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 Evenn*elical Lutheran 
 nisterium of Pennsylvania 
 and adjacent states 
 
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 Addresses at the 
 175th Anniversary of the^ 
 Sy^. t• sterirun of Pennsylvania. 
 
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ADDRESSES 
 
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 OF THE 
 
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 READING, PENNSYLVANIA 
 JUNE 5, 1923 
 
TRINITY CHURCH 
 READING, PA. 
 
 The Rev. E. P. Pfatteicher, Ph. D., D. D., Pastor 
 
Officers, Boards, Committees, Delegates 
 
 295 
 
 Appendix I 
 
 DR. REED’S REMARKS AT THE PRESENTATION OF 
 THE PASTORS AND DELEGATES OF THE ORIGI¬ 
 NAL CONGREGATIONS 
 
 O'ne hundred and seventy-five years ago, in the days of King 
 George III., seven Lutheran ministers, and laymen representing 
 eleven Lutheran congregations in the colony of Pennsylvania, as¬ 
 sembled in Philadelphia. Both the Swedish and the German con¬ 
 gregations were represented, as were the congregations in nearby 
 Germantown and the Trappe. Other delegates came by tiresome 
 horse back journeys from the more distant Lancaster and New Holl¬ 
 and, and even from Tulpehocken, at that time still an Indian terri¬ 
 tory rather than a white man’s country. The rough forest road on 
 which the delegates from Bernville and Stouchsburg travelled, prob¬ 
 ably led them through this very place, and if so, they saw, in that 
 summer of 1748. the surveyors of Richard and Thomas Penn mark¬ 
 ing out the first streets in this hospitable city of Reading. 
 
 These ministers and laymen participated in the Service of Dedi¬ 
 cation of St. Michael’s Church, and the service of Ordination of 
 John Nicholas Kurtz to the holy ministry. The particular pur¬ 
 pose of their assembling was realized the following day when they 
 organized the “College of Pastors of the L'nited Congregations”, 
 which eventually developed into the Ministerium of Pennsylvania 
 and Adjacent States. To-day, as we look back upon this first meet¬ 
 ing of the first Lutheran Synod in America, we regard it as one 
 of the most important events in the history of the Lutheran Church 
 in this country. 
 
 Of the eleven congregations represented at that meeting, ten 
 are still in active connection with the Ministerium. It has seemed 
 fitting, Mr. President, that the very first feature of this anniversary 
 celebration should be the assembling of the pastors and lay dele¬ 
 gates of these congregations, in order that they might be formally 
 recognized by you, sir, the President of the Ministerium, which 
 sees in them not only the living representatives of these historic con¬ 
 gregations, but the successors in office of those godly men who in 
 the name of God founded this Ministerium 175 years ago. 
 
 ADDRESS OF THE HON. J. KEIM STAUFFER, MAYOR 
 
 OF READING 
 
 “The mayor acknowledges the high honor of extending official 
 greetings to the Evangelical Lutheran Ministerium of Pennsylvania 
 and adjacent states, and senses the deep responsibility of addressing 
 the pastors and lay delegates who have assembled to celebrate its 
 having been organized more than a quarter of a century before the 
 
296 
 
 Trinity, Reading, A. D. 1923 
 
 Declaration of Independence was signed. Only the happy coin¬ 
 cidence that the city of Reading is also marking its 175th annivers¬ 
 ary this year permks me to discard the customary timidity of a 
 layman in the presence of the clergy, and boldly greet you in the 
 synonomus terms of patriotism and good citizenship. 
 
 “Appreciation, like charity, should begin at home. An untiring 
 industrial city like Reading, with its large material resources and 
 productive man-power, is this year proclaiming its impressive ac- 
 creation of worldly wealth in its century and three-quarters of or¬ 
 ganized effort. It must he a source of pride to its entire citizenship 
 to realize that you, to whom I bring their greetings, have journeyed 
 here as the most fitting place in this and adjacent states to observe 
 your spiritual anniversary of equal antiquity. 
 
 “There is an old saying: ‘Every man to his trade,’ and, no 
 doubt, it is truer than ever in these days of specialization in industry. 
 But assemblages such as this one can hardly reach their true fulfill¬ 
 ment if they fail to convince the layman of the needs of religion in 
 everyday business, and reveal the pastor as the typical every day 
 citizen of the community. 
 
 “The patriotism and good citizenship that were synonomous with 
 religion in the career of Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg are a living 
 lesson to the world today, and not alone to the church that was his 
 and is yours. To look upon his statue in the Capitol at Washing¬ 
 ton, or on city hall plaza, in Philadelphia, is to wonder whether he 
 served more gloriously as pastor, soldier or statesman, but there 
 can be no question of the usefulness of his life in each capacity. 
 
 “When Theodore Roosevelt, in his last years exclaimed: ‘Amer¬ 
 ica must find its soul,’ he sent vibrating a challenge to individual 
 citizenship to measure up to the needs of patriotism. \our meet¬ 
 ing in Reading to commemorate your 175th anniversary of a church 
 life so identified with the nation’s life, is an event of wide com¬ 
 munity interest as well as religious importance. In behalf of the 
 citizens of Reading, therefore, the mayor extends to you sincere 
 greetings and felicitations and anticipates many good results will 
 ensue from your sessions.” 
 
A ppendix 
 
 297 
 
 Appendix II 
 
 GREETINGS BY OFFICIAL DELEGATES FROM OTHER 
 SYNODS AND GENERAL BODIES. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS 
 
 By the Rev. Prof. Luther I). Reed, D. D., Chairman of the Min- 
 isterium’s Anniversary Committee, in Presenting the Delegates. 
 
 As the Ministerium looks back over the past century and three 
 quarters it may well call to mind the words of Jacob: “I am not 
 worthy of the least of all the mercies and of all the truth which 
 Thou hast showed unto Thy servant; for with my staff I passed 
 over this Jordan; and now I am become two bands.” 
 
 Philadelphia at the time of the first meeting of the Ministerium 
 was a place about the size of Pottsville to-day. The entire popu¬ 
 lation of Pennsylvania then equalled the present population of Berks 
 and Lebanon Counties. But in spite of the sparsely settled con¬ 
 dition of the country there were fully seventy-five Lutheran con¬ 
 gregations in Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Maryland and 
 Delaware. The most of these later came under the care of the 
 Ministerium. Others were also established by the Ministerium, 
 whose activities soon spread to neighboring and distant colonies. 
 M issionaries were sent into the West and the Southwest; mission¬ 
 ary conferences were organized; and these eventually developed into 
 Synods. Groups of congregations, more or less remote, eventually 
 withdrew to form new synods on their own territory. And now, 
 on this day of celebration, these daughter-and grand-daughter- 
 synods have returned, in the persons of their accredited representa¬ 
 tives, to rejoice with the Mother Synod and to do her honor. 
 
 The greetings of these synods will be presented this afternoon, 
 but I have the honor of presenting to you now the distinguished rep¬ 
 resentatives of fifteen synods and general bodies, in order that they 
 may be received and welcomed by you, the President of the Min¬ 
 isterium whose guests they are. 
 
 THE MINISTERIUM OF NEW YORK, 1786. 
 
 By the Rev. E. C. J. Kraeling, Brooklyn, N. Y. 
 
 It is indeed a great privilege that has been accorded me as the 
 representative of the Ministerium of New York, to convey to you 
 the heartiest congratulations and felicitations of my Synod on the 
 occasion of your 175th anniversary. Still under the spell of the 
 inspiring service held last night in this beautiful and historic sanctu¬ 
 ary, I feel that in striking the first chord this afternoon, I must 
 
298 
 
 Trinity, Reading, A. D. 1923 
 
 re-echo yesterday’s strain of prayer and praise, and thank God for 
 the mercies He has shown unto you and through you in this your 
 long history. Richly has His providence measured out to you both 
 opportunity and strength. When Henry Melchior Muhlenberg from 
 the deck of the sloop that brought him from Charleston first saw the 
 shores of Pennsylvania with their wooded hills, their fields and 
 pastures, it was as though God in heaven had said unto him, as 
 He said to the patriarch of old: 1 his is the land I have sworn to 
 give to thy children according to the spirit forever. And I will 
 bless thee and make thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing.” 
 ^ our Ministerium is the great living monument, that shows us how 
 God fulfills His promises. The Ministerium of New York, the 
 second oldest Lutheran body in the land, has been your neighbor for 
 140 years. We rejoice that both Synods have been unfailing in their 
 loyalty to the confessions and the spirit of the Lutheran Church, 
 and that they have always stood shoulder to shoulder, held together 
 by the strongest of all ties, namely a common faith, sincere brotherly 
 love and true Christian forbearance, “one Lord, one faith, one 
 baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all anil through 
 all and in all.” 
 
 1 hat we each have our own distinct individuality is undeniable, 
 and results from the vicissitudes of our history. Had those Pala¬ 
 tines who settled in the Mohawk valley not been forced by British 
 ill-treatment to migrate into Pennsylvania, and had not thousands 
 of others perished during the terrible border warfare in the dark 
 and bloody ground of the Iroquois country, our relative strength 
 might have been measured differently. Martyrdom for their new 
 fatherland was the lot of the Palatines of New York, and the few 
 who survived and remained became an easy prey to un-lutheran 
 doctrine and broke away from our Ministerium. In your more 
 tranquil land the Palatines have become the backbone of this synod 
 and of its conservatism, while in New York the influx of a new and 
 different migration has vitally affected the life of our Ministerium. 
 It is not strange then that we are different in many respects, but 
 still we are sisters. And as Mary dwelt in the house of Martha, 
 sharing her table, so have we sat at your board and partaken of your 
 blessings. Especially have we been privileged to send our youth to 
 your Seminary, which we regard also as our Seminary, and in grow¬ 
 ing numbers the alumni of Mt. Airy are entering our ranks. Our 
 industrious sister Martha has been more active and progressive than 
 we, because richer and less handicapped, but we both love the same 
 master and try to serve Him each in our own way. We like to 
 think of historv as made by personalities, even as the author of the 
 Epistle to the Hebrews does when he cites the heroes of the faith. 
 Out of our synodical histories new names must be added to that 
 galaxy of immortals, whose fame the Church reveres. After the 
 patriarch Muhlenberg came Justus Falckner, Kocherthal and Berke- 
 Synod was organized, in later years, the Tennessee Synod, the South 
 
Appendix 
 
 299 
 
 merer, Kunze and Krauth, Schaefer and Schmucker, Mann and 
 Seiss, Spaeth, Krotel and Schmauk, not to mention any of those who 
 are still amongst us and whom we honor and esteem. From their 
 lives, their work, their zeal we draw our inspiration, and to the 
 cause for which they labored and prayed, we consecrate ourselves 
 anew on this anniversary day. 
 
 THE SYNOD OF NORTH CAROLINA, 1803. 
 
 By the Rev. J. L. Alorgan, D. D., Salisbury ,N .C. 
 
 As the delegated representative of the Lfnited Lutheran Synod 
 of North Carolina, I bring you most hearty greetings on this 
 memorable occasion. A ou have a long and glorious history, and we 
 congratulate you upon the record you have made through all these 
 years, and upon the strength and vision with which you arrive at this 
 your 175th birthday. Today you stand first not only in order of 
 time of all the Lutheran bodies of this country, but first in numbers 
 also of the constituent synods of the L T nited Lutheran Church. 
 Following the leadership of that great patriarch of the Lutheran 
 Church in America, the Rev. Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, you 
 gave to the Lutheran Church in this country organization and a 
 definite Lutheran consciousness. These fundamental contributions 
 have had a wholesome influence not only among your own con¬ 
 gregations, but also over all the organized bodies which came after 
 you, and for which all owe you lasting gratitude. Having laid for 
 yourselves a secure foundation, God has wonderfully blessed you in 
 the building of a mighty church thereon. \ our strength, your ac¬ 
 tivities, and your influence today are potent factors in estimating the 
 future possibilities of the Lutheran Church in America. 
 
 In tracing the history* of the Synod which I have the honor to 
 represent, we find a number of points which we believe will be of 
 interest to you, as well as they r are to us. We will not embarrass 
 you, however, by' any r effort to claim ourselves as your daughter, 
 for this we would hardly be able to substantiate, because our Synod 
 was composed originally of congregations in our state which up to 
 that time had never been connected with any organized body. And 
 yet, we do cherish a feeling of kinship with you, forasmuch as the 
 members who composed our original congregations came almost ex¬ 
 clusively from your state. Just when our first congregations were 
 organized, our records do not show, but it must have been not far 
 from the year 1750. Our first pastor, the Rev. Adolphus Nuss- 
 mann, came to us directly from Germany however, in the year 1773. 
 He was secured by a personal committee which the congregations 
 sent over there to call for them a pastor. The North Carolina 
 Synod was organized in 1803, and holds the distinction of being the 
 third oldest Lutheran Synod in this country. From North Carolina 
 Carolina Synod, and the Southwestern Virginia Synod. However, 
 
300 
 
 Trinity, Reading, A. D. 1923 
 
 the North Carolina and I ennessee Synods were in 1921 merged 
 into one body, so that we now have the United Synod of North 
 Carolina. It is gratifying to note here also that during these years 
 a spirit of cordiality between your body and ours has all along been 
 manifested, as may be seen from various points of view. On diff¬ 
 erent occasions we have exchanged pastors with you; many of our 
 most useful ministers have been trained in your Seminary; we read 
 with edifying interest each other s books; we stand on the same con¬ 
 fessional basis; and today, thanks be to God, we co-operate with you, 
 as well as with thirty-four other Synods, in carrying out the prin¬ 
 ciples, the practices, and the programs of one United Lutheran 
 Church in America. 
 
 THE JOINT SYNOD OF OHIO, 1818. 
 
 By President C. II. L. Schuette, D .D., Columbus, Ohio. 
 
 If in these your festive days you will turn to some pages in 
 the early chronicles of our beloved Church, you shall find that in 
 the year of our Lord 1816 fifteen pasors of our faith, then doing 
 pioneer work west of the Allegheny Range, and representing a 
 Special Conference of the Ministerium of Pennsylvania, requested 
 the latter body for permission to constitute themselves an independent 
 synodical body. 1 his petition duly presented and kindly granted, 
 the Conference, meeting at Somerset, Ohio, in September, 1818, 
 then and there transformed itself, without change of its doctrinal 
 basis, principles or polity, into the Evangelical Lutheran Synod of 
 Ohio and Adjacent States—now of Other States, and a body measur¬ 
 ing up fairly well to the stature of its worthy progenitor. Re¬ 
 minded of this, his own Synod’s origin, the writer of these lines re¬ 
 calls the days, when, in consonance with this and other disbranch- 
 ments to its credit, the Ministerium of Pennsylvania was generally 
 known as the Mother Synod, and was thus lovingly referred to 
 among us. This, her distinction of being the parent of other bodies 
 after her own similitude, I esteem to be an honor, which you, the 
 immediate members of her household, have every reason to be proud 
 of; and whilst I congratulate the venerable Mater upon this the 
 175th anniversary of her birth, it pleases me to call your attention to 
 this her invaluable service to the Church of our faith and love. 
 However, this is a glimpse into but the first chapter of our common 
 history. Turning to pages farther on, a tale of happenings not at 
 all of the same unalloyed joy is told us—of sayings and doings, some 
 dear people, forgetting that in this poor earth of ours truth and peace 
 are by way of the sword and cross, look back upon as anything but 
 praiseworthy. But deplore it who will, the fact stands out, that our 
 sainted fathers did pass through periods marked by “misunderstand¬ 
 ings,” let us say, the which led to some unhappy scraps and scrim¬ 
 mages between tbe two bodies. And if so, what of it? Whereas 
 error will obtrude itself despite anything men may be or do, and 
 
A ppendix 
 
 301 
 
 even when at their best, 1 for one would seriously question the char¬ 
 acter of our sires as men devoted to the truth, had they not felt 
 themselves called upon at times to adjust differences of some sort 
 more or less grave and a peril to the Faith. But no, and passing 
 strange were it, did we find them to have escaped life’s struggles. 
 Living, as we do, in a land of free thought and speech, and where, 
 too, individualism, whether wise and good or wayward and wicked, 
 the freest scope of expression is accorded, it will come to pass, and 
 hut too often, that, among other undesirable things, parents and 
 their children are not always of the same mind; and this is true in 
 affairs spiritual no less than in affairs secular. Besides, and as per¬ 
 tinent to our own synodical relationship, why not, at least as be¬ 
 tween ourselves, confess it, that like unto the sons of Erin, we, the 
 sons of Saxony are, by temperament and training, just a trifle too 
 fond of a fight? However, and be that as it may, when speaking of 
 the controversies between the synods of our love, it behooves us to 
 put the best construction upon them; that is to say, that they were 
 on points worth while, and that the men engaged in them were 
 animated by a holy affection toward the truth and the souls to be 
 saved. And moreover, whatever the nature, purpose and range of 
 their encounters, supervened by influences divine and benign, they 
 certainly were not without profit; yes, and we at this day enjoy 
 the inestimable fruit of their contentions. Therefore, when recalling 
 them, let us do so thankfully, and set them down to our fathers’ 
 credit and praise. In short, agree or disagree with me who will, I 
 am proud of our common history, its martial blemishes, if blemishes 
 they be, included; and thus minded, brethren, I beg you not to 
 look upon this preachment with which I have wearied you, as being 
 in any sense an apology for any past grievances, real or imaginary. 
 And now, by way of conclusion, let me say: had we of the Joint 
 Synod of Ohio, assembled in August last, been aware of the festival 
 vou brethren are now celebrating, I have no doubt but what some 
 word or act of felicitation would have been passed upon for pre¬ 
 sentation at this, your convention; as it is, I beg you to accept my 
 personal congratulations, I extend them with the prayer, that “Christ 
 Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and 
 sanctification, and redemption,” may be with us all, and bless the 
 work He has placed into our hands to His own great glory. 
 
 THE SYNOD OF MARYLAND, 1820. 
 
 By the Rev. E. K. Bell, D. D., LL. D., Baltimore, Md. 
 
 Beginning with little groups of people whose roots were pulled 
 up in Lutheran lands beyond the sea, the Ministerium assumed the 
 stupendous task of preparing the soil and directing the growth of 
 the Church in a land unfriendly to their religious aspirations. To 
 blaze the way through the wilderness, to lay foundations where none 
 had been laid before, to teach and train for the making of a great 
 
302 
 
 Trinity , Reading, A. D. 1923 
 
 church in this western world was an achievement for devout ap¬ 
 preciation and gratitude to God. In the task of planting the Lu¬ 
 theran Church in our country the Ministerium and Maryland have 
 had much in common It is not without interest and significance 
 that the founder of the Ministerium visited the churches in the 
 heart of what was to be the Maryland Synod two years before he 
 presided at the organization of the Ministerium. During that visit 
 he wrote with his own hand the constitutions of congregations along 
 the Monocacy in Frederick and in the Middletown Valley, and thus 
 the same guiding hand at the organization of the Ministerium 
 directed the organization of the churches that were to form the 
 Maryland Synod. The Maryland Synod and the General 
 Synod were organized during the same year 1820. At the or¬ 
 ganization of the General Synod, eight of the fifteen delegates 
 were members of the Ministerium. The constitution unani¬ 
 mously adopted was essentially identical with the plan that had 
 been proposed by the Pennsylvania Synod. It is a matter of pathetic 
 interest that the leaders in the Ministerium, who really founded the 
 General Synod, were forced to withdraw two years later, by the 
 congregations, who conceived the idea which was spread among 
 them, that such an organization might become an instrument of 
 ecclesiastical tyranny. There had been no doctrinal divergencies nor 
 had any misunderstandings arisen among the leaders. The recession 
 was looked upon as temporary, expressions of the most cordial good 
 feeling and confidence were exchanged, and the hope indulged and 
 expressed on both sides that the enforced separation, over which both 
 grieved would come to an early and happy end. The fellowship be¬ 
 tween the leaders in the Ministerium and the Maryland Synod was 
 characteristic. The famous Free Conferences, which did so much 
 to prepare the way for the Merger, were inspired and promoted, 
 and in large part conducted, by leading men in these two bodies. 
 Among the distinguished men Maryland gave to the Ministerium 
 were Charles Phillip Krauth, Charles Porterfield Krauth, Joseph A. 
 Seiss, William A. Passavant, Benjamin Sadtler, Malcolm Horine 
 and Henry Eyster Jacobs. The sweet fellowship of leaders in the 
 two bodies during the past century has ripened during these later 
 years into a union at once beneficent and we trust indissoluble. God 
 grant, that the Mother Synod may so continue to labor with the 
 hosts of the United Lutheran Church, that beneficence may in¬ 
 crease manv-fold, that piety may be magnified in all of the churches, 
 that the Gospel may be nreached in its purity, to the glory of God 
 and the extension of His kingdom throughout the world. 
 
 THE SYNOD OF WEST PENNSYLVANIA, 1825. 
 
 By the Rev. Clarence E. Arnold, York, Pa. 
 
 The Synod of West Pennsylvania was identified from the very 
 becinning with the Ministerium through Christ Church of York, 
 
A ppendix 
 
 303 
 
 which was represented at the organization meeting in 1748 by letter, 
 and was active in subsequent meetings. One hundred years ago we 
 were still in the mother's house; however, longings had arisen in 
 the conference west of the Susquehanna River for the formation of 
 a new Synod. Action was no doubt hastened by the withdrawal of 
 the Ministerium from the General Synod of its own creation, which 
 Synod in spite of its faults, saved the Lutheran Church in America 
 from amalgamation with Reformed elements. The prejudices in the 
 Ministerium against a general body of Lutherans, largely accentu¬ 
 ated by Reformed influences, did not exist west of the Susquehanna. 
 Therefore at a special meeting of the Conference, held at Green- 
 castle on November 8, 1824, it was decided to petition the Min¬ 
 isterium at its next meeting, to recognize the Conference as an in¬ 
 dependent Synod. The formal organization occurred on September 
 5, 1825 at Chambersburg. God dealt kindly with the new Synod. 
 So great was the success, that in the course of years the great terri¬ 
 tory of the Synod of West Pennsylvania, stretching west from the 
 Susquehanna through Pennsylvania to the Ohio River, witnessed 
 the formation of three additional synods. The work we have been 
 privileged to do under God, and the results attained, we believe to 
 be a larger tribute to you than any fullsome words of praise we could 
 bring; for we received our early training in your household of faith. 
 To the Ministerium of Pennsylvania the Lutheran Church in Amer¬ 
 ica owes a great debt. May God give you, good old mother of 
 ours, as the years grow, a greater growth in membership, a greater 
 zeal in your testimony for Christ, a larger accomplishment of good, 
 a greater deepening in the spiritual life of your many congregations, 
 and a larger influence in the territory of the Old Mother Synod. 
 
 THE SYNOD OF VIRGINIA, 1829. 
 
 By the Rev. C. TV. Cassel, Luray, Virginia. 
 
 Our coming together today is not alone an occasion of congratu¬ 
 lation and exchange of good wishes. It is this, and more. For a 
 Synod to have made one and three quarter centuries of honorable 
 History, for her to grow in strength with years, for her to call her 
 children together, that she might with them mark another step of 
 progress, is an occasion that should cause all who truly love the 
 Kingdom to "thank God and take courage.” As I look into your 
 faces and note the deep interest on the part of everyone, as I think 
 of the hundreds of pastors and laymen here representing your con¬ 
 gregations, as I meet and greet the representatives of other synods 
 and general bodies, all gathered here in this historic temple of the 
 fathers, it is not improper to address our ecclesiastical mother in the 
 words of the prophet of old: “Lift up your eyes round about and 
 see; all these gather themselves together, thy sons have come from 
 far, and thy daughters have been nursed at thy side.” I am glad 
 
304 
 
 Trinity, Reading, A. D. 1923 
 
 this Mother Synod has a child in the JVlother State to bring you 
 greetings on this happy occasion. I am sure no one of the many 
 synods represented here rejoices with you more sincerely than does 
 this one of the near South. It would be ungrateful not to mention, 
 that the early congregations in V lrginia belonged to the Ministerium, 
 that they looked to her for moral support and for pastors. Nor are 
 we unmindful of those pioneer pastors and missionaries, members of 
 the Ministerium, who amid the privations and hardships of frontier 
 life, followed the people to their distant settlements. Being so far 
 removed from the Synod, they felt the need of an organization 
 among themselves, and in 1793 were given authority by the Min¬ 
 isterium to form a Virginia Conference. After more than twenty 
 years, when the Conference had fulfilled its course, the Ministerium, 
 recognizing the right of self-determination, approved the organization 
 of the Synod of Maryland and Virginia in 1820. Since then no 
 Virginia churches have belonged to the Ministerium, yet she has 
 alw ays shown a deep and kindly interest in all things Lutheran 
 among us. Many of our men have been trained in your Seminary 
 at Philadelphia, and it is a fact worth mentioning, that at present 
 twenty-four of the seventy-five on the roll of our Synod received 
 their training, either in part or upon the whole, at this same “school 
 of the prophets”, and also at this time the most responsible position 
 in our Synod, that of Synodical Superintendent, is filled, and effi¬ 
 ciently so, by one reared in one of your congregations and trained in 
 your schools. These greetings would be incomplete without a 
 reference to the ideals of our fathers and their partial realization. 
 The confessional basis of the first Synod of Virginia was the Un¬ 
 altered Augsburg Confession. This Synod at once connected her¬ 
 self with the General Synod. The nresent Synod of Virginia was 
 formed last year by a union of the Evangelical Lutheran Synod of 
 Virginia (18291, the Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Southwestern 
 Virginia (1842), and the Evangelical Lutheran Holston Synod 
 (1861). These have in the main been true to the ideals mentioned 
 above, active in the literary, educational and missionary work of the 
 Church. And so, in addition to the greetings we bring you, we also 
 bring this message—it is the sincere conviction of your brethren of 
 Virginia, that the ideals of those who laid the foundations are more 
 nearly realized today than they have ever been before. 
 
 THE SYNOD OF OHIO, 1836. 
 
 By President Paul W. Roller, D. D., Mansfield, Ohio. 
 
 I bring you the greetings and sincere felicitations of the brethren 
 of the Synod of Ohio. We not only formally congratulate you, but 
 we do so with a keen and deep appreciation of what you have been 
 and what you have done for the cause of the Lord Jesus and our be¬ 
 loved Lutheran Zion. In bringing these felicitations, three things 
 
A ppendix 
 
 305 
 
 in your history, among many others, have not only impressed us, but 
 have inspired us as well. 1st. \ our adherence to the ideals and 
 practices of the Lutheran Church. Those matters which compel 
 respect from all men as aids to true worship and are distinctly Lu¬ 
 theran in church life, the loss of which, without doubt, would have 
 helped to destroy our Lutheran identity. Ohio has developed her 
 congregations along churchly lines in worship and practice. The 
 Ministerium has been our inspiration. 2nd. We admire and con¬ 
 gratulate you on your continued recognition of the sons of the 
 Church, who have proven their worth. Your willingness, all things 
 else being equal, to give recognition to worthy sons of noble fathers 
 has been a source of strength in producing a high type of leadership 
 in educational and church life. As we of Ohio see it, your long list 
 of sons of honored name is one of your glories. 3rd. Your achieve¬ 
 ments have been many and continue to grow. \ ou are not living 
 in the past. A new standard of service is being set every day. These 
 things are indeed worthy of the strength of your years. Permit me 
 to speak of just one thing more, that enters into our felicitations. 
 That is your unswerving loyalty to the confessions of the Lutheran 
 Church. Those who know the history of our Church in America, 
 know well the stress of the different periods, and the dangers of cer¬ 
 tain influences both at home and from abroad. In spite of these 
 things, the heart and soul of the Ministerium kept the faith, and 
 today your confession is exactly the same as that of the day of your 
 organization. This means much, not only to you and to us, but 
 to all American Christianity. It has helped our great Church to 
 stand as perhaps no other church stands today, undivided in its 
 allegiance to God’s Word and to Jesus Christ, the Son of God. 
 
 THE INDIA MISSION, 1841. 
 
 By Rev. Frederick L. Coleman, Rajahmundry, India. 
 
 In bringing a message of greeting from the India Mission to the 
 Ministerium of Pennsylvania, I should like briefly to mention four 
 interesting points of contact. One hundred and eighty-four years 
 ago, when Muhlenberg was a young man in Halle, arrangements 
 were made to send him to India, in the footsteps of Ziegenbalg and 
 Plutschau, who had gone as the pioneer Protestant missionaries just 
 thirty-three years before. Muhlenberg was ready to go, but when 
 circumstances pointed him elsewhere, he said: “It seems clear that 
 it is not God’s will for me to go to India.” The pioneer of Lu¬ 
 theranism in America almost had become one of the pioneers of Lu¬ 
 theranism in India. As we look back, we can see God’s wise provi¬ 
 dence in directing Muhlenberg to America. The door to Christian 
 missions in India did not open effectually for another century, while 
 in America during that hundred years the solid foundation of 
 the church was laid. The second point is a direct contact of the 
 
306 
 
 Trinity, Reading, A. D. 1923 
 
 M inisterium with India. Exactly one hundred years after Muhlen¬ 
 berg landed on the shores of America, that other great missionary 
 pioneer and organizer, Father Heyer, landed on the shores of 
 India. He was sent out by the Ministerium of Pennsylvania, as the 
 first foreign missionary of the American Lutheran Church, and 
 founded our mission at Guntur. God did not direct Muhlenberg 
 to India, but in His own good time He directed thither his spiritual 
 Descendants. The third point of contact is with the Rajahmundry 
 M ission. In 1869 twenty-seven years after the Guntur Mission was 
 founded by Father Heyer, it passed through the most critical period 
 of its history. Through a series of misfortunes, out of the eleven 
 missionaries sent to the Mission at various times during this quarter 
 of a century, in 1869 there remained but a single heroic survivor, 
 M issionary Unangst from Lehigh County. The Civil War and 
 the internal difficulties of the General Synod in the troubled days 
 of 1867 led the church almost to desert her foreign mission work. 
 The lone missionary in India, despairing of being able to carry the 
 heavy burden laid upon him, proposed that the Rajahmundry station 
 be transferred to the Church of England mission. This was agreed 
 to by the church at home, and the arrangements were made. Father 
 Heyer, who was then in Germany, heard of this plan, and after 
 consulting with former Missionary Groenning, hurried to America, 
 and appeared at the meeting of the Ministerium. That year, 1869, 
 the Synod met in Trinity Church, Reading, so that here in this 
 church, perhaps standing on the very spot where I am now, Father 
 Heyer, fifty-four years ago, pleaded that the Ministerium should 
 not let the Rajahmundry Mission field fall into non-Lutheran hands. 
 In a thrilling climax to his plea this courageous man, then 77 years 
 old, volunteered to go to India and help reorganize the Rajahmundry 
 field. All the hardships of the sea and overland journey he cheer¬ 
 fully endured and succeeded in his mission of saving the Rajahmundry 
 field to the Lutheran Church. 1 he fourth point of contact is to¬ 
 day. Though not officially appointed as such, I should like to be 
 considered as representing the India Synod of the United Lutheran 
 Church. Though the youngest or next to the youngest of the 
 thirty-seven synods of the United Lutheran Church, it is the fourth 
 in size, with its 1100 congregations and 100,000 baptized members. 
 The Mother Synod can be proud of her share in bringing all this 
 to pass. She founded the work in India; she saved the Rajahmundry 
 field to the Lutheran Church; she has given 27 missionaires to this 
 field, and her interest and support are steadily growing. 
 
 THE SYNOD OF EAST PENNSYLVANIA, 1842. 
 
 Hy President IT. IT. A. Hanson, D. Td., Harrisburg, Pa. 
 
 I regard it a great privilege to convey to you to-day the sin¬ 
 cere affection and hearty congratulations of the East Pennsylvania 
 Synod. There are abundant reasons for congratulation. I congratu- 
 
A ppend'ix 
 
 307 
 
 late you upon the heritage you enjoy. The heritage of noble tasks 
 heroically launched, of sacrifices cheerfully made, of loyalty fostered 
 through successive generations, loyalty to things worth while. I 
 congratulate you on the task that confronts you. The task of draw¬ 
 ing the Lutheran Church into a closer comradeship. We may differ 
 in superficial matters, we are united in the great fundamentals of our 
 faith. We stand face to face with the country we love. What, 
 after all, is America but a great spiritual experiment? Into this con¬ 
 tinent of opportunity God brought men from every land upon which 
 the sun shines. Each nation came with its talents, its dreams, its 
 prayers, to find in this great garden of God larger opportunities for 
 achievement. What shall be the product and outcome of this blend¬ 
 ing of blood and dreams? It is our challenge to weave into the woof 
 and warp of the fabric of American life a love of God, a devotion 
 to the ideals of Jesus Christ, which shall make the America of to¬ 
 morrow one whose soul shall be thrilled and filled with the mind 
 that was in Christ Jesus. 1 am not so deeply concerned with the 
 fact that the world is looking to America as never before; I am more 
 concerned with the fact, that God is looking to America to lead in 
 the creation of a new day that shall gather up and articulate the 
 hopes and prayers of those who have gone before. The United Lu¬ 
 theran Church is prepared as few others to contribute to the crea¬ 
 tion of this new era. Our ranks are not divided. We are not 
 disturbed by liberalists or fundamentalists. Whatever may be the 
 cut of our coat or the angle of our collar, we are united in our de¬ 
 termination to give the whole Bible to the whole world, to exalt 
 Jesus Christ as the divine Son of God, and to be true to the funda¬ 
 mental principles of the church which is our common heritage. I 
 want to-day to congratulate you on the large part which your Synod 
 will play in the creation of this new era. May God ever grant you 
 vision and courage and the full consciousness of His divine presence 
 and blessing. 
 
 THE ALLEGHENY SYNOD, 1842. 
 
 By President S. N. Carpenter, D. D., Johnstown, Pa. 
 
 The Mountain Synod of the East presents cordial and affec¬ 
 tionate greetings to the Mother Synod of America. We offer to you 
 our heartiest congratulations as well as deep thanks to Almighty God 
 for your one hundred and seventy-five years of service. Even a 
 casual glance at the minutes of your body reveals an efficient or¬ 
 ganization with the whole body fitly joined together and the effectual 
 co-working of all its parts. We are pleased to see our Mother 
 Synod the bulwark and rock of defense of the faith once delivered 
 to the saints. We note with pride your fidelity to the faith of our 
 Church as expressed in her matchless confessions, your consistent 
 ecclesiastical life as shown in pure forms of worship, proper admin¬ 
 istration of the sacraments and biblical education of the young. We 
 
308 
 
 Trinity, Reading, A. D. 1923 
 
 are glad to note furthermore, that your adherence to the old faith 
 and practices is not reactionary, but conservative of the true and best 
 interests of the Church. We perceive the healthy signs of progress 
 in youi plans for consistent evangelism, modern education and ser¬ 
 vice of love, such as our age demands rightly of a church blessed 
 v\ ith such traditions and enriched with such talents as our own. 
 Owing to difference in tradition, training, environment and task, 
 some of our practices are frankly more liberal than yours, and may 
 even seem at variance with the same. But such slight differences as 
 exist grow' chiefly out of the necessities and conditions indicated 
 rather than out of disregard for the spirit and cultus of our Church. 
 
 1 he doctrinal position of our Synod stands without challenge. Be¬ 
 tween the Ministerium and the Allegheny Synod the Augsburg Con¬ 
 fession and the Formula of Concord are safe! The loadstone of 
 k hristo-centric theology must adjust practice to doctrine as surely as 
 the needle is true to the Pole. We are impressd with the thought 
 that, in the final summation, true union is neither territorial nor 
 organic, but of the heart. And the development of a heart to heart 
 unity requires more time and patience than to effect a mere official 
 union of external organization. Let us continue to be one in 
 doctrine, one in service and co-operation, and above all things, 
 one in love. For after all, is not the true unity like that of the visible 
 example of the divine creation of a diversity in unity, namely, the 
 one great white light broken up into the seven prismatic colors of 
 the rainbow, as it impinges on media of different density, to be re¬ 
 solved again into the one shaft of pure, white light?’ “There are 
 diversities of operation, but it is the same God which worketh all 
 in all.” 
 
 THE PITTSBURGH SYNOD, 1845. 
 
 By the R ev. D. M. K emerer, Pittsburgh , Pa. 
 
 The Ministerium was rounding out nearly a century of its hon¬ 
 orable career when the Pittsburgh Synod came into being. Prior to 
 this event Western Pennsylvania w r as included in your synodical 
 boundaries and you w r ere supplying in a limited way the scattered 
 members of our household of faith with the means of grace. From 
 1782 to 1^41 you sent 14 teachers, catechists and preachers into the 
 counties of Westmoreland, Washington, Fayette, Allegheny, Butler, 
 M ercer, Crawford. Erie, Venango, Indiana and Jefferson, among 
 whom were Anton Lutge, John Stauch, Tohn M. Steck, Peter Rup- 
 pert, Robert Colson, F. C. Hever and Gabriel Reichart. Many of 
 our ministers also have held membership in both bodies, and it is with 
 lust pride that we recall that Dr. Charles Porterfield Krauth, the 
 profound scholar and teacher came from us to vou, and that Dr. 
 H enrv Eyster Jacobs, the emine'nt theologian and prolific author of 
 valuable publications was ordained by the Pittsburgh Synod. The 
 extensive missionary program projected at the organization of the 
 
A ppendix 
 
 309 
 
 Pittsburgh Synod in 1845, found generous supporters in the Minis- 
 terium, whose contributions assisted in establishing congregations in 
 cities in Canada and in the States of Kentucky, Tennessee, Texas, 
 Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin. Dear Brethren, for your 
 bountiful helpfulness, from which the Pittsburgh Synod has greatly 
 benehtted, we express our sincere gratitude. As a matter for mutual 
 satisfaction it may be mentioned, that in developing the faith and 
 life of the church, and in special work in education, missions and 
 mercy, undertaken by the respective bodies, there has been a com¬ 
 mendable interest and cordial co-operation. Dr. W. A. Passavant, 
 the well-known philanthropist, participated in the founding of the 
 Germantown Orphans’ and Old People’s Home. The beautiful 
 Krauth Memorial Library, adorning the Seminary campus at Mt. 
 Airy, is the gift of a benevolent layman of the Pittsburgh Synod. 
 The founders of the Ministerium on arriving on the Western Con¬ 
 tinent were confronted with innumerable difficulties. They were 
 strangers in a strange land. But they were godly and consecrated 
 men; and under the leadership of Patriarch Muhlenberg they ad¬ 
 dressed themselves to the work to which they firmly believed they 
 were divinely called. They laid the foundations broad and strong. 
 They did not accomplish all they desired, but their selfdenying labors 
 resulted in manifold blessings to posterity. They left to their suc¬ 
 cessors a legacy of unfinished problems which have been solved, or 
 are in process of being solved to the growth and prestige of our 
 beloved Lutheran Zion. It is a significant fact, worthy of mention, 
 that among the membership of the Ministerium there have appeared 
 eloquent preachers, learned divines, distinguished scholars, brilliant 
 authors and versatile editors. They have attained to high eminence 
 and are greatly esteemed in literary and scholastic circles at home 
 and abroad; and many of your laity have been chosen to fill re¬ 
 sponsible positions in the National Government and others served 
 with great honor, as governors, state officials and judges, and rose 
 to prominence in professional and business life, and at the same 
 time gave to the work of the Church the full measure of their de¬ 
 votion. These reputable gentlemen are the glory of the Ministerium. 
 Future generations should sacredly cherish their memory and per¬ 
 petuate their renown. Having splendidly equipped collegiate and 
 theological institutions, provided with an excellent system of Mis¬ 
 sionary and Inner Mission activities, blessed with an educated min¬ 
 istry and a consecrated laity, a future of nameless possibilities lies be¬ 
 fore you. M ay the Lord give you grace to face it with confidence. 
 Dear brethren, we bring to you on this happy occasion the con¬ 
 gratulations of the Pittsburgh Synod. 
 
 THE SYNOD OF CENTRAL PENNSYLVANIA, 1855 
 
 The Rev. A. H. Spangler, Yeagertown, Pa. 
 
 Listed as representative of the Central Pennsylvania Synod was 
 not present and no greeting from this Synod was presented. 
 
310 
 
 Trinity, Reading, A. D. 1923 
 THE AUGUSTANA SYNOD, 1860. 
 
 By the Rev. H. E. Sandstedt, Chicago, 111. 
 
 1 he Augustana Synod has a peculiar interest in the Ministerium 
 of Pennsylvania and in being represented at this convention. I 
 regret with the esteemed president of our body, the Rev. Dr. G. A. 
 Brandelle, that he was unable, on account of official duties, to bring 
 the felicitations of our Synod in person. Let me however assure 
 you, that nothing would have pleased him more than to be here 
 at this very moment. According to the authority of your own ven¬ 
 erable Dr. Jacobs, in his American Church History, the delegates to 
 that organization meeting were gathered at the home of Pastor 
 Brunnholtz on Sunday, August 24th, and from there the procession 
 was headed by the Swedish provost Sandin. On that memorable 
 day, St. Michaels Church was consecrated to its holy purpose, a 
 child was received into communion with Christ and H is Church 
 through Holy Baptism, Mr. Kurtz was ordained to the ministry of 
 the Gospel, and the pastors with a few of the congregation received 
 the Holy Supper. It is also recorded, that from this gathering six 
 public prayers ascended to the Throne of Grace. Two of these 
 prayers were offered in the Swedish language and four in the Ger¬ 
 man. While the Delaware Swedes were never members of the 
 Augustana Synod, they were nevertheless blood of our blood, and 
 flesh of our flesh, and as the years go by we regret more and more, 
 that they did not hold out just a few more years, until the pioneer 
 founders of our Synod arrived; that would have made a different 
 story now. However, we rejoice to know that they co-operated in 
 the organization of your Synod. They were frequently, and some 
 of them regularly present at your annual meetings, and took part in 
 the deliberations. The relation between your fathers and some of 
 the Swedes became very intimate. I can but in passing refer to the 
 cordial, sincere and lasting friendship that existed between Muhlen¬ 
 berg and Charles M. Wrangel, a fact to be cherished by a grateful 
 Church and her children to-day. My little message to you on behalf 
 of our Synod would be incomplete unless I referred to another and 
 very important event in the history of our Church. I have refer¬ 
 ence to the founding of the General Council. In its organization 
 the delegates from the Ministerium and from the Augustana Synod 
 united their efforts and their influence. With unflinching conviction 
 they advocated purity of doctrine and took their stand in favor of 
 historic and pure Lutheranism. We thank God for the blessings 
 that have come to us as a result of their faith, for the men your 
 Synod has produced, and for the services they have rendered our 
 Church. As a representative of a younger generation, I bring you 
 our tribute of appreciation and of gratitude, and as a fraternal dele¬ 
 gate of the Augustana Synod, I extend to you our sincere and hearty 
 congratulations at this your 175th Anniversary Convention. 
 
Appendix 
 
 311 
 
 THE SUSQUEHANNA SYNOD, 1867. 
 
 By the Rev. 1. P. Alan hart, D. D., SelinsgrovePa. 
 
 I o the Ministerium of Pennsylvania and Adjacent States on her 
 175th Anniversary the Susquehanna Synod presents her Christia'n 
 greetings and cordial felicitations. Felicitations, first, because of the 
 character of the Ministerium’s illustrious founder, a man whose like 
 in patriarchal dignity, apostolic vision, service and influence Lu¬ 
 theranism has not produced anywhere in the world during the last 
 200 years. The Susquehanna Synod also felicitates the Ministerium 
 upon the long list of honored names upon its roll of ministers. 
 Some came to it from the fatherland ; some were born, reared and 
 ordained within the bounds of the Ministerium, and then found their 
 main fields of influential service in daughter synods; some came to 
 the Ministerium from younger synods, in which they were reared 
 and rendered their earliest service, and then enriched the life of the 
 older body; still others, sons of the Ministerium, rendered their dis¬ 
 tinguished services entirely or mainly in their mother synod. These 
 gifted and devoted men, have given lustre to the Ministerium and 
 to the entire Lutheran Communion. The Ministerium is to be 
 felicitated upon the character of the daughter Synods represented 
 here at the parental hearth. Each, in its sphere has accomplished some 
 worthwhile things for the Kingdom. All, this day, rise up and call 
 their venerable Mother blessed. As one of these synods, the Susque¬ 
 hanna gratefully claims that her missionary spirit, first as a Con¬ 
 ference, then as a Synod, proves her a true heir of the spirit of 
 Muhlenberg, as expressed in his motto “Ecclesia Plantanda”. She 
 is also the mother of the Lutheran Publication Society and of the 
 Deaconess work of the General Synod. The Susquehanna Synod 
 congratulates the Ministerium upon the manifest guidance of Provi¬ 
 dence throughout the various testing epochs of her existence. Con¬ 
 ditions were grave and perplexing in the Church, in Society and 
 in the State in 1748; but somehow the Ministerium was providen¬ 
 tially led and preserved from losing itself by merging or absorption. 
 Contrast the situation to-dav with that of a century ago. Then the 
 M inisterium appeared ready for a union seminary and for merging 
 with another denomination. Providentially kept from those fatal 
 steps, she gradually regained her Lutheran consciousness and became 
 that strong power for conservative Lutheranism that is her strength 
 and glorv. That she may do her full part in securing for Luther¬ 
 anism and for the entire Christian Church all that is essential to 
 meet the world’s need to-day and in the future, we fervently pray, 
 that evermore in bounteous fullness the blessings of the Triune God 
 may rest upon the Ministerium of Pennsylvania. 
 
3 12 Trinity, Reading, A. D. 1923 
 
 THE SYNOD OF NEW YORK AND NEW ENGLAND, 1902 
 By the Rev. F. F. Fry, D. D., Rochester, N. Y. 
 
 It is inspiring to stand in this familiar place and speak to the 
 Ministerium of Pennsylvania, which ordained me to the Gospel 
 ministry. Here in this church 1 was baptized, at this altar I was 
 confirmed and for the first time partook of the Lord’s Supper, from 
 this pulpit it was my privilege to preach the unsearchable riches ot 
 Christ. As a young school boy 1 attended the sessions of the Penn¬ 
 sylvania Ministerium within these walls, and now I come as the 
 representative of the New York and New England Synod, to bring 
 you its warm hearted, true hearted, whole hearted greetings. As 
 its spokesman 1 say, God bless you. God speed you on your way. 
 Hitherto hath the Lord helped you. May He continue evermore 
 to guide you by His Spirit into all truth. In these days when many 
 are drifting from their moorings, in this age of inquiry and inves¬ 
 tigation, when increasing numbers are seeking after truth, and 
 yet an age which too often magnifies breadth at the expense of depth, 
 it is refreshing to stand before a group of men who know what they 
 believe, and why they believe it, and who have the courage of their 
 convictions. I thank God this day with all my heart, that this Min¬ 
 isterium stands and has stood for something positive, definite, con¬ 
 servative and constructive. Surveying these 175 years, with abun¬ 
 dant proofs of God’s presence and power, we cannot but thank God 
 and take courage. Great and glorious are our opportunities; let us 
 thank God for them. Equally great and glorious are our respon¬ 
 sibilities; let us dedicate our lives to them. We are living in a 
 grand and awful time, in which we have our part to take, our work 
 to do, our responsibilities to share. May we not shirk, nor shrink, 
 nor swerve from the straight path of duty, but conscious of our 
 God-given privileges, let us bravely go forward, that we may give a 
 good account of our stewardship. 
 
 1 HE UNITED LUTHERAN CHURCH IN AMERICA, 1918 
 
 By President F. //. Knuhel, D. D., LL. D., New "5 ork City. 
 
 Your anniversary celebrates a beginning of Lutheran organiza¬ 
 tion in this country which has its present culmination in the United 
 Lutheran Church, of which you are a part. Our greeting to you is 
 therefore distinctly to the leader in our life as a Church. We thank 
 God for that leadership while we greet you. This leadership of 
 yours is however not merely historical. It is a present fact even in 
 the numerical strength of the Ministerium. While you stand first 
 in that respect, and while your influence is consequently the greatest, 
 it is a ioy to preet vou with the statement that no other constituent 
 synod of our Church is more loyal to our principles, purposes, and 
 operations than are you. Time forbids an enlargement upon that 
 
A ppendix 
 
 313 
 
 fact. ^ ou are first among equals. We appeal to you to be a leader 
 in the fullest and highest sense of that term. 1 here is something 
 however, which needs to be said on this anniversary, in case it does 
 not engage the attention of other speakers. Others will inevitably 
 trace in your history the conditions of Lutheranism at various times 
 during the past, conditions in which you had an important part. 
 1'here is special ground for joyous thanksgiving, however, on this 
 anniversary because of the condition of Lutheranism now as you 
 celebrate. It also is a condition in which your part is a vital one. 
 In thus speaking I am not unmindful of the bitter distresses of the 
 Lutheran Church to-day. They have led to pessimistic utterences 
 from some sources. We may also be rightly humbled because of the 
 consciousness of many neglected opportunities. There is, never¬ 
 theless, another and even more important view to take. For in¬ 
 stance, in the deepest sense there exists to-day a renaissance of Lu¬ 
 theran cohesiveness. We have become renewedly conscious that our 
 confession of the Gospel is true and full. We are renewedly aware 
 also that the devotion to that confession is positive wherever the name 
 Lutheran is used. While we sadly see dissension as to the faith else¬ 
 where among Christians, there are no voices of essential dissent 
 among us. There is unity of a fundamental character. It is in 
 the consciousness of the seriousness and the uplift of these days of 
 your anniversary that this greeting is brought. You are taking a 
 vigorous part in it all. If there has been any reserve hitherto, I 
 pray you to cast it aside and to throw your consecrated soul into 
 the unguessed tasks our Lord would have our Church perform. He 
 has given these gifts to us. He has set before us an open door. 
 
I) 
 
 I 
 
 . J 
 
THE IDEALS OF 1748 
 AND THEIR REALIZATION* 
 
 HENRY EYSTER JACOBS 
 
 The real founders of the new world were not the pioneers 
 who were drawn hither by material interests, but the humble 
 and devout immigrants who came across the ocean with the 
 Bible in their hands and the sense of individual responsibility- 
 quickened and developed by their experience of the grace of 
 God. The Spaniards in the South sought for gold and precious 
 stones; the French, in the North, for fish and furs. Where are 
 the empires which they attempted to found ? 
 
 Our fathers brought with them no dreams of a new nation 
 of imperial proportions, or of a national church or any church 
 organization that should cover the continent. With all its de¬ 
 fects, it was a religious age. Beneath the turmoil and violence 
 of superstition and tyranny, the spirit of God was moving upon 
 the face of the waters, speaking to the hearts of men, inspiring 
 new ideals, uniting them unconsciously in common purposes, and 
 directing the currents of spiritual life towards a common end 
 in God’s world plan, far beyond all they could ask or think. 
 
 One of these groups of Christian people, acting in seeming 
 independence and yet co-operating in the opening of this land 
 for the kingdom of God, was represented in the band of six 
 ministers and about thirty-seven laymen, who participated im 
 the event we are celebrating today. It will be our task to con¬ 
 sider a few of the principles for which they stood, and the 
 degree in which these principles have, under the leading of 
 God’s Spirit, found expression in the subsequent history of the 
 Church. 
 
 Unless there had been a certain unity of faith, a certain 
 responsibility for a task larger than any individual pastor or 
 congregation could accomplish, the project would not have been 
 undertaken. It originated in the untiring efforts of two of the 
 most active and influential Lutheran laymen of that period, 
 men of wide business experience and of acknowledged standing 
 in their communities, one, Peter Koch, the representative of 
 
 ♦Address at the 175th anniversary of the Ministerium of Pennsyl¬ 
 vania, Reading, Pa., June 5, 1923. 
 
316 
 
 Trinity, Reading, A. D. 1923 
 
 the Swedish Church, and the other, Henry Schleydorn, one of 
 the officers of the Philadelphia Church, previously active in the 
 Dutch Lutheran congregation in New York City. 1 Some four 
 years before this, these men had brought the pastors together, 
 but after long discussion, a division among the Swedes de¬ 
 feated their plans. Muhlenberg, yet a young man, was feeling 
 his way amidst his new surroundings, content for the present 
 that the pastors coming from Halle were known as The United 
 Pastors of the United Congregations. The laymen, however, 
 insisted that some closer bond must be formed than that of a 
 common dependence upon European advice and supervision. 
 There were problems that had to be settled in this country, or 
 all the Lutheran churches would have followed the fate of the 
 Dutch churches on the Hudson, and of the Swedish churches 
 on the Delaware. Possibly if the lay representative of the 
 Swedes (Mr. Koch) had not died the succeeding year, the 
 connection of the Swedish churches with the Ministerium 
 would have been more permanent, and would have saved them 
 to our Church. 
 
 The program of the laity, however, was not so much a 
 union of the congregations as of the pastors; perhaps rather 
 a union of the congregations through a union of the pastors. 
 All they seemed to ask is that all the congregations shall have 
 a hearing through a sufficient number of lay representatives, 
 that every pastor may know the conditions existing in every 
 congregation, and that the lay representatives, and through 
 them the congregations, may learn to know and weigh the 
 judgment and advice of every pastor as well as that of the 
 laymen in other congregations. The pastors were regarded as 
 belonging to all the people, and all the people as a charge for 
 which each individual pastor, in an order hereafter to be pro¬ 
 vided, would bear a certain measure of responsibility. The plan 
 was that after the laity were heard and questioned by the pas¬ 
 tors, and the pastors were heard and questioned by the laity, 
 the carrying out of the decisions on general questions should 
 lielong to the pastors, and the carrying out of those pertaining 
 to the administration of the congregations, to the congrega- 
 
 1 For details see Acrelius’ History of New Sweden, English Trans¬ 
 lation by Dr. W. M. Reynolds, pp. 245 sq. 
 
Appendix 
 
 317 
 
 tions. Hence the word “Ministerium,” not “Synod,” became 
 the official title; and a congregational pledge of the Tulpehocken 
 congregation entered at this convention declares, “We recog¬ 
 nize all the pastors of the United Congregations as our pastors 
 and shepherds.” 
 
 The Constitution of this Ministerium was already in pro¬ 
 cess of formation, but a generation was to elapse before it was 
 to be embodied in a regularly articulated document. It would 
 have been a natural course for Muhlenberg to have written to 
 the Halle authorities, or to Doctor Ziegenhagen in London, to 
 prepare a constitution as the basis for their deliberations; or 
 the pastors could have assembled and compiled a constitution 
 out of the rich material that the Church Orders of the sixteenth 
 and seventeenth centuries -would have furnished; or Muhlen¬ 
 berg, who elaborated an excellent liturgy and was an expert in 
 the preparation of congregational constitutions, might have sub¬ 
 mitted a preliminary draft as the basis, which, because of the 
 weight of his personality, might have met with immediate and 
 unanimous approval. But this was not done. Was it because, 
 as yet, they were subjects of Great Britain, which has survived 
 to the present-day without such an instrument, although its 
 unwritten Constitution can be read in the Magna Charta and the 
 Bill of Rights and the decisions of legally constituted tri¬ 
 bunals? A constitution to be permanently enforced must grow 
 out of the life of the people as a correct interpretation of its 
 well-matured and thoroughly-rooted convictions, and an ex¬ 
 pression of the lessons of long experience. The unwritten must 
 prepare the way for the written law. In our own ecclesiastical 
 legislation, a constitution is a contract specifying the terms upon 
 which the people therein represented agree to discharge certain 
 obligations for which they mutually recognize themselves as 
 responsible. The strength of the law rests in the consciences 
 of the people; the law is strong to the degree that they under¬ 
 stand thoroughly its provisions and recognize that they are 
 right. 
 
 Our fathers, therefore, were content for years with noth¬ 
 ing more than a mutual understanding of what was to be 
 done. They were breaking the way for the democratization of 
 the Lutheran Church throughout the world and for all time— 
 
318 Trinity, Reading, A. D. 1923 
 
 a task which the Wittenberg Faculty, of heroic days, had left 
 incomplete. 
 
 Meanwhile, however, the Confessions of the Church, to 
 which from the very first ordination they pledged all candidates 
 to the ministry, effectually protected them from fluctuating 
 opinions. These Confessions are to the Lutheran Church what 
 the Magna Charta has been to the British Government. They 
 do not lay down laws for specific cases, but only state, and dis¬ 
 cuss at length, the principles which underlie their decision. He 
 who has the Holy Scriptures, as the only absolute authority, 
 and the Confessions of the Lutheran Church as an illuminating 
 record and trustworthy model of the application of these prin¬ 
 ciples, will not go far wrong. Better a Church with a clear and 
 definite confession, even without a constitution, than one with 
 the most minutely elaborated constitution, which nevertheless 
 is without a confessional basis. 
 
 It is important for us, then, to remember that one of the 
 first acts of the Convention of 1748 was to solemnly charge 
 John N. Kurtz “to teach nothing, whether publicly or privately, 
 but what harmonized with the Word of God and the Confes¬ 
 sions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church”; and that another 
 act was to set apart St. Michael’s Church, that “in it the Evan¬ 
 gelical Lutheran doctrine should be taught according to the 
 foundation of the prophets and apostles and the Unaltered 
 Augsburg Confession and all the other Symbolical Books.” 
 The first written constitution (1781) prescribes that “every 
 minister professes that he holds to the Word of God and the 
 Symbolical Books in doctrine and life”; and declares “positive 
 errors opposed to the plain teachings of the Holy Scriptures 
 and to our Symbolical Books,” as the first subject for disci¬ 
 pline. 
 
 Inasmuch as in 1792, and for more than a half century 
 thereafter, all reference to the Symbolical Books and even to 
 the Augsburg Confession is lacking in the constitutions of the 
 Ministerium, the inference has often been made that the Min- 
 isterium repudiated' its former confessional fidelity. Unfortu¬ 
 nate as this omission was, it is not without an explanation, for 
 by the constitution of 1792 lay delegates were for the 'first time 
 accorded the 'right to vote. As, therefore, the-'Lutheran Church 
 
Appendix 
 
 319 
 
 has exacted the subscription to the full body of the Con¬ 
 fessions only of those who are to become its official teachers, 
 and has never required of the laity more than the reception of 
 Luther’s Small Catechism, the suggestion would occur that in 
 a synodical constitution, only such requirements might be made 
 as could be complied with by all who were to act as the 
 Church’ representatives in synodical meetings. 
 
 It was not until during the Revolutionary War (1781) 2 
 that the fathers gave fully-matured expression to the princi¬ 
 ples which they for thirty-three years had been following. 
 This first constitution clearly shows that Henry Melchior 
 Muhlenberg was still alive and his spirit was dominant, for its 
 title does not restrict it to “Pennsylvania and the adjacent 
 states,” but it is entitled, “The Constitution of the Evangelical 
 Lutheran Ministerium of North America.” Its bounds are thus 
 extended from Canada on the North, to the Gulf of Mexico, on 
 the South; and from the Atlantic to the Pacific; there is thus 
 one Evangelical Lutheran Church, with one Evangelical Luth¬ 
 eran ministry—as there is but one Evangelical Lutheran faith 
 for the whole country. An illuminating commentary on this 
 title is found in a letter written by Muhlenberg to Benjamin 
 Franklin, in 1754, and read by Franklin to the directors of the 
 Society for the Propagation of the Gospel among the Germans 
 of Pennsylvania, at a meeting held in the residence of Chief 
 Justice Allen on the Seminary grounds at Mount Airy, in 
 which Muhlenberg suggests that the work of the Society be 
 extended to New York, New England, New Jersey, Maryland, 
 Virginia, Carolina and Georgia. Up to that date no other 
 Church had undertaken to embrace all its members in any or¬ 
 ganization that went beyond state boundaries. It was only after 
 the Revolutionary War that the General Assembly of the 
 Presbyterian Church in the United States (1789), and the 
 Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States (1789), 
 and the Methodist Church in the United States were organ¬ 
 ized. Colonial Churches had given way to state Churches; but 
 national organizations, in other denominations, came only when 
 peace had been declared. This Ministerium, in thus projecting 
 
 2 The same year that Articles of Confederation for the American 
 colonies were agreed upon. 
 
320 
 
 Trinity, Reading, A. D. 1923 
 
 an organization even wider than the new nation, anticipated 
 every Church Body on the continent. 
 
 Nor was it Muhlenberg’s ideal that each state should have 
 a separate synod, and then that these synods should combine in 
 one general organization. The organization for local adminis¬ 
 tration is one thing, but the Lutheran ministry throughout 
 North America, as an organism, he regards as one ministry. In 
 its sympathies and its prayers and its activities, his ideal makes 
 it world-wide, although of course recognizing a more immediate 
 call to a certain specific field (North America) within which it 
 moves on broad continental lines. The nearest realization of 
 that ideal is found in the constitution of the United Lutheran 
 Church in America." 
 
 Nor did the constitution framed in Muhlenberg’s life have 
 the limitation of language which occurred in 1792, when the 
 title became “The German Evangelical Lutheran Ministerium 
 of Pennsylvania and Adjacent States.” Previously the fathers 
 had in mind the inclusion of Swedish and possibly of Dutch, 
 and even of English-speaking Lutherans as well as of Germans. 
 They were contemplating the obliteration of all national and 
 racial distinctions in a land into which Lutherans of many 
 lands and languages were beginning to pour. They had heard 
 the call to testify to their faith in whatever language they 
 would find a hearing. The example had been set by Muhlen¬ 
 berg, when, in his voyage to America he preached to his fellow- 
 passengers in the English language; when, on reaching the 
 southern coast, he preached in English to the slaves in Charles¬ 
 ton; as well as afterwards in his summer pastorate in New 
 York City, where every Sunday he preached in German, in 
 Dutch, and in English. 
 
 3 Witness the Preamble to its Constitution: 
 
 “We, members of Evangelical Lutheran congregations in America, 
 associated in Evangelical Lutheran Synods, recognizing our duty as 
 people of God, to make the inner unity which we have with one another 
 manifest in the common confession, defense and maintenance of our 
 faith ***** hereby invite and, until such end be attained, continue 
 to invite all Evangelical Lutheran Congregations and synods in America, 
 one with us in the faith, to unite with us, upon the terms of this Consti¬ 
 tution, in one general organization, to be known as THE UNITED 
 LUTHERAN CHURCH IN AMERICA—” 
 
Appendix 
 
 321 
 
 synods from which we have heard this afternoon. But there 
 was one feature which offsets this, and that is, the falling away 
 from the ideals of the founders in the action taken concerning 
 the use of the English language. The principal resolution, alas, 
 unanimously adopted, reads: “That the present Lutheran Min- 
 isterium must remain a German-speaking Ministerium, and 
 no arrangement can be accepted which necessitates the use of 
 any other language alongside of the German in its synodical 
 meetings and transactions.” This resolution cannot be ex¬ 
 plained as arising from any antipathy to the new nation in the 
 struggle for whose independence and firm establishment our 
 people had taken a prominent part. They were Americans of 
 Americans. To the shores on which they had already been well- 
 rooted, they would have been glad to have transplanted what¬ 
 ever was best in the land of their fathers, among which was 
 the language in which they knew well their Bible and Cate¬ 
 chism; but they rejoiced too greatly in the new freedom they 
 enjoyed, and the prosperity which followed their toils on this 
 fresh soil, to have any thought of a return to former condi¬ 
 tions. It was rather an expression of annoyance with the agi¬ 
 tation of a question for which they then felt themselves at the 
 time unprepared. Nevertheless, it seems very strange that such 
 action should have been passed only ten days after Whit¬ 
 sunday, when in all their churches the endowment of many 
 tongues in which to declare the wonderful works of God had 
 been celebrated as the blessed gift of the Holy Spirit to the 
 Church. The action was broadcasted in circulars, of which we 
 have found large bundles of unused copies; and on its author¬ 
 ity, the young pastor who attempted to speak in English on the 
 floor of this venerable body, was often called down for an in¬ 
 fraction of its order. 
 
 For the moment, the result was that the growing life of 
 the Church which had marked the Philadelphia meeting of 1748 
 began to flow in two different streams. The “Evangelical Luth¬ 
 eran Ministerium of North America” could not be compressed 
 into the moulds of the “German Evangelical Lutheran Minis¬ 
 terium of Pennsylvania and Adjacent States.” If the continuity 
 of the Church consists in fidelity to the faith and confession of 
 its founders, then the body founded in 1748 continued and 
 
322 
 
 Trinity, Reading, A. D. 1923 
 
 consolations of the Gospel to the sick and the dying, the afflicted 
 and the distressed. Methinks I see him now, walking the 
 streets with his gold headed cane, a pattern of neatness in his 
 dress, a perfect gentieman of the old school in his manners, 
 bowing politely and complacently to all whom he met, and 
 smiling benignantly on the little children who rejoiced to be 
 recognized by the good doctor, and thought they had much to 
 tell their parents at home, for they could say that they had met 
 their pastor on the street and that he had spoken to them and 
 had laid his hands on their head and blessed them.” 5 
 
 Such, as a rule, was the type of pastor of the second gen¬ 
 eration that filled the pulpits of the venerable and historical 
 Churches in Philadelphia, at Reading, Lancaster, Easton, Ger¬ 
 mantown, Harrisburg, Pottstown, Lebanon, York, Baltimore, 
 Llagertown, Frederick, and Winchester. Others cultivated in 
 the same spirit the laborious country parishes. What an inspir¬ 
 ing list is that of the Presidents, happily published in the offi¬ 
 cial program of these exercises. As a result of their fidelity, 
 their descendants, with those of the people whom they faith¬ 
 fully served, are found among the most esteemed leaders in 
 professional and business life, and most influential and deeply 
 interested members of our congregations. They would repudi¬ 
 ate the charge of lack of fidelity to the Word of God as con¬ 
 fessed by our Church. No better refutation, however, of such 
 charge can be given, than the readiness with which the children 
 of these men rose to the occasion when the opportunity came 
 for them to give their testimony. The ideals outlined in 1748 
 and 1781 never were forgotten. 
 
 At the Fifty-eighth Convention, in Germantown in 1805, 
 a new life was stirring. There was a decided forward move¬ 
 ment. A systematic effort was inaugurated to secure and sup¬ 
 port candidates for the ministry. Six home missionaries were 
 elected from among the pastors, and assigned circuits in the 
 distant parts of Pennsylvania and on the frontiers of Tennes¬ 
 see, Virginia, and Ohio, whence have sprung some of the 
 
 5 These are the words of Doctor William R. DeWitt, of Harrisburg, 
 concerning Doctor George Lochman, President of this Ministerium from 
 1816 to 1819, and one of its regularly elected theological instructors. 
 Sprague’s “Annals of the American Lutheran Church, Philadelphia, 
 1869, pp. 112 sq. 
 
Appendix 
 
 323 
 
 Neither of the earlier constitutions provided for the admis¬ 
 sion of congregations. Delegates from all congregations cared 
 for by pastors of the Ministerium were admitted to the sessions. 
 It was only near the middle of the last century that congrega¬ 
 tions were enrolled, upon their own application for such priv¬ 
 ilege. 
 
 The second constitution (1792)/ while more practical as 
 a purely business document, manifests a falling away from 
 the constructive idealism of Muhlenberg and his associates. In 
 trying to adapt the organized Church to existing conditions, it 
 not only omits the confessional obligation, but has surrendered 
 its universalistic standards, and has in view the restriction of 
 the Ministerium to narrow limits. There is very scant evidence, 
 however, to support the charge sometimes made that there has 
 ever been in this Ministerium a strong rationalistic spirit, and 
 that the Constitution of 1792 was one of its fruits. The con¬ 
 structive idealism of Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, indeed, 
 fades as time advances, but does not entirely vanish. There lies 
 before us a well-drawn pen picture which an eminent Presby¬ 
 terian clergyman has drawn of one of the earlier presidents of 
 the Ministerium. Of this I shall quote only a few sentences. 
 “There was in his character a child-like simplicity, combined 
 with unmeasured kindness of heart, which nothing could dis¬ 
 turb except some invasion of what he esteemed the rights and 
 privileges of the good old Lutheran Church, for which he en¬ 
 tertained an affection next in strength and devotion to that he 
 felt for his divine Master. I do not mean to intimate that he 
 was a bigot. Nothing could be farther from his nature. But the 
 Lutheran Church—the great Lutheran Church—lay very near 
 his heart. Its founder—the great Reformer—its glorious his¬ 
 tory, its precious memories, his own religious education and 
 experience identified with it, and his long devotion to its wel¬ 
 fare, rendered it in his estimation the Church that Christ loved. 
 As a pastor he was indefatigable. Storm or sunshine, cold or 
 heat, day or night, he was ever ready to go and administer the 
 
 * As the Articles of Confederation of the Colonies of 1781 was 
 followed by the Federal Constitution of 1787, so the Ministerium’s 
 Constitution of 1781 was followed by that of 1792. It was an era of 
 Constitution making. 
 
324 
 
 Trinity, Reading, A. D. 1923 
 
 still continues its existence beneath all the many synods which 
 for administrative purposes have from time to time separated 
 from the corporation of the mother synod. This, then, is the 
 jubilee not simply of the Ministerium of Pennsylvania, but of 
 the whole Ministerium of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of 
 North America. 
 
 Without any ill-feeling, the younger men of the Church, 
 sons of former presidents of the Ministerium and others closely 
 connected with them, men who had been educated in Ameri¬ 
 can institutions and were longing for activity in behalf of the 
 cause to which they had devoted their lives, now made their 
 influence felt. One of the fruits of this activity was the estab¬ 
 lishment in 1820 of the General Synod, which the progressives, 
 by an overwhelming majority, actually persuaded the Minis¬ 
 terium of Pennsylvania to undertake, but from which a strong 
 conservative reaction three years later forced the Ministerium 
 to withdraw. Previous to this, however other movements had 
 been in progress. In Philadelphia itself, a Muhlenberg again 
 led the way. The appeal of General Peter Muhlenberg to the 
 Church in Philadelphia, both as a confession of unswerving 
 fidelity to the Lutheran faith, and a serious call to meet the new 
 responsibilities of the hour, was worthy of his father. The 
 founding of St. John’s Church in 1806 was a monument that 
 declares in a fitting way that a field of labor for our Church was 
 in the English as well as in other languages. Further south, in 
 1820, right at the center of the population of the United States, 
 when the emigration to the Great West had begun, and, with 
 the routes by way of New York and Philadelphia practically 
 unopened, that by way of Baltimore was thronged with the 
 wagons of immigrants carrying countless numbers of our people 
 to their future homes, an enterprising band of younger minis¬ 
 ters undertook, in a quiet and orderly way, and with the consent 
 of the parent Body, to found the Synod of Maryland and Vir¬ 
 ginia. upon the basis of the Unaltered Augsburg Confession— 
 an unfortunate omission in the Constitution of “The German 
 Evangelical Ministerium of Pennsylvania and Adjacent States” 
 —and to prepare the way for the organization of various de¬ 
 partments of Church work on lines continued until today. Balti¬ 
 more. which had become a trade-center for a number of the 
 
Appendix 
 
 325 
 
 counties of Southern Pennsylvania, was at the same time the 
 gate-way to the West. Outstripping Philadelphia temporarily, 
 she was enrolled on the Census report as the second city of the 
 land, having doubled its population within a decade. This very 
 naturally became the center of the General Synod’s life, the 
 seat of its Home Mission organization, Publication House and 
 Church paper. The names’ of Schaeffer, and Krauth and 
 Schmucker and Keller and Heyer and Kurtz, to which shortly 
 afterwards was added that of the energetic and versatile Mor¬ 
 ris, show that some of the most promising sons of the leaders 
 in the elder Body had been sent across the border, partly to 
 carry across the traditions of this historic synod, and partly to 
 undertake responsibilities, for which the Ministerium, as then 
 organized, felt itself unequal. When there was a general for¬ 
 ward movement in the various Christian communions all around 
 them—for this was the period of the founding of the Amer¬ 
 ican Sunday School Union, The American Bible Society, The 
 American Tract Society, etc., what was more natural than, 
 by this means, to find an outlet for a zeal that was burning 
 for general religious work within the channels of the Lutheran 
 Church? Between them and the more progressive pastors re¬ 
 maining in the Ministerium, there were no antagonisms, but 
 much cordial cooperation. They recognized each other as dif¬ 
 ferent sections of the same Church, with common interests, and 
 separated only for purposes of administration. There was no 
 great gulf fixed preventing the transfer from one to the other. 
 The institutions at Gettysburg, both literary and theological, 
 were not only largely patronized by the Ministerium, but for a 
 time manned entirely by Professors, who had been born and 
 baptized in the Mother Synod. For such were Drs. Muhlen¬ 
 berg and Stoever and Baugher (Eager) and Schaeffer—all de¬ 
 scendants of Henry Melchior Muhlenberg or his cotemporaries 
 in the ministry,—as well as Dr. Charles Philip Krauth, son 
 of an organist and parochial school teacher of the mother 
 church in Philadelphia, and Dr. Michael Jacobs, son of 
 an officer of an eighteenth century congregation on the Mary¬ 
 land border, bearing the name of his family. The Gettysburg 
 Seminary, from which the College sprang, originated in a group 
 of candidates for the ministry, who gathered around one of 
 
326 
 
 Trinity, Reading, A. D. 1923 
 
 these youthful pastors, a son of this Ministerium as well as of 
 one of its former Presidents, Dr. S. S. Schmucker, in the Shen¬ 
 andoah Valley. The Gettysburg Seminary actually began at New 
 Market, Va., but was transferred across the Mason and Dixon 
 Line, largely in order to gain the patronage of the Churches 
 in Pennsylvania. In due time, this Ministerium, three years 
 before its union with the General Synod, transferred from Lan¬ 
 caster to Gettysburg its financial interest in Franklin College. 
 Founding with it the Franklin Professorship in Pennsylvania 
 College, this chair was filled, after confirmation of the nomina¬ 
 tion of the Ministerium, first, from 1850-67, by Dr. F. A. 
 Muhlenberg and, from 1870-83 by the writer. To this was 
 added a second Professorship in both institutions filled 1857- 
 64 by Dr. C. F. Schaeffer, the first Chairman of the Faculty of 
 the Philadelphia Seminary. 
 
 Just as sons of this Ministerium organized the General 
 Synod and its various activities, including the Gettysburg in¬ 
 stitutions, so sons of the Gettysburg institutions, some of them 
 sons of Professors, were the chief factors in inaugurating a 
 new order in this Ministerium and in founding the General 
 Council. A quarter of a century after the first group of young 
 men were preparing in the mountains of Virginia to do the 
 Lutheran Church of America efficient service in the North, a 
 second generation were brought by an overruling Providence 
 from the institutions at Gettysburg, to prepare under the 
 shadow of the same mountains a new movement in the same 
 North. A second Krauth, a second or rather a third Schmucker, 
 a Seiss from Maryland, to whom was in time added from the 
 Western border of the state, a Passavant in Baltimore, des¬ 
 tined with almost apostolic zeal to devote his life to Home 
 and Inner Missions, had no thought of any other ministry 
 than that of the General Synod, of which they were devoted 
 sons. The first two brought with them a certain amount of 
 intellectual equipment and literary apparatus, with which they 
 sought in the isolation and retirement of their quiet parishes 
 to ground themselves more thoroughly in their studies and to 
 reach a solution of problems which they were too painfully 
 aware that they had not yet mastered. Like their predecessors 
 of the preceding generation, the sons of the Gettysburg theo- 
 
Appendix 
 
 327 
 
 logians were near each other locally and profited by mutual 
 assistance. They gathered the literature which their meagre 
 salaries could afford, Krauth laying the foundation of his sub¬ 
 sequent theological attainments by his mastery of the classics 
 of Lutheran Theology, and Schmucker, as early as 1848, toiling 
 on some of the liturgical material, that underlies the present 
 Service Book of the United Lutheran Church. 
 
 The result was that their names live in the history of the 
 Church in connection with this Ministerium and the Philadel¬ 
 phia Seminary, just as the names of their predecessors were 
 given by the Ministerium to the General Synod and its various 
 agencies. As the Ministerium in one generation gave birth to 
 the General Synod, so the new life which quickened this Min¬ 
 isterium since the middle of the XIX century, giving to our 
 people the Church Book, sending Heyer to India, with all that 
 that meant, laying the foundation of the Home Missionary 
 Work, establishing the Philadelphia Seminary and its daugh¬ 
 ters, and Muhlenberg and Thiel Colleges, furnishing the Church 
 with the foundation of a solid Lutheran literature, not to speak 
 of all that the fifty years of the General Council stood for, 
 came, by the blessing of God, in large measure through the 
 General Synod. All this can be freely said without ignoring 
 the eminent services of two of your former Presidents not 
 of this group, Drs. William Julius Mann and Adolph Spaeth, 
 whose personal piety, and popular gifts, supplemented by thor¬ 
 ough German university training, historical tastes, wide ac¬ 
 quaintance with European conditions and incessant literary 
 activities, were given to the working out of problems confront¬ 
 ing the Lutheran Church of the land of their adoption. 
 
 Beneath the infirmities and errors of both Bodies, the 
 ideals and principles of the Evangelical Lutheran Ministerium 
 of 1748 are clearly traceable. Thus Providence controls and 
 counterbalances all great movements in the Church. The cur¬ 
 rent of life, spiritual and churchly was continuous. Beneath 
 and through both fields it ran, now sending forth streams 
 within the one and then within the other; now almost touching, 
 and then joining. Even through all the years of separation, the 
 one could not' absolutely disown or repudiate the other. 
 
328 
 
 Trinity, Reading, A. D. 1923 
 
 Not that synods or General Bodies or Theological Facul¬ 
 ties are infallible—that they are not is a fundamental Lutheran 
 principle; not that the resolutions they pass or the precedents 
 they set are beyond criticism. (We are often forced to recall 
 Luther’s words: “Those dear fathers lived a great deal better 
 than they wrote.”) Not that the recognition of any name as 
 entitled to gratitude for distinguished service, carries with it 
 the necessary endorsement of every position of which the bearer 
 of that name was an advocate. The scaffolding within which a 
 costly structure is rising always offers many points for criticism 
 from one whose esthetic tastes clamor for recognition at every 
 turn, and whose eyes are blind to what is growing up within 
 and beneath the unsightly frame; he has to be reminded 
 as the work proceeds, that the rough and inartistic frame-work 
 is to be enlarged and repaired, and even completely torn away 
 to meet new conditions. It is enough that the mind and purpose 
 of the Great Architect is approaching completion, and that the 
 details, as accomplished, correspond with the Divine plan. 
 
 Entirely incorrect is the occasional statement that the con¬ 
 fessional reaction of the last century within our Church in 
 America came from the influence of Wilhelm Loehe of Neu- 
 endettelsau and of the Missouri emigration. The positive tes¬ 
 timony given from these sources undoubtedly, with other in¬ 
 fluences on the other side of the ocean contributed encourage¬ 
 ment. But the theological development of the last one hundred 
 years came from another source. That the Church of our 
 fathers in America, being without institutions for the thorough 
 training of candidates for the ministry, without teachers conse¬ 
 crating and concentrating their time and energies to the cul¬ 
 tivation of Christian scholarship, even though the prophecy of 
 what was to come was apparent, and without an adequate lit¬ 
 erature in the English language, for a time betrayed many in¬ 
 consistencies with sound Lutheran teaching, both within the 
 Ministerium of Pennsylvania and the General Synod, cannot 
 be denied. But the presence within these bodies, all through 
 the periods that seemed most discouraging, of clear and faith¬ 
 ful preachers and confessors of the most decided type of Luth¬ 
 eranism, can be most clearly found if the trouble to make the 
 investigation be taken. Even before either Loehe (b. 1808) 
 
Appendix 
 
 329 
 
 or Walther (b. 1812) was heard of, the indefatigable home 
 missionary of the Ministerium of Pennsylvania, Paul Henkel, 
 (b. 1754), was traversing three or four states, and everywhere 
 sounding the note of an uncompromising Lutheranism. In 
 the most humble parishes, the people were faithfully instructed 
 concerning the Way of Salvation as our Church teaches it. They 
 knew the Lutheran doctrine of the Sacraments, they knew 
 Luther’s Catechism, they knew the old hymns of the Lutheran 
 Church, and its best devotional literature. Even though every 
 pastor should have proved false to the faith of the Confes¬ 
 sions, out of the families where the father diligently taught 
 his children, as the Catechism prescribes, or where the religious 
 life was intense, and illustrated its inner Lutheran type, not 
 only by word but also by the prevailing devotional spirit of 
 the parents, another generation of ministers would have arisen 
 to raise the standard which had fallen and to recall the Church 
 to the cause which seemed to be declining. We are drawing 
 no imaginary picture, we are dealing not with fiction, but with 
 facts. We can furnish the evidence also; for the books of the 
 old pastors transferred to the libraries of our seminaries show 
 not only that the Confessions of the Church but also the classics 
 of Lutheran theology were at hand, and that, too, not simply 
 as heirlooms and curiosities, but with abundant evidence on 
 their pages of the diligent use their owners bad made of them. 
 
 Standing in Independence Hall on his way to be inaugu¬ 
 rated as President of the United States, Mr. Lincoln stated in 
 substance that he had often inquired of himself “What great 
 principle or idea it was that kept this Confederacy so long to¬ 
 gether. It was not the mere matter of separation of the colo¬ 
 nies from the motherland, but that sentiment in the Declaration 
 of Independence which gave liberty not alone to the people of 
 this country, but hope to all the world, for all future time.” So, 
 in asking, concerning this Ministerium, this same question; 
 What has been the secret of its cohesion and its influence during 
 more than twice the number of years of the life of the nation 
 when Mr. Lincoln spoke, we must find the answer, like that 
 given by our great President for the preservation of the nation 
 as being not on the negative side, not in its sharp lines of 
 separation from others, in any asserted or actual, any misrepre- 
 
330 
 
 Trinity, Reading , A. D. 1923 
 
 sented or real exclusivism, but in the positive and aggressive 
 spiritual power which it has exerted. In spite of all the 
 torpor and inertness with which it has been charged, it has 
 been a reservoir of latent forces with far-reaching and widely 
 ramifying channels, through which most effective, though 
 mostly silent, influences have been continuously transmitted. 
 Even its isolation for so many years was not an unmixed evil; 
 for it was through all these years a rallying point for thousands 
 of people to whom it was teaching in their own tongue the 
 pure Gospel, and whom it saved from the temptations of this 
 life and prepared for the life to come, when otherwise they 
 might have relapsed into a state, well-nigh barbarism. There 
 are church statistics which never can be reported to any census 
 bureau. Today, each one of its five hundred congregations is 
 a nursery of children of God, a training school for all eternity. 
 This is a great convention; but what if in one glance we could 
 only take in the entire body of people it comprises, children as 
 well as adults, and consider the many experiences in life through 
 which the Word of God touches them in the ministrations 
 of the Church. Consider what this great commonwealth is, and 
 what the nation is, because of the silent power going forth 
 towards them by all the churches of the land; not a small por¬ 
 tion of which comes both now and for years long in the past 
 has come from this Ministerium, with its nearly one thousand 
 communicant members for every year of its existence. 
 
 The greatest work of this venerable body is its intensive 
 dealing, through its pastors in the city and the country, with 
 individuals, a truth upon which the ordination sermon preached 
 on that warm August afternoon in 1748 dwells, the text of 
 which was Ezekiel 33:8: “When I say unto the wicked, thou 
 shalt surely die, if thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from 
 his wav, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, hut his blood 
 will I require at thine hand.” If the prayer of a single devout 
 man, as Holv Scripture says, availeth much, what shall be said 
 of the prayers and testimony of the hundreds of thousands of 
 humble souls represented by this body for well-nigh two cen¬ 
 turies ? 
 
 But there is yet one word we must add. Without it, 
 an important factor in the history of this Ministerium and o'f 
 
Appendix 
 
 331 
 
 our entire Lutheran Church in America might seem to have 
 been intentionally suppressed. Our fathers in this Ministerium 
 owed much to forms of Christianity, most of them entirely new, 
 which had preceded them to these shores. The Society of 
 Friends invited them hither, persuaded them to come, and wel¬ 
 comed them with open arms. The Pilgrim Fathers and the 
 Puritans led the way in breaking from a state church and es¬ 
 tablishing a Christian democracy on an ideal Christian basis; 
 our obligations to them we can scarcely overestimate. The 
 Presbyterians set a high standard of an educated ministry, 
 and an intelligent eldership; their church organization had its 
 influence in the introduction of the lay eldership into our con¬ 
 gregations and scores of the sons of our congregations were 
 prepared for the ministry and other professions in the church 
 colleges which, in advance of us, they had the enterprise to 
 found. The Swedish Lutheran pastors carefully nourished the 
 feeble beginnings of the Episcopal Church in Philadelphia. This 
 Ministerium. in convention assembled, in 1763, received White- 
 field with high tokens of appreciation. The approaches of the 
 German Reformed have been so close, that there were times 
 when the merger of the two bodies seemed almost inevitable. 
 Our fathers waged no war with other Churches, but knew 
 well, both as Americans and as Lutherans, how to meet with 
 decision those who treat them as intruders, or class them with 
 Dissenters and Non-Conformists from any ecclesiastical estab¬ 
 lishment on a foreign shore, whether continental or insular. 
 Waves of influences from these sources had their effect upon 
 all concerned, sometimes to our strength, sometimes to our 
 weakness; as we also have made like contributions of both 
 strength and weakness to other communions. Thousands of 
 non-Lutheran ancestors are probably represented by the dele¬ 
 gates in this convention, as thousands of the children of this 
 Ministerium, by near or remote descent, on the other hand, 
 are found in every influential religious communion around us. 
 We hurl at them no “Anathema sit.” or “Damnamus,” but pray 
 for God’s richest blessing upon the Gospel so far as it is 
 preached among them, as we ask their prayers for us. Christian 
 fellowships are not self-chosen; they are not established by 
 synodical resolutions or constitutions—they are made bv the 
 
332 
 
 Trinity, Reading, A. D. 1923 
 
 presence of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Wherever He 
 dwells, there is our home. It is His will, and we would not 
 have it otherwise. At every turn we are made to feeLthe in¬ 
 fluence of a United Christian Church, the communion of saints, 
 still more extensive than any ideal of a United Lutheran Min- 
 isterium we can frame. 
 
 When Columbus first touched our shores, upon them he 
 raised the cross, the symbol not of a sectarian but of a really 
 Catholic, all-embracing Christianity. At the very moment when 
 this cross was raised, God was answering the prayer which this 
 act proclaimed. At Eisenach, thousands of miles across the 
 ocean, He was preparing a little school boy, eight years old, to 
 put the Holy Scriptures in his native tongue into the hands 
 of every man, and thus to plant that cross in every human heart. 
 He was starting the movement to carry to America, as its only 
 hope, the open Bible with its word of life, “Look unto me, and 
 he ye saved, all the ends of the earth,” (Isaiah 45:22); “And 
 I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me.” (John 12: 32). 
 
 Subordinating all abstract theological problems, averse to 
 all mingling of philosophy with theology, we embody in our 
 testimony the concrete realities celebrated in the Church Year 
 —the Christ of Christmas, true God, begotten of the Father 
 from all eternity, and also true man, born of the Virgin Mary 
 ■—the Christ of Epiphany, the revelation of God’s glory in the 
 grace and truth of the Son of Man—the Christ of the Passion 
 season, true God bearing the burden of man’s sin and dying 
 on Calvary—the Christ of Easter, triumphing over sin and 
 death—the Christ of Ascension-tide, sitting on the right hand 
 of the Father, so that Man, with God now rules the world and 
 shapes its history—the Christ of Whitsuntide, living through 
 the Holy Spirit in the hearts of individuals and in the assem¬ 
 blies of His people. We offer to America and to the world 
 the entire Bible, as the record of God’s unerring revelation— 
 not the Bible of the destructive critics, from Thomas Jefferson 
 to the manufacturers of the Polychrome Bible, but the Bible as 
 brought to America by the founders of this nation—the whole 
 Bible upon which every President of the United States takes 
 his oath of office—the whole Bible as reverently laid in the 
 corner stones of our churches and other religious institutions, 
 
A ppendix 
 
 333 
 
 of which every word, in its proper time and place, is needful 
 for the interpretation and emphasis of what is central—one or¬ 
 ganic whole with Christ as the center of its center. 
 
 “This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our 
 faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that be- 
 lieveth that Jesus is the Son of God!” 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Appendix 
 
 i 
 
 335 
 
 Appendix III 
 
 LUTHERANS AND LUTHERANISM IN PENN¬ 
 SYLVANIA 
 
 By the Hon. Harry D. Schaeffer, President Judge of the Orphans' 
 
 Court of Berks County. 
 
 W hen Doctor Piatteicher extended to me the kind invitation 
 to join you in celebrating what may truly be regarded as an epochal 
 event in the history of the Lutheran Church, he said he was desirous 
 to have a word of greeting and a few impressions of the history and 
 accomplishments of your Church from a member of the Reformed 
 Church, and that Doctor W 7 eller and he had selected me to per¬ 
 form this pleasant duty. Not many years ago, when a strong de¬ 
 nominational competition was the bane of the Christian Church, 
 it was considered as passing strange for a member of the Reformed 
 Church to extol on a public occasion the polity and excellence of the 
 Lutheran Church, or vice versa; and consequently, it is a very happy 
 omen when men can rise above creed and dogma, shelve their theo¬ 
 logical differences, and recognize the unity of purpose and the 
 spirit of fellowship which should control and animate all Christian 
 believers. 
 
 I am, therefore, very glad to bring you the greetings of the 
 Reformed Church, your sister denomination, and also the joyous 
 greetings of the citizens of the county of Berks, who have a deep 
 and vital interest in the history and traditions of this Synod. ^ ou 
 have honored our city by selecting it as the place for the observance 
 of the celebration of the 175th anniversary of the Ministerium of 
 Pennsylvania, which is not only a splendid tribute to the beauty 
 and importance of our city and county, but also a most proper and 
 fitting selection, in view of the fact that the city of Reading is on 
 the eve of celebrating its 175th anniversary in a suitable and credit¬ 
 able manner. It was, indeed, a happy thought which suggested the 
 observance of your anniversary here, because the history of the 
 Lutheran denomination in Eastern Pennsylvania is closely inter¬ 
 woven Avith the life and progress of our city since its very begin¬ 
 ning, Avhen the Lutheran and Reformed pioneers were gathered 
 around its very birth scenes. 
 
 The Lutheran Church in the United States, Avhich has a noble 
 and honorable lineage, is one of the oldest denominations in Protest¬ 
 antism. It had its distinct origin at the time of the Reformation in 
 1517, AA’hen the mighty Luther, with Zwingli and others, protested 
 against the abuses and corruption of the church, and launched that 
 significent mo\ r ement which is knorvn in history as the Reformation. 
 
 The historv of the Lutherans in the eighteenth century from 
 
Trinity, Reading, A. D. I9li 
 
 336 
 
 1708 on, when pioneer Lutherans began to come from the Palatinate 
 with the Reformed pioneers in considerable numbers, centers prin¬ 
 cipally in Pennsylvania, where Henry Melchoir Muhlenberg, the 
 patriarch of the Lutheran Church, the father of this Synod, who 
 arrived in Philadelphia on November 25, 1742, with his co-wOrkers, 
 laid deep the foundations of a work that has blessed this Common¬ 
 wealth. With Pennsylvania as the center and trom the quaint little 
 church at the Trappe, the cradle of Lutheranism in America, he 
 made extensive missionary journeys into the provinces, founded con¬ 
 gregations, encouraged those already established and obtained min¬ 
 isters for them. He was the founder and presiding officer of the 
 M inisterium of Pennsylvania, which began in Philadelphia on Au¬ 
 gust 23, 1748, the event you are now celebrating and which has 
 been called the most important event in the history of the American 
 Lutheran Church of the 18th century. This historic Ministerium, 
 known as the mother of the Lutheran synods, was the nucleus from 
 which grew a denominational life that extended beyond Pennsyl¬ 
 vania into every part of our country, until the Lutheran Church, 
 with a membership of about three millions, has now become one 
 of the first four Protestant churches in the United States. It was 
 in Pennsylvania that the heroic Muhlenbergs, with the other leaders, 
 gave birth and impetus to a religious movement that has given form 
 and direction to the moral and political life of this Commonwealth 
 which cannot be justly estimated. 
 
 The eastern portion of Pennsylvania, including our very city and 
 county, with its historic congregations like Trinity, established in 
 1748; Zion’s (Marion), 1727; Bernville, 1730; Tulpehocken, 1730; 
 Moselem, 1734; Alsace, 1737; Stouchsbrug, 1743; Hill, 1741; and 
 Rockland, 1743, where my mother was confirmed, is particularly 
 indebted to the Lutheran Church, because its moral life and political 
 development were nurtured and sustained by the fructifying streams 
 that flowed from the heart of Lutheranism. Indeed, the Lutheran 
 and Reformed churches in this section, whose history runs parallel 
 and is closely connected, have not only been the pathbreakers of 
 civil and religious liberty, but the very guardians of those spiritual 
 resources and civic virtues which have made us a happy and pro¬ 
 gressive people. 
 
 These verdant hills and valleys, these fertile fields, our splendid 
 and productive farms, the beautiful and happy homes, the large and 
 varied industries, the schools and the churches, which are the pride 
 and glory of Eastern Pennsylvania, reflect the industry, thrift and 
 spiritual ideals of a people whose life and development were in 
 no small degree influenced and determined by the Teachings and 
 inspiration of the Lutheran Church. 
 
 From the early days of the republic in 1776, when Gen. Peter 
 Muhlenberg, the picturesque preacher-warrior, made the dramatic 
 announcement of his intention to leave the pulpit and fight for his 
 country, to the present, the Lutheran Church has been a staunch 
 
■1 ppendix 
 
 337 
 
 defender and a fearless advocate of the rights and principles which 
 constitute the bed-rock of American institutions. 1 hat it has al¬ 
 ways been a firm believer in, and an ardent supporter of repre¬ 
 sentative government, and of constitutional liberty, is attested by 
 the fact, that the history of the Commonwealth is replete with the 
 names and achievements of men of the Lutheran faith, who made 
 invaluable contributions to the formation and development of con¬ 
 stitutional government. 
 
 It would doubtless be interesting and instructive to recall some 
 of these names and the movements with which they are linked, but 
 time forbids, and I must be content with a brief reference to one of 
 your laymen, who, by reason of his deep devotion to the law and 
 his sterling character, has been an outstanding figure in this com¬ 
 munity for thirty-five years. This layman, who lias honored your 
 Church and this County, is President Judge Endlich, wtho has 
 presided in our courts for over 30 years with such marked ability, 
 great learning and scholarly knowledge of the law, that he is to¬ 
 day regarded as one of the great judges of Pennsylvania. My 
 friends, this just and learned judge, this scholarly and cultured 
 gentleman, this esteemed citizen, has rendered a deep and lasting 
 service to the law and our people. 
 
 The influence of the Lutheran Church, which has always stood 
 for Christianity as interpreted by Martin Luther and taught in 
 the Augsburg confession, is in no small degree due to the fact that 
 it is conservative in its theological views, well poised in its inter¬ 
 pretation of the Christian life, anti-fanatical and anti-rationalistic, 
 and makes religion a matter of faith solely. In its worship it is 
 liturgical, dignified and churchly, and its clergy, which is well edu¬ 
 cated, is always loyal to the standards of the Church. 
 
 For all this and the splendid contributions the Lutheran Church 
 has made in schools, academies, colleges, theological seminaries, where 
 the youth are being educated and sent forth into a life of service, 
 for the great moral and spiritual power it has been in this Com¬ 
 monwealth, we feel deeply grateful, and thus rejoice with you in the 
 celebration of that historic even from which emanated a polity 
 and power that shaped the destiny of your church and profoundly 
 influenced the life of the state and nation. 
 
 I congratulate you on the glorious traditions of this Synod, your 
 splendid religious heritage, the achievements and sacrifices of the 
 great leaders of the Church, and the intelligence and faithfulness 
 of a consecrated ministry. 
 
 The Lutheran Church has an honored past, filled with good 
 works and splendid accomplishments, but it has also a great mission 
 in the days to come, when its leadership will in large measure de¬ 
 pend upon the sanity, the intelligence and the fearlessness with which 
 it meets the problems of the hour. It is well for all of us to re¬ 
 member that men are impatient of creeds, and that the Church must 
 think less of its authority and more of the simplicity, the power and 
 
338 
 
 Trinity, Reading, A. D. 1923 
 
 the liberty of the gospel; less of dogmas and more of faith, and 
 remember that after all the test is the willingness, the determination 
 to come and follow the Master. The Church that will offer life, 
 love, strength and courage to meet the trials and duties of the day, 
 is the church that men need and are eagerly seeking, and will 
 support with their time and money; because every thoughtful man 
 in this country recognizes this great truth, that all we have that 
 is worth while and worth living for in America, is due to the schools 
 and churches of the land, and that the future of our homes, the 
 integrity and intelligence of our citizenship, the glory and perman¬ 
 ency of the republic, and the peace and welfare of the world, are all 
 dependent upon Religion and Education, which have been the twin 
 pillars of national stability and power from the very dawn of our 
 history. 
 
Appendix 
 
 339 
 
 By the Rev. F. H. Knnbel, D.D., LL.D., President of 
 the United Lutheran Church in America 
 
 I T was requested that my address on this anniversary 
 should take the character of a forward look for the 
 Pennsylvania Ministerium in particular, and for our 
 Lutheran Church in general. The subject was chosen with 
 that idea in mind. Some will recognize that the title has 
 a Scriptural origin, but not a very reputable one in the 
 Scriptures. However, any contemplation of our future 
 must include the question as to what kind of name, of 
 reputation, we shall have among men in that future. Shall 
 we have reached men with our message at that time more 
 satisfactorily than at present. Thus conceived, the title 
 might have been given in a more popular and commonplace 
 form as "Getting Our Message Across.” That is exactly 
 what we wish to see accomplished in the coming days. We 
 are convinced that we have a message of profound worth. 
 We long to see its powerful lodgment in the heart of 
 humanity. In such an accomplishment we would have 
 fulfilled the purpose of our existence and would have 
 gained an honorable Christian name, would have made a 
 right name for ourselves. 
 
 What Means “A Lutheran Christian?” 
 
 How shall we reach that goal? How shall we make plain 
 to the many who ask what it means to be a Lutheran 
 Christian? What answers can be given to the young and 
 the old who puzzlingly ask us why certain ideas and 
 methods are condemned as not being Lutheran? Amid 
 the deafening roar of the world’s noises what signal can 
 we raise, w’hat clear notes can we sound, which will arrest 
 men’s attention to listen to the story we are pledged to tell, 
 the story which will charm their lives. 
 
 In plainest language, then, my address becomes a talk 
 on Lutheran publicity. We must face the question of 
 publicity in the fullest, best sense as we face the future. It 
 is a word with which men juggle today. It presents con¬ 
 trasts of startling extremes. On the one hand it has 
 behind it the command of Christ for the extension of His 
 salvation. On the other hand, it is commercialized into 
 obtrusive signs which ruin beautiful landscapes and make 
 a city’s street to be an ugly, blinding “white way.” We 
 
340 
 
 Trinity, Reading, A. D. 1923 
 
 must consequently expect to find evil in our study of pub¬ 
 licity, but we must seek also the good. We must become 
 publicity experts. True Lutheran publicity methods must 
 become a reality with us. 
 
 Modern publicity is, of course, entangled with the 
 world’s whole life today. Its methods follow the spirit of 
 the times. A genuine examination thereof will inevitably 
 reveal the trends in the world’s life. It ought to uncover 
 before us the tendencies which are swaying men. Our 
 examination of the facts has that additional attraction. 
 We shall therefore have constantly before our attention a 
 threefold picture, the facts as to present-day publicity, a 
 glimpse of world currents, and an appreciation of what 
 religious publicity ought and ought not be. 
 
 Page One for Calamities 
 
 First of all, we readily appreciate that destructive facts 
 constitute a large element in the news. Calamities and 
 scandals all begin on the first page, are read most atten¬ 
 tively by the people, and linger longest as the days pass. 
 That which wastes life and property has best publicity 
 value. The things which subtract from existence attract 
 men. That which must be marked with a minus sign 
 receives most attention. The negative has more notice 
 than the positive. The destructive is better news than the 
 constructive, what tears down is better than what builds 
 up. When we thus face the undeniable, naked fact our 
 hearts and minds naturally revolt from it. We ask our¬ 
 selves some eager questions. Has this condition in the 
 publicity world been an increasing one? Has it grown 
 more and more attentive to destructive matters? Exami¬ 
 nation within our own lifetime tells us it has. We must 
 then question further, does this tendency reveal a similar 
 condition in the world’s life as a whole. Has there been a 
 decline in the morality of mankind? Sorrowfully, we must 
 answer yes. 
 
 A general moral lapse has taken place. Standards have 
 been lowered. Customary restraints have weakened if not 
 broken. The evidence for this world fact is in the posses¬ 
 sion of most Christians. It seems to be the common con¬ 
 fession of Christians today that they need more grace than 
 hitherto in order to live upright lives. The downward 
 bent in us seems stronger than before. However, there 
 are other manifest proofs. The testimony of the heads 
 of educational institutions is unanimous as to the moral 
 life of the youth of today. Sensuality and contempt for 
 
Appendix 
 
 341 
 
 the marriage bond are commonplaces in the social situa¬ 
 tion. The day of the brigand, of the bandit, seems to 
 have returned, whether one looks at China or at the streets 
 of American cities. All the while so-called respectable, and 
 even Christian citizens, are breaking the laws which would 
 enforce a constitutional amendment. We may, further¬ 
 more, question those who have lived in foreign lands as to 
 conditions there. Without exception their comments soon 
 bring them to the statement of widespread and increasing 
 immorality. We have no time for further testimony, 
 excepting to note the prevailing pessimism in the pro¬ 
 nouncements of statesmen and publicists. Sometimes they 
 speak in utter hopelessness concerning the downgrade of 
 humanity. These are not all surface judgments, nor are 
 they the complaints of old age. We must recognize what 
 is happening in our world today. Conditions which exist 
 in publicity methods are only a manifestation of what is 
 true in whole of life. 
 
 Doubts and Denials Gain Headlines 
 
 Let us return, then, to publicity facts, especially as con¬ 
 cerns religious publicity. It is quite clear that he who 
 deals in religious denials and negatives will be in line with 
 all that receives public notice. As a matter of fact this is 
 exactly what takes place. The church body which wrangles 
 over long cherished convictions or debates as to the neces¬ 
 sity of confessions of faith, and the preacher who under¬ 
 takes in wily fashion to deny the Virgin Birth are heralded 
 far and wide. The things which deny, which are negative, 
 which subtract, which are destructive—these have pub¬ 
 licity value. One is often led to listen for the many voices 
 which are unheralded because they speak positive and 
 constructive things. One longs for positiveness, even if 
 it be nothing better than the attitude of the little fellow 
 who, in argument with a playmate, boldly asserted, “Tis 
 so; maw said so; tis so, if it taint so, if maw said so.” 
 Modern publicity has an ear only for the fellows who are 
 forever saying, “taint so.” We need to stop just here in 
 order to realize, in accordance with our consideration of 
 the whole world situation, that the language of mere denial 
 is immoral language. Merely to deny is not only useless, 
 but is also immoral. No man dare claim for himself the 
 right to be negative and destructive of sacred beliefs, and 
 thus to subtract from other human hearts unless his denial 
 is clearly the opposite of some positive, constructive doc¬ 
 trine which he is proclaiming as an addition to human 
 faith. This was the genius of the great Reformation. It 
 
342 
 
 Trinity, Reading, A. D. 1923 
 
 did deny the errors of Rome, but only because it had power¬ 
 fully constructive truth to assert. My appeal to you is to 
 turn wholly away from those who merely deny. They are 
 not noteworthy, they are immoral. They are making them¬ 
 selves a part of the world’s moral lapse today. 
 
 It is, of course, very clear for our study of our future 
 and our plans for publicity that we have no place in this 
 publicity method. Very definitely, the Lutheran Church 
 stands unanimously for the positive and constructive. Let 
 us never denounce sin excepting as it be to offer salvation. 
 Let us never condemn error excepting as we offer the 
 truth. We must find no pleasure in mere criticisms, denun¬ 
 ciations, negatives, and denials. We shall not put our 
 message across in that way. 
 
 Crooking the Straight Lines of Truth 
 
 We turn to a second element in our study of our future 
 and in the fulfillment of our purpose to impart our mes¬ 
 sage to men. We shall perhaps see the second element 
 most clearly if we note it as it appears in the world’s life 
 today before we mark it in present publicity methods. It 
 is the element of exaggeration. We are face to face today 
 with a distortion of life through an economic exaggera¬ 
 tion. Let it be noted that we are not indulging in a con¬ 
 demnation of economics as though they were not important 
 in human life. The contention is that the importance of 
 economics has been seriously exaggerated. For instance, 
 we have before us as the first instance in history an earthly 
 government founded only as an industrial democracy. 
 Reference is, of course, made to Russia, whose government 
 is stronger than is commonly recognized. The foundations 
 thereof have been laid in purely economic principles to 
 the large neglect of all else that is fundamental for 
 national life. This, however, is not all. Russia does not 
 stand alone. The same exaggeration is found in all discus¬ 
 sions of the international situation. Wherever conferences 
 are held and articles are written the undisputed presump¬ 
 tion seems to be that if economic conditions can be adjusted 
 the solution of international problems will have been 
 reached. We must not neglect those conditions, but we 
 must not permit ourselves the dream that the settling of 
 debts and reparations and credits will bring an inter¬ 
 national Utopia. It is the selfsame exaggeration which 
 leads modern historians to write history from the stand¬ 
 point of the economic interpretation. This tendency in the 
 world’s life is, of course, materialism and we must recog¬ 
 nize it as a fact of the present. All races and nations are 
 
Appendix 
 
 343 
 
 under its sway. Even the negro is being adjured by his 
 leaders to seek racial equality through the attainment of 
 commercial, of material equality. Men grow weary of this 
 economic exaggeration, and manifest that weariness in 
 their lack of joy in their daily work. That work grows 
 increasingly monotonous, inefficient, and rushed. Never¬ 
 theless, they follow what seems to them to be “the gleam” 
 and seek their soul’s satisfaction in economic adjustment. 
 If we would understand our world today we must place 
 alongside of the general moral lapse the fact of economic 
 exaggeration. 
 
 Featuring Stunts and Personalities 
 
 We are easily prepared to appreciate now what an impor¬ 
 tant part this element of exaggeration plays in prevalent 
 publicity methods. It is not merely the economic exaggera¬ 
 tion of the world which is portrayed in the press, although 
 that is constantly revealed in all its disproportion. Nor 
 am I referring to that form of exaggeration which is com¬ 
 monly designated as sensationalism, that jaded appetite 
 which cannot be satisfied unless thrills are constantly 
 offered, that demand which leads the moving picture actor 
 to undertake ever more impossible acrobatic feats. The 
 exaggeration most to be marked in modern publicity, and 
 especially in religious publicity, is the cartoonist’s exag¬ 
 geration. He singles out the prominent features of a 
 public man, exaggerates them, and makes them the unmis¬ 
 takable mark for that man. We remember, for instance, 
 how the lamented Roosevelt was known especially for hi? 
 teeth. Thus in the press the report of a public address 
 will be featured often only in so far as certain sentences 
 therein provide thrilling headlines. It is furthermore a 
 well-known publicity principle to present personalities. 
 The man who stands for an idea is “played up,” and the 
 idea is considered from the exaggerated point of view of 
 that one man. 
 
 It is in religious publicity, above all, that this feature 
 becomes most manifest. It is the undue emphasis upon 
 some one portion of Christian truth which will give it 
 publicity value today. Once more it is a case of exaggera¬ 
 tion. This is the fact as concerns so-called “Fundamental¬ 
 ism.” Certain elements of evangelical truth have been 
 separated from the body of that truth, have themselves 
 been given disproportionate form and meaning, and have 
 been made the tests of orthodox Christianity and the stand¬ 
 ards of party strife. It is a well-known fact that heresies 
 are frequently nothing more than distortions and exag- 
 
344 
 
 Trinity, Reading, A. D. 1923 
 
 gerations of truth. We must beware lest these methods 
 of publicity lead us astray in our purpose to reach men 
 with our message. 
 
 We Are None of These 
 
 We ought to stop here for a moment to consider our 
 Church’s duty. We cannot be a party to any form of 
 exaggeration. We may not permit emphasis upon per¬ 
 sonalities. The truth and the one Personality of Jesus 
 Christ are so thoroughly supreme to us that we cannot let 
 the prominence of any man or men cloud in the least their 
 glory. We are unwilling to permit any one truth of the 
 Gospel to be singled out and to champion it in such a way 
 that the name of our Church is known peculiarly for that 
 one championship. For the reasons stated, we cannot 
 freely ally ourselves with the so-called “Fundamentalists,” 
 though we stand stoutly against the “Liberals,” who by 
 their teachings would dethrone the true Christ. We can¬ 
 not in the least uphold the secret Ku Klux Klan, even 
 though the Lutheran Church stands with all its truth 
 against the teachings and practices of Roman Catholicism. 
 We do not even wish the name of the Lutheran Church as 
 such to be exalted. Our position seems constantly to be 
 a difficult one from the publicity point of view. Devotion 
 to our principles seems almost to rob us of widespread 
 promulgation for them, since we cannot permit dispropor¬ 
 tionate exaggeration. We ought, however, consider the 
 following possibility in our efforts to proclaim our mes¬ 
 sage. We hold the entire evangelical Gospel in its har¬ 
 mony. There are, however, certain truth centers to that 
 Gospel as we know it. We know certain themes which 
 prevail throughout the symphony. They are suns around 
 which the truth planets revolve. They are hearts which 
 throb their life throughout the body of truth. Such a 
 center, theme, heart is our doctrine of the Real Presence, 
 the real presence of the whole Christ. This is not merely 
 a doctrine of the Sacrament, for it enters into our entire 
 knowledge of Christ, it has its meaning in our Conception 
 of the Word of God, it clarifies any proper understanding 
 of the Church. Another such heart truth is that of justi¬ 
 fication by faith alone. One more is our doctrine of liberty, 
 the liberty of a Christian man. There are others. With¬ 
 out time to dwell upon them, it is a serious question 
 whether in a time when men will listen to exaggerations 
 we may and ought not study out these truth-centers and 
 present them not as exaggerations, but as great guiding 
 stars for the hearts of men. 
 
Appendix 
 
 345 
 
 Robbing Realities of Thickness 
 
 We must now devote a little time to a third publicity 
 element, with which like the first, we can as a Church 
 have nothing to do. Nevertheless we must at least speak 
 of it especially because it is coupled with a third world 
 tendency. We might perhaps call it superficiality, that con¬ 
 dition which leads us so often to lay aside a newspaper, 
 magazine, or book with the thought that we have gained 
 nothing from it. It needs a better, though possibly nar¬ 
 rower, designation when we see it as an influence upon 
 the world’s life. I quote it from one of our European 
 visitors, of whom so many have come, all avowing no desire 
 to instruct us as a nation, but proceeding at once to do that 
 very thing. Some of them have spoken wisdom, and none 
 more so than Hillaire Belloc, who, however, received small 
 attention because he did not observe the publicity methods 
 of which we have spoken. In a discussion of world condi¬ 
 tions he called attention very seriously to the decay of 
 dogmatic religion. Let us note that he did not say there 
 had been a decay of religion, but of dogmatic religion, of 
 religion expressed in definite language as a system of 
 belief or a confession of faith. We all know well the disre¬ 
 pute under which the word dogmatic now exists. Some of 
 that disrepute has been deserved. We all acknowledge also 
 that every statement of our faith falls far short of express¬ 
 ing the truth our heart knows, and thus falls short all the 
 more of the ultimate truth. However, we likewise know 
 that no faith ever helped our life which we could not utter 
 in hymns as a matter of praise or in prayer as a subject 
 of thanksgiving or in a message whereby we could tell it 
 to others. It cannot be good for the world when a decay 
 of dogmatic religion takes place. The decay will breed, 
 as it has bred in these days, silly superstitions, when men 
 advocate the follies of spiritualism. It produces antago¬ 
 nism to all religion such as Russia reveals to us now, and 
 such as is openly proclaimed even in our own land. It 
 leads ministers of the Gospel to discuss for publicity’s 
 sake the things which belong to the passing show, so that 
 dances and Coue and gorillas become the themes for the 
 worship of Christians. We turn away from all such super¬ 
 ficiality in the publicity of today. . 
 
 Let us pause for a minute to summarize, before we pro¬ 
 ceed to the final, wholly constructive thought we need. We 
 have seen elements of modern publicity which include 
 attention to what is destructive, exaggerated, and super¬ 
 ficial. What is far more important, we have gained some¬ 
 thing beyond a glimpse of the controlling currents in the 
 
346 
 
 Trinity, Reading, A. D. 1923 
 
 world’s life—a moral lapse, an economic exaggeration, and 
 a decay of dogmatic religion. This review of existing ten¬ 
 dencies among men is not encouraging. We may not even 
 say that these are past-war manifestations. The war may 
 have pressed them rapidly forward, may have ripened them 
 quickly, but such moral and material and religious condi¬ 
 tions must have known a longer process. They cannot be 
 explained without an acceptance of the conviction that 
 something has been wrong in the training of the recent 
 generations of mankind. Something must have been amiss 
 with the processes of education. 
 
 It is extremely gratifying to appreciate, therefore, in 
 the last place that our world is gaining today an educa¬ 
 tional reorganization. There is a healthy educational 
 unrest which portends better things. The war gave us a 
 rude shock as to the ignorance of our boys, generally and 
 above all, religiously. A few months ago the Carnegie 
 Foundation contributed a second shock in its criticism of 
 our public school education, calling attention to the super¬ 
 ficiality of the graduates because of the introduction of 
 too many subjects into the curriculum. Those who know 
 even a little of the educational world appreciate that in 
 all lands the very foundations are being examined. Even 
 the primary definition of what education is commands new 
 attention. There is probably no other word as important 
 as education which has so many and such involved defini¬ 
 tions. The very involved character of the definitions 
 reveals a need for greater examination. Without presum¬ 
 ing to be in any special sense an educator I am presuming 
 to suggest a definition by saying that education is the culti¬ 
 vation of ideals. That definition opens the way to an 
 appreciation of the part which religion must play in educa¬ 
 tion. In this whole connection we are all conscious of the 
 worldwide awakening upon the subject of religious educa¬ 
 tion. Even the churches of America are sensing the need. 
 
 For the benefit of our theme this evening let us appre¬ 
 ciate that modern publicity has also recognized the need 
 of its own reconstruction and acknowledges anew'that that 
 deserves publicity which is truly educative of the people. 
 The cleanest and strongest publicity men are its advocates. 
 Indeed, the strongest and most enduring method of pub¬ 
 licity which a movement or an organization can pursue is 
 that of patient, persistent, aggressive education. The 
 spread of socialism by that method is an evidence of its 
 success. It is my final, strongly constructive thought upon 
 the subject of publicity. 
 
 Without an instant’s delay let me apply the fact to our 
 
Appendix 
 
 347 
 
 Church. If we wish to put our message across, if we wish 
 to pursue true publicity, if we wish to open up a proper 
 future with a rightful name for ourselves, we must 
 educate. I know the publicity value of preaching, and espe¬ 
 cially of evangelistic preaching. That does proclaim our 
 message. I know the publicity value of works of mercy 
 in making clear what we would convey to men. However, 
 we shall not accomplish our mission unless according to 
 Christ’s command we teach. That teaching must take 
 place not only in high schools and colleges and seminaries. 
 Our congregations must have schools, must be schools. 
 This is no plea for parochial schools. As commonly under¬ 
 stood, I do not believe such schools to be desirable for our 
 land. It is a plea for recognition of the fact that all we 
 have in the way of congregational education in religion 
 today is woefully inadequate. As pastors and congrega¬ 
 tions, we are far too complacent. The very best efforts 
 which are being made today in any congregation of this 
 Ministerium or of our whole Church are not sufficient. 
 Let me be practical. Educational material is turned into 
 our congregations from many sources—from the pastor for 
 his catechetical classes, from the Parish and Church School 
 Board, for the Sunday school and other classes, from the 
 Brotherhood, the Women’s Missionary Society, the Luther 
 League, from the various boards and committees of the 
 Church. There is, however, not a single congregation 
 anywhere, I believe, in which all this material is organized 
 into a well-rounded curriculum which will provide a well- 
 rounded religious education for the entire congregation. 
 The material is likewise utterly unrelated and entirely 
 insufficient. We have not even planned a fully related 
 educational curriculum for the people, young and old, of 
 a congregation. The day must come when on the sign 
 boards outside our churches we shall see advertised not 
 merely “Hours of Worship,” but also “Hours of Study.” 
 All of our people must be faithful students. 
 
 What we need today is not to follow some of the catch¬ 
 penny devices of modern publicity, though we must use all 
 of the good therein. As Christians we need what is meant 
 by that beautiful, strong word—poise. If I may add an 
 adjective to it, which does not contradict it, we need 
 aggressive poise. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
A DOORWAY OF TRINITY CHURCH 
 
STEEPLE OF TRINITY CHURCH 
 READING, PA. 
 
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 1 PAMPHLET BINDER 
 
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 [ «AYLORD BROS. In* 
 i Sy«Mu>*, N. Y. 
 
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