The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Lutherans of New York, Their Story and Their Problems, by George Unangst Wenner

[Transcriber's note: A very few German names appeared in the original with umlauts. These have been transcribed as an "e". A few spelling errors in the original are indicated with a "[sic]". The original uses italics to indicate most of the German and Latin in the text, and all of the authors' names in the bibliography. Italics are transcribed with the underscore character at the beginning and end. Footnotes in the original are transcribed here in a paragraph immediately below the paragraph to which the footnote is connected. The appendix contains a table that is 102 characters wide.]

TO
THE LUTHERANS OF NEW YORK
IN
THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
May you bring forth fruit and may your fruit remain

Contents
   Apology
   Introduction
Their Story
   In the Seventeenth Century—1648-1700
   In the Eighteenth Century—1701-1750
   In the Eighteenth Century—1751-1800
   In the Nineteenth Century—1801-1838
   In the Nineteenth Century—1839-1865
   In the Nineteenth Century—1866-1900
   In the Twentieth Century—1900-1918
Their Problems
   The Problem of Synods
   The Problem of Language
   The Problem of Membership
   The Problem of Religious Education
   The Problem of Lapsed Lutherans
   The Problem of Statistics
Epilogue
Appendix—The Churches; Deaconesses; Former Pastors; Sons of the
Churches; Institutions and Societies; Other Associations; Periodicals;
Book-stores; Bibliography; Index.

Illustrations
   Frontispiece [Transcriber's note: a portrait of the author]
   When New York Was Young
   A Corner of Broad Street
   New Amsterdam in 1640
   In the Eighteenth Century
   Trinity Church
   Henry Melchior Muehlenberg
   The Old Swamp Church
   Frederick Muehlenberg
   John Christopher Kunze
   Kunze's Gravestone
   Carl F. E. Stohlmann, D.D.
   Pastor Wilhelm Heinrich Berkemeier
   The Wartburg
   G. F. Krotel, D.D., LL.D.
   Augustus Charles Wedekind, D.D.
   Pastor J. H. Sieker
   Charles E. Weltner, D.D.

Lutherans are not foreigners in New York. Most of us it is true are new
comers. But with a single exception, that of the Dutch Reformed Church,
Lutherans were the first to plant the standard of the cross on Manhattan
Island.

The story of our church runs parallel with that of the city. Our problems are bound up with those of New York. Our neighbors ought to be better acquainted with us. We ought to be better acquainted with them. We have common tasks, and it would be well if we knew more of each other's ways and aims.

New York is a cosmopolitan city. It is the gateway through which the nations are sending their children into the new world.

Lutherans are a cosmopolitan church. Our pastors minister to their flocks in fifteen languages. No church has a greater obligation to "seek the peace of the city" than the Lutherans of New York. No church has a deeper interest in the problems that come to us with the growth and ever changing conditions of the metropolis.

In their earlier history our churches had a checkered career. In recent years they have made remarkable progress. In Greater New York we enroll this year 160 churches. The Metropolitan District numbers 260 congregations holding the Lutheran confession. But the extraordinary conditions of a rapidly expanding metropolis, with its nomadic population, together with our special drawback of congregations divided among various races and languages as well as conflicting schools of theological definition, make our tasks heavy and confront us with problems of grave difficulty.

On the background of a historical sketch a study of some of these problems is attempted by the author. After spending what seemed but a span of years in the pastorate on the East Side, he awoke one day to find that half a century had been charged to his account. While it is a distinction, there is no special merit in being the senior pastor of New York. As Edward Judson once said to him: "All that you have had to do was to outlive your contemporaries."

These fifty years have been eventful ones in the history of our church in New York. All of this period the author "has seen and part of it he was." But having also known, with four exceptions all the Lutheran pastors of the preceding fifty years, he has come into an almost personal touch with the events of a century of Lutheran history on this island. He has breathed its spirit and sympathized with its aspirations.

This unique experience served as a pretext for putting into print some reflections that seemed fitting at a time when our churches were celebrating the quadricentennial of the Reformation and were inquiring as to the place which they might take in the new century upon which they were entering. The manuscript was begun during the celebration, but parochial duties intervened and frequent interruptions delayed the completion of the book.

Lutherans have their place in Church History. Our doctrinal principles differ in certain respects from those of other churches. We believe that these principles are an expression of historical, evangelical Christianity, worthy of being promulgated, not in a spirit of arrogant denominationalism, but in a spirit of toleration and catholicity. Yet few in this city, outside of our own kith and kin, understand the meaning of our system. We have made but little progress in commending it to others or in extending our denominational lines.

We do not even hold the ground that belongs to us. The descendants of the Lutherans of the first two centuries are not enrolled in our church books. Although of late years we have increased a hundredfold (literally a hundredfold within the memory of men still living), we are far from caring effectively for our flocks. The number of lapsed Lutherans is larger than that of the enrolled members of our churches. In the language of our Palatine forefathers: Doh is ebbes letz.

While therefore recent progress affords ground for encouragement, it is not a time for boastfulness. It is rather a time for self-examination, for an inquiry into our preparedness for new tasks and impending opportunities.

We are living in an imperial city. What we plan and what we do here in New York projects itself far beyond the walls of our city. Nowhere are the questions of the community more complicated and the needs of the time more urgent than here. We should therefore ask ourselves whether the disjointed sections of our church, arrayed during the Quadricentennial as one, for the purposes of a spectacular celebration, but each exalting some particularism of secondary value, adequately represent the religious ideas which four centuries ago gave a new impulse to the life of the world. If not, where does the trouble lie? Is it a question of doctrine, of language, of organization or of spirit?

The emphasis we place upon doctrine has given us a reputation for exclusiveness. The author believes that the spirit of Lutheranism is that of catholicity. He holds that, in our relations with the people of this city and with other churches we ought to emphasize the essential and outstanding features of the Lutheran Church rather than the minute distinctions which only the trained dogmatician can comprehend. He is in sympathy with the well known plea of Rupertus Meldenius, an otherwise unknown Lutheran theologian of the seventeenth century (about 1623), to observe "in essentials unity, in non-essentials liberty, in all things charity."

For the sake of non-Lutheran readers it may be well, in a sketch of the story and problems of our churches, to present a short statement of their principles and to indicate in what respect these differ from the general attitude and beliefs of other churches. In doing so however the author does not presume to encroach upon the field belonging to the scholars of the church. He is not an expert theologian. What he has to say upon this subject can only be taken as the opinion of a workaday pastor who, in practical experience, has obtained an acquaintance with the teachings of the church which it is his privilege to serve. For a clearer understanding of disputed points the reader is referred to the books of reference named in the Bibliography.

Many otherwise well-read people, while admitting that Lutherans are Protestants, suspect that their system is still imbued with the leaven of Romanism. In their classification of churches they are disposed to place us among Ritualists, Sacerdotalists and Crypto-Romanists.

We do not expect to reverse at once the preference of most American Protestants in favor of the Reformed system. But since we have had no inconsiderable share in the shaping of modern history, we are confident that our principles will in due time receive the consideration to which any historical development is entitled. We would like to be understood, or at least not to be misunderstood, by our fellow Christians.

But our chief desire is to inspire our own young people with an intelligent devotion to the faith of their fathers and to persuade them of its conformity with historical, believing Christianity.

What is Lutheranism? How does it differ from Catholicism? How does it differ from other forms of Protestantism?

The origin of Lutheranism we are accustomed to assign to the sixteenth century. We associate it with the nailing of the 95 theses to the church door at Wittenberg, or with Luther's defence at the Diet of Worms, or with the Confession of the Evangelicals at Augsburg in 1530.

These events were indeed dramatic indications of a great change, but they were only the culmination of a process that had been going on for ages. It was a re-formation of the ancient Catholic Church and a return to the original principles of the Gospel.

"The Church had become an enormous labyrinthine structure which included all sorts of heterogeneous matters, the Gospel and holy water, the universal priesthood and the pope on his throne, the Redeemer and Saint Anna, and called it religion. Over against this vast accumulation of the ages, against which many times ineffective protest had been made, the Lutheran Reformation insisted on reducing religion to its simplest terms, faith and the word of God."* *Harnack, Wesen des Christenthums.

The traditional conception of the Church with all its apparatus and claims of authority it repudiated, and in the few and simple statements of the seventh article of the Augustana, it set forth its doctrine of the Church:

"Also they teach, that One holy Church is to continue forever. The Church is the congregation of saints, in which the Gospel is rightly taught and the Sacraments rightly administered. And to the true unity of the Church, it is enough to agree concerning the doctrine of the Gospel and the administration of the Sacraments."

But properly to understand our history we must also take account of another movement with which our churches had to contend at the same time that they were making their protest against Rome. This was a more radical form of Protestantism which found its expression among what are known as the Reformed Churches. It had its home in Switzerland, and made its way along the Rhine to Germany, France and Holland. Through John Knox it came to Scotland, and subsequently superseded Lutheranism in Holland and in England. It was from these countries that the earliest colonists came to America, and thus American Christianity early received the impress of the Reformed system. The few and scattered Lutheran churches which were established here in the early history of our country were brought into contact with a form of Protestantism at variance with their own theological principles. The history of our Church in America must be studied with this fact in mind, otherwise many of its developments will not be understood.

It would lead too far to explain the historical and philosophical differences between these two forms of Protestantism. A phrase first used by Julius Stahl aptly describes the difference. The Lutheran Reformation was the "Conservative Reformation." Its general principle was to maintain the historical continuity of the Church, rejecting only that which was contrary to the word of God. The irenic character of the Augsburg Confession was owing to this principle. The Reformed Churches, on the other hand, made a tabula rasa of history, and, ignoring even the legitimate contributions of the Christian centuries, professed to return to apostolical simplicity, and to accept for their church-life only that which was explicitly prescribed by the Holy Scriptures.

Thus the Lutherans retained the churches as they were, with their altars and their pictures, the Liturgy and other products of art and of history, provided they were not contrary to the word of God. The Reformed, on the other hand, would have none of these things because they were not prescribed in the Bible. They worshipped in churches with bare walls, and dispensed with organs and music, in the interest of a return to Scriptural simplicity.

There were other differences, but these indicate the general character of the two movements.

History thus placed our Church between two fires, and the training she received explains in part the polemical character for which she has been distinguished. Sharp theological distinctions had to be made. The emphasis which she was compelled to place upon distinctive doctrine as a bond of fellowship accounts for the maintenance of standards which were not required in the early history of our Church when the seventh article of the Augustana was presented.

Those were famous battles which were fought in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in defence of the Lutheran position. Our Church had to contend with two vigorous foes in the statement of her doctrines, Rome and Reform. The antinomian and synergistic controversies, Osiander, Major and Flacius, the Philippists and the Crypto-Calvinists are names that still remind us of the theological carnage of the sixteenth century.

In the seventeenth century came the reign of the dogmaticians. The eighteenth century was the age of Pietism and this was followed by Rationalism. The scope of this Introduction does not require us to explain the significance of these movements. Students of Church History are familiar with them.

The revival of spiritual life at the beginning of the nineteenth century brought with it also a revival of church consciousness and a restoration of the confession of the church. Both in Europe and in America the attempt has been made to secure the unity of the church on the basis of subscription to the various Symbols included in the Book of Concord. These Symbols, besides the Ecumenical Creeds and the Augsburg Confession, are Melanchthon's Apology, that is Defence of the Augsburg Confession, Luther's two Catechisms, the Smalcald Articles and the Formula of Concord. The later Confessions supplement and explain the statements of the Augsburg Confession. As such they are valuable exponents of Lutheran teaching. Many of our churches in Europe as well as in America require of their ministers subscription to these Confessions. At the same time it is also true that many churches, whose Lutheranism cannot be impugned, find in the Augsburg Confession an adequate expression of their doctrinal position.

According to the Confessors of Augsburg: "For the true unity of the church it is sufficient to agree concerning the doctrines of the Gospel."

It would seem, therefore, to be in harmony with the spirit of Lutheranism to make "the confession of the churches" rather than "the Confessions of the Church" the bond of union. Underneath the Confessions there are distinctive principles differentiating us from the sacerdotal churches on the one hand and from the Reformed churches on the other hand.

The soul of the Confessions is the confession, and this soul we may recognize amid all the changes that take place in the course of time and the progress of thought. It reveals itself in innumerable forms, in sermons and in sacred song, and above all in the sanctified lives of those who confess the faith.

In conversation with an eminent teacher in one of our most conservative schools, the author not long ago requested a definition of Lutheranism from the standpoint of the school which the Professor represented. Of course, it was suggested, the acceptance of the Symbolical books must be presumed, sine qua non.

The reply was: "The Symbolical Books are valuable, but their obligatory acceptance is not essential: The same is true even of the Augsburg Confession. Any one who accepts the teachings of Luther's Small Catechism is a Lutheran. The heart of the Lutheran faith may be expressed in the following words: "Man is a sinner who can be saved by grace alone."

In view of this statement it would seem to be a legitimate inference that even in the straitest sect of Lutherans in America the ultimate doctrine of Lutheranism, reduced to a single word, is GRACE.

Churches, however, have their distinguishing marks. In the Lutheran Church these are more difficult to find because of her catholic origin and spirit. While forms and ceremonies are retained, they play only a minor part in the expression of her churchliness. Bishops and presbyters, robes and chasubles, liturgies and orders, "helps, governments and divers kinds of tongues," in the providence of God all of these things have been "set in the church." Lutherans in many lands make use of them. An inexperienced observer, taking note only of crucifixes and candles sometimes fails to distinguish between Lutherans and Catholics. Yet none of these heirlooms of our ancient family belong to the essential marks of the church. Their observance or non-observance has nothing to do with the substance of Lutheranism.

Lutheranism aimed at reformation and not at revolution. Its initial purpose was to bring back the Church to the common faith of Christendom. Hence the Lutheran Confession is in its large outlines that of universal Christendom. Nevertheless, it received a distinctive trend from the problems of soteriology. The ancient Church had developed the doctrines of God and of Christ. A beginning, too, had been made in the doctrines of sin and grace and the way of salvation. But the development had been hindered by hierarchical traditionalism and by the spirit of legalism. These were the obstacles that stood in the way. The cry that went up to God from the hearts of the people in the days of the Reformation was "What must I do to be saved?" This cry found a voice in the experience of Luther himself. This is what drove him into the monastery, and this was the underlying quest of his life as a monk and as a teacher in the university, through monasticism to get to heaven. It was only when he had found Christ, and realized that his sins had been taken away through the atoning work of the Son of God, that he found peace. It is His person and work upon which the doctrine of our Church primarily rests.* *"Luther, when he said that justification by faith was the article of a standing or falling Church, stated the exact truth. He meant to say, in the terms of the New Testament, especially of Paul, that God in Christ is the sole and sufficient Saviour. He affirmed what was in him no abstract doctrine, but the most concrete of all realities, Incarnated in the person and passion of Jesus Christ, drawing from Him its eternal and universal significance."—Fairbairn, "The Place of Christ in Modern Theology," page 159.

In the words of the Small Catechism, Luther still teaches our children this foundation doctrine of our Church:

"I believe that Jesus Christ, true God, begotten of the Father from eternity, and also true man, born of the Virgin Mary, is my Lord, who has redeemed me, a lost and condemned creature, secured and delivered me from all sins, from death and from the power of the devil; not with silver and gold, but with His holy and precious blood, and with His innocent sufferings and death, in order that I might be His, live under Him in His kingdom, and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence and blessedness."

But while we thus find in the Son of God and in His atoning work the foundation of the faith of our Church, many obstacles had been placed in the way of securing this redemption. Legalistic conditions made it impossible for the sinner to know that his sins had been taken away. It was here that the Lutheran Reformation pointed the way to a return to the simplicity of the Gospel by its Scriptural definition of justification. Sola fide, by faith alone, was the keynote of the Reformation. Be sure that you bring back sola was Luther's admonition to his friends, who went to Augsburg while he himself remained at Coburg.

Thus justification by faith became the material principle of Protestantism and a second foundation stone of Lutheranism. It is true that Calvin and the Reformed churches also accepted this principle, but they did not begin with it. Their system was based on the idea of the absoluteness of God. The Lutheran system emphasizes the love of God to all men; the Reformed system emphasizes predestination; which, by selecting some, excludes the others. As the theologians describe it, Lutheranism is Christocentric, Reform is theocentric.* *Calvin, like Luther, read theology through Augustine and without his ecclesiology, but from an altogether opposite point of view. Luther started with the anthropology and advanced from below upwards; Calvin started with the theology and moved from above downwards. Hence his determinative idea was not justification by faith, but God and His sovereignty, or the sole and all-efficiency of His gracious will.-Ibid., page 162.

A third principle relates to the means of grace. Here we have less difficulty in discerning the line of cleavage which separates us from Rome on the one hand and from the rest of Protestantism on the other hand.

The Lutheran Confession regards the word of God as the means of grace. The Sacraments also are means of grace, not ex opere operato, but because of the word. They are the visible word, or the individualized Gospel. Hence, it is correct to say that the word, in the Lutheran system, is the means of grace. This is doubtless news to many of our brethren of other faiths, who think of us only as extreme sacramentarians, and have looked upon us for centuries as Crypto-Romanists. Nothing could be further from the truth. It was only by an accident that the emphasis of polemical discussion in the sixteenth century was laid upon the sacramental question, where it never belonged.

In her doctrine of the means of grace, the Lutheran Church differs toto coelo from Rome. It is not the Church which, through its authority and its institutions, makes the means of grace effective; but it is through the means of grace that the Church is created and made both a product and an instrument of the Holy Ghost.

On this doctrine our church differs not only in theory but also in practice from many of our Protestant brethren. In some of their original confessional statements the Reformed churches declared that the Spirit of God required no means of grace, since He worked immediately and directly. They claimed that the corporeal could not carry the spiritual, and that the finite could not be made the bearer of the infinite. Over against these hyperspiritual views our Church believes that through the word and the sacraments the Holy Ghost effectively offers to the sinner the gifts of salvation.

There are other marks of our Church, but these are its main characteristics, and they suffice to indicate our general position in relation to Christian thought.

If, now, we should be called upon to define in a single sentence the distinctive features of Lutheranism, it might be done in these words of an unknown writer:

"Lutheranism is that form of Protestant Christianity which makes Christ the only foundation, faith the only condition, and the word of God the only means of salvation."

THEIR STORY

Under the administration of the Dutch West India Company the Reformed Church was established in New Amsterdam in 1628. The policy of the Company was to maintain the Reformed religion to the exclusion of all other churches. But the cosmopolitan character of the future metropolis was evident even in its earliest history. In 1643 the Jesuit missionary Jogues reports that besides the Calvinists, Lutherans and Anabaptists were to be found in the colony. In 1644 eighteen languages were spoken by its inhabitants.

In 1648 the Lutheran community in the New Netherlands appealed to the Consistory of Amsterdam for a minister, but nothing was done for them. In 1653 the request was renewed. When the Reformed ministers heard of it, they strenuously objected to the admission of a Lutheran minister; they said this would open the door for all manner of sects and would disturb the province in the enjoyment of its religion. Their attitude was supported by Governor Stuyvesant, who indeed went to great lengths in the enforcement of these views? [sic] Even the reading services, which the Lutherans held among themselves in anticipation of the coming of a minister, were forbidden, and fines and imprisonment were inflicted upon those who disobeyed.

Candor compels us to admit that this was the spirit of the age. The Thirty Years' War was going on at this time, and in a time of war ruthless methods are the vogue.

In 1657, to the joy of the Lutherans and the consternation of the Reformed, Joannes Ernestus Gutwasser (or Goetwater, as his name is often printed) arrived from Amsterdam to minister to the waiting congregation. But Governor Stuyvesant had no use for a Lutheran minister and Gutwasser was ordered to return forthwith to the place from which he had come. However, he succeeded in delaying his departure for nearly two years.

The congregation, unmindful of Stuyvesant's fulminations against all who taught contrary to the Acts of the Synod of Dort, secured as their minister in 1662 a student by the name of Abelius Zetskoorn, whom the authorities soon transported to a charge on the Delaware, without the violence, however, shown in the case of Gutwasser.

In 1664 the island was captured by the English and the Lutherans succeeded in obtaining a charter with permission to call a minister and conduct services in accordance with the teachings of the Augsburg Confession. But prior to 1664 or even 1648 there were individual Lutherans here, "their charter of salvation one Lord, one faith, one birth." In spite of persecution, even to imprisonment, they sang "The Lord's song in a strange land," and in simplicity of faith sowed the seed from which future harvests were to spring.

The little trading station at the mouth of the North River now numbered about 1,500 people. The church of "The Augustane Confession" was still without a pastor. For a generation they had striven under great difficulties to maintain their Lutheran faith. They were plain, simple people, but they had refused to be cajoled or driven to a denial of their convictions. Over against Stuyvesant, the most dominant personality of the new world, they waited patiently for the time when they might have their own pastor and might worship God according to the dictates of their own consciences.

At last, in 1669, they obtained a minister in the person of Magister Jacobus Fabritius who served the congregation in New York and also one in Albany. The new pastor sorely tried the patience of a longsuffering people. In church he manifested a dictatorial and irascible temper. At home he was constantly quarreling with his wife. These eccentricities interfered somewhat with his usefulness as a pastor. With increasing difficulty he administered his office until 1671 when he accepted a call to congregations on the Delaware. Here he seems to have repented of his ways, for he left an honorable record as a devoted pastor, and the historian is glad to forget the infelicities of his career on the North River.

His successor was Bernhardus Arensius, who came with a letter of recommendation from the Consistory of Amsterdam. He is described as "a gentle personage and of a very agreeable behavior."

Those were troublous times in which he conducted his ministry. The war between the Dutch and the English caused a repeated change of government, but for twenty years he quietly and successfully carried on his pastoral work in New York and in Albany. He died in 1691 and the Lutheran flock was again without a shepherd. For the rest of the century appeals to Amsterdam for a pastor were all in vain.

At the beginning of the eighteenth century the population of Manhattan Island had increased to 5,000 souls, chiefly Dutch and English. These figures include about 800 negro slaves. The slave trade and piracy were at this time perfectly legitimate lines of business.

For ten years the Lutherans had been without a minister. In 1701 they invited Andrew Rudmann to become their pastor. He had been sent by the Archbishop of Upsala as a missionary to the Swedish settlements on the Delaware. Rudmann accepted the call, but after a severe illness, as the climate did not agree with him, he returned to Pennsylvania, where in 1703 he ordained Justus Falckner to be his successor in New York.

Falckner was a graduate of Halle. It was a kind Providence that made him pastor of the Lutherans in New York at this time. Events had happened and were still happening in Europe that were destined to make history in America.

Germany, paralyzed by the results of the Thirty Years' War, and hopelessly divided into a multitude of political fragments, had become the helpless prey of the spoiler. The valley of the Rhine was ravaged from Heidelberg to the Black Forest. To this day, after more than two centuries, the ruins may still be traced. Upon the accession of the Catholic House of Neuburg to the throne of the Palatinate the Protestants were subjected to intolerable persecution. Their churches and schools were taken from them. Frequent raids were made upon the helpless border lands by the armies of Louis the Fourteenth. In a time of peace the Lutheran house of worship in Strassburg was wrested from its owners and transformed into a Catholic cathedral.

This devastation of the Rhine Valley caused an extensive emigration by way of London to New York. In the winter of 1708 Pastor Kocherthal arrived with the first company of Palatine exiles. In succeeding years many others followed, most of them settling on the upper Hudson and in the Mohawk Valley, but some of them remaining in New York.

The inhuman treatment which they received during the voyage, followed by hunger and disease, decimated their ranks. Of the 3,086 persons who set sail from London only 2,227 reached New York. Here they were not permitted to land, but were detained in tents on Governor's Island, where 250 more died soon after their arrival.

One of the men thus detained was destined to take a prominent place in the subsequent history of his countrymen, Johann Conrad Weiser. His descendants down to our own day have been filling high places in the history of their country as ministers, teachers, soldiers and statesmen. His great-grandson was the Speaker of the first House of Representatives of the United States. Another great-grandson, General Peter Muehlenberg, was for a time an assistant minister in Zion Church at New Germantown, N. J. He accepted a call to Woodstock, Virginia, where at the outbreak of the Revolution he startled his congregation one Sunday by declaring that the time to preach was past and the time to fight had come. Throwing off his ministerial robe and standing before them in the uniform of an American officer, he appealed to them to follow him in the defence of the liberties of his country. He became a distinguished officer in the army and subsequently rendered good service in the civil administration of the new republic.

A later descendant was Dr. William A. Muhlenberg, born in Philadelphia,
September 16th, 1796, the venerated founder of St. Luke's Hospital in
this city.*
*Dr. Muhlenberg was the rector of the Protestant Episcopal Church
of the Holy Communion. He was one of the best beloved ministers in New
York. He died in 1877. I visited him during his last illness in St.
Luke's Hospital. As I took my leave he threw his arms about me and
assured me that he had always been a Lutheran. He evidently conceived of
Lutheranism in broader terms than merely denominational distinctions.

Among the Palatine immigrants stranded on Governor's Island, unable to follow their sturdier companions to the upper part of the Hudson Valley, were widows, elderly men and 80 orphans. One of these orphans was Peter Zenger, who was apprenticed to William Bradford, at that time the only printer in the colony. When he grew up, he became the editor of The Weekly Journal, which made its first appearance on November 5th, 1733. Washington at this time was not yet two years old. Zenger was one of the earliest champions of American liberty. His arrest and imprisonment, his heroic defence and final acquittal, are among the milestones of American history and are a contribution to the story of New York of which Americans of German descent may well be proud.

It was a large parish to which Falckner ministered. There were no Home Mission Boards in those days. The New York pastor had therefore to care for many outlying stations. His diocese included Hackensack, Raritan, Ramapo and Constable Hook in the south, and Albany, Loonenburg and West Camp in the north. After the death of Kocherthal he visited regularly, not only the Dutch congregations of Claverack, Coxackie and Kinderhook, but also such German settlements as East Camp, Rhinebeck, and Schoharie.

New York itself was not neglected during these missionary journeys. Readers (Vorleezers) conducted the service while he was away. Such notices as "There will be no church today, the minister is out of town," did not appear on his bulletin board.

The care of a parish 150 miles in length left but little time for literary work, but in order that his people might be informed on the subject of their church's faith as distinguished from that of their Calvinistic neighbors, he wrote a book on the essential doctrines of the Lutheran confession. It was published by William Bradford, New York, 1708.

He also wrote a hymn: "Auf, ihr Christen, Christi Glieder," which after two centuries holds a place in German hymnals, and the translation is to be found in some of the best collections of the English language. To this day, therefore, the churches of London and Berlin alike respond to Falckner's rallying call: "Rise, ye children of salvation."

[illustration: "Trinity Church, Broadway and Rector Street, (Southwest Corner)"]

He must have been a pious man and a winning personality. The entries in the book recording baptisms and other ministerial acts abound in accompanying prayers for the spiritual welfare of those to whom he had ministered.

For twenty years he served the churches of New York and the Hudson Valley. When and where he died we know not. Early in 1723 he was in New York and in Hackensack. In September of the same year there is a record of a baptism at Phillipsburg (near Yonkers). And then no more. "He was not, for God took him."

Falckner's successor, Berkenmeyer, a native of Lueneburg, arrived in 1725. He brought with him books for a church library and also funds for a new building, contributed by friends in Germany, Denmark, and London. The "old cattle shed" on the southwest corner of Broadway and Rector Street was torn down and a stone building erected which was dedicated in 1729 and named Trinity church.

The parish which Berkenmeyer inherited from Falckner, extending from New York to Albany, and including many Dutch and German settlements on both sides of the river, proved to be a larger field than he could cultivate. He therefore sent to Germany for another minister, and resigning at New York, took charge of the northern and more promising part of the field, making his home at Loonenburg (Athens), on the Hudson. For nineteen years he labored in this field. He died in 1751.

Berkenmeyer was a scholarly man, a faithful minister, and an impressive personality. He belonged to a different school from that of his great contemporary, Muehlenberg, and the rest of the Halle missionaries, and his correspondence with them frequently savored of theological controversy.

His successor in New York was Knoll, a native of Holstein, who spent eighteen years of faithful work in Trinity church under trying circumstances. He had to preach in Dutch to a congregation that had become prevailingly German. There was a growing dissatisfaction among the people. During the first half of the century Dutch influence gradually declined and German grew stronger. The ministers were all of them German, although they preached chiefly in Dutch, with occasional ministrations in German. At last the Germans, feeling the need of ampler service in their own language, took advantage in 1750 of the presence of a peripatetic preacher and instituted the first "split" in the Lutheran church of this city by organizing Christ Church. Knoll resigned soon after and removed to Loonenburg, where he again became the successor of Berkenmeyer.

[illustration: "Henry Melchior Muehlenberg (Otto Schweizer's Heroic Stone Figure)"]

The resignation of Knoll and the difficulties of the mother congregation were the occasion of calling to New York the most distinguished minister the American Church has ever had.

Henry Melchior Muehlenberg came to America from Halle in 1742 to minister to the congregations in and near Philadelphia. The disordered condition of the American churches opened a wide field for his administrative ability, and for the rest of his life, in addition to his pastoral activity, he accomplished a great task in the planting and organization of churches. He is rightly called the Patriarch of the Lutheran Church in America.

In response to an urgent appeal, Muehlenberg came over from Pennsylvania in 1751 and assumed the pastorate of Trinity church. Although he spent but a short time in 1751 and again in 1752 on the ground, he was for two years pastor of the mother church. His was a fruitful ministry. He succeeded to a considerable extent in reconciling the warring elements in the congregation, not only by his gifts as a preacher and spiritual leader, but also by his ability to preach in Dutch and in English as well as in German.

The Episcopalians, who worshipped in the Trinity Church on the opposite corner, complained of the stentorian tones in which he delivered his sermons.

Upon Muehlenberg's recommendation, Mr. Weygand of Raritan, was chosen pastor of Trinity Church in 1753. In the furtherance of his ministry, Weygand performed some literary work. He prepared an English translation of the Augsburg Confession, which was printed as a supplement to a quarto volume of 414 pages published by one of the elders of his church, entitled "The Articles of Faith of the Holy Evangelical Church According to the Word of God and the Augsburg Confession. A Translation from the Danish. New York, MDCCLIV."

The congregation continued to be Dutch, although Weygand preached also in German and in English as occasion required. For the use of his English congregations he published in 1756 a translation of German hymns that had appeared in England under the title, "Psalmodia Germanica."

From 1750 to the time of the American Revolution we had two Lutheran
churches in New York, the German Christ church, popularly known as "The
Old Swamp Church," on Frankfort Street, and the Dutch Trinity church on
Broadway and Rector Street.

In the Swamp church the first preacher, Ries, remained for a year. He was followed in quick succession by Rapp, Wiessner, Schaeffer, Kurz, Bager and Gerock. Only the last named served long enough to identify himself with local history. He was followed by Frederick Muehlenberg, a son of Henry Melchior, an ardent patriot, who had expressed himself so freely in regard to English rule that when the British army marched into New York in 1776 he found it expedient to retire as quickly as possible to Pennsylvania. Here he labored in several congregations; as supply or as pastor, until 1779, when the exigencies of the times compelled him to take an active part in the political affairs of the country.

The partial reconciliation that had been brought about by Muehlenberg between the Dutch and the German congregations was occasionally disturbed by a pamphletary warfare conducted by their respective pastors, Weygand and Gerock.

Weygand died in 1770. He was succeeded by Hausihl (or Houseal, as he spelled his name in later years), a native of Heilbronn, who had served congregations in Maryland and in eastern Pennsylvania. Tradition reports that he was a brilliant preacher of distinguished appearance and of courtly manners. He succeeded in maintaining a large congregation.

But a serious change was going on in the church in the matter of language. In spite of the secession in 1750 other Germans kept coming into the Broadway church to such an extent that they outnumbered the Dutch eight to one, and finally the use of the Dutch language in the Lutheran Church of New York came to an end. Houseal had the distinction of conducting the obsequies at the preparatory service on Saturday, November 30, 1771, and at the administration of the Lord's Supper on the following day.

But the death of the Dutch language by no means put an end to the language difficulties of our Lutheran ancestors. In the midst of the original contestants a new set of combatants had sprung up in the persons of the children of both parties. These spoke neither Dutch nor German. They understood English only and demanded larger consideration of their needs.

Events, however, were impending which soon gave the people something else to think about and caused a postponement of actual hostilities for another generation.

The church on Broadway was destroyed by fire in 1776, and was never rebuilt. The congregation worshipped for a time in the Scotch Presbyterian Church on Cedar Street.

The American Revolution broke out. On political questions our ancestors differed almost as widely as do their successors on synodical questions. Some of them were for George the Third, others were for George Washington. In this respect, however, they were not unlike other inhabitants of New York.

Frederick Muehlenberg, the pastor of the Swamp Church, was an ardent patriot. At the beginning of the war, as we have seen, he fled to Pennsylvania.

During the war the services were conducted by the chaplains of the Hessian troops. The Hessians were good church-goers and also generous contributors, so that the financial condition of the congregation at this time was greatly improved.

Houseal, the pastor of Trinity Church, was a tory, and when in 1783 the
American troops marched into New York, he with a goodly number of his
adherents removed to Nova Scotia and founded a Lutheran church in
Halifax.

Both churches were now without pastors. Tribulation must have softened the spirits of the two contending congregations, for when Dr. Johann Christoph Kunze came to this city from Philadelphia in 1784, he became pastor of the reunited congregations, worshipping in the Swamp Church.

[illustration: "Frederick Augustus Conrad Muehlenberg; Pastor of the Old Swamp Church; subsequently member of the Continental Congress; Speaker of the Assembly of Pennsylvania; President of the Convention which in 1787 ratified the Constitution of the United States; Speaker of the first Congress of the United States of America."]

Before closing this chapter and taking up the account of Kunze's pastorate, let us follow the steps of Frederick Muehlenberg, the former pastor of the Swamp Church. We recall his unceremonious flight from New York. We cannot blame him. The British had threatened to hang him if they caught him.

We remember too that in Pennsylvania he was called upon to take an active part in political affairs. He was a member of the Continental Congress, also a member of the legislature of Pennsylvania and Speaker of the Assembly. He was President of the Convention which ratified the Constitution of the United States.

Thirteen years have passed since he left New York. It is A. D. 1789. New York was just beginning to recover from the disastrous years of the Revolution during which the British troops occupied the city. The population had sunk from 20,000 to 10,000 in 1783, but by this time had risen again to 30,000. The people were getting ready to celebrate the greatest event in the history of the city, the inauguration of the first President of the American Republic. Preparations were made to honor the occasion with all possible ceremony. Great men had gathered from all parts of the country. But to the older members of the Swamp Church there was doubtless no one, not even Washington himself, who stood higher in their esteem and affection than the representative from Pennsylvania, the Reverend Frederick Muehlenberg. And when a few days later the erstwhile German pastor of the Swamp Church was elected Speaker of the first House of Representatives of the United States of America, none knew better than they that it was only a fitting tribute to the character and abilities of their former pastor.

Kunze's is one of the great names on the roll of our ministers. He was a scholar, a teacher, a writer, and an administrator of distinction. Trained in the best schools of Germany, when he arrived in America in 1770, he at once took high rank among his colleagues in Philadelphia. Besides his work as a minister he filled the chair of Oriental and German languages in the University of Pennsylvania.

In 1784 he accepted a call to New York. He did this partly in the hope of establishing a Lutheran professorship in Columbia College. He accepted a call to the chair of Oriental languages in Columbia. He was also a regent of the university.

Kunze was not only an able man, he was also a man of deep piety, a qualification not altogether undesirable in a shepherd of souls. His writings indicate that in his preaching and catechization he strove not to beat the air but to win souls to a personal experience of salvation.

While it is doubtful whether he would find admission to some of the most orthodox synods of our own day; he was comparatively free from the latitudinarian tendencies which had been brought over from Germany during the last quarter of the century.

Along with General Steuben and other influential citizens he founded, the German Society, an association which is still an important agency in the charitable work of this city.

He was instrumental in 1785 in reorganizing the New York Ministerium. This work was begun in 1775 by Frederick Muehlenberg, but had been given up for a while, probably on account of the war.

As a writer he is credited in Dr. Morris' Bibliotheca Lutherana with eight books of which he was the author or editor, from Hymns and Poems to A History of the Lutheran Church and A New Method of Calculating the Great Eclipse of 1806.

These and many other things must be set to his credit. For what he accomplished he deserves a large place in the history of our Church in this city. But with all his gifts he was unable to cope with the chief problem which confronted our Church at the close of the eighteenth century, that of the English language.

There had been a demand for English services ever since the middle of the century. The descendants of the Dutch families had all become English. The need of English had been met in part by the elder Muehlenberg and his successors, Weygand and Hauseal, in Trinity Church, doubtless also by Frederick Muehlenberg in the Swamp Church.

After the, Revolution (1784) the United Congregations certainly made some provision for English although it was inadequate. In 1794 the younger people petitioned for occasional services in a language which they could understand. Dr. Kunze himself made some attempts to handle the English, but his faulty pronunciation so amused the young people that he gave it up. He appointed a young man by the name of Strebeck to assist him in ministering to the English members of the congregation. Strebeck at this time was a Methodist, although he had been confirmed in a Lutheran Church in Baltimore. Under Kunze's influence he again joined the Lutherans.

"A Hymn and Prayer Book for the use of such Lutheran Churches as use the English language," published by Kunze in 1795, and another by Streback [sic] in 1797, show that serious efforts were made to meet the wants of the English-speaking members.

Finally, on June 25th, 1797, a separate congregation was organized entitled The English Lutheran Church in the City of New York. (This was the corporate name, although it was subsequently known as Zion Church.) Strebeck was chosen pastor. Land was rented on Pearl Street opposite City Hall Place and a frame church was built.

The incorporation of the church was reported to the Ministerium which met at Rhinebeck. The following reply was given under date of September 1st, 1797:

"Upon reading a letter from New York signed by Henry Heiser, Lucas Van
Buskirk and L. Hartman, representing that they have erected an English
Lutheran Church, on account of the inability of their children to
understand the German language:

RESOLVED, That it is never the practice in an Evangelical Consistory to sanction any kind of schism; that if the persons who signed the letter wish to continue their children in the Lutheran Church connection in New York, they earnestly recommend them the use of the German School, and in case there is no probability of any success in this particular, they herewith declare that they do not look upon persons who are not yet communicants of a Lutheran Church as apostates in case they join an English Episcopal Church.

RESOLVED, 2d, That on account of an intimate connection subsisting between the English Episcopal Church and the Lutheran Church and the identity of their doctrine and near alliance of their Church discipline, this Consistory will never acknowledge a new erected Lutheran Church merely English, in places where the members may partake of the Services of the said Episcopal Church."

From the viewpoint of the ministers in 1797, Lutheranism seems to have been a matter of language rather than of religion. It was something to be retained among German-speaking people, but could not be effectively transmitted except through the medium of the German language.

We have come to the last decade of the 18th century. In the political world great men were finding themselves and mighty principles were finding expression in the organization of what was destined to become one of the great states of the world. Some of our own men were taking a large part in the making of American history. In the church they were content with a more restricted outlook. Our people, it is true, were of humble origin, yet some of them had attained wealth and social standing. The Van Buskirks, the Grims, the Beekmans, the Wilmerdings and the Lorillards were men of affairs and influence in the growing town of 30,000 that had begun to extend northward as far as Canal Street and even beyond. But we look in vain for any positive contribution to the life of the embryo metropolis of the world.

Our church had lost its roots. The Rhinebeck Resolution indicates the feeble appreciation of the distinctive confession to which she owed her existence. The English hymn books and liturgies of this period are equally destitute of any positive confessional character.

But after all, the church in New York only reflected in a small way the conditions that existed on the other side of the Atlantic. In the Fatherland the national life had been declining ever since the Thirty Years' War. In 1806 Germany reached the nadir of her political life at the battle of Jena. In the church this was the period of her Babylonian Captivity. Alien currents of philosophical and theological thought had devitalized the teaching of the Gospel. The old hymns had been replaced by pious reflections on subjects of religion and morality. The Lutheran Liturgy had disappeared leaf by leaf until little but the cover remained. With such conditions in the homeland what could be expected of an isolated church on Manhattan Island? Take it all in all, it is not surprising that only two congregations survived. It is a wonder that there were two.

In "Old New York" Dr. Francis presents a vivid picture of the social and religious life of this period and from it we learn that the Lutherans were not the only ones whose religion sat rather lightly upon them. French infidelity had taken deep root in the community and Paine's Age of Reason found enthusiastic admirers.

Fifty years ago I was browsing one afternoon over the books in the library of Union Theological Seminary, at that time located in University Place. I was all alone until Dr. Samuel Hanson Cox, the father of Bishop Arthur Cleveland Coxe, came in. He was then in his eighties, but vigorous in mind and body. We easily became acquainted and I was an eager listener to the story of his early ministry in New York, which fell about the time of which we are speaking. From him I got a picture of life in New York closely corresponding with that which is given in Dr. Francis' interesting story. There were leaders of the church in those days who were not free from the vice of drunkenness. Evangelical religion in all denominations had a severe conflict in doctrine and in morals with the ultra liberal tendencies of the time.

A marked defect of our church life was the inadequate supply of men for the ministry. For 140 years New York Lutherans had been dependent upon Europe for their pastors. For 60 years more this dependence was destined to continue.

Kunze had long been desirous of providing facilities for theological education in this country. Under the bequest of John Christopher Hartwig, he organized in 1797 a Theological Seminary. The theological department was conducted in New York by himself, the collegiate department in Albany and the preparatory department in Otsego County.

One of his students was Strebeck. Another, Van Buskirk, a promising young man, died before he could enter the work. The Mayer brothers, natives of New York, became eminent pastors of English Lutheran churches, Philip in Albany and Frederick in Philadelphia. It was a trying time in which Kunze lived, but he planted seed which still bears fruit.

One event of the eighteenth century seems worthy of spcial [sic] mention, even when seen through the vista of a hundred and fifty years, although at the time it may have attracted little attention. Because of the side light which it throws upon history we permit it to interrupt for a moment the course of our story.

It harks back to the refugees from the Palatinate who emigrated to the west coast of Ireland at the same time that their fellow countrymen under Kocherthal came to New York. Their principal settlements were at Court-Matrix, Ballingran and other places in County Limerick near the banks of the river Shannon. As they had no minister and understood little or no English, in the course of forty years they lost whatever religion they had brought with them from Germany. It came to pass that John Wesley visited these villages. He found the people "eminent for drunkenness, cursing, swearing, and an utter neglect of religion." (Wesley's Journal, II, p. 429.)

Wesley's sermons reminded them of the sermons they used to hear in their far-off German home, and a remarkable revival occurred among them. Subsequently numbers of them followed their countrymen of the preceding generation to New York and some of them joined the Lutheran Church. Among the names to be found on the records of our church are those of Barbara Heck and Philip Embury.

Now some of our ministers, as far back as Falckner in the beginning of the century, belonged to the Halle or Francke school of Lutheranism, and the spirit of our church life at this time, as may be seen from the letters of Muehlenberg in the "Hallesche Nachrichten," was not alien to that which the Palatines had imbibed from John Wesley, himself a product of the Pietistic movement of which Halle was the fountain head. One would suppose that these Palatine immigrants from the west of Ireland might have found a congenial home in the Lutheran Church and contributed to the spiritual life of the congregation. But for some reason they did not. They withdrew from us and helped to organize in 1766 the first Methodist Society in America.

The Methodists of America number seven million communicants. Barbara Heck, Philip Embury and other Palatine immigrants were our contribution to their incipient church life in America.

The history of our churches in the nineteenth century may be divided into three periods. The first extends from 1801 to 1838.

At the beginning of the century there were two congregations, the
German-English Church on Frankfort Street and the English (Zion) on
Pearl Street.

In 1802 two hundred members of the German church who had not united with Zion in 1797 asked for a separate English church. The request was declined, but regular services in English were held in the afternoon with promises of a new church as soon as possible.

In 1804 Strebeck, the pastor of Zion, joined the Episcopalians and subsequently became rector of St. Stephen's Church. Here he was followed in the course of years by a constant procession of his former parishioners. It will be recalled that Zion had not been received into connection with the Ministerium.

In 1805 Ralph Williston was chosen pastor. In 1810 he also became an Episcopalian. Not long after, the entire congregation followed him into the Episcopal fold. The resolution effecting the change read as follows:

"Whereas, many difficulties attend the upholding of the Lutheran religion among us, and whereas, that inasmuch as the doctrine and government of the Episcopal Church is so nearly allied to the Lutheran, and also on account of the present embarrassment of the finances of this church, therefore

"RESOLVED, That the English Lutheran Church with its present form of worship and government be dissolved after Tuesday, the 13th day of March next, and that this Church do from that day forward become a parish of the Protestant Episcopal Church, and the present board of officers of this church take every measure to carry this resolve into effect."* *On West Fifty-seventh Street, a few steps from Carnegie Hall, the visitor interested fn Lutheran antiquities may find the stately Episcopal Church of Zion and St. Timothy. It has a membership of 1,300. Its communion vessels still bear the inscription: ZION LUTHERAN CHURCH.

Kunze died in 1807. His successor, Frederick William Geissenhainer of New Hanover, Pa., took charge in 1808 and remained till 1814 when the state of his health compelled him to return to Pennsylvania.

He was succeeded by Frederick Christian Schaeffer of Harrisburg, a gifted man who preached equally well in German and in English. On the tercentenary of the Reformation in 1817 he preached a Reformation sermon in St. Paul's Episcopal Church on Broadway, which attracted widespread attention. A copy is preserved in the New York Public Library.

[illustration: "Fragment of Kunze's Gravestone discovered by the author in 1907, in Greenwich Village, where some laborers were digging the foundation for a new building. Kunze's ashed repose in the Lorillard vault of the churchyard of St. Mark's in the Bowery, Tenth Street and Second Avenue."]

After twenty years the promise of a separate English church was fulfilled, when in 1822 a large and beautiful structure was erected in Walker Street, just east of Broadway, and placed at the disposal of the English portion of the congregation. It was called St. Matthew's Church. Schaeffer was assigned to the pastorate and Geissenhainer was recalled from Pennsylvania to take charge of the German part of the congregation. New trouble soon developed. The English congregation demanded representation in the Church Council. This the mother church declined to concede, although it is claimed they had agreed to do so when the English congregation was formed. The new congregation was unable to maintain itself, and in 1826 the church was sold for a debt of $14,000, and Pastor Schaeffer resigned. The Walker Street building was bought by Daniel Birdsall who resold it to the mother church. The legal questions at issue in the transaction were taken into court and decided in favor of the mother church.

A son of the pastor, Frederick William Geissenhainer, Jr., was called from Pennsylvania to minister in St. Matthew's Church in English, so long as this could be done without detriment to the German congregation. This continued for three years, by which time a deficit of $5,000 had accumulated.

In the meantime the congregation of Frankfort Street had grown to such an extent that it decided to sell the Old Swamp Church, and move into the spacious building on Walker Street, where it also acquired the name of the English congregation and was thereafter known as St. Matthew's Church. The younger Geissenhainer continued to hold English services in the afternoon until 1840. The senior Geissenhainer served the German part of the congregation until his death in 1838.

After Pastor Schaeffer resigned in 1826 he collected the salvage of the English enterprises and organized a new English church, St. James, which he served until his death in 1831.

Among the major happenings in this period were the Burr-Hamilton duel, the launching of Fulton's steamboat, the introduction of Croton water, the opening of the Erie Canal, the writings of Washington Irving, and the organization of the American Bible Society and the American Tract Society.

Such things as social service, church extension or confessional questions had not yet begun to disturb the churches. Our people had all the time they wanted therefore for controversy on the undying question of the relative importance of the English and German languages. This, as we have seen, led to a lawsuit, the sale of a church and the permanent rupture of a historic congregation. We lost one English congregation, Zion, disbanded another, St. Matthew's, and sent away enough English members besides to constitute St. Stephen's Episcopal Church on Chrystie Street.

Such, in brief, is the story of the Lutherans of New York during the first third of the nineteenth century. In the Fatherland great events were taking place and history was making rapid strides. The war of liberation was decided by the battle of Leipzig and the defeat of Napoleon. But the hopes for social and political improvement were disappointed by reactionary movements and economic distress. A new emigration to "the land of unbounded possibilities" began. In 1821-22 it amounted to 531, in 1834-35 it was 25,997. Among the immigrants were many who in various capacities became empire builders in America. But in all that related to the Lutheran church New York at this time took a subordinate place. Philadelphia was the first city of the land. The construction of railroads and the opening of the Erie Canal carried the active and ambitious men far into the interior. The church life of New York still flowed in sluggish currents. After 190 years, from 1648, when the first appeal for a minister was sent to Amsterdam, to 1838, our enrollment consisted of two congregations, the German-English church of St. Matthew, and the English church of St. James.

Immigration began to assume large proportions. It did not reach its climax until the following period, but it was sufficiently large to awaken attention. In 1839 21,028 immigrants arrived here from Germany; in 1865, at the close of the Civil War, 83,424. Most of these were bound for the interior, but many who had only stopped to rest a while in New York decided to make this their home.

The East Side became a little Germany and even on the West Side Germans began to appear in increasing numbers.

At the beginning of this period an event occurred, unnoticed at the time, which proved to be the beginning of a great movement, "a cloud out of the sea, as small as a man's hand." In 1839 a thousand exiles arrived from Germany under the leadership of Pastor Grabau. Most of them went to the interior, some to Buffalo, others, the wealthier members, to the neighborhood of Milwaukee. Ten or a dozen families remained in New York with a pastor named Maximilian Oertel. Their services were held in a hall at the corner of Houston Street and Avenue A. Doubtless none of their contemporaries ever dreamed that this insignificant congregation was related to one of the larger movements of church history.

Connecting links were two men whose names I have never seen associated with the story of the Lutherans of New York. One of them was Dr. Benjamin Kurtz of Hagerstown, the other was Frederick William III, King of Prussia. The king had imposed the Union upon the churches of Prussia and imprisoned the pastors who refused to conform. This was the king's part in the movement. Dr. Kurtz had visited Berlin in 1826 in the interest of his educational schemes and in one of his addresses he implanted the microbe of America in the mind of a man who subsequently became a leader of one band of these pilgrims to the promised land. This was Dr. Kurtz's share in the work. Both Kurtz and the king were unconscious instruments in the hands of Providence.

Dr. Kurtz was for a large part of the nineteenth century a distinguished leader in the General Synod. He contributed to the establishment of the Theological Seminary at Gettysburg and he was the founder of the Missionary Institute, now the Susquehanna University, at Selinsgrove. He died in 1865. His grave is in the campus of the University of which he was the founder.

But who were these immigrants and how did they come to be exiles? This is another story; but it has to be told, because in the providence of God it is connected with the history of the Lutherans in New York.

In the early years of the nineteenth century there occurred a remarkable religious awakening in Germany. This awakening had much to do with a revival of Lutheranism. It had been greatly strengthened at least by the publication of the Ninety-five Theses of Claus Harms in 1817, on the occasion of the tercentenary of the Reformation, and it in turn stimulated the Lutheran consciousness of multitudes who had been carried away by the rationalistic movement of the eighteenth century. The publication of the royal Liturgy in 1822 and the forcible measures of the king in ordering a union of the Lutheran and Reformed churches of the kingdom called forth the staunch opposition of the Lutherans. This ended in a widespread agitation which sent multitudes of families to a land where one of the chief fruits of the Lutheran Reformation, that of religious liberty, could be enjoyed.

The notable thing about the entrance of a few of these people into our New York life was that it injected new ideas into the stagnant mentality of the period. That the men who brought them were brusque and exclusive, was of small account. When Stohlmann, who had recently been called to St. Matthew's Church, visited Pastor Oertel in his attic room, his Lutheranism, with a sly allusion perhaps to the stairs, was promptly challenged by the remark: "You climbed up some other way."

Nor did it matter that on some points the new comers themselves were not agreed? The Prussians, later known as "Buffalonians," led by Grabau, had a hierarchical theory of the ministerial office. The Saxons, later known as "Missourians," led by Walther, had the congregational theory of church government. For a score of years a titanic conflict was waged between these two parties. It ended in a decisive victory for "Missouri." Today "Buffalo" numbers 49 congregations, "Missouri" 3,689.

The Houston Street party in 1839 held hierarchical views. Subsequently they adopted the congregational theory of the church and established in 1843 the first "Missouri" congregation in New York under Pastor Brohm. After several removals the congregation settled at Ninth Street and Avenue B, where it still maintains its place of worship.

The chief field of the "Missourians," as their name indicates, is in the West. And yet in Greater New York they number 51 churches and many more in the suburbs. They maintain numerous missions among special classes. At Bronxville they have a college. They alone of all Lutherans make a serious effort to conduct parochial schools. More than any other variety of Lutherans do they educate their promising young men for the ministry.

But, as has already been intimated, the chief significance of their entrance into New York history is that thenceforth Lutherans had to give an account of their Lutheranism. Whether you agreed with them or not, you had to take sides and give a reason for the hope that was in you. They brought about that "contiguity of conflicting opinions" which is a condition of all progress.

Ten years later a different class of German immigrants came to our city. The Revolution of 1848 had resulted unsuccessfully for the friends of political freedom, and many were compelled to take refuge in America. Some were professional men of ability and high standing, whose contribution to the intellectual life of our city was considerable. Others were only half educated, young men who had not completed their studies in the University, but, intoxicated with the new ideas, had thrown themselves with the enthusiasm of youth into the conflict for freedom. Here they were like men without a country, aliens from the Fatherland, and in America incapable of comprehending a state without a church and a church without a state.

Few of these found their way into the Lutheran churches of New York. They were the intellectuals of the German community and had outgrown the religion of their countrymen who still adhered to the old faith.

Our churches received but little support from this large and influential class. Many of them had long since renounced allegiance to Jesus, and in the free air of America looked upon churches as anachronisms and hearthstones of superstition. Their influence upon the common people and upon the social life of the German community was hostile to that of Christianity. The churches had to get along without them, or rather, in spite of them. There were notable exceptions. But as a rule the "Achtundvierziger" did not go to church.

Still, in spite of their unchurchly views, most of them were unable to shake off wholly the forms of their ancestral religion. There were too many remnants (superstites) of the old faith binding them to ancient customs. Independent ministers with no synodical relations, with or without certificate of ordination, or the endorsement of organized congregations, unmindful of the nisi vocatus clause in the Augsburg Confession, helped to maintain the forms of an inherited Christianity by performing such ministerial acts as were required by the people. At one time these free lances were quite numerous. At present no representatives survive in New York.

But there was another class of immigrants that came to us from the Fatherland. They, too, sought to escape from political and economical conditions that had rested like an incubus upon a divided country for centuries. But they brought with them a spirit of Christian aspiration and the ripe fruit of a traditional Christian culture which became a priceless contribution to our own church life. They were men and women from all corners of Germany, who had come under the inspiration of the religious awakening to which reference has already been made. They became leading workers in our congregations and Christian enterprises. We, whose privilege it was to minister to them, knew well that we were only reaping where others far away and long ago had sown.

The inability of the Lutheran Church to supply an adequate ministry for this vast immigrant population left the way open also for other Protestant churches to do mission work among the lapsed members of our communion.

A number of churches were established where services in the beginning were held in the German or Scandinavian languages. Through Sunday Schools and other agencies many Lutheran children were gathered into their congregations where they and their children are now useful and honored members of the church. A goodly number of eminent ministers in various non-Lutheran Protestant churches of this city are the children or grandchildren of Lutheran parents.

With this general outlook over the period, let us take up the thread of our story.

On the death of the elder Geissenhainer in 1838, Karl Stohlmann, a native of Schaumburg Lippe, was called from Erie, Pennsylvania, to be his successor. For thirty years the pastor of the Walker Street Church was an important figure among the Lutherans of this city. The scope of this book will not permit an adequate account of his labors. He died on Sunday morning, May 3d, 1868, just as his congregation was entering a larger house of worship at the corner of Broome and Elizabeth Streets.

Dr. Geissenhainer, Jr., retired from the English work of St. Matthew's Church in 1840 and organized a German congregation, St. Paul's, on the west side, which he served as pastor until his death in 1879 in the 82d year of his age.

On the East Side, Trinity was organized in 1843, St. Mark's in 1847, St.
Peter's in 1862, Immanuel, in Yorkville, in 1863, and St. John's in
Harlem in 1864. On the West Side St. Luke's was established in 1850, St.
John's in 1855 and St. Paul's in Harlem in 1864. The first Swedish
congregation, Gustavus Adolphus, was organized in 1865.

Within the present limits of Brooklyn six German and one English churches were established during this period. On the territory of each of the other boroughs, Bronx, Queens and Richmond, two German churches came into being.

After the Revolution of 1848 in Germany, immigration to America increased by leaps and bounds, and within the time under review New York was referred to as the fourth German city in the world. But the Germans, as we have seen, did not all go to church. The existing churches, it is true, were well filled, but a large proportion of the population, torn from the stable environment of their homeland life, and transplanted into the new conditions of a crowded city, failed to respond to the claims of their ancestral religion.

In our church polity there was no adequate provision for the needs of such an immense and ever expanding population. Now and then a broadminded pastor would encourage the planting of a church in some needy field, but too often the establishment of a new mission was looked upon as an encroachment on the parochial rights of the older congregation. At this point in the congregational polity of our church the absence of a directing mind and a unifying force was sorely felt.

The condition of immigrants at the port of New York was for many years a public scandal. In 1847 the State of New York appointed Commissioners of Immigration. Under the Act of March 3, 1891, the Commissioner was appointed by the Federal Government.

Before this was done, the helpless immigrants were the prey of countless vampires, chiefly in the form of "runners," agents of boarding houses and transportation companies. These pirates of the land exacted a heavy toll from all foreigners who ventured to enter our city by way of the steerage.

In 1864 Robert Neumann, who had been a co-laborer with Gutzlaff, a pioneer missionary in China, established an Immigrant Mission at Castle Garden and succeeded in awakening an interest in this cause.

A few years later, in the subsequent period, the churches took up the question of providing for the needs of the immigrants.

The Deutsches Emigrantenhaus was incorporated in 1871. Pastor Wilhelm Heinrich Berkemeier became the first housefather. His unflagging zeal gave strong support to a much-needed work of love. His venerable personality was a benediction to his contemporaries.

In the course of the years eight Lutheran Immigrant Houses and Seamen's
Missions have been established at this port and are doing effective
Christian work.

Toward the close of this period, in 1864, a seed was planted on the
Wartburg near Mount Vernon which has grown to be a great tree.

Peter Moller, a wealthy layman, had met with a great sorrow in the death of his son. He was planning to expend a large sum for a monument in memory of this son, when Dr. Passavant, an eminent worker in behalf of invalids and orphans, called upon him, perhaps with the hope of obtaining a contribution for some of his numerous charities. To him Mr. Moller confided his purpose. It did not take long to outline the plan of a nobler memorial than the proposed shaft in Greenwood. With $30,000 a hundred acres of land were bought and a house of mercy was established which for fifty years has been a blessing not only to the orphans who have been sheltered and trained there, but also to the churches of New York that have been privileged to contribute to its support.

Its first housefather was George Carl Holls, one of the brethren of
Wichern's Rauhe Haus near Hamburg. In 1886 he was succeeded by Pastor
Gottlieb Conrad Berkemeier, who with the help of his wife, Susette
Kraeling, has brought the institution to a position of great prosperity
and usefulness.

Three factors combined to make this period eventful in our history: confessionalism, immigration and the transportation facilities that led to a Greater New York.

At the close of the Civil War we had 24 Lutheran churches on the territory now included in Greater New York. Two of these were English and the rest were German. At the close of the century the record stood: Yiddish, 1; English, 17; Scandinavian, 19; German and German-English, 60.

The tide of confessionalism which had been rising in Europe for half a century touched America in the forties and reached a high water mark during the period under review. The question of subscription to the symbols of the Book of Concord became the chief subject of discussion among our theologians.

In 1866 a number of pastors and churches, under the leadership of Pastor Steimle, severed their connection with the Ministerium for confessional reasons. They formed a new synod which adopted all the Confessions and took a firm stand in opposition to membership in secret societies.

The "Steimle" Synod, as it was usually called, disbanded in 1872, its
members going, some to the Missouri Synod, others to the Ministerium.
Their organ, the Lutherisches Kirchenblatt, was merged with the
Lutherischer Herold.

Pastor Steimle died in 1880. He was a devout man, a rugged personality, beloved by his people and esteemed by his colleagues. His congregation in Brooklyn, now served by the pastors Kraeling, father and son, is one of the strong churches of the city.

One of the early members of the congregation, whose support meant much for his pastor, was Jacob Goedel. He subsequently returned to Germany and spent his latter years in the city of Koeln on the Rhine.

In 1888 I spent a memorable week in Koeln. The history of the city antedates the Christian era. Its cathedral is a fane of wonderful beauty. In the Reformation Koeln joined the Lutheran forces and for eighty years two of its archbishops were Lutheran pastors. The "Consultation" of Archbishop Hermann is one of the liturgies of the Lutheran Church. It played a prominent part in the construction of the Anglican Book of Common Prayer. Owing to political jealousies among the Protestants, the fortunes of war restored the city and the cathedral to the Catholics. Until recent times Protestantism was an almost negligible force in Koeln. At the time of my visit the Protestant Churches were very efficient in all kinds of religious and social work and had an influence in the City Council out of all proportion to their numbers. Inquiring into the reason of this change I was told that it was largely owing to the labors of a man by the name of Jacob Goedel who had come to them from America and had introduced American methods of church work into Koeln.

In 1867 another synodical split took place. The New York Ministerium separated from the General Synod on confessional grounds and took part in the organization of the General Council. Thereupon most of the English-speaking members, occupying a milder confessional basis, left the Ministerium, formed the Synod of New York and united with the General Synod.* *The author's connection with the work in New York began about this time. After graduation at Yale College in 1865, he found employment in a New York library, and soon after matriculated as a student in Union Theological Seminary. The needs of Protestant Germans on the East Side attracted him into mission work which resulted in the formation of a congregation of which he took pastoral charge upon his ordination by the Synod of New York, October 19th, 1868.

The lines of three synodical bodies, General Council. [sic] General Synod and Synodical Conference, that is "Missouri," were now distinctly drawn and for the rest of the century the relations of Lutheran ministers and churches were sharply defined. Ministers were kept busy in explaining the differences, but it is to be feared that some of the laymen did not always understand.

In 1868 members of St. James Church, who sympathized with the attitude of the General Council in favor of a stricter confessional basis, organized a new English congregation, Holy Trinity, of which Dr. Krotel became the first pastor. Dr. Wedekind was called to St. James. Both men, pastors of English congregations, had come from Germany in their early youth, were educated in American schools and were thoroughly acquainted with American institutions. For a generation these two men, each in his own sphere, on opposite sides of a high synodical fence, contributed much to the growth and progress of the churches in this city.

Immigration from Lutheran lands continued to increase and reached its high water mark in this period.

Prior to 1867 there were few Swedes in New York. In 1870 they numbered less than 3,000. The immigrants were chiefly farmers who settled in the West. In 1883 large numbers began to come from the cities of Sweden and these settled in the cities of the East. In 1900 the census credited New York with 29,000 Swedes. In 1910, including the children, there were 57,464, of which 56,766 were Protestants.

The first Swedish Lutheran church was organized in 1865 by Pastor Andreen who had been sent here for this purpose by the Augustana Synod. Among the first trustees was Captain John Ericsson, the inventor of the Monitor. Its first pastor was Axel Waetter, a cultured minister of the Swedish National Church.

At present there are fourteen Swedish Lutheran churches in New York reporting a membership of 8,626 souls.

An Immigrant House in Manhattan, a Home for the Aged and an Orphans' Home in Brooklyn, and Upsala College in Kenilworth, N. J., represent the institutional work of the Swedish Lutherans.

To Pastor Lauritz Larsen I am indebted for the following sketch of our
Norwegian churches:

"The Norwegians have always been a sea-faring people and a people looking for fields of labor all over the World. The real immigration begins about 1849, but there were Scandinavians on Manhattan Island in the Sixteenth Century. The Bronx is named after a Danish farmer, Jonas Bronck.

"I believe that the first Norwegian Lutheran Church in New York was organized by Lauritz Larsen, then Norwegian Professor in Theology at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, who stopped here for a while on his way to and from Norway in the early sixties. The first resident pastor was Ole Juul, who came to New York in 1866 and labored here until 1876, when he was succeeded by Pastor Everson, who was actively engaged as pastor in New York and Brooklyn from 1873, until 1917, when failing health compelled him to retire.

"At present, the Norwegian Lutheran churches of Greater New York are carrying on an active and aggressive work. Their total membership is not as large as it might be. Partly because the Norwegians coming here from the State Church do not at once realize the importance or necessity of becoming members of local congregations, but have the idea that as long as they attend services, have their children baptized and confirmed, and so forth, they are members of the church. The report of the membership of the churches is therefore, hardly a correct indication of the number of people reached or even the strength of the Norwegian Lutherans in the Metropolis.

"The language question is one of great difficulty. Many of our people live, as it were, with one foot in Norway and one in America; and are thinking of returning to the old country at some time or other. There is also a constant influx of new people from Norway which makes it imperative to have Norwegian services constantly. On the other hand, the young people are rapidly Americanized and prefer to use the language of the country, which necessitates English work, and where this demand is made, the young people are, generally speaking, quite loyal to their church, but it is no easy matter to satisfy both elements and to keep the old and the young together in the same church.

"The Norwegians have been very active in Inner Mission and Social Service work. As witness: the organization of the Norwegian Lutheran Deaconesses' Home and Hospital about thirty years ago. This institution has now grown to be the largest Norwegian charitable institution in the country and has a splendidly equipped modern hospital and an excellent Sisters' Home, which together represent a value of $500,000. It is not owned by a church, but is owned and controlled by a corporation of Norwegian Lutherans.

"The churches have directly been engaged in Inner Mission work for a number of years, and now have three city missionaries constantly at work. The institutions conducted by this branch of the service are the Bethesda Rescue Mission at Woodhull St., Brooklyn, the Day Nursery at 46th St., Brooklyn, and an extensive industrial plant also in Brooklyn. Besides the Inner Mission has purchased land on Staten Island and erected a cottage there for a summer colony for poor children. The Norwegians of New York have also built a modern Children's Home at Dyker Heights, Brooklyn. Although this is not owned by the church, but by a corporation of Norwegians, its constitution provides that the religious instruction should be based upon Luther's Small Catechism. The Home is now taking care of sixty children, and is in charge of a Deaconess from the local mother house mentioned above. A new Inner Mission Agency was started two years ago when the late C. M. Eger bequeathed a large sum of money for the establishment of the Old People's Home in connection with Our Saviour's Lutheran Church. At present it is located in his former home, 112 Pulaski Street, and will, no doubt, be of great importance for our church work in the future."

The statistics of the Scandinavian churches are presented in part in the following table. The figures of the first and second lines are taken from the United States Census of 1910. They include the children where one or both parents are of foreign descent. Those of the third line are obtained by deducting 10 per cent. from the number of Protestants, in the second line. The number of "souls," fourth line, is the aggregate number of baptized persons, old or young, connected with or related to the respective congregations.

Swedes Norwegians Danes Finns Total 1. Population 53,464 34,733 13,197 10,304 116,698 2. Protestants 56,766 33,344 11,996 10,304 112,410 3. Lutherans 51,090 30,010 10,797 9,274 101,171 4. Souls 8,365 10,433 950 2,540 22,288 5. Communicants 3,829 2,152 422 840 7,643 6. No. of Churches 13 12 3 3 31

Prior to 1871 Germans were a negligible quantity in the political history of Europe. Divided into a multitude of tribes, with divergent interests, for centuries they had no political standing and were the football of the nations around them. From Louis XIV to the Corsican invader, except during the reign of Frederick the Great, their history was one of political incohesion and economic poverty.

Even in New York they were looked upon as aliens in the city which they had helped to found and where in three centuries their sons had stood in the forefront of the battle for freedom. The names of Jacob Leisler, of the seventeenth century, Peter Zenger of the eighteenth century, Franz Lieber and Karl Schurz of the nineteenth century are indelibly inscribed among the champions of freedom in America. Yet fifty years ago "Dutch" in New York had almost the same evaluation that "Sheeny" and "Dago" have today.

In 1871 the divergent fragments of the German people, after many futile experiments in their history, at last attained national unity. The Germans of New York celebrated the event with a procession which made a deep impression upon the city. From that day forward they were no longer held below par in popular estimation. This became manifest in the success of their efforts in the field of social and religious work. Thirty German churches were added to the roll before the close of the century.

The completion of the Elevated Lines in 1879 and the Brooklyn Bridge in 1883 changed the course of history for our Lutheran congregations. For decades the ever-increasing hosts of immigrants had been interned in unwholesome tenements on a narrow island. Now ways of escape were found. Wide thoroughfares led in every direction. The churches in Brooklyn and Bronx grew rapidly in numbers and in strength.

It was hard for those of us who still held the fort on Manhattan Island to see the congregations we had gathered with painstaking effort scattering in every direction, especially to lose the children and the grandchildren of our faithful families. But when we saw them in the comfortable homes and open spaces of the suburbs, who could wish them to return to the hopeless atmosphere of the tenements? From this time forward the churches of the surrounding boroughs grew rapidly, largely at the expense, however, of the churches of Manhattan.

From 1881 to the close of the century Bronx added nine churches,
Richmond five, Brooklyn and Queens thirty-two to the roll. Manhattan, it
is true, also added eleven churches, but they were all above
Forty-second Street, most of them far uptown.

The tenth of November, 1883, was a red letter day in our calendar. It was the quadricentennial of Luther's birthday. The preparations for the celebration met with a hearty response in the city. The large dailies gave much space to the occasion. Dr. Seiss delivered a memorable address in Steinway Hall. Under the auspices of the Evangelical Alliance a distinguished company gathered in the Academy of Music and heard William Taylor and Phillips Brooks deliver orations of majestic eloquence.

The celebration gave a marked impulse to our church work. Our congregations increased in numbers and in influence. Its chief value was in its efeet [sic] upon the young people. Hitherto they hardly comprehended the significance of their church. Its services were conducted in a language which they understood with difficulty. As they grew up and established new homes in the suburbs where there were few churches of their faith, they easily drifted out of their communion. A great change came over them at this time. They began to take an active interest in church questions and in church extension. As they followed the inevitable trend to the suburbs they connected themselves with churches of their faith or organized new ones and became active workers in them. The remarkable increase of congregations in the entire Metropolitan District was to a large extent owing to the impulse derived from the quadricentennial of 1883.

When Lutherans of various churches and synods were thus brought together there was one thing that puzzled them. They could not understand why there should be so many kinds of Lutherans and why they should have so little to do with one another. This feeling soon found expression in the organization of societies of men interested in the larger mission of the Church.

In 1883 the Martin Luther Society was organized by such laymen as Arnold J. D. Wedemeyer, Jacob F. Miller, John H. Tietjen, Jacob A. Geissenhainer, George P. Ockerhausen, Charles A. Schieren, John H. Boschen and others, originally for the purpose of preparing a suitable celebration of the Luther Quadricentennial. In this effort they were successful. In addition to their local work in the interest of the celebration they secured the erection of a bronze statue of Luther in Washington.

But the chief reason for the organization of the Society was indicated in a letter sent to the pastors and church councils of the Lutheran churches of New York and vicinity which read in part as follows:

"In view of the efforts made all around us to bring about a closer and more harmonious relation between the various Protestant denominations, the Martin Luther Society of the City of New York respectfully begs you to consider whether the time has not come to make an effort to bring about, if not a union, at least a better understanding and more fraternal intercourse between the Lutherans themselves. We all deplore the divisions that separate us; we believe that the reasons for these divisions are more imaginary than real, and we are persuaded that a free and frank interchange of opinions will materially help to remove whatever obstacles may be in the way.

"We surely recognize the fact that our Lutheran Church does not command that influence or maintain that position in this city and vicinity which its history, purity of doctrine and conservative policy entitles it to; and we may be sure that just so long as our divisions continue, loss of membership and prestige, increasing weakness, and final disaster, will be our lot.

"Brethren, in unity is strength. Earnestly desiring to do what we can to bring it about, we ask the pastors of our Church and their church officers to take this important matter into consideration, and to take steps to participate in a meeting in this behalf which the Martin Luther Society proposes to hold on Tuesday evening, January 22d, 1889, in the hall of the Academy of Medicine, No. 12 West 31st Street, in this city."

The annual banquet of the Martin Luther Society was an important function. Distinguished speakers lifted high the banner of Lutheranism, and good fellowship began to be cultivated among the representatives of churches and synods hitherto unacquainted with each other. Nearly all of its members have passed on and the Society is only a memory among a few survivors of those who shared its genial hospitality and recall the kindly fellowship of its meetings. The Martin Luther Society blazed the trail for the wider path on which we are walking today, and it deserves to be held in honored remembrance.

A few years later, in 1888, the younger men caught the inspiration and established The Luther League. The organization soon extended to other parts of the State and subsequently to the entire country. It has splendidly attained its objective, that of rallying and training the young people in the support and service of the church. Its official organ, The Luther League Review, is published in this city under the editorship of the Hon. Edward F. Eilert. Eleven hundred members are enrolled in the local Leagues of New York City.

The first practical attempt of the ministers to get together was in the organization of "Koinonia." This took place in the home of the writer in 1896. The society meets once a month for the purpose of discussing the papers which each member in his turn is required to read. Representing as it does Lutherans of all kinds, species and varieties, it serves as a clearing house for the theological output of the members. It has been helpful in removing some of the misunderstandings that are liable to arise among men of positive convictions.

On the third Sunday in Advent, 1898, Sister Emma Steen, of Richmond, Indiana, the first Lutheran deaconess to engage in parish work in New York, was installed in Christ Church. She had received her preparation for this ministry in the motherhouse at Kaiserswerth on the Rhine, and was one of the first six sisters to enter the motherhouse of the General Synod in Baltimore. After four years of faithful service she was succeeded by Sister Regena Bowe who has now for fifteen years by her devoted work illustrated the value of the female diaconate in the work of our churches in New York. Deaconeses are now laboring in seven of our churches. They are needed in a hundred congregations.

The revival of this office is due to the genius and zeal of Pastor Fliedner who established the first motherhouse at Kaiserswerth on the Rhine in 1833. In America there are eight motherhouses with an enrollment of 378 sisters.* *In 1885 the author was appointed chairman of a committee of the General Synod to report on the practicability of establishing the office of deaconess in the parish work of our American churches. In pursuit of information he visited the principal Deaconess Houses of Europe. His reports were published in the Minutes of the Synod from 1887 to 1897 and contributed to the introduction of the office into the Synod's scheme of church work.

The years under review, the closing period of the nineteenth century, were years of stress and storm in our synodical relations. But the questions that divided us did not stop the practical work of the synods. Under the stimulus of a generous rivalry some things were accomplished and foundations were laid for still larger work in the new century.

Our churches entered the twentieth century with hope and cheer. With an enrollment of 94 congregations in the greater city and an advance patrol of many more in the Metropolitan District, it had become an army of respectable size among the forces striving for the Christian uplift of our city.

What a contrast between this picture and that of our church at the beginning of the nineteenth century! Then two moribund congregations were feebly holding the fort. One of these soon surrendered, "on account of the present embarrassment of finances." Now a compact army had already been assembled, while new races and languages were beginning to reinforce our ranks. Even the English contingent, which had so long maintained an unequal fight, was securely entrenched in four boroughs with seventeen congregations on its roll.

At this writing, in May, 1918, we number in Greater New York 160 churches with an enrollment of sixty thousand communicant members. At the close of the nineteenth century, in 1898, we had 90 churches with 43,691 communicants. The rate of increase in twenty years was 35 per cent., not very large but sufficiently so to awaken favorable comment from Dr. Laidlaw, an expert observer of church conditions in this city. In 1904, in an article in "Federation," on "Oldest New York," he wrote as follows:

"There are now over fifty Christian bodies in this city, and "Oldest New York's" history shows the fatuity of expecting that the heterogeneous population of the present city will all worship in the same way within the lifetime of its youngest religious worker. Man's thoughts have not been God's thoughts, nor man's ways God's ways, in the mingling of races and religions on this island. The Lutheranism that so sorely struggled for a foothold in the early days is now the second Protestant communion in numbers, and its recent increment throughout Greater New York, contributed to by German, Scandinavian, Finnish and many English Lutheran churches, has exceeded that of any other Protestant body."

The causes which contributed to our progress in the latter part of the nineteenth century were still effective. The consolidation of Greater New York, bringing together into one metropolis the scattered boroughs, marked the advent of a Greater Lutheran Church in New York. The bridges and the subways, the telephone and the Catskill Aqueduct, public works of unprecedented magnitude, were among the material foundations of the new growth of our churches.

We were beginning to reap in the second and third generations the fruits of the vast immigration of the nineteenth century.

A new era began for the use of the English language. There had been a demand for English services as early as 1750, but in the eighteenth and the greater part of the nineteenth centuries it had not been met. Fifty years ago, with its two churches, and even twenty-five years ago with four churches, English was a forlorn hope. The advance began in the last decade of the 19th century when twelve English churches were organized. In 1900 there were seventeeen English churches on the roll. Since then 32 have been added, five in Bronx, fifteen in Brooklyn, eleven in Queens, one in Richmond. Besides these forty-nine churches in which the English language is used exclusively, almost all of the so-called foreign churches use English to a greater or less extent as the needs of the people may require.

But there was a deeper reason for the growth of our church. Ever since the Luther Centennial of 1883 the young people of our churches had begun to understand not only the denominational significance of their church but also something of its inner characteristics and life. In various groups, in Manhattan, Bronx and Brooklyn, they got together and organized English congregations in which an intelligent Lutheran consciousness prevailed.

The Home Mission and Church Exension Boards of the General Synod recognized the importance of the moment in the metropolis of America and gave their effective aid. In Brooklyn and Queens the work received large support from Charles A. Schieren and the Missionary Society with which he co-operated. Sixteen churches were established through the aid of this Society. Schieren was a native of Germany but he early saw the importance of reaching the people in the language which they could best understand. As a citizen he was public spirited and progressive. From 1894 to 1895 he was mayor of Brooklyn.

The pastors of these incipient congregations were men of vision who had been attracted to the work in New York by its difficulty and its opportunity. They came from different seminaries and synodical associations and they had to minister to congregations in which all varieties of the older churches were represented. But they soon learned to cooperate with one another in measures looking to the larger interests of the entire field. Team work became possible. A stimulus was given to the work such as had never before been felt in the Lutheran churches of New York.

A Ministers' Association, to which all Lutheran pastors of the Metropolitan District, are eligible, was organized in 1904. Its monthly meetings brought about a mutual understanding and fostered a fraternal spirit that have been of great value in the promotion of the general work of the church.

The synod of New York and New England, composed of the English churches of the New York Ministerium was organized in 1902. It found its special mission in planting and rearing English missions in the new sections of the greater city. It has added nine English churches to the roll.

The Synod of New York, a merger of the New York and New Jersey, the Hartwick and the Franckean synods also devoted itself to the special task of caring for the English speaking young people. Under its auspices thirteen new churches have been organized. To the indefatigable labors of its Superintendent of Missions, Dr. Carl Zinssmeister, much credit is due for the success of the work.

The Synod of Missouri, although largely a German body, rivals the other synods in its fostering care of the English work. At least thirteen English congregations in this city have been organized by "Missouri" since the beginning of this century.

The relation of the various boroughs to the growth of the church may be seen from the following figures in which the number of communicants in 1918 is compared with that of 1898.

     Boroughs 1898 1918 Increase
     Manhattan 21,611 15,928 5,683*
     Bronx 2,048 5,932 3,884
     Brooklyn 17,405 28,270 10,865
     Queens 1,671 7,139 5,468
     Richmond 956 1,948 992
                  43,691 59,217 15,526
   *Decrease

The starred figures for Manhattan call attention to the change of population that has taken place in New York, particularly as it affects Manhattan. While the total increase of population in New York from 1910 to 1915 was 667,928 there was a decrease in Manhattan of 193,795.

This decrease in numbers, and still more the substitution of Catholic and Jewish peoples to an unprecedented extent for those of Protestant antecedents, produced a marked change in the membership of Protestant churches. The decline in Protestant membership in Manhattan from 1900 to 1910, according to Dr. Laidlaw, amounted to 74,012.

It is not surprising therefore that the Lutheran churches were called upon to bear their share of the loss. As we have seen, it amounted in two decades to 5,623 [sic]. Most of this deficit, 4,042, is chargeable to the churches south of Fourteenth Street, where Protestants of all denominations fail to hold their own. The balance, 1,837, came from other churches south of Forty-second Street.

Three churches were added during the past twenty years, Our Saviour
(English) in 1898, Holy Trinity (Slovak) in 1904 and a mission of the
Missouri Synod in 1916 in the Spuyten Duyvil neighborhood, the most
northern point thus far occupied by us on Manhattan.

For three churches gained there is an offset of four churches lost:
Bethlehem in East Sixty-fifth Street, Christ Church in West Fiftieth
Street, Immanuel in East Eighty-third Street and the Danish church in
Yorkville. The Danish church removed to Bronx while the others effected
mergers with sister congregations.

The present indications are that we have come to a standstill on Manhattan Island and that it is no longer a question of how many churches we shall build, but how many we shall lose.

Our assets at present may be described as follows: We have thirty congregations, twenty-six of them owning their houses of worship. The net value of their property, deducting debts, is $3,160,000. The average value of each church is $100,000. Besides the thirty organized congregations there are seven missions in which services are maintained in the following languages: Finnish, Lettish, Esthonian, Polish, Italian and Yiddish.

The number of communicants is 15,978. The number of pupils in the Sunday Schools is 7,245. The number of children in eight parochial schools is 669. The number attending instruction in religion on weekdays, including catechumens, is 1,580.

But although our churches in Manhattan are declining in numbers while those of the other boroughs are growing, Manhattan still holds the key to the city. For generations it will be the community in which the most serious problems of church and society will have to be studied and solved. Manhattan has strategical value not merely for Greater New York but for every city in the land where similar problems must be solved. If our churches run away from such a field, we shall never gain a victory else where. If we win here, we shall be entitled to a place in the legion of honor.

Four higher schools connected with the churches of New York have endeared themselves to the hearts of their friends and are giving promise of growing usefulness.

Concordia College originated in St. Matthew's Academy, in 1881. After years of struggle and sacrifice it was moved to Bronxville in 1908, where it occupies a valuable property. It has 110 students.

Wagner College was called into being in 1883 in Rochester. It belongs to the New York Ministerium. Numerous pastors in this city are alumni of Wagner College. In 1916 it was decided to move the college to New York. A splendid property of 38 acres was purchased on Grymes Hill near Stapleton, Staten Island, and in the Fall of 1918 it will take up its work within the precincts of Greater New York.

Upsala College began as an academy in Brooklyn in 1893. It belongs to the Swedish Augustana Synod. It was moved to Kenilworth, N. J., in 1898, and became a college in 1904. Within ten years it has contributed more than forty pastors, missionaries and teachers to the work of the church.

Hartwick Seminary is on the headwaters of the Susquehanna in Otsego County. It is a product of the eighteenth century and not of the twentieth. But since Johann Christopher Kunze, pastor of the Old Swamp Church, was one of its founders, and since it still contributes pastors to the work of the churches in New York, in spite of its distance from the city it must not be overlooked in our mention of the schools of New York.

Under the auspices of the Inner Mission Society Pastor Buermeyer has developed a much-needed work among our brothers and sisters who in their old age or by reason of sickness, loneliness or poverty are not reached by the ordinary ministrations of the congregation. It is known its the City Mission and it will doubtless receive the continued support of all who read carefully the 25th chapter of St. Matthew.

The Hospice for Young Men is another form of Inner Mission work in which a good beginning has been made.

The Lutheran Society was organized in 1914. "Its object is to promote the general interests of the Lutheran Church by encouraging a friendly intercourse among its members." At this writing, in 1918, it numbers over four hundred members. By bringing together in friendly intercourse active churchmen of otherwise widely separately congregations and synods it has contributed materially to a better understanding of the aims and the tasks of our entire communion.

Under its auspices the quadricentennial anniversary of the Reformation was celebrated in this city in a manner worthy of the occasion. The executive secretary of the committee, Pastor O. H. Pannkoke, reports as follows on the general results of the celebration:

"Two facts are of considerable interest, such as to class them as worthy of recording as a permanent accomplishment. In the first place we have had the cooperation in this undertaking of every Lutheran synod represented in New York, and I believe we have succeeded in carrying through the undertaking without violating the confidence placed in us by any section of the Lutheran Church.

"In the second place, our Committee has injected into the general Reformation influence the question of the wider influence of the Reformation. Practically every section of the country has taken up the discussion of the religious influence of the Reformation, also of the influence of the Reformation on every side of life."

On the roll of Former Pastors, in the Appendix, are recorded the names of men who laid the foundations of the present congregations. Their labors and their sacrifices entitle them to a place in a book of remembrance. Some names are missing. We tried hard to obtain them. For these lacunae we offer our apologies to the historians of the next centennial. In 1918 we were still struggling with the problem of statistics.

Nowhere are ministers forgotten so soon as here in New York. The congregations themselves are rapidly engulphed in the ceaseless tides of humanity that sweep over the island. Now and then some beloved pastor is remembered by some faithful friends, but in a few years the very names of the men who built the churches are forgotten. Like the knights of old: "Their swords are rust, Their steeds are dust. Their souls are with the saints we trust."

Before ending the story of which a faint outline has here been given, we recall with affection and reverence some of the men whose outstanding personality has not yet faded from our memory. Their labors prepared the ground for the harvests which a younger generation is now permitted to reap.

Stohlmann was the connecting link with the earlier periods. He was an able preacher, a warm hearted pastor and a conscientious man.

Geissenhainer, the pastor of St. Paul's, which he organized in 1841 after having been an assistant of his father in St. Matthew's since 1826, was another connecting link with the past.

Held of St. John's was a pupil of Claus Harms. His eloquent sermons attracted great congregations to Christopher Street.

After fourteen fruitful years in St. James' Church, Wedekind was called to Christopher Street in November, 1878, to succeed Pastor Held. Here he labored for twelve years, edifying the church and inspiring St. John's to bcome one of our most efficient congregations. Under his direction at least four young men of the congregation were led into the ministry. He died April 8, 1897.

Under a quiet exterior Krotel concealed a forceful personality. He was a born leader and took a large part in the development of the General Council. As editor of the Lutherischer Herold for three years and of The Lutheran for many years his writings had a wide influence. From 1868 to 1895 he was pastor of Holy Trinity Church. In 1896, in the 71st year of his age, he accepted a call to the newly organized Church of the Advent, which he served until his death on May 17th, 1907. Under the pen name of Insulanus he delighted the readers of The Lutheran for forty years with his reflections on men and things in New York. Among his published works are a Life of Melanchthon, Meditations on the Beatitudes and Explanations of Luther's Catechism.

Julius Ehrhardt was an unassuming, lovable and scholarly Suabian. He laid the foundations of St. Paul's in Harlem, when the little wooden church stood among the truck gardens. He died in 1899.

Moldenke was a descendant of Salzburg exiles who settled in East Prussia in 1731. He came to us from Wisconsin, organized Zion Church which was subsequently merged with St. Peter's after he had accepted a call to succeed Hennicke in that church. He was an able preacher and a scholarly writer. Under his leadership St. Peter's became a strong congregation. In 1872 he contributed a series of articles on Die Lutheraner des Ostens to Der Pilger of Reading. A reprint of these articles in book form would be a valuable contribution to the story of the Lutherans of New York and a fitting memorial of a minister of mark and influence.

Johann Heinrich Sieker was born in Schweinfurth, Bavaria, October 23d, 1839. He received his theological education at Gettysburg. His early ministry was in connection with the Wisconsin Synod. In 1876, when Ruperti resigned at St. Matthew's, Sieker was called from St. Paul, Minnesota, to become his successor. For 28 years he was the pastor of St. Matthew's and a leading minister of the Missouri Synod. In synodical matters he was an uncompromising defender of the faith as he understood it. He left the record of a singularly devoted and successful ministry. At least thirty young men were led into the ministry under his influence. Roesner's "Ehrendenkmal," a sketch of his life and character, ought to be read by every Lutheran minister in this city. He died in 1904.

John Jacob Young was a native of the Rhenish Palatinate, born at Langenkandel, September 13th, 1846. He came to America in his boyhood. He served in the Union army during the Civil War. When the war was over he studied for the ministry at Gettysburg. He served a number of congregations in Maryland and Indiana till 1893, when he was called to the pastorate of St. John's in Christopher Street. Here for 21 years he faithfully followed his calling as a shepherd of souls.

Charles Armand Miller came to us from the South. He was born in Sheperdstown, West Virginia, March 7, 1864. He was educated at Roanoke College and after his ordination he was for a time pastor of the College Church. He succeeded Dr. Krotel in Holy Trinity Church in 1896 and gave twelve years of devoted and successful service to this congregation. His subsequent fields of labor were in Charleston, South Carolina, and in Philadelphia. He was a scholarly writer, an able preacher, a sympathetic pastor and a loyal friend. Among his published writings were The Perfect Prayer, The Sacramental Feast, The Way to the Cross and a volume of poems entitled Ad Astra.

He died in the prime of his life, September 9th, 1917. Who that knew him will ever forget the genial spirit of Charles Armand Miller?

It would be a congenial task to give a fuller account of these men and of Ruperti, Vorberg, Raegener, Hennicke, Waetter, Foehlinger, Koenig, Halfmann, Frey, Weissel, Beyer and others whose names and lives a few of the older preachers will recall. Perhaps some who read this book will accept the suggestion and write accounts of these pioneer workmen. What a Ministers' Association they would have formed if we could have gotten them together into a conference to discuss the terms of agreement. But that was impossible thirty years ago.

A singularly interesting career came to a close just as I was concluding these memorial paragraphs. Dr. Charles E. Weltner died in Brunswick, Georgia, December 22d, 1917.

He was born in Wilhelmshoehe, January 28th, 1860, where his father commanded a company of soldiers in the royal castle. In his early youth he was sent to New York to meet a relative whom he never found. One Sunday morning, homeless and friendless, he accosted me after service at the door of the church. I offered him employment in my office and for several years he was an efficient helper in the educational and mission work of my parish. Although he was already suffering from defective eyesight, which not long afterward resulted in total blindness, he expressed an ardent desire to enter the ministry. Under the circumstances this seemed to be impossible, but his earnest pleas overcame every objection. In 1884 he entered Hartwick Seminary where he was graduated with honor in 1888. Unable himself to read the text books, his friends read them for him. Especially helpful to him in his studies were Professor Hiller and his wife, the daughter of the sainted Dr. George B. Miller.

Upon the completion of his course in 1888 he was ordained to the Gospel ministry and for the next four years rendered faithful service as the assistant of his pastor in Christ Church. Few that heard him would have suspected his blindness. His remarkable memory enabled him in conducting the Service to use the Bible and the Liturgy as though he could see. In the library he could go to the shelves and place his hands upon the books that he needed. His reader then supplied him with the material needed for study.

In the Fall of 1893 he accepted a call to St. Matthew's Church in Augusta, Georgia. His retirement in 1896 to take charge of a mission among the cotton mill operatives of Columbia, S. C., was deeply regretted not only by his congregation but by the entire city.

Thus far his ministry, however useful it had been, was only a preparation for the remarkable work he was called upon to do in South Carolina and adjoining states. The mountain whites who had been drawn into the cotton mill work of the South were illiterate and but ill prepared for their new conditions.

With the help of his devoted wife, a night school was established. Additional schools became necessary. The Columbia Board of Education became interested and supplied the teachers while the mill company provided for the equipment. Mrs. Weltner helped the girls by creating an interest in good housekeeping and in beautifying the homes and their surroundings.

The movement extended to other parts of the state and into adjoining states, and Dr. Weltner was called upon to explain and direct it. The blind man had seen a vision. The homeless youth of New York's East Side became the prophet of a new era who turned many to righteousness. His eyes now see the King in His beauty.

THEIR PROBLEMS

A synod is an assembly of delegates organized for the purpose of administering the affairs of the churches they represent.

Fourteen synods are represented in Greater New York. Some are based on differences of doctrine. A volume published in 1893, entitled "Distinctive Doctrines and Usages" (See Bibliography), treats of these differences. Others are due to differences of language and race.

In some countries a hyperchurchly trend of the national or state church is responsible for dissenting movements which, left to themselves, finally take the form of separatistic churches. Although these movements temporarily persist in America there is no permanent need for them in our atmosphere of freedom. Our church has room for many men of many minds so long as the essentials of belief are held and respected.

Finns are represented in three synods, Scandinavians in four. These nations therefore account for one-half of our fourteen synods. The history of the Missouri Synod is one of struggle, sacrifice and remarkable growth. For seventy-five years other Lutherans have sought fellowship with them, but they decline to hold fellowship with churches that are not in full accord with their doctrinal position.

Each of these divisions has some historical reason for its existence which cannot be ignored or lightly pushed aside. For various reasons each synod emphasizes some phase of church life which in its opinion warrants a separate organization. Perhaps some of the progress of the last half century may be credited to a wholesome rivalry between these various schools of Lutheranism.

On the other hand these synodical divisions among churches holding the same substance of doctrine, even when they do not provoke downright hostility, are an effective bar to the fraternal alliance so greatly needed in our polyglot communion. Our neighbors, too, of other Denominations, when they try to understand our meticulous divisions, are not unnaturally disposed to look upon us as a conglomerate of sectarian religionists rather than as a Church or even as a distinct Denomination. In lists of denominational activities our churches figure as G. C. Lutherans, G. S. Lutherans, Missouri Lutherans, etc., while all of us are frequently called upon to explain whether we belong to the Evangelical branch of the Lutherans or not.

Absorbed as we are in the local interests of our individual congregations and in the questions that divide us among ourselves, we seldom have an opportunity to give expression to outstanding principles of our church in such a way as to impress the public mind with a sense of their importance.

The question therefore continually recurs, why should these divisions be perpetuated among brethren who are agreed on the essentials of Lutheran teaching even though they may not have completely assimilated each other's minute definitions of theological dogmas. Laymen, more interested in practical results, find it hard to understand why there should be so many different kinds of Lutherans. Even ministers, accustomed as they are to sharp distinctions, sometimes deplore these divisions and wonder when they can be healed. They long for the time when the adherents of the Augsburg Confession may unite in one great body, "beautiful as Tirzah, comely as Jerusalem, terrible as an army with banners."

Alluring as such a prospect may seem, it is not of highest importance in a communion which from the beginning emphasized the right of private judgment and acquired for the world the right to think for itself in matters of conscience and religion. The Church of the Reformation derives its strength from unity rather than from union. Theoretically at least, it is a communion, a fellowship of believers. Its earliest designation was not "The Lutheran Church," but "Churches of the Augsburg Confession."

It is consonant therefore with our historic principles to respect the gifts and calling of the existing divisions in our churches without insisting upon an artificial union which could contribute little to the true unity of the church. There are "many members, yet but one body…. There are differences of administrations, but the same Lord." In our mutual relations therefore it behooves us to recognize the rights of the individual.

This, however, need not prevent our working and praying for union. If it be possible, as much as lieth in us (unless this involves synergistic heresy), let us cultivate tolerance and live peaceably with all men, especially with all Lutherans.

We have in this city a great field in which there is work for us all. In friendly co-operation, rather than in hostile competition, we may escape some of the perils of our past history and perform with credit the tasks with which at present we seem to be struggling in vain.

The Metropolitan District includes the urban communities within ten miles of the boundary line of Greater New York. This territory of a hundred and fifty square miles now holds a population of over seven millions of people. Our churches in Greater New York minister to a baptized membership of 141,642 souls. If we include in our estimates of parochial responsibility, not merely enrolled members, but the entire Lutheran population of the District, Russians, Poles, Slovaks, Bohemians, Hungarians, Letts, Esthonians, Lithuanians, Dutch, Germans, Swedes, Norwegians, Finns and Danes, to say nothing of the multitudes of American birth from the Hudson and Mohawk valleys, from Pennsylvania, Virginia, Ohio and the West, the number of people claiming to be Lutherans amounts to more than five hundred thousand souls.

To minister as we should to such a constituency, we need co-operation in place of competition. The work of cultivating effectively such a field can never be done by churches so hopelessly divided as ours.

Other churches, Protestant and Catholic, with a centralized ecclesiastical organization, are able to work together as one body and make plans for their work covering the entire Metropolitan District. We, with our strong individualism, cannot vie with them. In our polity we are extreme congregationalists and must pay for our freedom.

But there is much that our churches have in common. Our flocks are not alienated from each other as much as are the shepherds. The formation of local groups throughout the greater city, co-operating in common causes, or at least refraining from a polemical policy, would pave the way for a better understanding of our mutual needs and opportunities for service.

Three things, at least, might be done without compromising the faith or violating the spirit of our church life:

1. We might meet for the purpose of forming each other's acquaintance and for the discussion of practical questions. Perhaps none of us is quite so heretical as the synodical divergence would lead a layman to suppose.

2. We might meet for the discussion of vital questions of religion and morals. It is one thing to read about these things in books. It is quite another thing to listen to a spoken presentation warm with the sympathy of a living experience.

3. We might recognize each other's spheres of influence and federate our forces in meeting the needs of our vast community.

In the meantime we are slowly learning that the aspirations and convictions that unite us are greater than the things that separate us. The clearer comprehension of the principles we hold and of the work we have to do, and the sense of our responsibility as one of the larger communions of the metropolis, compel us more and more to emphasize not the unessential details of our theological system but rather the larger truths and principles for which we stand and which we hold in common.

A hundred years ago, on the tercentenary of the Reformation, after a period of political humiliation and economic distress in the Fatherland, the Ninety-five Theses of Claus Harms sounded a call for a Lutheran awakening throughout the world. The result of that revival is felt in the churches to this day.

The quadricentenary of the Reformation was celebrated amid the convulsions of a World War. Is it too much to hope that after this war also the ground may be prepared for a spiritual sowing and reaping when the unnecessary dissensions of sectarian controversy will give place to fraternal co-operation in the service of a common Lord and in the promotion of a common faith?* *Since the foregoing paragraphs were written an unexpected change in the outlook has taken place. Steps were taken a year ago toward bringing together three of the general bodies of the Church in America. Should this hope be realized, it will bring into closer union a majority of the churches of Greater New York. On May 7th, 1918, at a meeting of nearly one hundred Lutheran pastors, members of nearly all of the synods represented on this territory, there was organized a "Conference of the Lutheran pastors of the Metropolitan District for the discussion of all questions of doctrine and practice to the end of effecting unity." This, too, is a harbinger of an approaching era of reconstruction and peace.

It was a Lutheran demand in the sixteenth century to preach the Gospel in the vernacular. It would be un-Lutheran in the twentieth century to conduct public worship in a language which the people do not understand.

This lesson is written so plainly in the history of our churches in America that "he may run that readeth." The Swedish churches on the Delaware, planted by Gustavus Adolphus for the very purpose of propagating the faith in America, were all of them lost to the Lutheran church because the persistent use of the Swedish language, and the inability of the pastors to preach in English, proved an insuperable obstacle to the bringing up of the children in the Lutheran communion. When the New York Ministerium at its meeting in Rhinebeck, September 1st, 1797, resolved that it would "never acknowledge a newly-erected Lutheran Church merely English in places where the members may partake of the services of the Episcopal Church, it halted for a century the growth of the Lutheran Church in New York. [Tr. note: no close quotation marks in original.]

The same experience greets us in London. There the Lutheran Church was established in 1669, only five years later than in New York. For more than two centuries it had the recognition of royalty. As late as the Victorian era Prince Albert, the Queen and the royal family, in their personal relations, were connected with the Lutheran Church. To this day Queen Alexandra is a communicant in the Lutheran church. There exist therefore no social barriers to its growth. Yet not a single English Lutheran church is to be found in London.

With one exception the dozen Lutheran churches of other tongues recognize no responsibility to propagate the faith of the Augsburg Confession in the language of the city in which they live. The exception is that of the German "Missouri" congregation. Here English as well as German is used in the services. Here alone it would seem that "religion is the chief concern."

The language problem confronted us early in our local history. In the first hundred years three languages, Dutch, German and English, contended for the mastery. In their pastoral work some ministers used all three.

Dutch was the first to surrender. The children of Dutch families adopted the language of their English conquerors, and when immigration from Holland ceased, the use of Dutch in worship became obsolete. The last use of Dutch at a Lutheran service was at the communion on the First Sunday in Advent in 1771. It had maintained itself for 114 years.

After the use of Dutch in worship had ceased, German and English came into collision. It was a fight to a finish. When it was over there was little left for which to contend. When Pastor Kunze died, in 1807, the congregation had declined almost to the point of extinction. Many of the English-speaking families had left us and we thus lost some of our leading members, people whose ancestors had for five generations belonged to our communion. The Germans remained, but during the lull in the tide of immigration the use of German declined to such an extent as to imperil the existence even of the German congregation. When Kunze's successor arrived he had difficulty in finding members of the church who could speak German. Even in the German congregation English had become the language of every-day life.

German thrives in German soil. Elsewhere it is an exotic not easily cultivated. From their earliest history Germans have had the Wanderlust and have sought for new homes as it pleased them. But wherever they go they amalgamate with their surroundings.

The Franks settled in Gaul, but, excepting its German name, the language retains but few indications of the German ancestry of a large part of the French people.

The Goths settled in Spain. Physical traits, blue eyes and blonde complexion, persist in some districts, but their descendants speak Spanish.

The Longobards crossed the Alps and settled in Italy where their children speak Italian, although Lombardy is just across the mountains, not far from the early home of their immigrant ancestors.

A notable exception to this tendency of the Germans to amalgamate with other nations was when the Anglo-Saxons invaded Britain. The island had been deserted by the Romans, and the Germans refused for centuries to ally themselves with the British inhabitants. They retained their own language and customs with but a slight admixture of alien elements.* To this day after twelve centuries they prefer to call themselves Anglo-Saxons rather than British. (Nomen a potiori fit.) *"Philologically, English, considered with reference to its original form, Anglo-Saxon, and to the grammatical features which it retains of Anglo-Saxon origin, is the most conspicuous member of the Low German group of the Teutonic family, the other Low German languages being Old Saxon, Old Friesic, Old Low German, and other extinct forms, and the modern Dutch, Flemish, Friesic, and Low German (Platt Deutsch). These, with High German, constitute the 'West Germanic' branch, as Gothic and the Scandinavian tongues constitute the 'East Germanic' branch, of the Teutonic family. (Century Dictionary under the word 'English.')"

In the ninth and eleventh centuries the island was invaded by other Germanic tribes, directly by way of the North Sea or indirectly by the Channel from Normandy, and so the language was developed still further along English, that is Germanic lines. (According to the Century Dictionary the historical pronunciation of the word is eng'-glish and not ing'glish).

Low Germans, (Nether Saxons or Platt Deutsch) who have settled in New York in such large numbers, enjoy a distinct advantage over other nationalities. In the vernacular of America they discover simply another dialect of their native tongue. Hence they acquire the new dialect with little difficulty. The simpler words and expressions of the common people are almost the same as those which they used on the shores of the North Sea and the Baltic. For example: Wo is min Vader? Where is my father? He is in the Hus. He is in the house. English and German sailors from opposite shores of the North Sea, using the simpler words of their respective languages, have no trouble in making themselves understood when they meet.

The High Germans learn English more slowly, but they, too, find many points of contact, not only in the words but also in the grammatical construction of the language.

In the United States the descendants of Germans number seventeen millions. They have made no inconsiderable contributions to the sum total of American civilization. For philological reasons, as we have seen, no people are more ready than the Germans to adopt English for every-day use. None amalgamate more easily with the political and social life of the country of their choice. In normal times we do not think of them as foreigners.

English has the right of way. Its composite character makes it the language for every-day use. Thirty-five languages are spoken in this city, but the assimilative power of English absorbs them all. The Public School is the effective agent in the process. This is the melting pot for all diversities of speech. Children dislike to be looked upon as different from their companions, and so it rarely happens that the language of the parents is spoken by the second generation of immigrant families. Their elders, even when their "speech bewrayeth" them, make strenuous efforts to use the language of their neighbors.

Seeing, then, that Anglicization is inevitable, why should we not cut the Gordian knot, and conduct our ministry wholly in the English language? This would greatly simplify our tasks, besides removing from us the stigma of foreignism.

We are often advised to do so, especially by our monoglot brethren. There are those who go so far as to say that the use of any language other than the English impairs the Americanism of the user.

Some of the languages at present used in our church services may be of negligible importance. The Slovak, Magyar and Finnish for example, as well as the Lettish, Esthonian and Lithuanian of the Baltic Provinces, will never have more than a restricted use in this city. The Scandinavians and those whose vernacular is the Low German easily substitute English for their mother tongue. Scandinavian is kindred to English, while Low German is the very group of which, philologically speaking, English is the most conspicuous member. Upon these tongues it will not be necessary to do summary execution.

It is a different matter, however, when we come to High German, or, properly speaking, New High German, the language of German literature since the sixteenth century, of which Luther, through his version of the Bible, may be called the creator. He at least gave it universal currency. This is a language which we could not lose if we would, and would not if we could.

Scholars are compelled to learn it because it is the indispensable medium for scientific and philosophical study. Formerly Latin was this medium, today it is German.

Lovers of literature learn it because it is the language of Goethe and Schiller, the particular stars of a galaxy that for the modern world at least outshines the productions of the ancient classics. Lutherans enshrine it in their inmost souls because it is the receptacle of treasures of meditation and devotion with which their forms of worship have been enriched for four hundred years. To ignore Angelus Silesius, Paul Gerhardt, Albert Knapp, Philip Spitta and their glorious compeers, would be to silence a choir that sang the praises of the Lord "in notes almost divine."

We need the literature in which the ideas of our church have for centuries been expressed. Language is the medium of ideas. The thirty denominations that constitute the bulk of Protestantism in this country derive the spirit of their church life for the most part from non-Lutheran sources through the medium of English literature. This is as it should be. But when Lutherans no longer understand the language of their fathers or the literature in which the ideas of their confession have found their fullest expression, they lose an indispensable condition of intellectual and spiritual growth. They can never understand as they should the spirit of the church to which they belong. They are doomed sooner or later to share the fate of the Lutherans of New York of the eighteenth century.

When we have forgotten our German we shall be out of touch with the Lutherans who come to us from the Fatherland. For the time being the World War has put an end to German immigration, but this will not last forever. Some time certainly immigration will be resumed, and as in former periods will be an unfailing source of supply for the Lutheran churches of New York.

In the nineteenth century the "Americanized" Lutherans did not understand the Germans who came over in such overwhelming numbers, and were unprepared to shepherd them in Lutheran folds. The work had to be done by immigrant pastors who, on their part, did not understand the American life well enough to accomplish the best results. For the sake of the Lutherans who come to us from foreign lands we cannot afford to lose touch with the historical languages of their churches.

At the beginning of the nineteenth century the use of German had sunk almost to zero. The minutes of the German Society had to be written in English because no one was sufficiently versed in German to write them in this language. There was nothing to interfere with the supremacy of English. Yet the English Lutheran church was unable to "propagate the faith of the fathers in the language of the children." Down to the beginning of the twentieth century, the English churches were dependent for their growth upon accessions from the German and Scandinavian churches. They were unable to retain even the families they had inherited from their Dutch and German ancestors. We search in vain for descendants of the New York Lutherans of the eighteenth century in any of our churches.

Not until a new contribution of immigrants from Lutheran lands had been made to America did our church begin to rise to a position of influence.

When in the second quarter of the nineteenth century the first self-sustaining English Lutheran church was established, the Ockershausens and other children of immigrants were the strong pillars of its support. From that day to the present time not a single English Lutheran church has been established and maintained in this city where the Schierens, the Mollers and scores of others, immigrants or the children of immigrants, were not the chief supporters of the work. Without their effective aid the English Lutherans of the nineteenth century would have been swallowed up by "the denominations that are around us" as were their predecessors of the eighteenth century.

Some of our Anglo-American neighbors are concerned about our political welfare. They advise us to drop the German in order that we may become "Americanized."

Many of us are the children of Germans who tilled the soil of America before there was a United States of America.

The Germans of the Mohawk Valley won at Oriskany, according to
Washington, the first battle of importance in the American Revolution.*
[Tr. note: original has no footnote to go with this asterisk]

The Germans of Pennsylvania, long a neutral colony on account of its large English population, obtained the right of suffrage in May, 1776, and turned the scale in favor of liberty. Through their vote Pennsylvania was brought by a narrow margin into line with Virginia and Massachusetts which would otherwise have remained separated and unable to make effective resistance against the armies of King George.

The Germans of Virginia followed their Lutheran pastor, Peter Muehlenberg, and made memorable the loyalty of American Lutherans. Steuben, the drillmaster of the Revolution, transformed the untrained and helpless troops of Washington into an effective force capable of meeting the seasoned soldiers of Cornwallis and Burgoyne.

Our German ancestors were peasants, unable to write history, but they helped to make history. Without their timely aid there would not have been a United States of America. Their children do not need to be "Americanized." Nor have later immigrants from Germany and Scandinavia, at any period of our history, shown less loyalty to American ideals.

We may concede the hegemony of English in the political and intellectual life of America, but in a great country like America there is room for others also. It is a narrow view of our civilization to make "American" synonymous with English. America is not the dumping ground of the nations. It is a land where the best ideals of all nations may be reproduced and find room for expansion and growth.

The German and Scandinavian churches of New York are not ignorant of the importance of the English language in the maintenance of their church work. (See table of Churches in the Appendix.) With scarcely an exception they make all possible use of English in their services. This they are compelled to do in order to reach their children. In this way, and by making generous contributions of their members to the English churches, they are doing their full share in the general work of church extension in the English language.

They send their sons into the ministry to an extent that has not been approached by our English churches. (See Appendix under Sons of the Church.) Nearly all of these are bi-lingual in their ministerial work and many of them serve exclusively English churches. There is a proverb about killing the goose that lays the golden egg, which we would do well to bear in mind.

Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, founded by Dr. Walther and the Germans of Missouri, numbers 344 students. Candidates for graduation must be able to minister in at least two languages. In a polyglot church such as ours this would seem to be a policy worthy of imitation.

The fifteen languages in which we minister to our people confer upon us an honorable distinction. Each one represents an individuality which cannot be ignored, some spiritual gift which is worth exercising and preserving. By keeping in touch with this many-sided life we enrich our own lives, obtain broader conceptions of the church's mission, and fit ourselves for more effective service in this most cosmopolitan city of the world. Instead of trying to exterminate these languages, let us cultivate a closer acquaintance with them and let us pray for that pentecostal spirit which will enable us to say "we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God."

Three classes of members are recognized in our churches: 1, Those who have been baptized. 2, Those who have been confirmed-that is, those who after the prescribed course of instruction and examination have been admitted to the communion. 3, Communicants-that is, those who are in active fellowship with the church in the use of the word and the sacrament.* *The temporal affairs of the congregation as a civic corporation are regulated by the State and the qualifications of a voting member are defined in the laws of the State. This chapter deals only with the question of membership in the church as a spiritual body. In general the State readily acquiesces in the polity of the various churches so long as it does not interfere with the civic rights of the individual.

There is a fourth class of which no note is taken in our church records. It is the class of lapsed Lutherans-that is, of those who have been admitted to full communion but who have slipped away and are no longer in active connection with the church.

It is sometimes charged that the Lutheran communion does not hold clear views of the church. On the one hand her confessions abound in definitions of the church as a spiritual kingdom, as a fellowship of believers. On the other hand her practice frequently reminds our brother Protestants of the Catholics, and they are disposed to look upon us as Romanists, minorum gentium. "Like a will-of-the-wisp," says Delitzsch, "the idea of the church eludes us. It seems impossible to find the safe middle ground between a false externalism on the one hand and a false internalism on the other hand."

The Lutheran position can only be understood when we recall the situation that confronted the Reformers in the sixteenth century. They had first of all to interpret the teachings of Scripture over against Rome, and hence in their earlier confessions they emphasized the points on which they differed from the Pope.

According to Romish doctrine a man became a member of the church, not by an interna virtus, but solely through an external profession of faith and an external use of the sacraments. The church is as visible and perceptible an organization as is "the kingdom of France or the republic of Venice." The church is an institution rather than a communion.

For thirteen centuries, from Cyprian to Bellarmin, this doctrine held almost undisputed sway.

The Reformers demonstrated the significance of faith, and showed the untenableness of Rome's conception of the church as a mere institution. Thomasius calls this a central epoch in the history of the world. But at the same time the Reformers had to take a stand against the hyperspiritual positions of the fanatics, as well as the teachings of the Zwinglians who denied the efficacy of the means of grace. The confessions, therefore, as well as the subsequent writings of Melanchthon and the dogmaticians, and the entire history and development of the Lutheran churches must be read in the light of this two-fold antagonism.

The system which the Reformers controverted must have had features acceptable to the natural man or it would not have prevailed for so many centuries. Hence it is not surprising when Romanism creeps back into nominally Protestant churches. It behooves us, therefore, to be on our guard and to purge out the old leaven. And the opposite tendency which undervalues the visible church, must also be corrected by a Scriptural doctrine of the ordinances.

1. Doctrine, defined in the Confessions, modified by Melanchthon's later writings and by the dogmaticians of the 17th century, considerably influenced also by Spener and the Pietists, while not a little has come to us from the Rationalistic period.

2. Tradition, from the civil and social arrangements of the national churches from which we are descended, inherited through generations of our predecessors in this country. We follow in the old ruts, and "the way we have always been doing" puts an end to controversy.

3. Environment. Consciously or unconsciously we are influenced by the practice of neighboring denominations.

The object of this chapter is to ascertain the historic principles of the Lutheran Church in regard to church membership, to test their validity by Scriptures and to apply them to present conditions.

The Church is primarily the communion of saints. Thus in the Small Catechism: "even as He (the Holy Ghost) … sanctifies the whole Christian Church on earth." In the Large Catechism the same thought, that the Church is the product of the Holy Ghost, is expressed in ample terms. Rome's doctrine of the Church, as essentially an external organism, was answered in the 7th Article of the Augustana with the statement that the Church is the "congregation of saints," and this Article was the object of special attack in the Confutation. In the Apologia the Church is the congregation of those who confess one Gospel, have a knowledge of Christ and a Holy Spirit who renews, sanctifies and governs their hearts (Mueller 153, 8). In the Smalcald Articles: "Thank God, a child of seven years knows what the Church is, namely the holy believers and the lambs who hear their Shepherd's voice." The Formula of Concord has no special article on the Church, but touches the question incidentally and confirms the statements of the other symbols. (See Rohnert, Dogmatik, p. 505.)

These teachings are in harmony with New Testament doctrine. Jesus said: "Upon this rock will I build my church," the congregation of God's children, the spiritual house which in the years to come "I will build." This Church was founded through the outpouring of the Holy Ghost on Pentecost. When the Epistles were written Ecclesia had become the established term. In Acts 2, 42, we find that Koinonia was one of the essential characteristics of the Church. John uses the same term in his first letter. This is the very truth repeated in the 7th Article of the Augustana. Paul, in his letter to Titus, refers to Christians as those who have believed in God; Romans 8, "God's elect;" also in Colossians 3, 1, "elect of God;" I. Peter 2, "holy nation, peculiar people;" I. Cor. 1, "Sanctified in Christ Jesus," etc., etc. They form a "spiritual house," I. Peter, 2; "God's building," I. Cor, 3; "body of Christ" in process of edification, Eph. 4. This body of Christ is an organic unity in which the Holy Ghost dwells as in a temple, I. Cor., 3 ; and of which Christ is the head, Eph. 1, 22. The Church is the "bride of Christ," II. Cor, 11, 2; destined to be "holy and without blemish," Eph., 5, 27.

The Romish doctrine of the Church began with Cyprian in the third century. When the Puritans of that day, the Montanists, Novatians and Donatists unduly emphasized the ideal character of the Church, there was justification for the answer of Cyprian, emphasizing its empiric character, its actual condition. When after thirteen centuries of abuse of this position a Reformation occurred, it was to be expected that the Reformers would first of all emphasize the ideal, the inner character of the Church.

But while this movement, which Julius Stahl felicitously termed the Conservative Reformation, was going on, there was also a radical Reformation which repudiated the idea of a visible church. The Romanists, in their confutation of the Augustana, called attention to this view, and wrongfully charged the Lutherans with holding it. In controverting this position, the Romanists very properly quoted the parable of the tares and the parable of the net with all kinds of fishes. The Apologia replied by showing that the 8th Article of the Augustana had repudiated this position, and that bad men and hypocrites were not excluded ab externa societate.

Thus the Romanists regard the Church as essentially visible, the Reformed, as essentially invisible, while Lutherans hold that she is both. The invisible Church is contained within the visible just as the soul is contained within the body. The Church is not merely a congregation of believers, but also an institution for the promotion of the Kingdom of God.

In their controversy with Rome Lutherans held that the Church did not exist merely in participation of external rites, but chiefly in the possession of the inward life, the heavenly gifts. As yet the kingdom of Christ is not revealed, and the visible Church is a corpus mixtum. Thus the Apologia distinguishes clearly between the ecclesia proprie et large dicta (church in the proper and church in the wider sense of the term).

Nevertheless this Kingdom of Christ has a visible existence. "We are not dreaming of a Platonic commonwealth," says the Apologia, "for it has external marks, the preaching of the pure Gospel and the administration of the sacraments." And this Church is the "pillar and ground of the truth," for she is built upon the true foundation, Christ, and upon this foundation Christians are built up.

Subsequently, in his Loci, Melanchthon developed still further the idea of the Church as an institutum. This may have been because of the fanatics, or it may have been because of his entire disposition as a teacher and pedagogue. Followed as he was in support of his views by the dogmaticians, the Lutheran Church acquired that distinctive character which has marked her history as an educating and training force. This position is still further explained from the fact that the Lutherans, unlike the Reformed, were placed in charge of nations and peoples, and had to be responsible for their Christian guidance and training. As a national church, her relations to the people were different from those of the Reformed, who, on the continent, existed mainly in smaller communities and congregations where it was comparatively easy to enforce church discipline.

In this relation the Church is not only the product, but also the organ of the Holy Ghost. It is her duty to nourish the life of its members (parturit et alit), and to spread the blessings of the Church to others. According to the Large Catechism, she is the spiritual mother of the faithful. Her pedagogic duty is pointed out. (See Rohnert, Dogmatik, pp. 508 and 487.)

This visible character of the Church is recognized in the New Testament in the various commands and promises given to her: the power of the keys, the duty to confess before men, to serve one another in love, of united intercession, of contending against the kingdom of darkness. In the Epistles the presence of sinful men is everywhere recognized, nevertheless the members of the Church are termed "the called" of Jesus Christ.

Lutheranism of the 16th century stood between two opposite errors, Rome on the one hand with its exaggerated ideas of the Church as an institution, and Reform on the other hand with its one-sided notions of the invisible church. The Lutheran Church took the via media, declaring that the Church, proprie, was spiritual, but that it was also an institution. The question for us is whether we Lutherans of the twentieth century have remained on the via media or whether we have not slipped too far to the right or to the left.

To find the answer one would naturally consult our church formulas and constitutions. According to Dr. Walther's "Pastorale," the candidate for admission to a "Missouri" church must be a truly converted and regenerated Christian. The General Council requires that the candidate shall have been admitted to the Lord's Supper and shall accept the constitution. The Synod of New York requires that candidates be confirmed, accept the Augsburg Confession, lead a Christian life, obey the constitution and any other regulations that may hereafter be adopted.

From this it seems that "Missouri" is the only body that emphasizes the interna virtus. The others place the emphasis upon conformity with certain outward forms and requirements.

But we cannot always judge from the printed constitution. To bring the information up to date, and to ascertain the actual usage of the churches, the author obtained from forty pastors of this city an account of their practice. Some of their replies will be embodied in this chapter.

Theoretically we enter the church through baptism. Practically, for most
Lutherans, confirmation is the door of admission.

This rite is a comparatively new measure among us. Prior to the eighteenth century it had only a limited use in the Lutheran Church, and it has attained an inordinately prominent place. Spener was among the first to recognize its practical value, and its beautiful ritual made a strong appeal to the popular imagination. It is one of the ancient ceremonies to which we do not object if it is properly used.

Now tell us, you who make so much of confirmation and so little of catechization, seeing that you are content with six months of the latter, in adopting a rite which Spener and the Pietists introduced into the church, have you also adopted the principles which governed Spener and the Pietists in the practice of confirmation? Their object in catechization and confirmation was conversion. "A stranger visited my class one day," says Spener. "The next day he called to see me and expressed his great pleasure with my instruction. 'But,' said he, 'this instruction is for the head. The question is how to bring the head to the heart.' And these words he repeated three times. I will not deny that they made such an impression upon me that for the rest of my days I shall not forget them."

We are not advocating extravagant ideas of conversion, or requiring a religious experience from children of fourteen years which in the nature of the case they cannot have. But have we a right in this crisis in the history of the child to overlook that infinitely important experience which our dogmaticians termed regressus ad baptismum? Said Professor Kaftan, in an address to a Ministers' Conference: "The word conversion is the appropriate term for expressing the way in which a man becomes a Christian and a believer. Most Christians can tell you something about how it happened that they sought a new aim and chose another path in life. Even among those who have had a peaceful and gradual development, there came a time when they reached a conscious and decisive resolution to belong no more to the world but to God. "Man wird nicht von selbst ein Christ, man muss sich bekehren um ein Christ zu werden." We do not repudiate the doctrine of baptismal regeneration as it is held in the Lutheran Church. On this point we are in accord with our Confessions. But before we adopt without reservation the idea that baptized children are regenerate, we must revise our practice in the matter of baptizing infants. So long as we practice the Winkeltaufe and baptize indiscriminately the children of people who give us no guarantee that the children will be brought up in the Christian faith, so long as the Church fails to recognize her obligation to these baptized children and does not take them under her nourishing care from the time when they emerge from the family and enter into the larger life of the street and the school, we have no right to place such an emphasis upon baptismal regeneration. It is to be feared that the Lutheran doctrine of baptismal grace has in many minds been supplanted by a mechanical, thaumaturgiel conception which differs from the Roman doctrine only in being far more dangerous. Rome at least enforces the claims of tthe [sic] Church recognized in baptism. We baptize them and let them run. We corral a few of them for a few months just before confirmation and then let them run again. So does not Rome." [tr. note: original has no close quotation mark for Kaftan quotation]

Dr. Cremer, of Greifswald, an able defender of the Lutheran faith, in his reply to Dr. Lepsius on the subject of Baptismal Regeneration, says:

"It is sad indeed that in the use of the sacraments there is generally more of superstition than of faith. This must be openly confessed, for only then can conditions be improved when faults are recognized and made known. . . . We may continue to baptize chiildren [sic] of Gewohnheitschristen (formal Christians), but it is a question whether we ought to continue to baptize the children of those who have given up the faith and among whom there is no guarantee of a Christian training. This means also a reformation in our confirmation practice. Does confirmation mean a family party, or mark the time to leave school, or has it something to do with baptism? These are rocks of offense which must be cleared out of the way if the Church is to be restored to health."

1. Do you have a personal interview with each candidate prior to confirmation with the view of ascertaining his fitness for the act?

2. Do you at that interview inquire as to the candidate's repentance, faith, conversion, new life?

3. Is the confirmation of the candidate dependent upon the satisfactory result of this examination?

Among the answers were the following: "Not, individually." "No, except before the congregation." "Not formally so." "For at least six months." "Only with certain ones," etc., etc.

A goodly number of pastors speak to the candidates "unter vier Augen," but they are the exceptions. The ordinary practice knows nothing of such a course. The public examination is little more than an exhibition.

In other words, we have strayed over to the Roman side of the road. The difference between us and the Roman priest being this: he will see them again at the confessional, but those whom we confirm in this superficial way, many of them, we shall never see again. Or, if perchance we should see some of them, it will be at long range, the same as when we first admitted them to confirmation. Imagine a doctor curing his patients in this way, getting them together in a room and prescribing for their diseases from what he sees of them in a crowd. The care of souls cannot be performed in bulk, it is the care of a soul.

Besides what a privilege the pastor loses, the opportunity of a lifeline, not only to explain to an inquiring heart the mysteries of our faith in the light of his personal need, but also to put himself in such a relation to the individual that he may become a beloved Beichvater. But alas, we have to a great extent lost the confessional. Instead of it we have a hybrid combination of Lutheran doctrine and Reformed practice, and we distribute our absolution ore rotundo over mixed congregations on Sunday mornings and at the Preparatory Service. But the real confession we seldom hear and a valid absolution therefore we cannot pronounce. The Keys have indeed been committed to us, but we seem to have lost them, for the door of the sheepfold hangs very loose in our churches and the sheep run in and out pretty much as they please.

But while some of our churches are thus leaning toward Rome, there is need of caution also against the opposite error. A false and exaggerated spirituality will lead to standards of holiness which are not warranted by the New Testament. Of these Luther himself somewhere said, "May the God of mercy preserve me from belonging to a congregation of holy people. I desire to belong to a church of poor sinners who constantly need forgiveness and the help of a good physician."* *Methods of receiving candidates into active membership vary. Some synods, as we have seen, make no distinction whatever in their statistical reports between occasional communicants and actual members of the congregation. Admission to membership should take place by vote of the congregation or at least of the Church Council. There should likewise be some rite of initiation. In the case of adults who come from other congregations it need not and should not be a confirmation service, but it should at least be a public introduction of the candidate into the fellowship of the congregation with which he desires to become identified. (Matthew 10, 32).

Rome's position was a protest against Montanism. Without question there is a great truth in Cyprian's position as developed by Rome, and the Reformers, particularly Melanchthon, guarded it. How often do we hear in our day the declaration: "I do not need to go to church. I can be just as good a Christian without." This position Lutheranism rebukes by making preaching and the sacraments the pillars on which the church rests. Thus is conserved what was best in the institutional theory of the ancient church, so that in spite of her many defects both as a national church and in her transplanted condition, the Lutheran church will remain an important factor in the development of Protestant Christianity.

When our Reformed neighbors charge us with Romanism, it is either because they do not understand our theory and have overlooked the historical development, or because they judge of us by the Romish practice of our own ministers who have thoughtlessly slipped over too far toward the institutional theory. In the present condition of religious flux we have a mission not only in the field of doctrine, but also in practical theology, on the question of the Church. For we are still standing between two antagonists. Catholics on the one hand attract the masses by the definiteness of their external organization. Over against them we emphasize the essentially spiritual nature of the Church. There are Protestants on the other hand who, while placing the emphasis on the inner life, ignore the importance of the ordinances. They maintain public worship, it is true, but do so in combination with secular entertainment or by appealing to the intellectual or esthetic needs of the community. Others, more spiritually minded, base their hopes on the evangelist and the revival. But when the evangelist has taken his leave, and the people have to listen to the same voice they have heard so long before, having been thoroughly indoctrinated with the idea that it is not the Church that makes a man a Christian, that sacraments and ordinances are merely human devices, is it any wonder that many of them ignore the church altogether?

It is here that the Lutheran Church, with her catholic spirit and her evangelical doctrine, has a message for our times. Her doctrine of baptism, of Christian instruction as its corrollary, of repentance, faith, and the new life, of the Lord's Supper, of church attendance, of the sanctification of the Lord's Day, and a practical application of these doctrines to the life in the care of souls, establishes a standard of membership that ought to make our churches sources of spiritual power.

Historically and doctrinally the Lutheran Church is committed to week-day instruction in religion. Historically, because in establishing the public school her chief purpose was to provide instruction in religion; doctrinally, because from her point of view life is a unit and cannot be divided into secular and spiritual compartments.

American Christians are confronted with two apparently contradictory propositions. One is that there can be no true education without religion. The other is that we must have a public school, open to all children without regard to creed.

When our country was young, and Protestantism was the prevailing type of religion, these two ideas dwelt peacefully together. The founders of the Republic had no theory of education from which religion was divorced. But the influx of millions of people of other faiths compels us to revise our methods and to test them by our principles, the principles of a free Church within a free State. Roman Catholics and Jews object to our traditions and charge us with inconsistency. If temporarily we withstand their objections, we feel that a great victory has been won for religion when a psalm is read and the Lord's Prayer said at the opening of the daily session of school. We still have "religion" in the publie school.

But the problem remains. On the one hand, those who doubt the propriety of introducing any religious instruction, however attenuated, into the public school, are not satisfied with the compromise. There are judicial decisions which place even the reading of the Bible under the head of sectarian instruction.

On the other hand, those who believe that religion has a supreme place in the education of a child, and that provision should therefore be made for it in its school life, realize the inadequacy of the present methods.

As Herbert Spencer says: "To prepare us for complete living is the function which education has to discharge." Character rather than acquirement is the chief aim of education. Hence we cannot ignore the place of religion in education without doing violence to the ultimate purpose of education.

The importance of the question is admitted on all sides. But it remains a complex and difficult problem. Thus far, with all our talent for practical measures, we have not succeeded in reaching a solution.

In New York, in common with other churches, we have the Sunday School. We do not undervalue its influence and cannot dispense with its aid. But does the Sunday School meet the requirement of an adequate system of religious instruction? It is an institution that has endeared itself to the hearts of millions. Originally intended for the waifs of an English manufacturing town, it has become among English-speaking people an important agency of religion. Apart from the instruction which it gives, we could not dispense with it as a field for the cultivation of lay activity, and a practical demonstration of the priesthood of all believers. Nevertheless its best friends concede its limitations. From a pedagogical standpoint, no one thinks of comparing it with the secular school. With but half an hour a week for instruction, even the best of teachers could not expect important results. Its chief value lies in the personal influence of the teacher. But instruction in religion involves more than this.

Nor does the Sunday School reach all the children. Attendance is voluntary, and hence there is no guarantee that all the children of school age will obtain any instruction, to say nothing of graded and systematic instruction, taking account of the entire school life, and holding in mind the ultimate object of instruction, the preparation of children for full membership in the church. But this is one of the first duties of the churches, to look after all their children with this end in view.

As a supplement and an aid the Sunday School has untold possibilities of usefulness. But all its merits and advantages cannot close our eyes to the fact that it does not and cannot meet the chief requirement of the Christian school, the systematic preparation of all the children for the duties of church membership. In this work the church cannot shirk her responsibility. Her very existence depends upon it.

Recognizing this obligation some of our churches maintain the Parochial School. Thirty churches out of one hundred and fifty are making a heroic effort to be loyal to their ideals. The total number of pupils is 1,612. In other words, out of 42,106 children in attendance at Sunday School only 4 per cent. get instruction in religion through the Parochial School. So far as numbers show it would seem to be a failure. But one cannot always judge from the outward appearance. Eight of these parochial-school churches report fifty of their sons in the ministry.* *Some of the pastors failed to send me reports on this point, but I have been credibly informed that within twelve years, ten of these churches sent sixty of their sons into the ministry.

In view of such a result who would dare to say anything in disparagement of the Parochial School? Perhaps its friends may some time see their way clear to secure greater efficiency by establishing three or four schools in place of the thirty, and thus relieve the individual congregations of a serious tax upon their resources.

Some of our churches have Saturday schools and classes in religion on other week days. The total number of pupils reported in these classes, including the members of confirmation classes, is 5,711. Add to these the 1,612 pupils of the parochial schools, some of whom have already been counted in the confirmation classes, and we have at most 7,323 children obtaining instruction in religion on week days, 17 per cent. of the number of those in attendance at Sunday School.

So far as may be learned therefore from such statistics as are available, it follows that 83 per cent. of our children receive no public instruction in religion except such as is given in the Sunday School and in the confirmation class.

Our churches do not take kindly to the so-called evangelistic methods of reaching unchurched masses, claiming that our methods, in particular the catechization of the young, are more effective. In view of the figures presented above, it is open to question whether our churches practice catechization in the historical sense of the word. It is a question whether our method of imparting instruction in the catechism for a few months preliminary to confirmation does justice to the spirit and principles of the Lutheran Church? Many of our pastors sigh under the yoke of a custom which promises so much and yields so little.

To postpone the catechization of more than 80 per cent. of the children until they are twelve or thirteen years of age, and to complete the course of preparation for communicant membership within six months, contributes but little to the upbuilding of strong and healthy Lutheran churches. An examination of our church rolls shows that such a system is a large contributor to the class of lapsed Lutherans. We get the children too late and we lose them too early.

This is "an hard saying" and may offend many. But among all the problems we are considering there is none to equal it in importance. Can we find a solution?

Wherever the churches are prepared to utilize the time in giving adequate instruction in religion, the curriculum of the public school should be modified to meet this need. Competent authorities see no objection to this, and there is a very large movement which seeks to further this idea.* *At the meeting of the Inter-Church Conference In Carnegie Hall, New York, in November, 1905, at which twentynine Protestant Churches of America were represented the author presented a paper on Week-day Religious Instruction. Its main propositlon was favorably received, and the following resolution was adopted by the Conference: "Resolved, that in the need of more systematic education in religion, we recommend for the favorable consideration of the Public School authorities of the country the proposal to allow the children to absent themselves without detriment from the public schools on Wednesday or on some other afternoon of the school week for the purpose of attending religious instruction in their own churches; and we urge upon the churches the advisability of availing themselves of the opportunity so granted to give such instruction in addition to that given on Sunday. "The further consideration of the subject was referred to the Executive Committee. By direction of this Committee a report on Week-day Instruction in Religion was presented at the First Meeting of the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ In America, held in Philadelphia in 1905. After an earnest discussion, resolutions were adopted indicating the importance which the representatives of the churches of America attached to the general question. At the Second Meeting of the Federal Council, held in Chicago in December, 1912, the Special Committee of the Federal Council presented a report recognizing the difficulties confronting an adequate solution of the question and providing for a more thorough investigation and discussion of the entire subject." In his report for 1909 (Vol. I, page 5), the United States Commissioner of Education, Dr. Elmer Ellsworth Brown, refers to this subject in the following words: "Those who would maintain that the moral life has other rootings than that in religion, would, for the most part, admit that it is deeply rooted in religion, and that for many of our people its strongest motives are to be found in their religious convictions; that many, in fact, would regard it as insufficiently grounded and nourished without such religious convictions. The teaching of religious systems is no longer under serious consideration as far as our public schools are concerned. Historical and social influences have drawn a definite line in this country between the public schools and the churches, leaving the rights and responsibilities of religious instruction to the latter. It would be futile, even if it were desirable, to attempt to revise this decision of the American people. There has been, however, within the past two or three years, a widespread discussion of the proposal that arrangements be made between the educational authorities and ecclesiastical organizations, under which pupils should be excused from the schools for one half-day in the week-Wednesday afternoon has been uggested-in order that they may in that time receive religious and moral instruction in their several churches. This proposal has been set forth in detail in a volume entitled "Religious Education and the Public School," and has been under consideration by a representative committee during, the past two or three years."

An interdenominational committee, consisting of Evangelical Protestants only, was organized in 1914 for the purposing of securing week-day instruction in religion for the children of New York. A similar committee consisting of representatives of all churches, Protestant, Catholic and Jewish, was organized in 1915 which is giving effective study to the same question. The Lutheran Minister's Association is represented on both these committees.

The Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America, representing thirty denominations and a communicant membership of eighteen millions, through its Commission on Christian Education is making a large contribution to the study of the problem.

The Protestant Episcopal Church in its General Convention and the Methodist Episcopal Church in its General Conference have made provision through appropriate committees for the study and promotion of the subject of week-day instruction in religion.

The Jewish Community (Kehillah) is doing work far exceeding anything that Christians have done in the way of religious education. It has established 181 schools of religion, for children in attendance at the public schools, in which 40,000 children are enrolled. In other forms instruction in religion is given to 25,000 children. Thus out of 275,000 Jewish children in the public schools 23.5 per cent. receive week-day instruction in religion. Energetic efforts are made to reach the remaining 210,000. The pupils have from one to four periods each week, after school hours, each period lasting from one to two hours. The total sum annually expended by the Jews for week-day instruction in religion is approximately $1,400,000.

From "The Jewish Communal Register of New York City, 1917-1918, [tr. note: no close quote for title in original] we quote as follows:

"In the typical week day school, the number of hours of instruction given to each child varies from 6 1/2 hours in the lowest grade to 9 1/2 hours in the seventh or highest grade. . . . The total teaching staff consists of 615 teachers, of whom about 23 per cent. are women. The salary of teachers ranges from $300 to $1,200 per year. The average salary is $780 annually for 22 hours' work during the week."

The Jews ask for no concession of time from the public school. They seem to have physical and intellectual vigor enabling them to utilize, for the study of religion, hours which Christian children require for rest and recreation.

Lutherans hold that it is the function of the church to provide instruction in religion for its children. What are the Lutherans of New York doing to maintain this thesis? Over 40,000 children of enrolled Lutheran families obtain no instruction in religion except that which is given in the Sunday School and in the belated and abbreviated hours of catechetical instruction.

A movement is now going on in this city and throughout the United States aiming at a restoration of religious education to the functions of the church. For the sake of our children ought we not heartily to cooperate with a movement which so truly represents the principles for which we stand? It will require a considerable addition to the teaching force of our churches. It will mean an expensive reconstruction of our schoolrooms. It will cost money. But it will be worth while.

There are four hundred thousand lapsed Lutherans in New York, nearly three times as many as enrolled members of the churches.

A lapsed Lutheran is one who was once a member, but for some reason has slipped the cable that connected him with the church. He still claims to be a Lutheran but he is not enrolled as a member of a particular congregation.

Most lapsed Lutherans are of foreign origin. From figures compiled by Dr. Laidlaw (see "Federation," Vol. 6, No. 4), we obtain the number of Protestants of foreign origin, enumerated according to the country of birth of parents, one parent or both. The number of Lutherans we obtain by subtracting from the "Protestants" the estimated number of non-Lutherans. Thus:

                       Protestants Lutherans
     Norway ………. 33,344 - 10% = 30,010
     Sweden ………. 56,766 - 10% = 51,090
     Denmark ……… 11,996 - 10% = 10,797
     Finland ……… 10,304 - 10% = 9,274
     Germany ………486,252 - 20% = 389,002
     Austria-Hungary . 27,680 - 80% = 5,535
     Russia* ……… 15,000 - 20% = 12,000
                                           507,708

*Many of the Lutherans who have come to us of late years from Russia, Austro-Hungary and other countries of South Eastern Europe, are the descendants of German Lutherans who in the eighteenth century accepted the invitation of Katharine the Second and Marie Theresia to settle in their dominions. Others are members of various races from the Baltic Provlnces.

That is, the estimated number of Lutherans of foreign origin, counting only the chief countries from which they emigrate to America, is 507,708.

But we also have Lutherans here who are not of foreign origin. Lutherans have lived in New York from the beginning of its history. Its first houses were built by Heinrich Christiansen, who certainly had a Lutheran name. The Lutherans of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, it is true, left no descendants to be enrolled in our church books. These are to be found in goodly numbers in the Protestant Episcopal and other churches where they occupy the seats of the mighty. It is too late to get them back.

But in the nineteenth century we collected new congregations. There are many Lutherans whose grandparents at least were born in New York. Besides, there has been a large influx from the Hudson and Mohawk valleys, from Pennsylvania, Ohio, the South and the West. A moderate estimate of these immigrants from the country and of those who under the grandfather clause claim to be unhyphenated Americans, members or non-members of our churches, is 40,000.

Add to these the Lutherans of foreign origin and we have in round numbers a Lutheran population of more than 547,000 souls.

Turning now to the statistical tables in the Appendix we find that the number of souls reported in our churches is 140,957. Subtract these from the total Lutheran population and we have a deficit of over 400,000 souls, lapsed Lutherans, the subject of the present chapter. Quod erat demonstrandum. While this is a large number, it is a moderate estimate. An addition of 20 per cent. would not be excessive.

Of the Americans a large number are the children of our New York churches, the product of our superficial catechetical system. No study of the subject is complete that does not take account of this serious defect. No cure will be effective until we have learned to take better care of our children.

Native Americans from the country, members of Lutheran churches in their former homes, have no excuse if they do not find a Lutheran church when they come to New York. In years gone by English churches were scarce, but now they are to be found in every part of the city. In part at least, the home pastors are responsible. When their people remove to New York they ought to be supplied with letters, and the New York pastors should be notified. In fifty years I have not received twenty-five letters from my country brethren asking me to look after their wandering sheep.

For the foreign Lutherans who have failed to comnect with the church, three reasons may be given: 1. Ignorance. Not ignorance in general, but ignorance in regard to church conditions in America. They come from National churches where their relation to the church does not require much personal initiative. They belong to the church by virtue of their baptism and confirmation. Their contributions to its maintenance are included in the general tax levy.

Arrived in New York where Church and State are separate, a long time may pass before any one cares for the soul of the immigrant. Our pastors are busy with their routine work and seldom look after the new comers, unless the new comers look after them. The latter soon become reconciled to a situation which accords with the inclinations of the natural man. Ignorance of American church conditions accounts for the slipping away of many of our foreign brethren from the fellowship of the church.

2. Indifference. Many foreigners who come here are merely indifferent to the claims of religion. Others are distinctly hostile toward the church. Most of the Socialistic movements of continental Europe, because of the close association of Church and State, fail to discriminate between their respective ideas. Thy condemn the former for the sins of the latter.

3. Infidelity. A materialistic philosophy has undermined the Christian conception of life and the world, and multitudes of those who were nominally connected with the church have long since repudiated the teachings of Christianity.

It is a tremendous problem that confronts us, the evangelization of four hundred thousand Lutherans. If for no other reason, because of its magnitude and because of its appeal to our denominational responsibility, it is a problem worth solving. But it is a challenge to our Christianity and it should stimulate us to an intense study of its possible solution.

Ministers can contribute much toward its solution. It is true our hands are full and more than full with the ordinary care of our flocks. But our office constantly brings us into association with this large outer fringe of our congregations at times when their hearts are responsive to anything that we may have to say. We meet them at weddings and at funerals. We baptize their children and we bury their dead. Once in a while some of them even come to church. In spite of all their wanderings and intellectual idiosyncrasies they still claim to be Christians. And whatever their own attitude toward Christianity may be, there are few who do not desire to have their children brought up in the Christian faith. We have before us an open door.

The churches can do more than they are doing now to win these lapsed Lutherans. Some people are kept out of church through no fault of their own. For example, the rented pew system, still in vogue in some congregations, is an effective means of barring out visitors. Few care to force themselves into the precincts of a private club even if it bears the name of a church.

A pecuniary method of effecting friendly relations is not without its merits. In this city of frequent removals there are many families who have lost all connection with the congregation to which they claim to belong. An opportunity to contribute to the church of their new neighborhood might be for them a secondary means of grace. They become as it were proselytes of the gate. Having taken the first step, many may again enter into full communion with the church.

A Lutheran church, however, does not forget the warning of the prophet: "They have healed the hurt of my daughter slightly." The evangelization of this great army of lapsed Lutherans is not to be accomplished by such a simple expedient as taking up a collection. What most of them need is a return to the faith. Somebody must guide them.

For this no societies or new ecclesiastical machinery will be required. The force to do this work is already enlisted in the communicant membership of our one hundred and fifty organized congregations. We have approximately 60,000 communicants. These are our under-shepherds whose business it is to aid the pastor in searching for "the lost sheep of the house of Israel." Shall we not have a concerted effort on the part of all the churches?

We may certainly win back again into our communion many of whom the Good Shepherd was speaking when He said: "them also I must bring and they shall hear my voice, and they shall become one flock, one shepherd."

When our Lord fed the five thousand, He first commanded them to sit down by companies. "And they sat down in ranks, by hundreds and by fifties." These 400,000 souls may first of all be grouped in families. Let us say 90,000 families. These are scattered all over the greater city, most of them in close proximity to some one of our 150 churches. To each church may be given an average assignment of 600 families.

The average number of communicants in each of our churches is nearly 400. Some churches have less, others more. To an average company of 400 communicants is committed the task of evangelizing 600 families, not aliens or strangers, but members of our own household of faith, people who in many eases will heartily welcome the invitation. Some of these 400 potential evangelists will beg to be excused. Let us make a selective draft of 300 to do the work. The task required of each member of this army is to visit two families.

Whatever else may be said of such a computation it certainly does not present an insuperable task. It can be done in one year, in one month, in one week, in one day.

Without presuming to insist upon a particular method of solving this problem, is it not incumbent upon the Lutheran churches of New York to face it with the determination to accomplish an extraordinary work if need be in an extraordinary manner? "The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force."

Seventy years ago a great company of Christian men met in the old Luther town of Wittenberg to consider the needs of the Fatherland. It was the year of the Revolution. It was a time of political confusion and of desperate spiritual need. It was then that Wichern, in an address of impassioned eloquence, pointed the way toward the mobilization of all Christians in a campaign of spiritual service.

He was directed to prepare the program. It appeared in 1849 under the title "Die Innere Mission."

It was a clarion call to personal service and it met with an immediate and remarkable response. The movement marked an epoch in the history of the church.

Because the Inner Mission lends itself in a peculiar way to works of charity it is often regarded as synonymous with the care of the helpless and afflicted. In this use of the term we lose sight of the larger meaning and scope of the work which has made it one of the great religious forces of the nineteenth century. It should therefore be more accurately described as that movement of the nineteenth century which, recognizing the alienation of multitudes within the church from the Christian faith and life appeals [sic] to all disciples of Christ by all means to carry the Gospel to men of all classes who have strayed away and to gather them into the communion and confession of the church. It is a mission within the church and hence bears the name of Inner Mission.

Such a call comes to us at a time when we are confronted with a problem which almost staggers the imagination and when we are offered an opportunity such as no other Protestant church enjoys.

The word statistics, according to the Century Dictionary, refers not merely to a collection of numbers, but it comprehends also "all those topics of inquiry which interest the statesman." The dignity thus given to the subject is enhanced by a secondary definition which calls it "the science of human society, so far as deduced from enumerations."

No branch of human activity can be studied in our day without the use of statistics. Statesmen and sociologists make a careful study of figures before they attempt to formulate laws or policies.

For church statistics we are chiefly dependent upon the tables of the Synodical Minutes. The original source of our information is the pastor's report of his particular congregation. Unfortunately the value of these tables is greatly impaired by the absence of a common standard of membership.

The New York Ministerium has no column for "communicant" members. There is a column for "contributing" members, but these do not necessarily mean communicants. Among the records of Ministerial Acts, such as marriages and funerals, there is also a column for "Kommuniziert." But even if the Holy Communion were to be classed among Ministerial Acts, it sometimes happens that others besides members partake of the communion. The term "Kommuniziert" therefore does not convey definite information on the subject of communicant membership. For example, a congregation with 160 "contributing members" reports 770 "Kommuniziert." It is hardly conceivable that out of 770 communicant members only 160 are contributing members and that 610 communicants are non-contributors. Otherwise there would seem to be room for improvement in another direction besides statistics.

The New York Ministerium also has no column for "souls," that is, for all baptized persons, including children, connected with the congregation. There are also many blanks, and many figures that look like "round numbers." For thirty years I have tried in vain to comprehend its statistics. Hinc illae lacrymae.

The Missouri Synod has three membership rubrics: souls, communicant members, voting members. When however, a congregation of 900 communicants reports only 80 voting members, one wonders whether some of the 820 non-voters ought not be admitted to the right of suffrage. The congregational system favors democracy. It should be remembered also that the laws of the State define the right to vote at a church election.

The Synod of New York has three membership rubrics: Communicants, Confirmed, Baptized. The first includes all members who actually commune within a year. The second adds to the communicants all others who are entitled to commune even if they neglect the privilege. The third adds to the preceding class baptized children and all other baptized persons in any way related to the congregation, provided they have not been formally excommunicated.

The Swedish Augustana Synod has three rubrics: Communicants, Children, Total. "Communicants" may or may not be enrolled members of the congregation. This classification therefore is neither comprehensive nor exhaustive and may account in part, for the discrepancy between the number of Lutheran Swedes in New York and the number enrolled in the Swedish Lutheran Churches.

None of the synodical reports take note of "families." Pastors seldom speak of their membership in terms of families. In the book of Jeremiah (31, 1) we are told: "At the same time, saith the Lord, will I be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people." The captions of the five parts of Luther's Small Catechism proceed upon the assumption of the family as a unit. It is true we are living in an age of disrupted families, but it would seem that some recognition of the family should be made in the statistical tables of the Christian Church, especially when in the families with which we have to do, most of the individuals are baptized members of the church and have not been formally excommunicated. Until, therefore, we agree upon a common standard, our figures will be the despair of the statisticians. A reformation must come. Without it, we shall not be able to formulate needed policies of church extension.

In view of the complicated character of our membership it will not be an easy task to reconstruct our statistical methods. But it is evident that our missionary and evangelistic work will be greatly furthered when we have exact information in regard to our parochial material. Our figures should include every soul, man, woman and child, in any way related to our congregations, classified in such a way as to show clearly in what relation they stand to the church. A church that does not count its members as carefully as a bank counts its dollars is in danger of bankruptcy.

Church bookkeeping ought to be taught in the Theological Seminary. But if the pastor himself is not a good bookkeeper, almost every congregation has young men or young women who are experts in this art, who could render good service to the church by keeping its membership rolls.

Complete records are especially necessary in our great city with its constant removals and changes of population. The individual is like the proverbial needle in the haystack, unless we adopt a method of accounting not only for each family but for each individual down to the latest-born child.* *In order that I may not be as one that beateth the air, I venture to suggest a method of laying the foundation of records that has been helpful in my own work. I send to each family a "Family Register" blank with spaces for the name, birthday and place of birth of each member of the family. The information thus obtained is transferred to a card catalogue in which the additional relation of each individual to the church and its work is noted. In this way, or by means of a loose-leaf record book, available and up-to-date information can easily be kept.

When important records, such as synodical minutes, are printed, several copies at least should be printed on durable paper and deposited in public libraries where they may be consulted by the historian. Ordinary paper is perishable. Within a few years it will crumble to dust. The records might as well be written on sand so far as their value for future historians is concerned.

Congregational histories, pamphlets or bound volumes, jubilee volumes and similar contributions to local church history should be sent to the publlic libraries of the city and of the denominational schools.

In search of recent information the author consulted the card index of the New York Public Library. He found only nine cards relating to Lutheran churches. And yet we wonder why our church is not better known in this city.

EPILOGUE

One seldom finds an epilogue in a book nowadays. Its purpose in the drama was to explain to the audience the meaning of the play. It does not speak well for a writer if the people miss the point of his essay. But it is just like a preacher to say something "in conclusion" to secure, if possible, the hesitating assent of some hearer.

We have reached the 20th century. We are looking back upon 270 years of history on Manhattun Island. What we have done and what we have left undone is recorded in the stereotyped pages of an unchanging past. Our successes and our failures are the chapters from which we may learn lessons for the future. The gates of that future are open to us now.

Where Arensius and Falckner ministered to a feeble flock under inconceivable difficulties, there is built the greatest, certainly the largest, city of the world. From all the races and tongues of the earth men are gathering here to solve the problems of their lives. From Lutheran lands fifty myriads have already come and are living within our walls. Consciously or otherwise they appeal to us, their brethren in the faith, for that religious fellowship for which every man sometimes longs. If we do not respond, who shall interpret for them the religious life and questions of the new world?

From these Lutheran lands, from Scandinavia to the Balkan peninsula, from the Rhine to the Ural Mountains, other myriads will come in the long years that will follow the war. New history is sure to be written for Europe and America. What shall be our contribution to its unwritten pages?

In solving the problems that confront us we shall at the same time help to solve the problems of our city and of our country. The simple faith and the catholic principles of our church should secure far us a wide field of useful and effective service.

APPENDIX

Synods - Min., Ministerium of New York; Mo., Missouri; N. Y., New York;
N. E., New York and New England; Aug., Swedish Augustana; Nor.,
Norwegian; Fin., National Church of Finland; Pa., Pennsylvania; O.,Ohio;
D., Danish; Suo., Suomi (Finnish); U.D., United Danish; Ap., Apostolic
(Finnish); NN., National Church of Norway.

Languages - G., German; E., English; S., Swedish; N., Norwegian; F.,
Finnish; D., Danish; Sl., Slovak, Bohemian and Magyar; Let., Lettish;
Est., Esthonian; Pol., Polish; Y,, Yiddish; It., Italian; Lith.,
Lithuanian.

Heads of Statistical Columns - Lang., Language; Date, Date of Organization; Syn., Synodical connection of congregation or pastor; Comm., Number of communicants; Souls, Number of baptized persons related to the congregation; Syn., Synodical connection of pastor or congregation; P. S., Pupils in Parochial School; S. S., Pupils in Sunday School; W. S., Pupils receiving instruction in religion on weekdays [tr. note: in the table, this column is headed "R.H."]; Prop., Net value of real estate in terms of a thousand dollars.

The Lutheran Churches of New York
Manhattan
Name and Location Pastor Lang. Org. Syn. Comm. Souls P.S. S.S. R.H. Prop.

   1. St. Matthew, 421 W. 145th……. 0. Sieker …….. G. E. 1669 Mo. 500 1,122 126 365 40 (100)
   2. St. James, 904 Madison Av……. J. B. Remensnyder. E. 1827 N. Y. 205 (331) … 80 12 380
   3. St. Paul, 313 W. 22nd……….. L. Koenig……… G. 1841 Min. 300 (375) … 75 40 140
   4. Trinity, 139 Av. B………….. O. Graesser……. G. 1843 Mo. 525 674 33 41 34 75
   5. St. Mark, 327 Sixth St………. G. C. F. Haas….. G. 1847 Min. 200 (500) … 55 55 70
   6. St. Luke, 233 W. 42nd……….. W. Koepchen……. G. E. 1850 Mo. 1,012 (2,000) … 350 172 340
   7. St. John, 81 Christopher…….. F. E. Oberlander.. G. E. 1855 N. Y. 350 1,000 … 333 39 85
   8. St. Peter, 54th at Lex. Av…… A. B. Moldenke…. G. E. 1862 Min. 911 3,000 92 556 47 250
   9. Immanuel, 88th at Lex. Av……. W. F. Schoenfeld.. G. E. 1863 Mo. 1,500 6,000 85 500 6l 178
  10. St. John, 219 E. 119th………. H. C. Steup……. G. E. 1864 Mo. 750 1,500 115 254 41 40
  11. St. Paul, 147 W. 123rd………. F. H. Bosch……. G. E. 1864 Min. 1,000 1,500 75 500 130 120
  12. Gustavus Adolphus, 151 E. 22nd.. M. Stolpe……… S. E. 1865 Aug. 1,015 2,000 … 250 37 172
  13. Holy Trinity, 1 W. 65th……… C. J. Smith……. E. 1868 N. E. 450 (800) … 150 12 275
  14. Christ, 400 E. 19th…………. G. U. Wenner…… G. E. 1868 N. Y. 250 817 … 152 100 65
  15. Epiphany, 72 E. 128th……….. M. L. Canup……. E. 1880 N. E. 400 700 … 190 24 39
  16. Grace, 123 W. 71st………….. J. A. Weyl…….. G. E. 1886 Min. 803 1,000 … 260 54 80
  17. Trinity, 164 W. 100th……….. E. Brennecke…… G. E. 1888 Min. 785 2,500 … 422 112 85
  18. Zion, 341 E. 84th…………… W. Popcke……… G. E. 1892 N. Y. 1,250 4,807 … 1,120 124 112
  19. Harlem, 32 W. 126th…………. A. F. Borgendahl.. S. E. 1894 Aug. 233 336 … 125 21 10
  20. Washington Heights, W. 153rd…. C. B. Rabbow…… G. E. 1895 Min. 700 1,100 55 250 30 75
  21. Redeemer, 422 W. 44th……….. F. C. G. Schumm… E. 1895 Mo. 260 400 … 120 22 (20)
  22. Our Saviour, 237 E. 123rd……. J. C. Gram…….. N. E. 1896 Nor. 210 300 … 62 5 35
  23. Atonement, Edgecombe at 140th… F. H. Knubel…… E. 1896 N. Y. 410 3,500 … 544 250 125
  24. Advent, Broadway at 93rd…….. A. Steimle…….. E. 1897 N. E. 503 962 88 163 22 218
  25. Our Saviour, Audubon at 179th… A. S. Hardy……. E. 1898 N. Y. 106 554 … 194 24 26
  26. Finnish, 72 E.128th…………. K. Maekinen……. F. 1903 Fin. 450 2,000 … 40 25 …
  27. Holy Trinity, 334 E. 20th……. L. A. Engler…… Sl. 1904 - 700 1,000 … … 40 45
  28. Esthonian, 217 E. 119th……… C. Klemmer…….. Est. 1904 Mo. 50 200 … … … …
  29. Polish, 233 W. 42nd…………. S. Nicolaiski….. Pol. 1907 Mo. 100 300 … … … …
  30. Messiah, 10th Av. at 207th…… F. W. Hassenflug.. E. G. 1916 Mo. … 120 … 65 7 …
  31. Lettish,* 327 Sixth St………. P. E. Steik……. Let. …. Pa. … … … … … …
  32. Italian,* …………………. A. Bongarzone….. It. …. Mo. 10 27 … 9 … …
  33. Yiddish,* 250 E. 101st………. N. Friedmann…… Y. …. Mo. … … … … … …
  34. Deaf,* 233 W. 42nd………….. A. Boll……….. E. G. …. Mo. 40 60 … 20 … …
                            Totals….. 15,978 41,485 669 7,245 1,580 3,160

   1. St. John, 1343 Fulton Av…….. T. O. Posselt. … G. E. 1860 Min. 758 1,800 50 523 69 70
   2. St. Matthew, 376 E. 156th……. W. T. Junge……. G. 1862 Min. (200) (500) 46 730 67 37
   3. St. Paul, 796 E. 156th………. G. H. Tappert….. G. E. 1882 Min. 550 2,100 … 503 103 45
   4. St. Peter, 439 E. 140th……… 0. C. Mees…….. E. G. 1893 0. 625 1,100 … 412 64 75
   5. St. Stephen, 1001 Union Av…… P. Roesener……. G. 1893 Mo. 280 670 70 200 (20) 42
   6. St. Peter, 739 E. 219th……… F. Noeldeke……. G. 1894 Min. 200 400 … 165 35 10
   7. Immanuel, 1410 Vyse Av………. I. Tharaldsen….. N. 1895 Nor. 50 100 … 50 (5) 6
   8. Bethany, 582 Teasdale Pl…….. J. Gruver……… E. 1896 N. Y. 284 612 … 240 (24) 14
   9. St. Luke, 1724 Adams………… W. Rohde………. G. E. 1898 Min. 346 560 … 140 32 5
  10. St. Paul, LaFontaine at 178th… K. Kretzmann…… E. G. 1898 Mo. 375 811 … 312 68 20
  11. Holy Trinity, 881 E. 167th…… F. Lindemann…… E. 1899 Mo. 197 400 … 143 (15) 17
  12. Emmanuel, Brown Pl. at 137th…. P. M. Young……. E. 1901 N. Y. 205 400 … 301 27 26
  13. Trinity, 1179 Hoe Av………… A. C. Kildegaard.. D. 1901 Dan. 125 250 … 35 10 15
  14. Grace, 239 E. 199th…………. A. Koerber…….. E. 1904 Mo. 320 550 … 280 22 25
  15. Heiland, 187th & Valentine Av… H. von Hollen….. G. 1905 - 160 250 … 60 30 …
  16. Concordia, Oak Terrace………. H. Pottberg……. G. E. 1906 Mo. 260 500 … 230 45 10
  17. Messiah, Brook Av. at 144th….. J. Johnson…….. S. 1906 Aug. 155 230 … 150 (15) 17
  18. St. Thomas, Topping at 175th…. A. J. Traver…… E. 1908 N. Y. 200 350 8 250 25 15
  19. Holy Comforter, 1060 Woodycrest. J. H. Dudde……. E. 1912 N. Y. 120 500 … 175 15 5
  20. St. Mark, Martha at 242nd……. O. H. Trinklein .. E. 1913 Mo. 104 300 … 125 5 15
  21. St. John, Oak Terrace……….. J. Gullans…….. S. E. 1913 Aug. 170 251 … 83 6 2
  22. Trinity, 1519 Castle Hill Av…. Paul G. Sander…. E. G. 1913 Mo. 70 225 … 108 10 3
  23. Fordham, 2430 Walton Av……… F. H. Meyer……. E. G. 1915 0. 178 382 … 145 20 10
                            Totals….. 5,932 13,241 174 5,360 732 484

Brooklyn
Name and Location Pastor Lang. Org. Syn. Comm. Souls P.S. S.S. R.H. Prop.

1. Evangelical, Schermerhorn St…. J. W. Loch…….. G. E. 1841 Min. 1,000 2,500 … 500 80 200 2. S. John, Maujer St………….. A. Beyer………. G. E. 1844 Mo. 900 2,500 119 400 64 80 3. St. John, New Jersey Av……… C. J. Lucas……. G. E. 1847 Min. 700 1,005 … 500 56 80 4. St. Paul, Rodney St…………. H. C. Wasmund….. G. E. 1853 Min. 1,000 1,500 … 665 25 150 5. Zion, Henry St……………… E. G. Kraeling…. G. E. 1855 Min. 1,200 2,000 75 250 75 100 6. St. Matthew, Sixth Av. at 3rd .. G. B. Young……. E. 1859 N. Y. 250 1,200 … 300 25 66 7. St. Matthew, 197 N. 5th……… G. Sommer……… G. E. 1864 N. Y. 600 700 26 158 50 25 8. St. Peter, Bedford Av……….. J. J. Heischmann.. G. E. 1864 Min. 2,200 (4,000) 20 1,391 110 100 and J. G. Blaesi 9. Our Saviour, 632 Henry St……. C. S. Everson….. N. 1866 Nor. 305 650 … 351 18 35 and S. Turmo 10. St. John, Milton St…………. F. W. Oswald…… G. E. 1867 Min. 1,200 2,500 … 475 51 75 11. St. John, 283 Prospect Av……. F. B. Clausen….. G. E. 1868 Min. 1,000 3,000 45 800 (80) 50 12. St. Mark, Bushwick Av……….. S. Frey & P. Woy.. G. E. 1868 Mo. 1,200 2,500 125 550 67 140 13. St. Luke, Washington n. De Kalb. W. A. Snyder…… G. E. 1869 Min. 700 1,000 … 330 30 125 14. St. Paul, Henry n. Third Pl….. J. Huppenbauer…. G. 1872 Min. 400 800 … 175 (20) 30 15. Bethlehem, 3rd Av. & Pacific … F. Jacobson …… S. 1874 Aug. 883 1,496 42 600 (60) 121 16. Immanuel, 179 S. 9th………… J. Holthusen…… G. E. 1875 Mo. 860 1,900 50 210 80 80 17. Wartburg, Georgia n. Fulton….. O. Hanser……… G. E. 1875 Mo. 80 80 … … … 5 18. Our Saviour, 193 Ninth ……… R. Andersen …… D. 1878 D. 200 (300) … 40 (5) 18 19. Seamen's,* 111 Pioneer ……… J. Ekeland…….. Nor. 1879 N. N. … … … … … 30 20. St. Matthew, Canarsie……….. T. A. Petersen…. G. E. 1880 Mo. 180 315 … 80 30 16 21. Emmanuel, 417 Seventh……….. E. Roth……….. G. E. 1884 Min. 750 1,000 … 500 40 61 22. Trinity, 249 Degraw…………. G. F. Schmidt….. G. E. 1886 Mo. 385 729 … 257 24 28 23. St. Paul, Knickerbocker Av…… J. P. Riedel…… G. E. 1887 Mo. 650 2,000 … 450 60 (40) 24. Finnish, 529 Clinton………… K. Maekinen……. F. 1887 Fin. 240 240 … … … 25 25. Zion, Bedford Av……………. P. F. Jubelt…… G. 1887 Min. 300 500 … 200 … 30 26. Bethlehem, Marion…………… W. Kandelhart …. G. E. 1888 Min. 700 (1,200) 60 400 60 28 27. St. James, 4th Av. n. 54th…… H. C. A. Meyer…. G. E. 1889 Min. 650 2,000 … 500 75 50 28. St. Paul, 392 McDonough……… J. Eastlund……. S. 1889 Aug. 346 442 … 182 (18) 36 29. St. John, 84th at 16th Av……. L. Happ……….. G. 1890 Min. (400) (500) … 375 (38) 40 30. Trinity, 4th Av. at 46th…….. S. O. Sigmond….. N. 1890 Nor. 400 5,000 … 1,000 100 50 31. Finnish, 752 44th…………… S. Ilmonen…….. F. E. 1890 Suo. 150 300 … 135 135 16 32. Immanuel, 521 Leonard ………. J. E. Nelson ….. S. E. 1894 Aug. 175 350 35 105 105 16 33. Scandinavian, 150 Russell……. E. Risty………. E. N. 1894 Nor. 112 175 … 70 15 6 34. Redeemer, Lenox Road………… S. G. Weiskotten.. E. 1894 N. E. 400 600 … 225 (23) 70 35. Christ, 1084 Lafayette Av……. C. B. Schuchard… E. 1895 N. E. 550 1,000 … 425 45 25 36. Salem, 128 Prospect Av………. J. J. Kildsig….. D. 1896 U. D. 97 400 26 85 20 10 37. St. Peter, 94 Hale Av……….. A. Brunn………. E. G. 1897 Mo. 503 973 … 378 39 19 38. Zion, 1068 59th…………….. J. D. Danielson… S. 1897 Aug. 150 400 … 160 16 10 39. Calvary, 788 Herkimer……….. 0. L. Yerger ….. E. 1898 N. Y. 97 235 … 200 (20) 15 40. Reformation, Barbey n. Arl'tn… J. C. Fisher…… E. 1898 N. E. 500 1,000 … 450 (40) 30 41. St. Stephen, Newkirk Av……… L. D. Gable …… E. 1898 N. E. 503 3,800 … 975 41 35 42. Messiah, 129 Russell ……….. J. H. Worth …… E. 1899 N. E. 438 900 … 563 40 25 43. Our Saviour, 21 Covert ……… A. R. G. Hanser… E. 1901 Mo. 450 900 … 360 74 20 44. Incarnation, 4th Av. at 54th…. H. S. Miller ….. E. 1901 N. E. 275 400 … 290 26 20 45. Grace, Bushwick Av………….. C. F. Intemann…. E. 1902 N. E. 425 525 … 325 20 45 46. Bethesda, 22 Woodhull……….. J. C. Herre……. N. E. 1902 Nor. 120 300 … 93 (10) 40 47. Bethlehem, 51st & 6th Av…….. F. W. Schuermann.. G. E. 1903 Mo. 180 330 … 160 22 7 48. Salem, 414 46th…………….. J. A. Anderson … S. E. 1904 Aug. 320 2,500 … 500 36 15 49. St. Andrew, St. Nicholas Av….. ……………… E. 1906 N. E. 374 1,000 … 867 60 10 50. Good Shepherd, 4th Av. at 75th.. C. D. Trexler….. E. 1906 N. E. 525 1,200 … 700 36 30 51. St. Paul, Coney Island………. J. F. W. Kitzmeyer E. G. 1907 N. Y. 242 850 … 248 (25) 18 52. St. John, 145 Skillman Av……. G. Matzat……… Lith. 1907 Mo. 73 103 17 17 (5) 5 53. Ascension, 13th Av. & 51st…… C. P. Jensen…… E. 1907 N. E. 61 100 … 105 7 7 54. Epiphany, 831 Sterling Pl……. W. H. Stutts…… E. 1908 N. Y. 150 388 … 201 24 21 55. Zion, 4th Av. at 63rd……….. L. Larsen……… N. E. 1908 Nor. 400 3,000 … 650 75 15 56. St. Mark, 26 E. 5th…………. W. Hudaff……… E. G. 1908 Min. 150 250 … 125 (13) 6 57. Advent, Av. P. & E. 12th…….. A. F. Walz…….. E. G. 1909 N. Y. 143 400 … 230 12 10 58. Good Shepherd, 315 Fenimore….. G. Hagemann……. E. 1909 Mo. 100 300 … 133 12 4 59. Saron, East New York………… J. Eastlund …… S. 1909 Aug. 30 55 … 32 (5) 6 60. Bethany, 12th Av. at 60th……. C. O. Pedersen…. N. E. 1912 Nor. 150 275 … 125 125 8 61. Redeemer, 991 Eastern Pky……. E. J. Flanders…. E. 1912 N. Y. 80 200 … 150 12 20 62. Mediator, Bay Pky. at 68th…… H. Wacker……… E. 1912 N. E. 65 160 … 130 7 7 63. St. John, 44th n. 8th Av…….. J. Gullans…….. S. 1913 Aug. 200 298 … 110 8 3 64. St. Philip, 287 Magenta……… A. Wuerstlin…… E. 1913 N. Y. 40 175 … 130 8 4 65. Mission to Deaf,* 177 S. 9th…. A. Boll……….. E. G. 1913 Mo. … … … … … … 66. Trinity,* Coney Island………. G. Koenig……… … 1913 Mo. … … … … … … 67. Immanuel,* 1524 Bergen………. W. O. Hill…….. … 1913 Mo. … … … … … … 68. Holy Trinity, Jefferson Av…… C. H. Dort…….. E. 1914 N. Y. 90 297 … 163 15 … 69. Trinity,* Erie Basin………… G. Koenig……… … 1915 Mo. … … … … … … 70. Finnish, 844 42nd…………… E. Aho………… F. …. Ap. … … … … … … Totals….. 27,997 67,696 670 21,254 2,517 2,532

Queens
Name and Location Pastor Lang. Org. Syn. Comm. Souls P.S. S.S. R.H. Prop.

1. St. John, College Point……… A. Halfmann……. G. 2. Trinity, Middle Village …….. D. W. Peterson…. 3. St. James, Winfield…………. F. E. Tilly……. G. 4. Christ, Woodhaven…………… H. E. Meyer……. G. 5. Emanuel, Corona ……………. E. G. Holls……. G. 6. Trinity, Long Island City……. C. Merkel……… 7. Salem, Long Island City …….. H. L. Wilson…… S. 8. St. John, Flushing …………. G. Kaestner……. G. 9. Immanuel, Whitestone………… H. C. Wolk…….. 10. Christ, Woodside……………. H. Bunke………. G. 11. Trinity, Maspeth……………. W. H. Pretzsch…. G. 12. Emmaus, Ridgewood…………… T. S. Frey…….. G. E. 1900 Mo. 13. St. Paul, Richmond Hill……… P. B. Frey…….. G. 14. St. John. Richmond Hill……… A. L. Benner ….. E. 15. St. Luke, Woodhaven…………. E. R. Jaxheimer… E. 16. Holy Trinity, Hollis………… A. L. Dillenbeck.. E. 17. St. Mark, Jamaica ………….. W. C. Nolte……. 18. Redeemer, Glendale………….. T. O. Kuehn……. G. E. 1909 Mo. 19. Covenant, 2402 Catalpa ……… G. U. Preuss…… E. 20. St. John, E. Williamsburg……. 0. Graesser, Jr… G. E. 1910 Mo. 21. Good Shepherd, S. Ozone Park…. C. H. Thomsen….. E. 22. Christ, Rosedale……………. G. L. Kieffer….. E. 23. St. Paul, Richmond Hill……… C. G. Toebke…… E. 24. Chapel,* Bayside……………. F. J. Muehlhaeuser E. 25. Chapel,* Port Washington…….. F. J. Muehlhaeuser E. 26. St. Andrew,* Glen Morris…….. ……………… E. 27. Mission,* Elmhurst………….. E. G. Holls……. G. 28. Grace,* Queens……………… C. Romoser…….. E. 29. Gustavus Adolphus, Rich. Hill… ……………… S. Totals….. 1857 Mo. 360 500 … 400 … 40
G. E. 1863 Min. 600 1,000 11 700 62 68
1867 Mo. 310 729 10 385 … 25
1880 Min. 350 1,000 … 400 20 30
1887 Mo. 250 500 … 200 … 3
E. G. 1890 Mo. 500 1,000 … 550 105 40
1893 Aug. 89 134 11 50 … 6
1893 Mo. 171 250 … 70 10 10
E. G. 1895 Mo. 180 375 … 108 20 15
1896 Mo. 144 450 … 90 18 …
1899 Min. 500 1,000 … 500 35 10
582 1,104 … 305 30 7
1902 Mo. 325 650 30 235 … 12
1903 N. E. 390 1,000 … 465 40 26
1908 N. E. 350 1,200 … 550 103 18
1908 N. Y. 85 150 … 96 6 6
G. E. 1909 N. Y. 156 272 … 197 19 8
260 600 … 300 37 9
1909 N. E. 400 1,179 … 679 48 …
50 130 … 60 3 1
1911 N. Y. 85 568 … 224 9 10
1913 N. Y. 47 200 … 41 21 10
1914 N. E. 100 250 … 185 15 1
1915 Mo. 25 80 … 55 4 …
1915 Mo. … 35 … … … …
1915 N. Y. 15 30 … 40 … 15
…. Mo. … … … … … …
…. Mo. … … … … … …
…. Aug. 10 29 … 12 … …
6,634 14,415 62 6,897 635 370

Richmond
Name and Location Pastor Lang. Org. Syn. Comm. Souls P.S. S.S. R.H. Prop.

   1. St. John, Port Richmond……… John C. Borth….. G. E. 1852 Mo. 400 700 … 175 35 32
   2. Evangelical, Stapleton………. Frederic Sutter… G. E. 1856 Min. 750 2,000 … 560 (56) 95
   3. Zion, Port Richmond…………. R. O. Sigmond….. N. 1893 Nor. 160 280 … 200 (20) 12
   4. Our Saviour, Port Richmond…… S. R. Christensen. N. 1893 Nor. 175 283 … 100 30 5
   5. St. Paul, West New Brighton….. Wm. Euchler……. G. E. 1899 Min. 116 (200) 21 70 (7) 17
   6. Wasa, Port Richmond…………. L. F. Nordstrom… S. 1905 Aug. 75 (120) … 41 (5) 7
   7. German, Tompkinsville……….. A. Krause……… G. 1907 Min. 90 (150) 16 50 (5) …
   8. Scandinavian, New Brighton ….. J. C. Hougum…… N. 1908 Nor. 70 (150) … 45 (9) 7
   9. Immanuel, New Springville……. H. A Meyer…….. G. E. 1911 Min. 58 (100) … 36 75 6
  10. St. Matthew, Dongan Hills……. Hugo H. Burgdorf.. E. G. 1915 Mo. 54 (137) … 73 5 1
                            Totals….. 1,948 4,120 37 1,350 247 182

  Manhattan……15,978 41,485 669 7,245 1,580 3,160
  Bronx………..5,932 13,241 174 5,360 732 484
  Brooklyn…….27,997 67,696 670 21,254 2,517 2,532
  Queens ………6,334 14,415 62 6,897 635 370
  Richmond……. 1,948 4,120 37 1,350 247 182
  Total……….58,494 140,597 1,612 42,106 5,711 6,728

Manhattan
Christ Church: Sister Regena Bowe, Sister Maude Hafner.
Atonement: Sister Jennie Christ.
St. Paul, Harlem: Sister Rose Dittrich.
St. John, Christopher Street: Sister Louise Moeller.

Brooklyn
St. Matthew: Sister Clara Smyre.
Zion, Norwegian: Sister Marie Olsen.
Trinity, Norwegian: Sister Ingeborg Neff.

Former Pastors [tr. note: the numbers in this section correlate to the numbers of the congregations in the statistical section, but are not consecutive in the original]

1. St. Matthew: (Since 1807) F. W. Geissenhainer, Sr., F. C. Schaeffer, C. F. E. Stohlmann, George Vorberg, Justus Ruperti, J. H. Sieker, Martin Walker, Otto Ungemach.

2. St. James: F. C. Schaeffer, W. D. Strobel, Charles Martin, J. L. Schock, A. C. Wedekind, S. A. Ort.

1. Evangelical: F. T. Winkelmann, Ludwig Mueller, Hermann Garlichs, Johannes Bank, Carl F. Haussmann, Theo. H. Dresel.

4. St. Paul: E. H. Buehre, E. J. Schlueter, August Schmidt, A. Schubert, H. Hennicke, F. T. Koerner, H. D. Wrage, George F. Behringer, H. B. Strodach, Hugo W. Hoffmann.

6. St. Matthew: William Hull, Edward J. Koons, Isaac K. Funk, A. S. Hartman, J. Ilgen Burrell, M. W. Hamma, J. C. Zimmerman, J. A. Singmaster, T. T. Everett, W. E. Main, A. H. Studebaker.

19. Norwegian Seamen's Mission: O. Asperheim, A. Mortensen, C. B. Hansteen, Kristen K. Saarheim, Jakob K. Bo, Tycho Castberg.

20. St. Matthew: Kuefer, Comby, Steinhauer, Wagner, Graepp, Abele, Frey, Wuerstlin, Geist, Fritz.

33. Scandinavian: M. C. Tufts, A. Dietrichson, J. J. Nilson, K. Kvamme, G. J. Breivik, T. K. Thorvilden, Doeving, Risty.

39. Calvary: H. E. Clare, W. H. Hetrick, E. T. Hoshour, E. J. Flanders, G. Blessin.

53. Ascension: J. H. Strenge, E. W. Schaefer, W. H. Steinbicker, E. F. Stuckert, C. P. Jensen.

5. Corona: J. H. Berkemeier, E. Brennecke, A. E. Schmitthenner, E. Zwinger, F. Ruge, H. Eyme, C. Boehner, F. G. Wyneken.

1. Port Richmond: F. Boehling, H. Roell, C. Hennicke, H. Goehling, M. Tirmenstein, J. E. Gottlieb, E. F. T. Frincke, J. P. Schoener, H. Schroeder.

2. Stapleton: C. Hennicke, C. Goehling, R. C. Beer, E. Hering, A. Kuehne, A. Krause.

Sons of the Churches Who Have Entered the Lutheran Ministry [tr. note: the numbers in this section correlate to the numbers of the congregations in the statistical section, but are not consecutive in the original]

1. St. Matthew: Otto Sieker, Adolf Sieker, Henry Sieker, Christian
Boehning, F. W. Oswald, John Timm, Theophilus Krug, Frederick Sacks,
John Albohm, H. S. Knabenschuh, Wegner, Wm. Schmidt, Ed. Fischer, Wm.
Fischer, R. Heintze.

4. Trinity: H. Birkner, F. Koenig, G. Koenig, F. T. Koerner, A. Kirchhoefer, H. Koenig, H. Voltz, E. Nauss, O. Graesser, C. Hassold, A. Poppe.

7. St. John: E. E. Neudewitz, F. H. Knubel, W. H. Feldmann, J. H. Meyer, P. M. Young.

8. St. Peter: H. Kuever, A. Stuckert, F. Hoffman, C. E. Moldenke, A. B. Moldenke.

9. Immanuel: A. Menkens, F. Loose, J. Loose, H. C. Steinhoff, H. Pottberg, H. Zoller, J. Biehusen, H. Beckmann, E. Beckmann, P. Heckel, A. Halfmann, J. C. Boschen, P. Woy, H. Hamann.

10. St. John: A. G. Steup, B. Weinlader, G. C. Kaestner, H. F. Bunke, M. L. Steup, F. J. Boehling, H. Wehrenberg, P. G. Steup, R. B. Steup, H. Tietjen.

5. Zion: Goedel, A. Steimle, D.D., C. Intemann, O. Mikkelson, E. Kraeling, Ph.D., H. Kropp.

15. Bethlehem: F. N. Swanberg, N. Ebb, A. Ebb, O. Ebb, B. J. Hattin, P. Froeberg, O. N. Olsen, O. Eckhardt.

30. Trinity: J. J. Tadum, A. Nilsen, S. O. Sande, C. Munson, M. Brekke, N. Fedde.

Concordia, 1881, Bronxville. Faculty: Professors Heintze,
Heinrichsmeyer, Feth, Stein, Schwoy and Romoser.

Wagner Memorial, 1883, Grymes Hill, Stapleton, Staten Island. Director:
Rev. A. H. Holthusen.

Lutheran Hospital Association: Twenty congregations of the Missouri
Synod are represented in this Association.

Inner Mission Society, 2040 Fifth Avenue. Missionary: Rev. Ferdinand F.
Buermeyer, D.D.

Inner Mission and Rescue Work, 56 Pine Street, Manhattan. Rev. V. A. M.
Mortensen.

German Home for Recreation of Women and Children, 1895, Brooklyn, Harway
Avenue, Gravesend Beach.

Lutheran Education Society of New York. For the promotion of higher education within the Atlantic and Eastern Districts of the Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri. Pastor Karl Kretzmann, Secretary.

English Lutheran Missionary Society of Brooklyn, 1898. Reports establishment of 16 churches in Brooklyn and Long Island.

The Bureau grew out of the celebration of the Reformation Quadricentennial. Its lines of activity embrace a lecture bureau, a news service and an information service.

In the last it offers information on the best methods of doing church work, culling the best experience in the field of service and placing it at the disposal of anyone desiring it.

In the lecture bureau and the news service it is stimulating Lutherans to study the problems of the hour and it is creating opportunities for them to be heard.

The office is located in the Bank of the Metropolis Building, Union
Square, New York. President, George D. Boschen; Treasurer, Theodore H.
Lamprecht; Executive Secretary, O. H. Pannkoke.

National Lutheran Commission for Soldiers' and Sailors' Welfare, 437
Fifth Avenue, New York. Chairman, Rev. Frederick H. Knubel, D.D.

Der Deutsche Lutheraner, founded 1909. Continuation of Der Lutherische
Herold. Editor: Pastor Berkemeier.

Bibliography * *Many of the books to which reference is here made may be found in the Public Library of New York. Others are obtainable in college and seminary libraries.

Neve, Die wichtigsten Unterscheidungsmerkmale der lutherischen Synoden Amerikas.

Schmauk and Benze, The Confessional Principle and the Confessions of the Lutheran Church.

Book of Concord. In German and Latin: Mueller. In English: Jacobs.

Memorial Volume of the Semi-Centennial Anniversary of Hartwick Seminard, [sic] held August 21, 1866. Albany, 1867.

Gotwald, The Teutonic Factor in American History. (Lutheran Church Review, 1902.)

Schmucker, B. M., The Lutheran Church in New York during the First Century of its History. (Lutheran Church Review, 1884-1885.)

Bendixen: Bilder aus der letzten religioesen Erweckung in Deutschland. Leipzig, 1897.

Baur: Geschichts-und Lebensbilder aus der Erneuerung des religioesen Lebins in den deutschen Befreiungskriegen.

Geschichtliche Skizze zum Goldenen Jubilaeum der Immanuelskirche zu
Yorkville, 1913.

Steup, Geschichtliche Skizze der St. Johannes-Gemeinde zu Harlem, New York, 1889.

(Peterson), Zum Goldenen Jubilaeum, Dreieinigkeits-Gemeinde, Middle Village, 1913.

"Achtundvierziger" …..35
Arensius ……………39
Athens ……………..99
Baptismal Regeneration..101
Berkemeier, G. C……..40
Berkemeier, W. H……..39
Berkenmeyer………….9
Book of Concord………XI, 41
Brohm, Pastor………..34
"Buffalonians"……….33
Catechization ……….109
Concordia College…….61
Confirmation…………98
Cox, Dr. S. H………..20
Church Bookkeeping……124
Church Defined……….94
Deaconesses………….52
Dutch Language……….80
Ehrhardt, Julius……..65
Embury, Philip……….22
English Language……..83
Episcopalians………..25
Ericsson, Captain John..44
Fabritius……………3
Falckner…………….5
Francis, Dr………….20
Geissenhainer, Sr…….26
Geissenhainer, Jr…….27, 64
German Language………81
Goedel, Jacob………..42
Grabau, Pastor……….31
Gutwasser……………3
Hartwick Seminary…….62
Hartwig……………..21
Hausihl……………..13
Heck, Barbara………..22
Held, A. H. M………..64
Hessians…………….14
High German………….84
Holls, G. C………….40
Hospice……………..62
Inner Mission………..120
Inner Mission Society…62
Jewish Schools……….111
Jogues………………1
Justification by Faith..XIV, XV
Knoll……………….10
Kocherthal…………..6
Koinonia…………….51
Krotel………………65
Kunze……………….16
Kurtz, Dr. B…………32
Laidlaw……………..56
London………………79
Loonenburg…………..9
Louis the Fourteenth….6
Lutheran Society……..62
Lutheranism………….VIII
Luther League………..51
Manhattan……………61
Martin Luther Society…50
Mayer, P. and F………21
Means of Grace……….XVI
Meldenius, Rupertus…..IV
Methodists…………..23
Metropolitan District…76
Merger………………78
Miller, C. Armand…….66
Ministers' Association..58
"Missourians"………..33
Moldenke…………….65
Moller, Peter………..39
Muehlenberg, F……….12
Muehlenberg, H. M…….11
Muehlenberg, P……….6
Muhlenberg, W. A……..7
Neumann, R…………..38
Norwegians…………..45
Oertel, Maximilian……31
Old Swamp Church……..12
Palatines……………6
Parochial School……..107
Passavant……………39
Pennsylvania Dutch……87
Person of Christ……..XIV
Platt Deutsch………..82
Prussia, King of……..32
Psalmodia Germanica…..12
Public Library……….125
Russian Lutherans…….114
Rhinebeck……………18
Rudmann, A…………..5
Scandinavians………..47
Schaeffer, F. C………26
Schieren, Chas. A…….57
Sieker, J. H…………65
Steimle Synod………..41
St. Stephen's Church….25
St. James' Church…….27
St. Matthew's Church….26
Stohlmann……………37, 64
Strebeck…………….18
Sunday School………..106
Swedes………………41
Trinity Church……….9
Upsala College……….61
Vorleezers…………..8
Wagner College……….61
Week-Day Instruction….110
Wedekind…………….64
Weiser………………6
Weltner……………..67
Wesley, John…………23
Weygand……………..12
Williston……………25
Winkeltaufe………….100
Young, J. J………….66
Zenger, Peter………..7
Zion Church………….18

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