops for themselves. Dissatisfaction spread throughout the ranks of the
Palatinates, and when the Governor refused to heed their appeal for
relief, fifty families left the settlement and hewed their way through
the primeval forest to the Mohawk Valley, where they obtained fertile
lands from the Indians and founded the Schoharie congregation in the
winter of 1712/13. The governor declared the fugitives rebels; but still
more followed in March, making their way through three feet of snow. The
Lutherans of Schoharie were the first white people to live at peace with
the Indians. In order to obtain a clear title to the lands in the
Schoharie Valley, which the governor refused to grant them, John Conrad
Weiser was sent to England. On his way he was plundered by pirates; in
England he was thrown into a sponging house on account of debts. After
regaining his liberty, he was compelled to return to Schoharie broken in
health and without accomplishing his purpose. The result was that 33
families left Schoharie and settled in Tulpehocken, Pa., in 1723. Among
those who remained in West Camp was Pastor Kocherthal. He continued
faithfully to serve his congregations, including Schoharie, until his
end, December 27, 1719. He lies buried in West Camp. A weather-beaten
stone slab marks his resting-place. The inscription calls him "The
Joshua and pure Lutheran pastor of the High Germans in America on the
east and west bank of the Hudson." In the original the epitaph reads
complete as follows: "Wisse Wandersman Unter diesem Steine ruht nebst
seiner Sibylla Charlotte Ein rechter Wandersmann Der Hoch-Teutschen in
America ihr Josua Und derselben an Der ost und west seite Der Hudson
Rivier rein lutherischer Prediger Seine erste ankunft war mit L'd
Lovelace 1707/8 den 1. Januar Seine sweite mit Col. Hunter 1710 d. 14
Juny Seine Englandische reise unterbrach Seine Seelen Himmlische reise
an St. Johannis Tage 1719 Begherstu mehr zu wissen So unter Suche in
Welanchtons vaterland Wer war de Kocherthal Wer Harschias Wer
Winchonbach B. Berkenmayer S Heurtein L Brevort MDCCXLII." (111.) The
successors of Kocherthal were: Justus Falckner, until 1723; Daniel
Falckner, the brother of Justus, who had served several German
congregations along the Raritan, till 1725; Berkenmeyer; and from 1743
to 1788 Peter N. Sommer, who preached in thirteen other settlements and
baptized 84 Indians. He died October 27, 1795. Sommer's aversion to the
Halle pastors probably was the reason why he took no part in the
organization of the New York Ministerium at Albany in 1786.


WILLIAM CHRISTOPHER BERKENMEYER.

24. Activity in New York.--In New York Falckner was succeeded by W.
Ch. Berkenmeyer (1686-1751). Berkenmeyer was born in the duchy of
Lueneburg and had studied theology at Altorf under Dr. Sontag, a
theologian whose maxim was, "Quo propius Luthero, eo melior theologus,
The closer to Luther, the better a theologian." Upon request of the New
York congregation the Lutheran Consistory of Amsterdam, in 1724, called
him to serve the Dutch congregations in the Hudson Valley. While _en
route_ to his new charge, he was informed that a vagabond preacher by
the name of J. B. von Dieren, a former tailor, had succeeded in
ingratiating himself with the New York Lutherans, and had been accepted
as their preacher. Nothing daunted, Berkenmeyer continued his journey,
landing at New York in 1725. At the first meeting of the Church Council
he won the hearts of all, even of those who had been instrumental in
foisting von Dieren upon the congregation, who now stood convicted as
an ignorant pretender, and therefore was dismissed. Dieren continued his
agitation in other Lutheran congregations until Berkenmeyer in 1728
published a tract fully exposing the character of the impudent impostor.
From the beginning Berkenmeyer's labors were blessed abundantly.
Bringing with him money collected by the Lutherans in Amsterdam and
receiving additional financial help from London and the congregations of
Daniel Falckner, Berkenmeyer was enabled to resume the building
operations in New York begun as early as 1670 (1705). On June 29, 1729,
the New Trinity Church was dedicated. Berkenmeyer's parish covered a
large territory. In addition to New York, Albany, and Loonenburg he
served the congregations at Hackensack, Raritan, Clavernack, Newton,
West Camp, Tar Bush, Camp, Rheinbeck (where a new church was dedicated
on the First Sunday in Advent, 1728), Schenectady, Coxsackie, and in the
Schoharie Valley. In Schoharie he baptized the infant daughter of Conrad
Weiser, who eighteen years later became the wife of Henry Melchior
Muhlenberg. In the absence of churches, Berkenmeyer preached in private
dwellings or, more frequently, in barns. At one of these services
fourteen children were baptized in the "Lutheran barn" of Pieter Lassing.
(176.) This immense parish was divided in 1731, Berkenmeyer removing to
Loonenburg. Pastor Christian Knoll of Holstein was called to take charge
of the southern congregations in and about New York. Berkenmeyer
delivered his farewell sermon November 26, 1732, and sixteen days later
Knoll preached his first sermon. In 1734 the Lutheran clergy received an
addition in the person of Magister Wolff, who succeeded the aged and
infirm Daniel Falckner at Raritan and five other congregations in New
Jersey. In the same year the three Lutheran pastors and a number of
congregations organized the first Lutheran Synod in America, with
Berkenmeyer as chairman. Its first and only convention of which we have
record was held at Raritan, August 20, 1735; nine congregations were
represented by delegates. The chief business of Synod was to settle a
quarrel between Wolff and his congregations, one of the charges
preferred against the pastor being that he read his sermons instead of
delivering them from memory ("statt aus dem Haupte zu predigen"). Peace
was restored, but temporarily only. Berkenmeyer continued his ministry
in Loonenburg for twenty years. Like other Lutheran divines of his day,
the Swedes and Salzburgers not excepted, he kept two slaves, whom he
himself united in marriage in 1744. Also during his declining years
Berkenmeyer experienced much sorrow. His end came on August 26, 1751.
The closing words of his epitaph are: "He has elected us in Christ
before the foundation of the world; there is therefore now no
condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus." In the same year Knoll,
who, owing to disputes arising from the language question, had been
compelled to resign at New York, took charge of the Loonenburg
congregation and continued there until 1765.

25. Berkenmeyer's Sturdy Lutheranism.--Though not clear in some points
and, at times, rigorous in discipline, Berkenmeyer stood for a sound and
decided Lutheranism. His orthodoxy appears from the very library which
he selected and brought with him for the congregation in New York,
consisting of twenty folios, fifty-two quartos, twenty-three octavos,
and six duodecimos, among them Calovius's _Biblia Illustrata_,
Balduinus's _Commentarius in Epistolas S. Pauli_, Dedekennus's
_Consilia_, Huelsemann's _De Auxiliis Gratiae_, Brochmand's _Systema,
etc_. Owing to his staunch orthodoxy, Berkenmeyer also had an aversion
to the Pietists, and refused to cooperate with Muhlenberg and his
colaborers from Halle. He disapproved of, and opposed, the unionistic
practises of the Swedish and Halle pastors. Speaking of Berkenmeyer's
pastorate in New York, Dr. Graebner remarks: "In a firm and faithful
manner he had preserved for himself and his congregation, both in
doctrine and practise, a staunch Lutheran character, which banished the
very thought of fraternizing with the heterodox. At the same time,
though a German theologian and commanding an easy, flexible, and
forceful Latin, he was a genial Dutchman among his Dutch parishioners,
perfectly adapting himself to their manners." (186.) He was firm and
consistent, but not fanatical, bigoted, or narrow. "In 1746, when the
Reformed pastor Freylinghausen lay ill with the smallpox at Albany,
Berkenmeyer visited him. But never did he establish an intimately
friendly intercourse with the Reformed pastors, and in church-matters
he was determined to keep himself and his people separate from the
Reformed. In the German congregations, such as those in and about
Newton, where Lutherans lived among the Reformed, with whom, after
suffering together with them, they had emigrated, warnings against
apostasy and unionistic practises were even more necessary than in the
Dutch congregations, especially, as the Reformed made concessions to
Lutherans uniting with them, _e.g._, by having the Lutheran children
recite the Lutheran Catechism in the catechetical instructions of
children (Christenlehren). Berkenmeyer, however, knew how to keep
awake the Lutheran conscience. When, in 1736, the Calvinists on the
Katsbaan, several miles from Newton, forbade their lector henceforth
to have the children recite the Lutheran Catechism, this led to a
declaration on the part of the Lutherans to the effect that they would
no longer attend services at their church. At Schoharie, Berkenmeyer
had to preach in the Reformed church; but that did not prevent him from
testifying against joint services. He declared that in such union,
without unity in the faith, the pastor was required to become 'either a
dumb dog or a mameluke'; the theme of his sermon here was: 'Our Duty to
Defend the Truth against the Gainsayers.'" (207.) The same earnestness
characterized Berkenmeyer's dealings with pastors, whom he recognized
only after they had confessed their Lutheranism in clear and unequivocal
terms.


DETERIORATION IN NEW YORK.

26. Germans versus Dutch.--About 1742 the language question became
acute in New York. Dutch immigration had ceased, while Germans arrived
in ever increasing numbers. As a result the German communicants in New
York outnumbered the Dutch about 8 to 1. As the spokesmen of the German
element made unreasonable demands and met with unreasonable opposition
on the part of the Dutch, frequent and stormy meetings became the order
of the day. Pastor M. C. Knoll had labored faithfully; but, difficulties
constantly increasing, he lost control of the situation, and toward the
close of 1750 was compelled to resign his charge. Prior to this some of
the Germans had withdrawn from Trinity Church, and organized as Christ
Church, suffering themselves to be served by unworthy characters, such
as J. L. Hofgut, J. P. Ries, P. H. Rapp, J. G. Wiesner, and J. M.
Schaeffer. A better element having come into control, they called men
whom H. M. Muhlenberg recommended: I. N. Kurtz, who had been active in
Tulpehocken; I. G. Baugher (Bager), who came to America from Helmstedt
in 1752, served New York from 1754 to 1767, and died in 1794; J. 8.
Gerock, who was sent to America by the Consistory of Wuerttemberg in
1755, served in Lancaster, then in New York from 1767 to 1773, and died
in 1787; F. C. A. Muhlenberg, educated in Halle, who served Tulpehocken
in 1770, New York from 1773 to 1776, and (having fled from New York when
the British captured the city in the Revolutionary War) New Hanover in
1777. After 1779 F. C. A. Muhlenberg entered political life, being
elected a member of the Continental Congress and Speaker of the
Pennsylvania Legislature. He died in 1801. In the Dutch Trinity Church
peace was restored by Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, who served as Knoll's
successor from 1751 to 1753. Muhlenberg cultivated an intimate and
fraternal intercourse with the Reformed and Episcopalian pastors, and
inaugurated a period of pietism and unionism in New York. On his
departure he recommended Pastor J. A. Weygand, who had been serving the
Raritan congregations since his arrival, in 1748, from Halle. Weygand
remained in New York until 1767. In 1755 he published an English
translation of the Augsburg Confession. During his pastorate a parochial
school was organized and housed in a building erected for that purpose.
He died in 1770. Weygand's successor was Houseal (Hausihl), who had
emigrated from Strassburg in 1752. In 1771 he conducted the last service
in the Dutch language. In 1776 the church was reduced to ashes by the
great fire which destroyed about one-fourth of the city. Though losing
all his personal property, he rescued the documents and records of the
old congregation. Being an ardent loyalist, he received permission from
the British commander to use the Presbyterian church, where his services
were also attended by the Hessian troops of the army. When peace was
concluded, Houseal emigrated to Halifax, where he was ordained in the
Episcopal Church and made chaplain of the garrison. Here he died in
1799.

27. Union Lauded by Kunze and Schaeffer.--The two Lutheran
congregations in New York reunited in 1783. The first pastor to serve
them was J. C. Kunze. He was born in the vicinity of Mansfeld, received
his preparatory education at Halle and other schools, and studied
theology at the University of Leipzig. After a brief service in Halle,
Kunze was called to be third pastor in Philadelphia. He landed in New
York, September 22, 1770, accompanied by two sons of Muhlenberg, who
had studied in Halle. In Philadelphia, where he married Muhlenberg's
daughter, Kunze conducted a Seminary from 1773 till its close in 1776,
and then successively occupied the chairs of Philosophy and of Oriental
languages at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1773 this institution
awarded him the title of Doctor of Divinity. In the following year he
received the call from the reunited Lutheran congregation in New York,
which he accepted. He entered upon his new labors with great zeal, and
met with no little success, confirming 87 persons in the first six
months. Kunze laid especial stress upon the English, which hitherto had
been greatly neglected. He also educated young men for the English
ministry. A year after his arrival in New York he published "The
Rudiments of the Shorter Catechism of Dr. Martin Luther," and ten years
later, 1795, the first English Ev. Lutheran Hymn- and Prayer-book. In
the same year he issued a new translation of the Small Catechism,
containing, besides the six chief parts, also, the Christian Questions,
103 fundamental questions, and a "Systematic Presentation of the Order
of Salvation." (527.) Kunze was also the first president of the New
York Ministerium, organized at Albany in 1786. At his burial, in 1807,
the Reformed Pastor Runkel delivered the funeral oration. While a
learned man, a hard worker, a man of great influence, a man also who
sought to familiarize not only the German, but also the English element
of his church with the doctrines of the Catechism, Kunze was not a
sound and staunch Lutheran on the order of Berkenmeyer or Falckner. He
had no adequate appreciation for the doctrinal differences which
separate the Lutherans and the Reformed. In the appendix to his Hymn-
and Prayer-book of 1795 Kunze wrote: "That the two Protestant Churches
have often shown animosities against one another is true and to be
lamented. But that such times are past is a truth more joyful than
another, which likewise ought not to be concealed, and [_viz_.] that
true piety in the Evangelical Church stands highly in need of a new and
energetic revival, and that it is doubtful in many cases whether the
present union of the two churches, which, however, every true Christian
will wish to be indissoluble, has its origin in enlightened ideas or in
worldly interest, in brotherly love or in indifference." (528.) Kunze's
pupil, G. Strebeck, who had been called to preach English in the Old
Congregation, organized an English Lutheran Church instead, and in 1804,
with a part of his English flock, united with the Episcopal Church. The
English congregation now called as its pastor a man who had been
excommunicated from the Presbyterian Church on account of Chiliasm, who,
in turn, was succeeded by a former Methodist preacher, under whom, in
1810, the entire congregation followed Strebeck into the Episcopalian
fold.

28. Reformation Jubilee in 1817.--In the mother congregation Kunze,
who died 1807, was succeeded by F. W. Geissenhainer. When the latter
was no longer able to supply the growing need for English services, F.
C. Schaeffer was called in his stead, with the duty expressly imposed
upon him of preaching also in English. In 1817, at the tercentenary of
the Reformation, Schaeffer arranged a great celebration in which he was
assisted by an Episcopalian, a Reformed, and a Moravian pastor. _Dr.
Spaeth:_ "Here also [in America, as in Prussia] a great Reformation
Jubilee was celebrated in 1817. Here also it was, in the first place,
of a unionistic character. The Ministerium of Pennsylvania invited the
Moravians, Episcopalians, Reformed, and Presbyterians to unite with
them in this celebration. In the city of New York the eloquent Lutheran
pastor, F. C. Schaeffer, having kept the jubilee in the morning with his
own congregation, delivered an English discourse in the afternoon in St.
Paul's Episcopal Church on the text, 'I believe, therefore I have
spoken.' Thousands were unable to find admittance to the service, so
great was the throng." (_C. P. Krauth_, 1, 322.) Rejoicing in the
growth of unionism, Schaeffer said in his sermon: "In Germany, the
cradle of the Reformation, the 'Protestants' are daily becoming more
united in the bond of Christian charity. Whilst the asperities, which
indeed too often affected the Great Reformers themselves, no longer
give umbrage; whilst the most laudable and beneficial exertions are
universally made by evangelical Christians to remove every sectarian
barrier, the 'Evangelical Church,' extending her pale, becomes more
firmly established. And though we have melancholy evidence that the
state and disposition of the present Romish Church calls loudly for a
reformation, we must not omit the pleasing fact that many of her worthy
members are conscientiously alive to the cause of truth and enlightened
Christianity." (G., 654.) But, instead of more firmly establishing the
Lutheran Church, the indifferentism and unionism introduced into New
York by the Halle Pietists soon opened wide her gates to a flood of
rationalism.


NEW YORK MINISTERIUM.

29. Eliminating Confession.--In 1786 the New York Ministerium was
organized in Albany, N. Y., by Pastors Kunze, of New York City, H.
Moeller, of Albany, and J. S. Schwerdfeger, of Fellstown, and two lay
delegates, one from New York, the other from Albany. Eight of the eleven
pastors in this district took no part in the organization. Six years
elapsed before another meeting convened. The minutes of the first
convention state: "In view of the fact that only three pastors and two
delegates appeared, those present considered it advisable to look upon
themselves only as a committee of the Lutheran Church in the State of
New York." The _Lutheran Cyclopaedia_ says: "Though no records prior
to the meeting at Albany are extant, Dr. Kunze stated in 1795, and
again in 1800, that the New York Ministerium, revived in 1786, had been
organized as early as 1773 by F. A. C. Muhlenberg, then pastor in New
York." (490.) _Dr. Jacobs:_ "Concerning the fact that any meeting was
actually held, we are in ignorance; but Dr. Kunze, who ought to be most
competent authority, declares: 'To the late Dr. Henry Muhlenberg
belongs the immortal honor of having formed in Pennsylvania a regular
ministry, and, what is somewhat remarkable, to one of his sons, who
officiated as Lutheran minister from the year 1773 to 1776 in the city
of New York, that of having formed the Evangelical Ministry of New York
State.' The thought was carried out in 1786." (300.) In a letter to his
father, then visiting in Georgia, F. A. C. Muhlenberg mentions a
meeting of the Lutheran ministers in the Province of New York, planned
for April, 1774. (Graebner, 450.) The Ministerium organized at Albany
was a duplicate of the Pennsylvania Ministerium. According to the
Minutes a resolution was adopted to regard "the constitution of the Ev.
Luth. Church of Pennsylvania as their law." (469.) In 1792 the New York
Ministerium adopted the new constitution of the Pennsylvania Synod,
which contained no reference to the Lutheran Confessions whatever,
merely retaining the name Lutheran. At the convention in Rheinbeck,
1797, Dr. Kunze being the leading spirit and president, the New York
Ministerium passed the notorious resolution: "Resolved, That, on account
of the intimate relation subsisting between the English Episcopalian and
Lutheran Churches, the identity of their doctrine, and the near approach
of their church-discipline, this consistory will never acknowledge a
newly erected Lutheran church in places where the members may partake of
the services of the said English Episcopal Church." (628.) Seven years
later this resolution was rescinded, not, indeed, for confessional
reasons, but in the interest of expediency and policy, because in 1804
G. Strebeck, with a part of his English congregation in New York, had
been received by the Episcopalians. Spaeth remarks with respect to the
Rheinbeck resolution: "A fitting parallel to this resolution is found in
the advances made by the Mother Synod of Pennsylvania toward a union
with the German Reformed Church, first in 1819 for the joint
establishment of a common Theological Seminary, and afterward, in 1822,
for a general union with the Evangelical Reformed Church. See Minutes of
1822." (_C.P. Krauth,_ 1,320.)

30. President Quitman the Rationalist.--The unionism and indifferentism
of the New York Ministerium naturally developed and merged into
Socinianism and Rationalism under its liberal, but most able and
influential leader, Dr. F. H. Quitman (1760-1832). "Quitman," says
Graebner, "was a stately person, over six feet in height and of
correspondingly broad and powerful build. Already at his entrance in
Halle, one of the professors greeted the nineteen-year-old giant with
the words, 'Quanta ossa! Quantum robur! What bones! What power!'" In his
subsequent intercourse with the polite world Quitman acquired a fine
tact and measured, dignified ways. At the same time he was a man of
excellent parts, a master at repartee, with a keen intellect and a firm
will, and in every respect a born leader." (532.) He was the only
Lutheran minister who ever received, and perhaps desired [?] [tr. note:
sic!] to receive, the degree of D. D. from Harvard University. Quitman,
a disciple of Teller and of Semler in Halle, was a determined
protagonist of German Rationalism. In 1807 this outspoken and consistent
Socinian was elected president of the New York Ministerium, remaining in
this office till 1825. When Quitman accepted the call to the Schoharie
congregations, which he served beginning with the year 1795, he vowed
that he would preach the truth according to the Word of God and "our
Symbolical Books." Before long, however, he began to reveal the true
inwardness of his character. In his revised edition of Kunze's
catechism, which appeared in 1804, authorized by Synod, the 94th of the
"Fundamental Questions," which treated of the real presence of the body
and blood of Christ in the Lord's Supper, was omitted. Ten years later,
1814, in his own catechism, which was likewise published with the
approval of Synod, he omitted and denied such fundamental doctrines as
those of the Trinity, the Deity of Christ, the Vicarious Atonement,
Justification for the sake of Christ, etc. In this book Quitman and the
New York Ministerium declare: "The Gospel teaches us that Christ
suffered and died in order to seal with His blood the doctrine which He
had preached." (533.) Two years later a "Lutheran Hymn-book" appeared,
containing an un-Lutheran order of service, the Union formula of
distribution, a rationalistic order for the celebration of the Lord's
Supper, rationalistic prayers to the "great Father of the Universe,"
etc. Also this book appeared "by order of the Ev. Luth. Ministerium of
the State of New York," and with a preface signed by President Quitman
and Pastor Wackerhagen. (535.) When the tercentenary of the Reformation
was celebrated, Quitman, again by order of the New York Ministerium,
published several sermons bearing on this event. Here he says: "Reason
and Revelation are the only sources from which religious knowledge can
be drawn, and the norms according to which all religious questions ought
to be decided. . . . Are not both, Reason and Revelation, from heaven,
always in agreement and the one supporting the other?" Again: "The true
sense which the Reformers connected with the term 'faith' is still more
apparent from the XX. Article of the Augsburg Confession, where they
explicitly declare that faith 'which is productive of good works
justifies man before God.'" (653.) This rank Socinianism and
Rationalism of Quitman and the Ministerium became firmly intrenched and
was protected from attack by the constitution of 1816, which contained
the paragraph: "And we establish it as a fundamental rule of this
association that the person to be ordained shall not be required to make
any other engagement than this, that he will faithfully teach, as well
as perform all other ministerial duties, and regulate his walk and
conversation, according to the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ as
contained in Holy Scriptures, and that he will observe this constitution
while he remains a member of this Ministerium." (655.) Within the New
York Ministerium, therefore, ministers could no longer be required by
their congregations to pledge themselves on the Lutheran Confessions.
According to the constitution doctrinal discussions were permitted on
the floor of Synod, but only with the express proviso "that the
fundamental principle of Protestantism, the right of free research, be
not infringed upon, and that no endeavor be made to elevate the
Ministerium to an inquisitorial tribunal." (679.) Thus the entire
heritage of the Reformation, together with its Scriptural principle and
cardinal doctrine of justification by faith, had gone by the board, the
unionism and indifferentism of the Halle pastors having served as the
first entering wedge--just as in Halle Pietism and subjectivism, an
essentially Reformed growth, foreign to sound objective Lutheranism, had
given birth to the ugly child, afterwards, when grown up, named
_Rationalismus Vulgaris_.


JOHN CHRISTOPHER HARTWICK.

31. The Eccentric Wandering Bachelor.--Hartwick (Hartwig, Hartwich,
Hardwick) was born 1714 in Thuringia, Saxony. Coming to New York in
1746, Berkenmeyer had him subscribe to the Loonenburg Church
constitution. His parish included the congregations at Rheinbeck, Camp,
Staatsburg, Ancrum, and Tar Bush. The capriciousness with which
Hartwick, who remained an eccentric bachelor all his life, performed his
pastoral duties soon gave rise to dissatisfaction. Complaints were
lodged against him with Berkenmeyer, who finally wrote against him
publicly. In 1750 Muhlenberg conducted a visitation in Hartwick's
congregations, and reports as follows: "He went to Pennsylvania too
often, and that without the permission of his congregations, etc. He
did not sufficiently prepare the young for confirmation, by simple
instruction in the Catechism; is too austere in his dealings with the
people; does not always permit them to see him; does not maintain order
at public worship; begins services an hour or two after the time fixed;
has long hymns sung and preaches long, so that those who come from a
distance must drive till late into the night and are compelled to
neglect their cattle. He is headstrong (koppich), that is, self-willed,
and will not allow any one to tell him anything or to give him advice.
He says he did not come here to learn from the people, but to teach
them. Nor did he, said they, cultivate the friendship of the old
spiritual father Berkenmeyer, while pastors were to set a good example.
Such and similar were the complaints made by his opponents." (G., 412.)
The upshot of the deliberations was that Raus was appointed vicar of the
congregations, while Hartwick agreed to spend six months in
Pennsylvania, where he previously, 1748, had participated in the
organization of the Pennsylvania Synod. In 1752 Hartwick preached to the
Dutch congregation of New York, an honor that was denied him in 1750
because of his hostility to Berkenmeyer. January 8, 1751, Hartwick
addressed a pastoral letter to his congregations, in which he not only
displays a lack of Lutheran knowledge, but also refers to Berkenmeyer as
"brother Esau" and speaks of his opponents as "Edomites" and "Esauites."
In the spring of 1751 Hartwick returned to his congregations. When it
became impossible for him to maintain his position any longer, he went
to Reading, in 1757. In the following year he returned to Columbia and
Duchess Co., N. Y. Subsequently, wandering about aimlessly, he was seen,
now in Hackensack and Providence, now (1761) as Muhlenberg's successor
in the country congregations, then in Maryland, 1763 in Philadelphia,
then in Winchester, Va., 1767 in New York, attending the unionistic
church dedication, 1774 in Boston, and ten years later again in New
York, whither he returned to ingratiate himself with the Lutherans who
had not emigrated to Nova Scotia with Houseal. Known everywhere, but at
home nowhere, and usually an unwelcome guest, Hartwick died suddenly,
July 16, 1796, at East Camp. The last lines of the dreary inscription on
his tombstone are: "The brief span of our days is seventy to eighty
years, and though it was ever so precious, its sum is trouble and
sorrow. On the wings of time we hasten to a long eternity." In the
original the epitaph reads as follows: "Hier ruhet Johann C. Hartwich
Prediger der Evangelisch Lutherischen Kirche. gebohren in Sax Gotha de
6 Jenner 1714 Gestorben den 16 Julius 1706 Seines alters 82 Jahre 6
Monat.--Das kurzgesteckte Ziel der Tage Ist siebenzig is achtzig jahr
Ein innbegrif von muh und plage Auch wenn es noch so kostlich war.
Geflugelt eilt mit uns die zeit In eine lange ewigkeit." (657.)

32. Hartwick Seminary and Dr. Hazelius.--In 1754 Hartwick purchased
21,500 acres of land in Otsego Co., N. Y., which he endeavored to
colonize with a Lutheran congregation. "The lease was to contain a
clause pledging every colonist to unite with the church within a year;
to recognize Pastor Hartwick or his representative as his pastor and
spiritual adviser; to attend his services regularly, decently, and with
devotion; to contribute to the maintenance of the church, school, and
parsonage according to ability; to have his children baptized, and to
send them to school and confirmation instruction until they were
confirmed. The validity of the lease was to depend on the fulfilment of
these conditions." (454.) The plan failed, and Hartwick, in a will,
executed shortly before his death, left his estate, valued at about
$17,000, to found a theological seminary. Among the conditions were
that heathen authors should never be read in this institution, and that
a catechism be prepared and agreed upon by pastors of various churches,
in which, all controversial points being avoided, the essential
questions of the Christian religion were to be answered by classic
Bible-verses containing the Christian doctrines. A request was appended
to the will, in which Congress was asked to promote in every possible
way the undertaking planned by him "in the interest of humanizing,
civilizing, moralizing, and Christianizing, not only the aborigines of
North America, but all other barbarous peoples with whom the United
States may have connection or intercourse." (658.) In 1797 the income
of Hartwick's estate was used to pay Dr. J. C. Kunze, of New York, for
his theological instruction, Rev. A. T. Braun, of Albany, for
instruction in the classics, and Rev. J. F. Ernst for teaching the
children on the patent (Otsego County) where the seminary was to be
located. The foundation for a building was laid in 1812, which was
dedicated December 15, 1815, and opened by Dr. Hazelius and A. Quitman
(later renowned as a lawyer, statesman, and general) with 19 students.
A charter was obtained in 1816 containing the provision that the
director must always be a Lutheran theologian, and that the majority of
the trustees must be Lutherans. When the English congregations separated
from the New York Ministerium in 1867, Hartwick Seminary remained in
their hands. In 1871 the trustees requested the Franckean, Hartwick, New
York, and New Jersey Synods each to nominate three trustees, the
institution thus coming under the control of these synods. The first
director of Hartwick Seminary was Dr. Hazelius, who was born in Silesia
in 1777, and educated at the institution of the Moravians in Germany. He
came to America in 1800 and was made instructor in the classics at the
Moravian institution at Nazareth, Pa. Before long he was employed in the
theological department. In 1809, Hazelius was ordained as Lutheran
pastor of Germantown. He was connected with Hartwick Seminary for
fifteen years, when he was called to Gettysburg Seminary. Three years
later (1833) he accepted a call to the seminary of the South Carolina
Synod at Lexington, where he died in 1853. Hazelius, who did not leave
the Moravians for doctrinal reasons, held that Lutherans and Reformed do
not differ fundamentally. Accordingly, he also approved of distributing
the Lord's Supper at the same altar, to Lutherans according to their
practise, to others in the manner of the Reformed. The minutes of the
proceedings of the General Synod held at Winchester, Va., May 21, 1853,
record the following: "Whereas, It has pleased the God of all and Head
of the Church to remove from this transitory scene, and to take home to
Himself, our venerable and beloved father in Christ, the Rev. Ernest
Lewis Hazelius, D. D., we, who have been privileged to sit at his feet,
and to be instructed by him in the various departments of sacred
service, desire to unite in a public expression of our grief at his
departure from among us, and of our high regard for his name and memory;
therefore, Resolved, That we duly appreciate and gratefully acknowledge
the importance, efficiency, and happy results of his long, faithful, and
untiring labors as a minister of our Church; first a pastor, then, for
fifteen years, as the first professor and principal of Hartwick
Seminary, afterwards as professor at the Theological Seminary of this
body at Gettysburg, for two years, and, lastly, up to October, 1852, as
Professor of Theology at Lexington, in the Theological Seminary of the
Synod of South Carolina." (44.)


GERMANTOWN, PENNSYLVANIA.

33. Early Germans in America.--In the Colonial days, next to the
English, the Germans were foremost in settling and developing our
country. Long before the Puritans thought of emigrating to America,
Germans had landed in various parts of the New World. As early as 1538,
J. Cromberger established a printing-office in the City of Mexico, from
which he issued numerous books. From 1528 to 1546 German explorers came
to Venezuela also with a printing-press and with fifty miners to explore
the mountains. A number of German craftsmen accompanied the first
English settlers who came with Captain John Smith to Virginia. Soon
after Henry Hudson had discovered the river which bears his name,
Christiansen, a German, became the explorer of that stream. He also
built the first homes on Manhattan Island, 1613, and laid the
foundations of New Amsterdam and Fort Nassau, the present cities of New
York and Albany. Peter Minuit (Minnewit), the first Director-General of
New Netherland, was also a German, born in Wesel, on the lower Rhine.
He arrived in New Amsterdam on May 4, 1626, and one of his first acts
was the purchase of Manhattan Island, 22,000 acres, from the Indians
for trinkets valued at $24. He remained at his post till 1631, when he,
soon after, became the founder and first director of New Sweden, at the
mouth of the Delaware River. He lost his life in the West Indies during
a hurricane. His successor in New Sweden was another German, Printz von
Buchau, during whose regime, from 1643 to 1654, the colony became very
successful and thereby aroused the jealousy of the Dutch, who, while
Buchau was on a trip to Europe, attacked the colony and annexed it to
New Netherland. When New Netherland, in 1664, fell a prey to the
English, the colony had among its citizens numerous Germans, most of
them Lutherans. A native of Hamburg, Nicholaus de Meyer, became
burgomaster of New York in 1676. Another German, Augustin Herrman, made
the first reliable maps of Maryland and Virginia. J. Lederer, a young
German scholar, who came to Jamestown in 1668, was the first to explore
Virginia and part of South Carolina. Lederer's itinerary, written in
Latin, was translated by Governor Talbot of Maryland into English and
published 1672 in London; etc. However, it was at Germantown, at
present a suburb of Philadelphia, that Germans broke ground for the
first permanent German settlement in North America. A group of
Mennonites, 33 persons, landed October 6, 1683. They were received by
William Penn and Franz Daniel Pastorius, a young lawyer from Frankfort
on the Main. In Germantown Gerhard Henkel preached before 1726, and St.
Michael's Church was begun 1730 and dedicated by the Swede J. Dylander
in 1737. Pastorius had landed in America with several families on
August 20 of the same year in advance of the Mennonite emigrants, in
order to prepare for their arrival. The official seal of Germantown
bore the inscription: "Vinum, Linum et Textrinum," the culture of
grapes, flax-growing, and the textile industries being the principal
occupations of the colony. In 1690 W. Rittenhaus established in
Germantown the first paper-mill in America. Here also Christopher Sauer,
a native of Westphalia, published the first newspaper in German type,
and in 1743 the first German Bible, antedating, by forty years, the
printing of any other Bible in America. The Germans in the cloister
Ephrata, Pa., established by the Tunker, or Dunkards, also owned a
printing-press, a paper-mill, and a bookbindery. They published, in
1749, the _Maertyrer-Spiegel_, a folio of 1514 pages, the greatest
literary undertaking of the American Colonies. To the Germans enumerated
must be added the German Reformed; the Moravians, who founded Bethlehem
and Nazareth in Pennsylvania; the Salzburgers in Georgia; the Palatines
in New York; etc. And what may be said of Germantown, is true also with
regard to Philadelphia. June 6, 1734, Baron von Reck wrote concerning
the conglomerate community of this city: "It is an abode of all
religions and sects, Lutherans, Reformed, Episcopalians, Presbyterians,
Catholics, Quakers, Dunkards, Mennonites, Sabbatarians, Seventh-day
Baptists, Separatists, Boehmists, Schwenkfeldians, Tuchfelder,
Wohlwuenscher, Jews, heathen, etc." (Jacobs, 191.) Concerning the
thrifty character and all-round good citizenship of the German
immigrants in Pennsylvania generally, McMaster remarks: "Wherever a
German farmer lived, there were industry, order, and thrift. The size of
the barns, the height the fences, the well-kept wheat fields and
orchards, marked off the domain of such farmer from the lands of his
shiftless Irish neighbor." "They were," says Scharf in his _History of
Maryland_, 2, 423, "an industrious, frugal, temperate people, tilling
their farms, accustomed to conflict with savage and other enemies on
the border, and distinguished for their bold and independent spirit."
(Jacobs, 235.) Also in the cause of liberty and humanity the German
immigrants in America stood in the front ranks.

34. First Anti-Slavery Declaration in America.--The importation of
negro slaves to America was practised by the English and Dutch since the
sixteenth century, without disapproval on the part of the Puritans and
Quakers, who boasted of being the fathers of liberty and the defenders
of human rights. The inhabitants of Germantown, led by Pastorius, were
the first to draw up, on February 18, 1688, a protest against this trade
in human flesh and blood. The remarkable document, addressed to the
meeting of the Quakers in Pennsylvania, reads as follows: "This is to ye
Monthly Meeting held at Richard Warrel's. These are the reasons why we
are against the traffick of men Body, as followeth: Is there any that
would be done or handled at this manner? to be sold or made a slave for
all the time of his life? How fearful and fainthearted are many on sea
when they see a strange vessel, being afraid it should be a Turk, and
they should be taken and sold for slaves into Turckey. Now what is this
better done as Turcks doe? Yea rather is it worse for them, which say
they are Christians; for we hear that ye most part of such Negers are
brought hither against their will and consent; and that many of them are
stollen. Now, tho' they are black, we cannot conceive there is more
liberty to have them slaves, as it is to have other white ones. There is
a saying, that we shall doe to all men, like as we will be done our
selves; making no difference of what generation, descent or colour they
are. And those who steal or robb men, and those who buy or purchase
them, are they not all alike? Here is liberty of conscience, which is
right and reasonable; here ought to be likewise liberty of ye body,
except of evildoers which is another case. But to bring men hither, or
to robb and sell them against their will, we stand against. In Europe
there are many oppressed for conscience sake; and here there are those
oppressed which are of a black colour. And we, who know that men must
not commit adultery, some doe commit adultery in others, separating
wifes from their husbands and giving them to others; and some sell the
children of those poor creatures to other men. Oh! doe consider well
this things, you who doe it; if you would be done at this manner? and if
it is done according to Christianity? You surpass Holland and Germany in
this thing. This makes an ill report in all those countries of Europe,
where they hear off, that ye Quackers doe here handel men like they
handel there ye cattel. And for that reason some have no mind or
inclination to come hither, and who shall maintaine this your cause or
plaid for it? Truly we can not do so, except you shall inform us better
hereoff, that Christians have liberty to practise this things. Pray!
What thing on the world can be done worse towards us, then if men should
robb or steal us away, and sell us for slaves to strange countries,
separating housbands from their wifes and children. Being now this is
not done at that manner, we will be done at, therefore we contradict and
are against this traffick of menbody. And we who profess that it is not
lawful to steal, must likewise avoid to purchase such are stollen but
rather help to stop this robbing and stealing if possible; and such men
ought to be delivered out of ye hands of ye Robbers and sett free as
well as in Europe. Then is Pennsylvania to have a good report, instead
it hath now a bad one for this sacke in other countries. Especially
whereas ye Europeans are desirous to know in what manner ye Quackers doe
rule in their Province; and most of them doe look upon us with an
envious eye. But if this is done well, what shall we say is done evill?
If once these slaves (which they say are so wicked and stubborn men)
should joint themselves, fight for their freedom and handel their
masters and mastrisses as they did handel them before, will these
masters and mastrisses tacke the sword at hand and warr against these
poor slaves, like we are able to believe, some will not refuse to doe?
Or have these Negers not as much right to fight for their freedom, as
you have to keep them slaves? Now consider well this thing, if it is
good or bad? and in case you find it to be good to handel these blacks
at that manner, we desire and require you hereby lovingly, that you may
inform us here in, which at this time never was done, that Christians
have such a liberty to do so, to the end we shall be satisfied in this
point, and satisfie lickewise our good friends and acquaintances in our
natif country, to whose it is a terrour or fairfull thing that men
should be handeld so in Pennsylvania. This is from our Meeting at
Germantown held ye 18. of the 2. month 1688, to be delivered to the
monthly meeting at Richard Warrel's. gerret hendericks derick op de
graeff Francis Daniell Pastorius Abraham op Den graeff." (Cronau,
_German Achievements_, 20.) This protest was submitted at several
meetings of the Quakers. But it was not before 1711 that the Quakers
introduced "an act to prevent the importation of Negroes and Indians
into the province," and still later that they declared against
slave-trading. Also the Salzburgers in Georgia were opposed to slavery,
though Bolzius himself was compelled to buy slaves on account of the
lack of white laborers. The Germans also were first and most emphatic
in condemning the cruelties connected with the "white slavery" of the
so-called Redemptioners.


SLAVERY OF REDEMPTIONERS.

35. Cruelly Deceived by the Newlanders.--Toward the middle of the
eighteenth century there were some 80,000 Germans in Pennsylvania,
almost one-half of the entire inhabitants. In 1749 about 12,000 arrived.
Benjamin Franklin and others expressed the fear: "They come in such
numbers that they will soon be able to enforce their laws and language
upon us, and, uniting with the French, drive all Englishmen out." Many
of the Germans were so-called Redemptioners, who, in payment of their
freight, were sold and treated as slaves for a stipulated number of
years. Most of them had been shamefully deceived and decoyed into the
horrors of this "white slavery" by Dutch and English merchants and
conscienceless agents whom Muhlenberg called Newlanders (Neulaender).
In Holland they were called "soul-traders." By means of stories of the
fabulous wealth acquired in America they enticed Germans and other
emigrants into the signing of papers in the English language which not
only committed them and their children to slavery, but sometimes
separated husband and wife, parents and children. The following is an
instance of the revolting horrors connected with this trade: In 1793,
when the yellow fever prevailed in Chester, a cargo of Redemptioners
was sent thither, and a market for nurses opened. (Jacobs, 236.) In
Pennsylvania this kind of slavery continued from about 1740 to the
second decade of the nineteenth century. Quakers and other "friends of
liberty and humanity" exploited the system. Foremost among those who
exposed and condemned it were Germans, notably Muhlenberg, who described
the abominable business of the Newlanders as follows: "These Newlanders
first make themselves acquainted with the merchants in the Netherlands.
From them they receive, in addition to free freight, a certain
gratification (_douceur_) for each family or each unmarried person which
they enlist in Germany and bring to the traders in Holland. In order to
attain their object, they resort to all manner of tricks. As long as the
comedy requires it, they make a great show in dress, frequently look at
their watches, and make a pretense of great wealth, in order to excite a
desire within the hearts of people to emigrate to so happy and rich a
country. They give such descriptions of America as make one believe it
to contain nothing but Elysian fields, bearing seed of themselves,
without toil and labor, mountains full of solid gold and silver, and
wells pouring forth nothing but milk and honey, etc. Who goes as a
servant, becomes a lord; who goes as a maid, becomes a milady; a peasant
becomes a nobleman; a citizen and artisan, a baron!" Deceived and
allured by such stories, Muhlenberg continues, "The families break up,
sell what little they have, pay their debts, turn over what may be left
to the Newlanders for safe-keeping, and finally start on their journey.
Already the trip on the Rhine is put to their account. In Holland they
are not always able to depart immediately, and frequently they get a
small amount of money, advanced by the traders, on their account. The
expensive freight from Holland to America is added, also the head-money.
Before they leave Holland, they must sign a contract in the English
language. The Newlanders persuade and reassure the people [who, not
understanding the English, knew not what they were signing] that they,
as impartial friends, would see to it that, in the contract, no wrong
was done their countrymen. The more freight in persons a merchant and
captain can bring in a ship, the more profitable it is, provided that
they do not die _en route_, for then it may be disadvantageous. For this
reason the ships are kept clean, and every means is employed to deliver
healthy ware to the market. For a year or so they may not have been as
careful, suffering to die what could not live. When parents die on the
ships and leave children, the captains and the most intelligent of the
Newlanders, acting as guardians and orphan-fathers, take the chests and
inheritance in their safe-keeping, and the orphans, arriving on the
land, are sold for their own freight and the freight of their deceased
parents; the real little ones are given away, and the inheritance of
their parents just about pays for the manifold troubles caused to the
guardians. This crying deceit moved some well-disposed German
inhabitants of Pennsylvania, especially in and about Philadelphia, to
organize a society, which, as much as possible, would see to it that, at
the arrival of the poor emigrants, they were dealt with according to
justice and equity." When a ship of emigrants has arrived in the harbor
of Philadelphia, Muhlenberg proceeds, "the newcomers are led in
procession to the court-house, in order to take the oath of allegiance
to the King of Great Britain; then they are led back to the ship.
Hereupon the papers announce that so and so many German people are to be
sold for their freight. Whoever is able to pay his own freight receives
his freedom. Those having wealthy friends endeavor to obtain a loan from
them to pay the freight; but these are few. The ship is the market. The
buyers pick out some and bargain with them as to the years and days of
service, whereupon they make them bind themselves before the magistrate
by a written instrument for a certain period as their property. The
young, unmarried people of both sexes sell first, their lot being a good
or a bad one, for better or worse, according to the character of the
buyer and God's providence or permission. We have frequently noted that
children who were disobedient to their parents, and left them stubbornly
and against their will, here found masters from whom they received their
reward. Old and married people, widows and the frail, nobody wants to
buy, because there is here already an abundance of poor and useless
people who become a burden to the state. But if they have healthy
children, then the freight of the old people is added to that of the
children, and the children must serve so much longer, are sold so much
dearer, and scattered far and wide from each other, among all manner of
nations, languages, and tongues, so that they rarely see their old
parents or brothers and sisters again in this life; many also forget
their mother-tongue. In this way the old people leave the ship free, but
poor, naked, and weak, looking as though they were coming from the
graves, and go begging in the city at the doors of the German
inhabitants; for, as a rule, the English, afraid of infection, close the
doors on them. Such being the conditions, one's heart might bleed seeing
and hearing how these poor human beings, who came from Christian lands
into the New World, partly moan, cry, lament, and throw up their arms
because of the misery and separation which they had never imagined would
befall them, partly call upon and adjure all elements and sacraments,
yea, all thunderbolts and the terrible inhabitants of hell to smash into
numberless fragments and torment the Newlanders and the Dutch merchants,
who deceived them! Those who are far away hear nothing of it, and the
properly so-called Newlanders only laugh about it, and give them no
other consolation beyond that given to Judas Iscariot by the Pharisees,
Matt. 27, 4: 'What is that to us? See thou to that!' Even the children,
when they are cruelly kept and learn that they must remain in bondage
all the longer on account of their parents, conceive a hatred and
bitterness toward them." (G., 474 ff.)

36. Mittelberger on Redemptioners.--Mittelberger, who, in 1750,
brought to America the organ built at Heilbronn for the Lutheran church
in Philadelphia, and served Muhlenberg also as schoolteacher in
Providence, describes, in substance, the sad lot of the Redemptioners as
follows: "Healthy and strong young people were bound to serve from three
to six years, young people from their tenth to their twenty-first year.
Many parents, in order to obtain their freedom, must themselves bargain
about and sell their own children like cattle. A wife must bear the
freight of her husband if he arrives sick; in like manner the husband is
held for his sick wife; thus he must serve not only for himself, but, in
addition, five or six years for his sick spouse. When both are sick,
they are brought into the hospital, but only when no buyer is found. As
soon as they are well, they must serve in payment of their freight, or
pay, if they have property. It frequently happens that a whole family,
husband, wife, and children, being sold to different buyers, are
separated, especially if they are unable to pay anything on their
freight themselves. When a spouse dies on the ocean after one-half of
the voyage is completed, the remaining spouse must not only pay or serve
for himself, but also for the freight of the deceased one. When both
parents die on the ocean, their children must serve for their own and
their parents' freight till their twenty-first year. If anybody escapes
a cruel master, he cannot get very far, since good provisions are made
for the certain and speedy recapture of escaped Redemptioners. A liberal
reward is paid to him who holds or returns a deserter. If a deserter was
absent for a day, he must serve a week for it; for a week, a month; and
for a month, half a year. Men of rank, skill, or learning, unable to pay
their freight, or to give any surety, must serve their masters by doing
manual labor like ordinary servants. While learning to perform the
unaccustomed hard labor, they are treated with lashes like cattle. Many
a suicide was the consequence of the abominable deceit of the
Newlanders. Others sank into utter despair, or deserted, only to suffer
more afterwards than before. Sometimes the merchants in Holland make a
secret agreement to deliver their cargo of human beings not in
Philadelphia, where they wanted to go, but at some other place, where
they expect a better market, thus robbing many of the assistance of
their friends and relatives in Pennsylvania. Many entrust their money to
the Newlanders, who remain in Holland, and on their arrival in this
country they must either serve themselves, or sell their children to
serve for them." (477 ff.) Like the negroes, the Redemptioners could be
resold. The newspapers carried advertisements like the following from
the _Staatsbote_ of Philadelphia: "The time of service of a bond-maid is
for sale. She is tall and strong enough to do any kind of work, and is
able to perform work in the city as well as in the country. She is not
sold on account of a physical defect, but only because her master has
many women folks about. She has yet to serve for four and a half years.
The name of her owner may be learned from the publisher of this paper."
(481.) As with the negro slaves the lot of a Redemptioner was not in
every case physically a sad and cruel one. In Maryland the laws
protected them by limiting the days of work in summer to five and a half
a week, and demanding for them three hours of rest in the middle of the
day during the months of greatest heat. In 1773 Pastor Kunze wrote: "If
I should ever obtain 20 pounds, I would buy the first German student
landing at our coast and owing freight, put him in my upper room, begin
a small Latin school, teach during the morning hours myself, and then
let my servant teach and make my investment pay by charging a small
fee." (481.) Some of the honored names in American history are those of
Redemptioners, among them Charles Thomson, the Secretary of Congress
during the Revolution, Matthew Thornton, a signer of the Declaration of
Independence, and the parents of Major-General Sullivan. (Jacobs, 235.)


LUTHERANS IN PENNSYLVANIA.

37. Roaming About without Altar and Ministry.--Justus Falckner, in a
letter to Dr. H. Muhlen, [tr. note: sic!] dated August 1, 1701,
describes the "spiritual wilderness" in and about Germantown as follows:
"As much, then, as I was able to observe the conditions of the churches
in these parts and in particular in this province, they are still pretty
bad. Because of the lack of any good preparations the aborigines, or
Indians, remain in their blindness and barbarism. In addition to this
they are scandalized by the wicked life of the Christians, and
especially by the trade carried on with them, and merely acquire vices
which were unknown to them before, such as drunkenness, theft, etc. The
few Christians here are divided in almost in numerable sects, which kat'
exochen [tr. note: two words in Greek] may be called sects and rabbles,
such as Quakers, Anabaptists, Naturalists, Libertinists,
Independentists, Sabbatarians, and many others, especially secretly
spreading sects, regarding whom we are at a loss what to make of them.
However, all of them agree in their beautiful principles (si Dis
placet): Abolish all good order, and live for yourself as you see fit.
The Quakers are the most numerous because the Governor [William Penn]
belongs to them, so that one might call this land an anatomical
laboratory of Quakers. For much as our theologians have labored to
dissect this cadaver and discover its entrails, they, nevertheless, have
not been able to do it as well as the Quakers are now doing it
themselves in this country. It would fill a whole tract if, as could be
done easily, I were to describe how they, by transgressing their own
principles, make it apparent what kind of a spirit is moving them, while
they, by virtue of the foundation of such principles, are scoffers and
Ishmaels of all well-ordered church-life. _Hic Rhodus, hie saltant_
(Here is Rhodes, here they dance)." "Also here" (as in Europe), Falckner
proceeds, "the Protestant Church is divided in three nations; for there
is here an English Protestant Church, a Swedish Protestant Lutheran
Church, and people of the German nation belonging to the Evangelical
Lutheran and the Reformed Churches. The Swedes have two
congregations.... But not without reason have I spoken of the Germans
merely as some Evangelical Lutheran Germans and not the German
Evangelical Lutheran Church, inasmuch as they are roaming about in this
desert without altar and the ministry (scilicet qui ara sacerdotuque
destituti vagantur hoc in deserto), a miserable condition, indeed.
Otherwise there is a great number of Germans here. But a part of them
have joined the other sects, who use the English language, which is
learned first by all who come here, and some of them are Quakers and
Anabaptists. Another part of them are freethinkers, uniting with nobody
and letting their children grow up in the same way. In brief, there are
Germans here, and probably the most of them, who despise God's Word and
all good outward order, blaspheme and frightfully and publicly desecrate
the Sacraments. Spiritus enim errorum et sectarum asylum sibi hic
constituit (For the spirit of errors and sects has here established his
asylum). And the chief fault and cause of this is the lack of provision
for an external visible church-communion. For since, as it were, the
first thesis of natural theology, inborn in all men, is 'Religiosum
quendam cultum observandum, A certain religious cult must be observed,'
it happens that these people, when they come here and find no better
external service, elect any one rather than none. For though they are
Libertinists, nevertheless also Libertinism is not without its outward
form, by which it makes itself a specific religion in none of them."
Falckner proceeds: "I and my brother [Daniel] attend the Swedish church,
although, as yet, we understand little of the language. And by our
example we have induced several Germans to come to their meetings
occasionally, even though they did not understand the language, and for
the purpose only of gradually drawing them out of barbarism and
accustoming them to outward order, especially as one of the Swedish
pastors, Mr. M. Rudman, for the sake of love and the glory of God,
offered to go to the trouble of learning the German language and
occasionally to deliver a German address in the Swedish church, until
the Germans could have a church of their own." In the following Falckner
dwells on the great help it would afford in attracting the Indians and
the children of the Quakers and drawing the young Swedes to the services
if an organ could be installed in the Swedish church. (G. Fritschel,
_Geschichte_, 35 ff.) The miserable condition spiritually of the
Lutherans in Pennsylvania appears from a letter of their representatives
to Dr. Ziegenhagen in London, dated October, 1739, in which they state:
"There is not one German Lutheran preacher in the whole land, except
Caspar Stoever, now sixty miles distant from Philadelphia." (Jacobs,
191.)

38. New Hanover, Philadelphia, Providence.--It was a motley crowd of
Germans that gathered in the land of the Quakers. Indeed, Pastorius, the
first mayor of Germantown, was a rather moderate pietist from the
circles of Spener, but, as stated above, with him and after him came
Mennonites, Tunkers, Moravians, Gichtelians, Schwenkfeldians, disciples
of the cobbler of Goerlitz, Jacob Boehme, and enthusiasts who as yet had
no name. (G., 242.) Before long, however, the Lutherans outnumbered all
other German denominations (Moravians and German Reformed) and sects in
the Quaker State, to which they came in increasingly large numbers,
especially after the sad experiences of the Palatinates in New York. By
1750 the number of Germans in Pennsylvania was estimated at 60,000, of
whom about two-thirds were Lutherans by birth. Though imbued with
apocalyptical and mystical ideas, H. B. Koester, who arrived in 1694
with forty families, is said to have conducted the first German Lutheran
services in Germantown. Before long he united with the Episcopalians and
founded Christ Episcopal Church in Philadelphia, but returned to Germany
in 1700. Daniel Falckner, who had emigrated with Koester, opposed the
Quakers in Germantown. In Falckner's Swamp (New Hanover), he organized
the first German Lutheran congregation in Pennsylvania, and is said to
have erected a log church as early as 1704. In his struggle against the
mismanagement of Pastorius, Falckner, in 1708, fell a prey to intrigues.
A disappointed man he went to New Jersey, where he served the
congregations at Raritan, Muehlstein, Rockaway, and other points, and
from 1724 to 1725 also the settlements which Kocherthal had served along
the Hudson. Owing to his increasing mental weakness, Daniel Falckner, in
1731, resigned his field in favor of J. A. Wolff. He died at Raritan ten
years later. In New Hanover Gerhard Henkel, the first Lutheran pastor in
Virginia, continued the work from 1717 to 1728. In Philadelphia J. C.
Schulz, of Wuerttemberg, was the first Lutheran pastor of whom we have
any knowledge. Educated in Strassburg, Schulz arrived in Philadelphia on
September 25, 1732. He also served New Hanover and New Providence. At
the latter place the first entries in the parish register date back to
1729, and the congregation numbered about one hundred communicant
members when Muhlenberg took charge. In 1732 Pastor Schulz, accompanied
by two lay delegates, left for Europe to collect money, and, above all,
to secure laborers from Halle, for the mission-work in Pennsylvania.
These efforts terminated when Schulz was arrested in Germany for
disorderly conduct. Before leaving Pennsylvania, Schulz had ordained
John Caspar Stoever, a relative of Pastor J. C. Stoever, Sr., in
Spottsylvania, Va., and placed him in charge of his congregations.
Stoever, Jr., had studied theology in Germany, and after his arrival in
America, 1728, had been active in mission-work among the Lutherans in
Pennsylvania, a labor which he zealously continued till his sudden death
in 1779, while confirming a class at Lebanon. Stoever's aversion to
Pietism at first kept him from uniting with Muhlenberg. It was 1763,
fifteen years after its organization, before he became a member of the
Pennsylvania Ministerium. Concerning Stoever and the Agenda of 1748,
Muhlenberg relates the following: "We were minded to employ the very
words of our Lord Jesus: Take and eat; this is the body of Jesus Christ,
etc. Take and drink, this cup is the New Testament in the blood of
Christ, etc. At the baptism of children it was our intention to ask the
sponsors, or godparents: Do you renounce in the name of this child,
etc.? To this the opponents [Stoever, Wagner, and their adherents]
objected strenuously before we had finished. We therefore made a change
immediately and used the words which their terrified consciences
desired, _viz_.: This is the _true body_, etc.; this is the _true
blood_, etc., and in the formula of baptism: Peter, Paul, or Maria, dost
thou renounce, etc.?" Graebner comments as follows: "If the Wagners and
Stoevers [whom Muhlenberg severely censured in 1748] had committed no
other crimes but that of compelling the 'united preachers' [from Halle]
to take a decided Lutheran position, one might wish that their influence
had extended still farther." In the following year, 1749, however, the
Pennsylvania Synod changed the formula of baptism so that the sponsors
were asked, "Do you renounce (believe) in the name of this child, etc.?"
(Graebner, 327.)


HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG.

39. Self-sacrificing Halle Emissaries.--The help which Pastor Schulz
and his laymen had requested from Halle in 1734 arrived nine years
later. Francke's hesitation with regard to questions of salary, etc.,
drew the matter out until Muhlenberg declared himself willing to accept
the call to America without further conditions. He was the instrument
whereby it pleased God to preserve the Lutheran Church in America from
complete deterioration and disintegration and from the imminent danger
of apostasy through Zinzendorf. Muhlenberg (Muehlenberg) was born at
Eimbeck, Hannover, September 6, 1711. In 1738 he graduated from
Goettingen. He spent one year teaching in the Orphan Home at Halle, and
served a congregation in Upper Lusatia from 1739 to 1741. In 1741 he
also published his only work, a defense of Pietism against B. Mentzer.
In the same year he accepted the call to the congregations in
Pennsylvania: Philadelphia, Providence, and New Hanover. September 23,
1742, he landed at Charleston, visited Bolzius and the Salzburgers in
Ebenezer, and arrived in Philadelphia, November 25, 1742. From the very
beginning Muhlenberg was successful in his opposition to Zinzendorf,
who had come to America in 1741 to convert the Indians and to merge the
pious of all churches in the _Unitas Fratrum_. Pretending to be a
Lutheran, he had wormed his way into the Lutheran congregation at
Philadelphia, assuming the title and functions of Inspector-General of
all the Lutheran churches in America. However, unmasked by Muhlenberg,
he now, January, 1743, returned to Germany in disgrace. In spite of
many other difficulties, Muhlenberg rapidly won recognition from all
the congregations. In 1745 he dedicated his first church in
Philadelphia. The _Hallesche Nachrichten_ contain vivid pictures, from
the pens of Muhlenberg and his assistants, of their untiring,
self-sacrificing, blessed, and constantly increasing missionary
activity, which at the same time served the purpose of encouraging Halle
to send additional laborers. The close of January, 1745, saw the arrival
of Peter Brunnholtz (who took charge of Philadelphia and Germantown) and
of the two catechists Nicholaus Kurtz and J. H. Schaum, who at first
served as assistants and were later on ordained as pastors. Muhlenberg
wrote to Halle: "To be brief: the church which must be planted here is
at a very critical juncture (Hier ist ecclesia plantanda in einer recht
kritischen junctura). Hence we ought to have experienced and strong men,
able to stand in the breach and to dare with patience and self-denial.
You, highly venerable fathers, know full well that I am not the man. But
I regard my dear colleague Brunnholtz as such a man, and wish that he
had two or three colaborers like himself; that would help us. God would
easily direct me to some smaller corner." (290.) In 1743 Muhlenberg sent
Tobias Wagner to the Palatines in Tulpehocken Creek, where Gerhard
Henkel had already preached, and where, in 1745, Wagner solemnized the
marriage of Muhlenberg and the daughter of J. C. Weiser. Services were
conducted at this time also in Ohly, Cohenzi, Indianfield, Chester, and
Reading (where the Lutherans and the Reformed had erected a church
together). In 1745 Muhlenberg conducted a visitation at Raritan, induced
Wolff to resign, sent them Kurtz and 1747 Schaum as temporary
supply-pastors, and finally, in 1748, induced the congregation to call
J. A. Weygand. Following the track of the Moravian Nyberg, who created
confusion wherever he went, Muhlenberg secured a foothold also at
Lancaster in 1746, at York, and Conewago, in 1747, as well as in
Monocacy and Frederick, Md. J. F. Handschuh (Handschuch), who arrived
from Halle in 1748, was put in charge of Lancaster. L. H. Schrenck and
L. Raus arrived in 1749. The former was stationed in Upper Milford and
Saccum, the latter was appointed vicar in Rheinbeck and Camp. F. Schultz
and Heintzelmann came in 1751. The latter received an appointment in
Philadelphia and married Muhlenberg's daughter. Baugher (Bager) arrived
in 1752, and Gerock the year following.--Pastors and congregations
were imbued with one and the same spirit, and considered themselves
parts of one and the same church, consisting of the "Collegium Pastorum"
on the one hand and the "United Congregations" on the other.

40. Organizing Pennsylvania Synod.--To stablish the congregations,
Muhlenberg, with five pastors and ten congregations, on August 26, 1748,
organized the Pennsylvania Synod, then generally called "The United
Congregations" or "The United Pastors." This event has been designated
by Dr. Graebner "the most important in the history of the American
Lutheran Church of the eighteenth century." From the very beginning
Muhlenberg's three original congregations were called "The United
Congregations." This name was extended also to the congregations
subsequently organized or served by Muhlenberg and his colaborers at
Germantown, Lancaster, Tulpehocken, York, etc. And pastors and
congregations being imbued, as they were, with one and the same spirit,
and considering themselves parts of one and the same church, consisting
of "The College of Pastors (Collegium Pastorum)" on the one hand and
"The United Congregations" on the other, it was but natural that they
should unite in a regular synod with regular meetings. The year 1748
was most opportune and suggestive for such an organization. Pastor
Hartwick of Rhinebeck had come to Philadelphia. Nicholas Kurtz had
arrived in order to be ordained as pastor for the congregation at
Tulpehocken. The dedication of St. Michael's Church in Philadelphia
brought other representative Lutherans to the city. The Swedes were
represented by Provost Sandin and Peter Kock (Koch), a trustee of
Gloria Dei Church, who zealously advocated synodical connection between
the Germans and Swedes. Before the public services, Pastors Brunnholtz,
Handschuh, and Hartwick met to examine Kurtz. His answers were approved
of in Halle as creditable even to candidates in Germany. On the
following day, Sunday, St. Michael's was dedicated. Provost Sandin
headed the procession from Brunnholtz's parsonage to the new church.
"Come, Holy Spirit, God and Lord," was sung. A letter from the Swedish
pastor Tranberg, regretting his absence and congratulating the
congregation in English, was then read. The address emphasized that "the
foundation of this church was laid with the intention that the
Evangelical Lutheran doctrine should be taught therein according to the
foundation of the prophets and apostles, and according to the Unaltered
Augsburg Confession and the other symbolical books." After singing
another hymn, six prayers were offered, two in Swedish by the Swedish
pastors, and four in German by Brunnholtz, Hartwick, Handschuh, and Mr.
Kock. After another hymn a child was baptized, and a sermon preached by
Handschuh. Hereupon the ministers, with a few of the congregation,
received the Lord's Supper. In the afternoon Hartwick preached the
ordination sermon. Then, the lay delegates standing in a semicircle
about the altar, Provost Sandin and the four German pastors ordained
Kurtz. Muhlenberg read the liturgical formula. On Monday, August 26 (15
Old Style), 1748, the first session of Synod was held, N. Kurtz, the
newly ordained pastor, delivering the opening sermon.

41. First Session of Synod.--According to the minutes, written by
Brunnholtz and signed by the four German pastors residing in
Pennsylvania and a number of lay delegates, the synod consisted of six
ministers (including Sandin and Hartwick) and twenty-four delegates,
exclusive of the church council of the Philadelphia congregation: four
lay delegates from Germantown, three from Providence, three from New
Hanover, two from Upper Milford, one from Saccum, three from
Tulpehocken, one from Nordkiel, six from Lancaster, and one from
Earlingtown. Peter Kock represented the Swedish laity. The congregation
at York, in a letter, regretted the absence of representatives. The
organization proceeded without the adoption of any formulated
constitution. Though not formally elected, Muhlenberg, by virtue of his
first call and commission by the authorities in Halle, was president of
the synod. When, at the second meeting of the synod, in 1749,
Brunnholtz, on motion of Muhlenberg, was elected overseer of all the
United Congregations, this was ignored by the authorities in Halle, and,
Brunnholtz's health failing, the office was soon transferred to
Muhlenberg, who exercised it for many years. At the first meeting, after
the hymn, "Du suesse Lieb', schenk' uns deine Gunst," was sung,
Muhlenberg addressed the assembly, saying, in part: This union was
desired for a long time. The effort made five years ago in the Swedish
church was frustrated by Nyberg. Unity among us is necessary. Every
member in the congregation has children. In their interest elders are
required to assist in making a good church order. For this purpose we
are here assembled, and, God willing, shall meet annually. "We
preachers, here present," Muhlenberg emphasized, "have not run of
ourselves, but have been called here and urged to go. We are bound to
render account to God and to our consciences. We maintain connection
with our fathers in Europe. We must not only care for ourselves, but
also for our descendants." In part, Muhlenberg's remarks reflected on
Stoever, Streit (Streiter, as he is called in the minutes), Andreae,
and Wagner. These ministers had not been invited to participate in the
organization of the synod, because, as a declaration put on record by
synod explains, "1. they, without reason, decry us [Muhlenberg and his
adherents] as Pietists; 2. are not sent and have neither an internal
nor an external call; 3. are unwilling to observe a uniform order of
service with us, each following the ceremonies of his country; 4. an
experience of six years had taught Muhlenberg that their object was
nothing but bread; 5. they were subject to no consistory and gave no
account of the exercise of their office." The lay delegates were
called upon to give a report concerning the efficiency of their
pastors, and their opinion concerning the new liturgy, which they
regarded as too long. Also the condition of the parochial schools was
inquired into. The conference with the laymen was adjourned Monday
afternoon, after which they dined together. The pastors then attended to
business generally regarded as belonging to them. Hartwick addressed the
elders, wishing their congregations every blessing. The Swedish provost
expressed his desire to be a member of the body. But Peter Kock having
died, no Swede attended the meeting in the following year. Seven annual
meetings were held by the United Congregations, the last at New Hanover
in 1754. Revived by Dr. Wrangel and Muhlenberg in 1760, this oldest
Lutheran synod in America exists to the present day as "The Evangelical
Lutheran Ministerium of Pennsylvania." (Graebner, 301 ff.)


FURTHER ACTIVITY AND DEATH OF MUHLENBERG.

42. Discouraging Conditions.--The joyous events of 1748 in
Philadelphia were followed by disappointments to such an extent that
after 1754 the synodical meetings were abandoned till 1760, when, as
stated, Provost Von Wrangel revived the synod in the interest of
establishing a German-Swedish organization. The failure was caused by
various discouragements: the deaths of Heintzelman and Brunnholtz; the
troubles in the congregations of Handschuh at Lancaster, Germantown, and
Philadelphia; the opposition of Stoever and other anti-Pietists, whom
the synod in 1748 marked as undesirables; charges against Muhlenberg and
his colaborers, that they were but secret agents of Zinzendorf, etc.;
and above all the entirely insufficient support in men and moneys from
Halle. The difficulties and discouraging conditions under which
Muhlenberg and his assistants were laboring, appear from the urgent
appeal, signed by Muhlenberg, Brunnholtz, and Handschuh, adopted by the
synod in 1754, and sent to both London and Halle. Dr. Jacobs writes: "It
is one of the most important papers in the Halle 'Reports.' The entire
field is surveyed, the history of German immigration traced, and the
religious condition of the immigrants described. The manner in which
other denominations and the Swedish Lutherans are aided by foreign help
is shown, and a very discouraging contrast is drawn. The condition of
each parish is then candidly and at length set forth. Three great
dangers they see threatening the inner life of congregations, _viz_.:
the assumption, by the leading men of particular parishes, of the right
to dictate, as a compensation for the perhaps greater amount expected of
them for the pastor's support; the lawlessness of immigrants who abuse
the freedom of the country, want to break through all rules, and revile
all good order, the regular ministry, and divine service as papacy
itself; the introduction of worthless men into the country as pretended
ministers by the Newlanders, who sell their services from the ship to
Lutherans willing to be deceived in this way. The United Pastors, they
urge, are almost powerless to resist. The people are, as a rule, poor.
In a congregation of three hundred members scarcely fifteen can be found
able to contribute toward the building of churches; and the
responsibility for debts incurred must, therefore, as a rule, fall upon
the pastors themselves. Many thousands of Lutheran people are scattered
throughout North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey, New York,
etc. No provision is made for the traveling expenses of the pastors or
supplies for their places, if these Lutherans are cared for. People come
often one and even two hundred miles to hear a sermon and receive the
Sacrament, and weep bitterly over the destitution, which no one
endeavors to remove. They [the signers of the appeal] contrast the
condition of a pastor in the New with that of one in the Old World. The
latter has the assurance of necessary support, of protection in his
office, of all needed buildings, of provision for the proper instruction
of his people. The former has none of these. Among ten families there is
scarcely one or two that contribute according to their promises. The
sects diffuse among the people the ideas, to which they lend too ready
assent, that the pastors as well as their hearers ought to work at a
trade, cut wood, sow and reap during the week, and then preach to them
gratuitously on Sunday. They hear such things wherever they go--in
papers, in company, on their journeys, and at the taverns. The picture
is a very dark one. The pastors feel that they do not see how it is
possible for them to advance; and yet to recede or even to be stationary
must be fatal." Jacobs continues: "Such representations probably had
something to do with the impression current for a while at Halle that
Muhlenberg was visionary and eccentric, so strange do his statements
seem to those incompetent from personal observation to appreciate the
urgency of the situation in Pennsylvania. If there was any time when,
even for a moment, Muhlenberg entertained the suggestion of transferring
the care of the Lutherans of Pennsylvania to the Church of England, it
was only at some such time when he and his associates in the synod were
allowed to struggle on under such burdens almost unaided, while union
with the Church of England would at once have provided all missionaries
sent thither with an appropriation almost sufficient for support, and
with far better protection against the prevalent disorder. If the
Lutherans in Europe could not meet the demands of the hour, we can
pardon the thought, which never became a fixed purpose, that, sooner
than have the thousands for whose care he felt himself responsible
neglected, some other mode of relief would have to be sought." (246 ff.)

43. Further Activity and Death.--In May, 1751, as related above,
Muhlenberg became pastor of the Dutch congregation in New York. From
1753 to 1761 he once more labored in New Hanover and Providence. During
this period he made visits to Raritan (1757, 1758 for nine weeks, 1759
with his family, again in October, 1759, and in January, 1760), his
assistant J. H. Schaum in the mean time representing him in Providence.
October 29, 1761 Muhlenberg returned to Philadelphia to allay the
strife which had broken out. Here he lived in his own home, and
maintained an intimate intercourse with Dr. Wrangel. By the new
congregational constitution, which his congregation subscribed to in
1762, and which, in the course of time, was adopted by nearly all the
congregations in Pennsylvania, Muhlenberg's influence was extended far
and wide. In 1769 he dedicated the new Zion Church at Philadelphia.
(The national memorial services of Benjamin Franklin [1790], of
Washington [1799], and of Abraham Lincoln [1865] were held in this
church.) September 8, 1774, he arrived in Charleston, accompanied by
his wife and daughter, where the congregation had requested him to
settle their quarrel, which he did with skill and success. His real
goal, however, was Ebenezer, where he, by order of the authorities in
Europe, was to conduct a visitation and to repair the harm done by
Triebner. Here he drafted a new constitution, which was adopted by the
Salzburgers and resulted in a temporary peace. On February 6, 1775, he
began his journey back to Pennsylvania. When the vestry of his
congregation at Philadelphia in 1779, without further ado, elected Kunze
to be his successor, Muhlenberg conducted himself with dignity. The
congregation rescinded her action, whereupon Muhlenberg resigned, and
was given a pension of 100 Pounds annually and granted permission to
preach occasionally in the church. As early as 1748 Muhlenberg had
compiled an Agenda, which at first was circulated in manuscript, and was
printed in 1786 in a somewhat modified form. The only objection which,
in 1748, the congregations raised to the Agenda was that "public worship
would last too long, especially in the cold winter months"; wherefore
"they requested that it be abbreviated." In 1782 Muhlenberg also did the
chief work in preparing the hymnal, which was printed in 1784. In the
same year Pennsylvania Academy conferred upon him the degree of Doctor
of Divinity. Muhlenberg accepted the title, but requested his friends
not to make any use of it in their intercourse with him. Muhlenberg died
October 7, 1787. Taking leave of his friend for this life, he spoke of
the journey ahead to his true fatherland, repeating the words of the
hymn: "Ich hab' vor mir ein' schwere Reis' Zu dir in's Himmels Paradeis,
Das ist mein rechtes Vaterland, Darauf du hast dein Blut gewandt."
Shortly before his death he prayed the stanza: "Mach' End', o Herr,
mach' Ende An aller unsrer Not, Staerk' unsre Fuess' und Haende Und lass
bis in den Tod Uns allzeit deiner Pflege Und Treu' empfohlen sein, So
gehen unsre Wege Gewiss zum Himmel ein." Muhlenberg's funeral was
attended by eight Lutheran pastors, the Reformed minister Schlatter, and
a great concourse of people, so that Pastor J. L. Voigt was compelled to
deliver his oration in the open. Memorial services were conducted in New
York and in many other places, as well as in almost all congregations
belonging to the synod. In Muhlenberg the greatest man whom God had
given to the Lutheran Church of America in the eighteenth century, "the
patriarch of the American Lutheran Church," had passed away. His body
was interred just outside the walls of the church in Trappe. A marble
slab over his grave bears the inscription: "Qualis et quantus fuerit,
Non ignorabunt sine lapide Futura Saecula. (Future ages will know his
character and importance without a stone.)" (484. 521.)

44. Tributes to, and Estimates of, Muhlenberg.--In his letter to Dr.
Freylinghausen in Halle, Muhlenberg himself reveals the pious and humble
frame of his mind as follows: "To-day, December 6, 1762, it is forty
years since I set foot in Philadelphia for the first time; and I believe
that my end is no longer removed very far. Had I during these forty
years served my Lord as faithfully as Jeremiah, I could look forward to
a more joyful end. But I must now account it grace and mercy
unparalleled if the gracious Redeemer, for the sake of His
all-sufficient merits, will not regard my mistakes and weaknesses, but
receive me graciously." Speaking of Muhlenberg's faithfulness, Dr. E. A.
W. Krauss remarks: "Muhlenberg continued faithful in things both small
and great, even after he had received assistance from Germany, and one
coworker after another began to labor at his side. Before long his
activity had exceeded the sphere of his three congregations. On request
he visited the scattered Lutherans in Germantown, Tulpehocken,
Lancaster, York, Raritan, Frederick. He was the counselor of poorly
served congregations, the judge in their quarrels. Confidence was
everywhere reposed in him. "By reason of his talent for organizing, his
erudition, but, above all, his unselfishness, his modesty, dignity, and
piety, he was in universal demand, and was compelled to take the lead,
which he also kept till his blessed departure from this world."
(_Lebensbilder_, 694.) Dr. H. E. Jacobs sketches Muhlenberg's character
as follows: "Depth of religious conviction, extraordinary 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 combined with an intuitive
penetration and extended width of view, a statesmanlike grasp of every
situation in which he was placed, an almost prophetic foresight,
coolness, and discrimination of judgment, and peculiar gifts for
organization and administration." Dr. A. Graebner writes: "The task
which Muhlenberg found set before him when he entered upon the wild and
disordered field which had been allotted to him here, was such that, if
any one in Halle had been able to tell him and had told him what was
awaiting him in America, he would hardly have found the necessary
courage and cheerfulness to lay his hand to the plow which was to
convert this wild bramblepatch into an arable field. Still, where could
a second man have been found at that time who would have proven equal
to the task in the same measure as Henry Melchior Muhlenberg? Richly
endowed with a robust physique and a pious mind, with faithfulness in
matters great and small, with cheerful, but firm courage, with restless
activity and a spirit of progressive enterprise, with wisdom and
prudence, with the ability to inform himself quickly and to accommodate
himself to the circumstances, and, in addition to this, with the
necessary independence of volition and action,--characteristics
seldom found combined in one and the same person,--Muhlenberg was
splendidly equipped, both as to degree and variety, with the gifts
which a missionary and an organizer has need of. And from the very
first day of his planting and watering God gave a rich increase to his
labors, so rich, that Muhlenberg could say with a grateful heart: 'It
seems as though now the time had come that God would visit us with
special grace here in Pennsylvania.' Furthermore, self-exaltation was
utterly foreign to him. 'God does not need me,' he would say; 'He can
carry out His work also without me.' Likewise, he was ever content
although he never saw much money. During the first half-year of his
stay in Philadelphia he earned his board by giving music lessons."
(279.) Dr. A. Spaeth: "Though there were Lutheran congregations and
pastors among the Dutch on the Hudson, and among the Swedes on the
Delaware, as early as the first half of the seventeenth century, and,
later on, among the numerous German immigrants, still the real
organization of the Lutheran Church in America, on the foundation of the
fathers, only dates from the middle of the eighteenth century, and is
due to the Rev. Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, by common consent the
patriarch of the Lutheran Church on this continent, through whose
efforts the Ministerium of Pennsylvania, 'The Mother Synod,' was
established in 1748. In missionary zeal, in pastoral tact and fidelity,
in organizing ability and personal piety, he had no superior." (_C.P.
Krauth_, 1, 316.)


MUHLENBERG'S CONFESSIONALISM.

45. Unqualified Subscription to Entire Book of Concord.--Like the
"Fathers in Halle," Muhlenberg, self-evidently, desired to be a
Lutheran and to build a Lutheran Church in America. He himself says, in
a manner somewhat touchy: "I defy Satan and every lying spirit to lay at
my door anything which contradicts the teaching of our apostles or the
Symbolical Books. I have often said and written that I have found
neither error, nor mistake, nor any defect in our Evangelical doctrine,
based, as it is, on the apostles and prophets, and exhibited in our
Symbolical Books." _Dr. Spaeth:_ "The standards of the Lutheran Church
of the sixteenth century were accepted and endorsed by Muhlenberg
without reservation, and in his whole ministerial work he endeavored to
come up to this standard, as he had solemnly pledged himself in his
ordination vow before the theological faculty of the university at
Leipzig, on August 24, 1739, which committed to him the office of
'teaching the Gospel and administering the Sacraments according to the
rule given in the writings of the prophets and apostles, the sum of
which is contained in those three symbols, the Apostolic, Nicene, and
Athanasian, in the Augsburg Confession laid before Emperor Charles V,
A. D. 1530, in the Apology of the same, in Dr. Luther's Large and Small
Catechism, in the Articles subscribed to in the Smalcald Convention,
and in the Formula of Concord. He solemnly promised that he would
propose to his hearers what would be conformed and consentient to these
writings, and that he would never depart from the sense which they
give.' (Dr. W. J. Mann's _The Conservatism of Henry Melchior
Muehlenberg_, in the _Lutheran Church Review_, January, 1888.) And this
was the position not of the patriarch alone, but of his colaborers, of
the whole Synod of Pennsylvania, which he organized, and of the sister-
or daughter-synod of New York, during the lifetime of Muhlenberg and
Kunze. 'Those fathers were very far from giving the Lutheran Church, as
they organized it on this new field of labor, a form and character in
any essential point different from what the Lutheran Church was in the
Old World, and especially in Germany. They retained not only the old
doctrinal standards, but also the old traditional elements and forms of
worship; the church-year with its great festivals, its Gospel- and
Epistle-lessons, the Liturgy, the rite of Confirmation, preparatory
service for the Lord's Supper, connected with the confession of sins
and absolution. Their doctrinal position was unmistakably Lutheran, in
the sense in which Lutheranism is historically known, and is something
individual and distinct, and as such stands in opposition to Romanism on
the one hand, and to Zwingli, Calvin, and all other so-called Protestant
parties on the other. Those fathers were admitted to the ministry on
condition of their own declaration that they were in harmony with the
Confessio Augustana Invariata, and with all the other Symbolical Books
of the Lutheran Church. They demanded of those whom they admitted to the
sacred office the same condition. They allowed no organization or
constitutions of congregations without demanding the acknowledgment of
all the Symbolical Books of the Lutheran Church as the doctrinal
basis.'" (1,317.) In a letter dated June 14, 1774, and addressed to one
of the members of the Lutheran congregation at Charleston, S. C., some
of whose troubles and difficulties he had endeavored to adjust,
Muhlenberg stated the rule of his own personal course as follows:
"During the thirty-two years of my sojourning in America, time and again
occasions were given me to join the Episcopal Church, and to receive
four or live times more salary than my poor German fellow-members of the
Lutheran faith gave me; but I preferred reproach in and with my people
to the treasures in Egypt." (Jacobs, 298.) The confirmation form of the
Agenda contained the question: "Do you intend to remain true to the
truth of the Evangelical Lutheran Church as you have learned to know it
and solemnly confessed it?" (G.,498.)

46. Pledge of Pastors and Congregations.--In like manner as Muhlenberg
himself, all his colaborers and congregations were pledged to the
Lutheran confessions. The religious oath which Brunnholtz took reads, in
part, as follows: "I, Peter Brunnholtz, do solemnly swear and before God
Almighty do take an oath upon my soul . . . that I will abide by the
pure and unadulterated Word of God, as, according to the sense of the
Spirit, it has been diligently compiled from Holy Scripture against all
errorists in the three chief Symbols, and especially also in the true
Lutheran church-books, as the Unaltered Augsburg Confession, its
Apology, the Smalcald Articles, the two Catechisms of Luther, and in the
specific Formula of Concord, and that I will teach according to them."
(G., 283.) In similar fashion, Kurtz, Weygand, and all pastors solemnly
promised to discharge their office "according to the pure doctrine of
the apostles and prophets and all our Synodical Books." (_Lehre u.
Wehre_, 1856, 120.) According to the Agenda of 1748 the catechumens
promised faithfulness unto death "to the truth of the Evangelical
Lutheran Church which they had solemnly confessed." (488.) From the very
outset, Muhlenberg also had the congregations subscribe to articles in
which they confessed themselves to God's Word and the Lutheran Symbols.
(299.) The congregations, in agreement with the constitution of 1762,
pledged their pastors to preach "the Word of God according to the
foundation of the apostles and prophets and in conformity with the
Unaltered Augsburg Confession." True, the Pennsylvania Synod, at its
organization in 1748, did not draw up any special articles of
confession, yet, according to the Agenda which had been previously
adopted, it was regarded as self-evident that all pastors and
congregations subscribe to the Lutheran Symbols. The synodical
constitution of 1778, which was entered in the official book of record
begun in 1781, contained the following provisions: "As to his life and
teaching, every pastor is to be found in consonance with the Word of
God and our Symbolical Books." "In case complaints are lodged against
teachers, the investigation must concern itself with: 1. express errors
against the clear sense of Holy Writ and our Symbolical Books of
faith." (529.) Muhlenberg's devotion to the Lutheran doctrine appears
also from the interest and zeal which he showed in furthering the
institution of catechetical instruction and in establishing parochial
schools. One of the chief questions to engage the attention of the
first convention of Synod in 1748 was, "What is the condition of the
schools?" Yet, though Muhlenberg, in the manner described, stood for
confessional Lutheranism, it cannot be maintained convincingly that his
influence in this direction was sound and salubrious in every respect.
His was not the genuine Lutheranism of Luther, but the modified
Lutheranism, then advocated in Europe and Germany generally, notably in
Halle and the circles of the Pietists, a Lutheranism inoculated with
legalism, subjectivism, indifferentism, and unionism. Muhlenberg's
confessionalism was of the historic kind, that is to say, reverence for
the venerable Lutheran symbols rather than the living power of Lutheran
truth itself, directing, permeating, and shaping one's entire
ecclesiastical activity both as to teaching and practise.


MUHLENBBERG'S PIETISM.

47. Subjectivism of Halle Pietists.--Following are some of the
aberrations of the Pietists in Halle: That doctrine was of minor
importance for, and as compared with, piety; that sanctification was not
contained in, but must be added to, faith; that repentance and
conversion were urged in such a manner as if man himself could force
them; that such Christians as could not tell of certain peculiar
penitential struggles and sensations of grace were regarded as
unconverted; that the assurance of salvation was not based on the
objective Word of God, but on subjective marks, notably such us were
found in those converted in the circles of the Pietists; that the
afflicted, instead of being comforted with the Gospel of the
unconditional pardon of the entire world, were bidden to feel the pulse
of their own piety; that such as did not manifest the symptoms of
conversion _a la_ Halle, were judged uncharitably and looked down upon
as not being truly converted; that the "revived" and "awakened" were
regarded as the real church in the Church, the _ecclesiolae in
ecclesia_. And what of the pietism of the Halle emissaries in
Pennsylvania? Dr. Mann declared concerning Muhlenberg and his
 co-laborers: "Their pietism was truly Lutheran piety, a warm-hearted,
devout, practical Lutheranism." (Spaeth, 1, 318.) However, traces of the
morbid and infected Lutheranism cultivated by Pietists, were but too
apparent also in Muhlenberg and the associates carefully selected for
him by Francke and Freylinghausen in Halle. The piety for which they
strove so earnestly and zealously was, in more than one respect, neither
truly evangelical nor soundly Lutheran, but of a legalistic and
subjective nature. They delighted in evangelistic sermons designed to
convert men in the manner of Halle. They endeavored to ascertain who
were the truly converted in their congregations. As a standard they
applied their own experiences and as models the Halle converts. Instead
of immediately comforting terrified sinners with the full consolation of
the Gospel, they proved them "according to the marks of the state of
grace." _Graebner:_ "While Diaconus in Grosshennersdorf, Muhlenberg had
already published a polemical tract against Dr. Balthasar Mentzer, who
had attacked Pietism, and had pictured the time before the rise of
Pietism as a time of darkness, in which God had 'set up a true light
here and there, until at last the faithful servants of the Lord, the
sainted Spener, Francke, Breithaupt, Anton, and others arose' and 'again
brought forth the Bible.' At that time Muhlenberg advocated private
meetings for souls who had been 'awakened from the sleep of sin,' to
which the Burgomaster of Eimbeck referred when he sent word to
Muhlenberg 'to cease the pietistic conventicles, as they were against
the law of the land.'" (315.)

48. Converts, Prayer-Meetings, Revivals.--Brunnholtz, whose work was
highly praised by Muhlenberg, says of his parishioners, whom,
nevertheless, he admitted to the Lord's Table, that, for the greater
part, they were "totally blind and dead," people who had not yet
experienced any "true change of heart"; that in present-day
congregations one must "be content with the gleanings while looking and
waiting for traces of divine activity, where, when, in whom, and
whether the Spirit can give a rich harvest." It is only too true, he
continues, "that the great multitude, both old and young, are still
buried in carnal-mindedness and in great ignorance, and stand in need
of a true conversion." "There are indeed a few, some also in my two
congregations, concerning whom I have the well-founded hope that they
have been awakened from the spiritual sleep of sin and are being drawn
to the Son by the Father." "With regard to my congregation here in
Philadelphia, I am not able to boast very much of the majority and of
the outwardly great number, since there is still much corruption among
them. The Lord, however, has granted me a small remnant, who have been
awakened by the Word, and who earnestly seek after the paths of peace,
permitting themselves quietly, but in earnestness, to be prepared for
the rest of God." Muhlenberg says: "True repentance and conversion
according to the Word of God is a difficult matter and a rare
occurrence." "We continued our labors upon the inner and outward
upbuilding of the Church, because a small, divinely sanctified seed was
noticed among them." What Brunnholtz and Muhlenberg looked for in the
communicant members of their congregations whom they regarded as
unconverted were, no doubt, the Halle symptoms. In 1748 submissiveness
to be guided by the pastor was numbered among these marks. When the
elders of the congregation in Lancaster opposed their pastor and
insisted upon their opinion, which was not wrong by any means, they were
admonished "to convert themselves with all their hearts, since otherwise
they could not properly wait on their office, and the pastor's trials in
the congregation would become too great." (319.) The "small remnant of
the converted" were nurtured by the pastors in "special prayer-meetings
in the houses." (320.) This was the practise of Brunnholtz in
Philadelphia. And Muhlenberg wrote from New York in 1751: "I have
learned that among the Reformed here there is a small body of awakened
souls who hunger and thirst after righteousness. It is said that this
awakening was brought about by the younger of the two Reformed pastors.
My hostess also belongs to the Reformed congregation. Some years ago she
was so terrified by the opinion of the unconditional decree of God that
a hysterical malady set in with which she is still somewhat afflicted. I
searched for the marks of the state of grace. She answered sensibly,
which gave me hope that she is in a state of grace. My host desired me
to go into a private chamber with him and his weak spouse, and to pray
in secret, which we did." "At the close of the day my dear host again
desired that I pray with him and his wife in private, since she thereby
had experienced strength and relief on the former occasion. On the 30th
of July I was taken to the pious English merchant, who had some awakened
souls with him. They sang a psalm, read a chapter from a devotional
book, and urged me to pray at the close. After a time the dear souls
returned to their homes, and I remained with him till eleven o'clock and
employed the time in pleasant and edifying conversation with him and his
godly wife." "August 1, Saturday evening, I preached penitential sermons
both in the German and Dutch languages. . . . The church was well filled
on this occasion, and the parting seemed to touch and sadden the
awakened and well-meaning souls." Weygand continued the work in the
spirit of Muhlenberg, conducting "private hours" with the "awakened
souls," and finding particular delight in some souls who had been
awakened by Wesley. When Whitefield returned to Pennsylvania in 1702,
Dr. Wrangel entered into relations with him and began to conduct
prayer-meetings in a private house in the city, and when the room in
that house could no longer contain the people, Muhlenberg's congregation
granted him the use of their church. When not prevented by other duties,
Muhlenberg regularly attended these English devotional hours. The
congregational constitution of 1762 especially reserved for the pastor
the right to "conduct hours of edification, exhortation, and prayer in
churches and schools, on week-days or evenings, as necessity might
dictate, and as strength and circumstances might permit." (383. 425.
440. 485.) Dr. J. H. C. Helmuth was the first to report on a
revivalistic awakening in his congregation at Lancaster, in 1773. Later
on, 1811, Helmuth, in the name of the Pennsylvania Synod, wrote a
letter to Paul Henkel, then on his missionary tours in Ohio, warning
him not to participate in camp-meetings, "if he should come into contact
with similar aberrations from our Lutheran ways." But even at this time
Synod did not take a decided stand against revivalistic enthusiasm.
Already in the first decades of the nineteenth century reports, coming
out of the Synod, such as the following were heard: "Here the fire is
also burning." "Here we behold miracles of God's grace; everywhere we
find the wounded, the weeping, the moaning, and those who are praying.
Some cried out, 'My God, what shall I do that I may be saved?' Others
asked with tears, 'Can I still be saved?'" (549.) In 1810 the North
Carolina Synod resolved to have Philip Henkel try out a revival, since
such awakenings were also to be desired among Lutherans. During the
revival agitation from 1830 to 1850, the English Lutheran churches
caught the contagion in great numbers. They introduced emotional
preaching, the mourners' bench, protracted meetings, and, vying with the
fanatical sects, denounced as spiritually dead formalists all who
adhered to the old ways of Lutheranism. In its issue of March 21, 1862,
the _Lutheran Observer_ declared that the "Symbolism" of the Old
Lutherans in St. Louis meant the death of the Lutheran Church, which
nothing but revivals were able to save. (_L. u. W_. 1862, 152; 1917,
374.) Muhlenberg's Pietism had helped to prepare the way for this
Methodistic aberration.


MUHLENBERG'S HIERARCHICAL TENDENCIES.

49. Government of and by the Ministers.--A clear conception of the
doctrines of the Church and of the holy ministry was something
Muhlenberg did not possess. Hence his congregations also were not
educated to true independence and to the proper knowledge and exercise
of their priestly rights and duties. Dr. Mann says of Muhlenberg and his
coworkers: "These fathers were very far from giving the Lutheran Church,
as they organized it on this new field of labor, a form and character in
any essential point different from what the Lutheran Church was in the
Old World, and especially in Germany." (Spaeth, _C. P. Krauth_, 1, 317.)
The pastor ruled the elders; the pastor and the elders ruled the
congregation; the synod ruled the pastor, the elders, and the
congregation; the College of Pastors ruled the synod and the local
pastor together with his elders and his congregation; and all of these
were subject to, and ruled by, the authorities in Europe. The local
congregations were taught to view themselves, not as independent, but as
parts of, and subject to, the body of United Congregations and Pastors.
The constitution for congregations simply presupposed that a
congregation was a member of, and subordinate to, Synod. (499.) This
appears also from a document signed by the elders of Tulpehocken and
Northkill (Nordkiel), August 24, 1748, two days before the organization
of the Pennsylvania Synod. In it the elders, in the name of the
congregations, state and promise: "In this it always remains presupposed
that we with the United Congregations constitute one whole Ev. Lutheran
congregation, which acknowledges and respects as her lawful pastors all
the pastors who constitute the College of Pastors (Collegium Pastorum)
and remains in the closest connection with them, as being our regular
teachers. . . . Accordingly, we have the desire to be embodied and
incorporated in the United Congregations in Pennsylvania, and to be
recognized and received by them as brethren and members of a special
congregation of the Ev. Lutheran Church, and consequently to share in
the pastoral care of the College of all the Rev. Pastors of the United
Congregations. In accordance herewith we most publicly and solemnly
desire, acknowledge and declare all the Rev. Pastors of the United
Church-Congregations to be our pastors and ministers (Seelsorger und
Hirten); we also give them complete authority to provide for the welfare
of our souls, how and through whom, also as long as, they choose. We
furthermore promise to regard the Rev. College of Pastors of the Ev.
Lutheran Congregations in Pennsylvania as a lawful and regular
presbyterium and ministerium and particularly as our pastors- and
ministers-in-chief, also to respect and regard, them as such, without
whose previously known advice and consent we do, order, resolve, or
change nothing; hence to have nothing to do with any [other] pastor, nor
even, without their previously known advice and consent, to undertake
anything in important church-matters with the pastor whom they have sent
to us; on the contrary, to approve of and with all our powers to observe
and execute whatever, in church-matters of our own and the
congregations, the whole Rev. College of Pastors will resolve, and
properly indicate and make known to us. Furthermore we promise to
recognize, receive, respect, honor and hear the teacher [minister] as
our lawful and divinely called teacher as long as the Rev. College of
Pastors will see fit to leave him with us; nor to make any opposition in
case they should be pleased for important reasons to call him away and
to put another in his place; moreover, to receive and regard his
successor with equal love and duty. We furthermore promise, if (which
God forfend) a misunderstanding or separation should arise between the
whole congregation or part of it and the teacher, or between members of
the congregation, to report this immediately to the Rev. College of
Pastors, and to await their decision, and to abide by it." (301 f.)
_Graebner:_ "One's indignation is roused when reading how the elders of
the Lancaster congregation were treated at the first synod. These men
defended the by no means improper demand of their congregation that such
as had fallen away to the sects and again returned should subscribe to
the constitution of the congregation before they once more were
recognized as members. In spite of the opinion of the assembly and the
utterly wrong admonition 'to leave it to their pastor,' the elders
'adhered to their opinion.' Immediately their conversion is questioned,
and 'all the elders who have not yet been thoroughly converted are
admonished to convert themselves with all their heart.' The remark of
the minutes, 'They kept silence,' conveys the impression that the rebuke
had been merited, and that the cut was felt." (320.) According to the
constitution for congregations, subscribed to October 18, 1762, by
Muhlenberg and Handschuh and 270 members of their congregations, the
grades of admonition and church discipline were: 1. admonition by the
preacher alone; 2. admonition by the preacher in the presence of the
elders and wardens; 3. expulsion before or by the whole church council.
(402.) The same constitution contains the provision: If any deacon or
elder who has been elected to perform this arduous duty refuses to
accept the office without sufficient reasons, "he is not to be excused
until he has made a considerable contribution to the church treasury."
(490.) At synod the pastors ruled supreme. The lay delegates, consisting
of the elders of the congregations, merely reported to Synod, when
asked, concerning the work, fidelity, and efficiency of their pastors,
the parochial schools, etc., and presented requests to Synod. But they
had no voice in her decisions. In the common assembly of the pastors and
laymen no vote was taken. The _Lutheran Cyclopedia_ says: "The
deliberations were exclusively those of the pastors, while the lay
delegates were present only to furnish the needed information concerning
local conditions and the fidelity of pastors." (493.) Furthermore, the
ministerium, the college of pastors, conferred the office and made
pastors through ordination, a rite considered essential to the ministry,
and without which no one was regarded a lawful and full-fledged pastor.
Thus, for instance, in the case of J. A. Weygand it was held that he was
given the right to perform all the functions pertaining to his office,
not by the call of the congregation which he had accepted, but by his
subsequent ordination. (432.)

50. Obedience to Ministerium and Fathers in Halle.--In the ordination
the pastors were pledged to obey the Ministerium. In Weygand's call the
clause was embodied, "that he would submit to the investigation and
judgment of the United Pastors and the Venerable Fathers" in Halle.
(452.) The manner in which Kurtz was bound appears from the following
points of the "Revers" which he had to sign before his ordination in
1748: "2. To consider my congregation nothing but a part of the United
Congregations. ... 4. To introduce no ceremonies into the public worship
or into the administration of the Sacraments other than those which have
been introduced by the College of Pastors of the United Congregations,
also to use no other book of forms than the one which will be assigned
to me by them. 5. To undertake nothing of importance alone nor with the
assistance of the church-council, except it have been previously
communicated to the Reverend College of Pastors, and their opinion have
been obtained, as well as to abide by their good counsel and advice. 6.
To render a verbal or written account of my pastorate at the demand of
the Reverend College of Pastors. 7. To keep a diary and daybook and to
record therein official acts and remarkable occurrences. 8. Should they
call me hence, to accept the call, and not to resist." (305.) Before his
ordination Pastor J. H. Schaum had to sign a "Revers" and, with a
handclasp, seal the promise to the United Pastors that he as their
adjunct "would be faithful and obedient to them." To the congregations
the Ministerium did not only prescribe the liturgy, but appointed and
removed their pastors as they saw fit. Pastor Schaum's call to New York
was signed by the four pastors, Muhlenberg, Brunnholtz, Handschuh, and
Kurtz as their own vocation, in their own name, not in the name of the
congregation. (327.) The congregation at Lancaster desired Kurtz as
their pastor instead of Handschuh, whom the Ministerium was planning to
send to them. Muhlenberg, however, reports: "We bade them consider this
and demanded a short answer, giving them to understand that, if a single
one of them would be restive and dissatisfied with our advice and
arrangement, we would consent to give them neither the one nor the
other, but would turn to the other congregations still vacant and leave
the dust to them. They must consider it a special favor that we had come
to them first." Graebner comments on this as follows: "One can safely
say that there could be found to-day in all America not a single
Lutheran pastor or congregation who would consent to concede to a synod
such powers as Pastor Kurtz and the congregation at Tulpehocken yielded
to the 'United Pastors' in 1748." (321.) The superiors of the United
Pastors and their congregations were the "Fathers in Europe." They had
commissioned them, and to them they were responsible. All decisions of
Synod in doctrinal, liturgical, and governmental questions were subject
to the advice and approval of the authorities in Halle. When the church
council of the congregation in Philadelphia sent a humble petition to
the Synod in 1750, requesting permission to retain the services of
Pastor Brunnholtz for themselves, they received the answer: We have no
right to make changes without the previous knowledge and permission of
the "Fathers in Europe." (330.) In order to ordain Weygand, Muhlenberg
had to get permission from the "Fathers in Europe." (432.) Even such
pastors as Stoever and Wagner, who did not unite with the Ministerium,
were by Muhlenberg designated as "such as had run of themselves," as
"so-called pastors," who had "neither an inner nor an outward call," and
"who were concerned about nothing but their daily bread." And why?
Because, according to Muhlenberg, they had not "been sent" (by the
Ministerium or the Fathers); because they were not subject to a
consistory, did not render account of their pastorates, and would not
observe the same order with those who had come from Halle. (311.)
Concerning Weygand, who arrived in 1748, Muhlenberg reports: "I asked
him what he was now going to do in Pennsylvania, whether he intended to
be for us or against us; if he desired to be with us, it would be
necessary for us first to obtain permission from our Venerable Fathers.
If, however, he intended to be against us, he might come on, we
entertained no fear, as we had already encountered such as had run of
themselves. He answered, 'God forfend!' He would not side with the
Ministerium, to which men belonged like Valentine Kraft, Andrew Stoever,
Wagner, and the like, though they had requested him to join them; that,
on the other hand, he would not be in our way either, but rather go
elsewhere and begin a school at some place or another." (431. 322.)

51. Constitution of 1792.--The new constitution, adopted by the
Pennsylvania Synod in 1792, though granting a modified suffrage to lay
delegates in all important questions, left the synod what it had been, a
body governed by the clergy. Dr. Graebner says: "It has been pointed out
how this [hierarchical] trait plainly appeared already when the
Pennsylvania Synod was founded; later on we meet it everywhere and in
all synods organized prior to the General Synod. According to the
conception generally prevailing a synod had its real foundation, its
essential part, not in the congregations, but in the preachers. This
idea governed their thinking and speaking. The 'preachers of the State
of Ohio united with some of the preachers in Pennsylvania living nearest
to them, and established a conference or synod of their own.' Some
'preachers west of the Susquehanna' were granted their petition of being
permitted to form a synod. In agreement herewith they preferred to speak
of a synod according to its chief and fundamental part, as a
'ministerium.' The constitution of the Pennsylvania Synod began: 'We
Evangelical Lutheran preachers in Pennsylvania and the neighboring
States, by our signatures to this constitution, acknowledging ourselves
as a body, name this union of ours The German Evangelical Lutheran
Ministerium in Pennsylvania and the neighboring States, and our
individual meetings A Ministerial Assembly.' Lay delegates of the
congregations, though admitted to the synodical conventions in
Pennsylvania and at other places, were nowhere recognized as members
having equal rights with the ministers. It was as late as 1792 that the
lay delegates obtained the right to vote in Pennsylvania, and even then
only with restrictions. In the affairs of greatest import (doctrinal
matters, admission of new members, etc.) they were privileged neither to
speak nor to vote. On this point the ministerial order of the
Pennsylvania Synod declared: 'Lay delegates who have a right to vote
shall sit together at one place in the assembly; they are privileged to
offer motions, and to give their opinion and cast their votes in all
questions submitted for decision and determination, except in matters
pertaining to the learning of a candidate or a catechist, to questions
of orthodoxy and heterodoxy, the admission to, and expulsion from, the
ministerium, and other, similar cases, for the ministerial assembly has
cognizance of such as these.' The constitution of the New York
Ministerium contained the same provision, chap. 7, §4: 'Each lay
delegate shall have a right to take part in the debates of the House, to
offer resolutions, and to vote on all questions, except the examining,
licensing, or ordaining of candidates for the ministry, the admission of
ministers into the association or their exclusion from it, and the
discussion of weighty articles of faith or cases of conscience.' The
right of a layman to vote was regarded as grounded in that of the
minister, not the right of both in the congregation. Wh

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