AMERICAN LUTHERANISM. 527 his duty to call the attention of the Provincial Council to the fact that great numbers of foreigners from Germany, strangers to our language and Constitution, had lately been imported into the province." In 1727 large numbers of Germans went to Pennsylvania from the Palatinate, Wurtemberg, Darmstadt, and other parts of Germany. This colony was long destitute of a regular ministry, and until they were supplied the Swedish ministers labored among them as far as their duties to their own churches would permit. In 1733 a number of Lutherans established themselves in Georgia, and to designate the gratitude of their hearts to God, who had protected them, styled their location Ebenezer. These emigrants were from Salzburg, formerly belonging to Bavaria, and restored to the Austrian dominions at the peace of 1814. Through the aid of the British Society for the Promotion of Christianity these people were enabled to find a refuge in the wilds of America. Those two able. and faithful ministers, Messrs. Bolzius and Gronau, came to them shortly after their arrival, and settled among them as pastors, in which capacity they continued to serve them until their death. Gronau died twelve years after his arrival in Georgia, but Bolzius was spared to the church about thirty years. In 1738 these colonists erected an orphan house at Ebenezer, to which work of benevolence important aid was contributed by the distinguished George Whitefield, who also furnished the bell for one of the churches erected by them. Soon after the above colonization numerous Germans, coming from Pennsylvania and other States, settled in North Carolina, and there enjoyed the services of many excellent ministers, among whom were Nussman, Arndt, Storch, Roschen, Bernhard, and Shober. In 1735 a settlement of Lutherans was formed in Spottsylvania, as Virginia was then sometimes called. A church was formed, and the pastor, the Rev. Mr. Stoever, visited Germany for aid. He obtained £3,000, part of which was expended in the erection of a church, the purchase of a plantation and slaves to work it for the support of the min ister, and the balance for a library and the necessary expenses of the town. The year 1742 was a memorable one for the church. It was signalized by the arrival of Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, the patriarch of the American Lutheran Church. He possessed high intellectual and moral qualifications, and his whole life had been one of indefatigable zeal and arduous and enlightened labor for the Master's cause. His education was of the very first character. In addition to his knowledge of Greek and Hebrew, he spoke English, German, Hollandish, French, Latin, and Swedish. Soon after his arrival Muhlenberg was joined by other highly respectable men, of excellent education, and of spirit like his own, the greater part of whom came like himself from Germany. Among them were Brunnholtz and Lemke, in 1745; Handshuh, Hartwick (the founder of the flourishing Seminary which bears his name), and Weygand, in 1748; Heinzelman and Schultz, in 1751; Gerock, Hausil, Wortman, Wagner, Schartlin, Shrenk, and Rauss, in 1753; Bager, in 1758; Voigt and Krug, in 1764; Helmuth and Schmidt, in 1769; and Kunze, in 1770. The first synod was held in 1748, and there were then only eleven regular Lutheran ministers in the United States. In 1751 the number of congregations was rated at about forty, and the Lutheran population in America at 60,000. In 1787 the Legislature of Pennsylvania, out of gratitude for the Revolutionary services of the Germans, and respect for their industry and excellence as citizens, endowed a college in Lancaster for their special benefit, to be forever under their control. Of this institution Dr. Muhlenberg, then pastor in Lancaster, was chosen president. In 1791 the same body passed an act appropriating 5,000 acres of land to the flourishing free school of the Lutheran Church in Philadel phia, in which at the time eighty poor children were receiving gratuitous education. CÔNDITIÓN ÓF THE CHURCH. 529 CONDITION OF THE CHURCH. That the Lutherans have manifested great zeal in the cause of education may be seen from the splendid roster of institutions which they had established previous to 1871, viz.: Theological Seminaries: Hartwick; Theol. Sem. of Gen'l Synod; Theol. Dep't Wittenberg College; Theol. Dep't Capital University; Theol. Sem. of Philadelphia; Theol. Sem. of Gen'l Synod; (Southern) Theol. Sem. Missouri Synod; Theol. Dep't M. Luther College; Augustana Seminary; Theol. Seminary, St. Sebald, Iowa; Scandinavian Theol. Seminary. Colleges: Pennsylvania; Muhlenberg; Thiel; Wittenberg; Capital University; Roanoke; North Caro- · lina; Newberry; Concordia; Carthage; St. Paul's; Augustana; Mendota; Luther; North Western University; Martin Luther; Colorado. Female Seminaries: Lutherville; Hagerstown; Susquehanna Col. ; Burkittsville; Mont Amoena; Staunton; Lexington; St. Joseph's; Conestoga; Hartwick; St. Matthew's; Missionary Inst.; Washington Hall; The "Hill" School; Conoquenessing; Greenville; Bethel; Swatara; Overlea; Tableau; Normal Scientific School; Teacher's Sem'y; St. Ansgar; Marshall; Stoughton; Holden; Classical Seminary, Miss. Eleemosynary Institutions: Tressler's Orphan Home; Orphans' Farm School; Orphans' Home, (Rochester); Wartburg Orphans' School; Passavant's Infirmary; Emmaus Institute; Immigrant Mission; Scandinavian Orphan House; Deaconess' Hospital; Soldiers' Orphan School; Infirmary, (Milwaukee); and Orphan Homes at the following points: Germantown, Toledo, Buffalo, Jacksonville, Wasa, and St. Louis. The General Synod, North, was organized in 1820, and holds biennial meetings. The General Synod, South, was organized in 1863. In the field of Foreign Missions the two General Synods co-operate. In Nov., 1884, a Diet was held to effect a union of all the synods south of the Potomac River, and a basis of negotiation was completed for the future consideration of the parties interested. The General Council was organized in 1867. The work of the Home Missions was reorganized in 1881, and intrusted to German, English, and Swedish committees. The German committee took charge of the missions in Canada, Michigan, Nebraska, Texas, New York, and Pennsylvania. In order to carry on their extensive operations, the committee made an appeal to the church in the Fatherland for assistants. As a result a company of forty-three young men was placed under special instruction in the mission-house at Kropf, Holstein. The English committee were assigned to the missions in Ohio, Illinois, and Minnesota, and given charge of the traveling missionary in Dakota. The Swedish committee occupy fields in Illinois, Minnesota, Kansas, Utah, California, Oregon, Nebraska, Idaho, Washington Territory, and some parts of the Middle and Eastern States. The Immigrant Mission in New York City reported receipts in 1884 of $18,291.22, the addition of a new wing to the mission-house, and the personal care of 15,750 persons during the year. The Synodical Conference was organized in 1872. It has under its special control missions among the colored people in the South, the chief stations being in Louisiana, Arkansas, and Virginia.. It raised for its mission work in 1884 $10,378.41, and completed the erection of a theological seminary in St. Louis, Mo., at a cost of $140,000. The following summary of the official reports indicates the progress and condition of the church at the close of the year 1885: 1. EUROPE Ministers, 21,184; churches, 26,571; members, adherent. 41,880,165; 2. ASIA-Ministers, 208; churches, 145; members, 88,769: 3. AFRICA-Ministers, 359; churches, 186; members, 76,532; 4. AusTRALIA-Ministers, 44; churches, 94; members, 100,170; 5. NORTH AMERICA Ministers, 3.720; churches, 6,642; members, 5,210,000; 6. SOUTH AMERICA-Ministers, 37; churches, 55; members, 95,500; TOTAL: Ministers, 25,452; churches, 33,693; members, 47,451, 130; Publications in the United States-129 periodicals in seven languages; Schools in the United States-81 institutions, with 5,559 pupils, of whom 1,319 had the ministry in view. CHAPTER XXXIX. REFORMED CHURCHES. The Reformed Church in America-Established in New Amsterdam, 1619— Early Dutch Ministers-Doctrine, Government, and Condition-The Reformed Church in the United States-Established in Pennsylvania-The Difference between the Two Churches-Statistics of the Church. THE REFORMED CHURCH IN AMERICA. HIS is the title that has been chosen by the American Holland, in place of the Reformed Dutch Church, by which it was known for many years. It is the oldest body of Christians, working on the Presbyterian plan, in the country, and its history is inseparable from that of New York City, as the Collegiate Reformed Dutch Church of New York was the first formed in North America, dating its origin from the earliest settlement on Manhattan Island. The colony of New Amsterdam (now New York) was settled in 1612. Missionaries and pious immigrants arrived there in the very beginning of the colony, but precisely at what time a church was first organized is not known. The Collegiate Church is supposed to have been formed in 1619, though the earliest period to which its records conduct us is the year 1639. An authentic document is said to be still extant containing a list of its members in 1622. The Dutch Church was the established church of the colony until it surrendered to the British in 1664, after which its circumstances were materially changed. Not long after |