<llje (Testimony of ftttS, ifje spirit of JJropbccg 
 
 A SERMON 
 
 PREACIIF.D AT THE RE-OPENING 
 
 OF THE 
 
 CHURCH OF AUGUSTUS 
 
 (EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN), 
 
 flftapjrc, Itantgonurn €u. f |)ciutsntara, 
 
 SEPTEMBER 5, 18G0. 
 
 yy 
 
 BY WILLIAM AUGUSTUS MUHLENBERG, 
 
 SENIOR PA6TOB OF THE CHURCH OF THE HOLT COMMUNION, AND PASTOR AND SUPERINTENDENT 
 
 OF ST. LUKE'S HOSPITAL, NEW YORK. 
 
 ri'BLISnED BY REQUEST. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 ROBERT CRAIGHEAD, PRINTER. 
 
 1861. 
 
RESTORATION 
 
 OF TIIE 
 
 OLD EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN "CHURCH OF AUGUSTUS," 
 
 AT TRAPI'E, MONTGOMERY COUNTY, PA. 
 
 Ix the year 1851, the Evangelical Lutheran Congregation in Pro- 
 vidence township, Montgomery Co., Pa., then worshipping in the 
 old "Church of Augustus," which was erected in 1743, under the 
 pastoral care of Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, D.D., resolved to erect 
 a new and more commodious church edifice, for the better accom- 
 modation of the large and constantly increasing congregation, 
 
 Accordingly, on the 8th day of August, 1852, the corner-stone of the 
 new building was laid with appropriate ceremonies, and on the Cth 
 day of November, 1853, it was solemnly consecrated to the service of 
 Almighty God. liev. J. W. Richards, D.D., a grandson of the venerable 
 Dr. Muhlenberg, officiated at the laving of the corner-stone, and Rev. 
 John C. Baker, D.D., assisted by Rev. Dr. Richards and Rev. (I. A. 
 Wenzel (Pastor Loci), performed the ceremonies at the Consecration. 
 
 After the dedication and opening of the new Sanctuary, the old one 
 was no longer used as a place of worship, except for Sunday School 
 purposes, the commodious new edifice being much better adapted to 
 the wants of the congregation. 
 
 Dr. II. II. Muhlenberg, of Reading, Pa., also a descendant of the founder 
 of the church, at the time the old church was about being vacated by 
 the congregation, generously contributed one hundred dollars towards 
 keeping it in repair. 
 
 In the spring of 1859, prior to the annual opening of the Sundav 
 School, the roof and ceiling of the old church were examined, and 
 found to be in BUCh condition as to render the occupancy of the 
 building unsafe The Sunday School was then transferred to the new 
 church. 
 
 On the 16th of February, 1800, a violent storm carried away a 
 portion of the roof, and left the walls standing in a very exposed and 
 
unsightly condition. Too many hallowed associations clustered around 
 the venerable pile, to allow its complete destruction, and accordingly 
 on the 28th of February, a congregational meeting was held to consult 
 in reference to its condition. There being a diversity of opinion as to 
 the propriety of repairing it, and thereby increasing the debt already 
 incurred in the building of the new edifice, no definite action was had 
 in the matter, excepting the appointment of Committees to estimate 
 the cost of re-construction, and to ascertain the probable amount of 
 money that could be raised for that object. The meeting reassembled 
 on the 13th of March, when, after hearing the reports of the Com- 
 mittees, it was resolved " That the whole matter of repairing the old 
 church be placed in the hands of an Executive Committee of the 
 friends of the measure, who should have full power to make such 
 repairs as they deemed proper, being careful to retain as nearly as pos- 
 sible the original external appearance of the building, Provided, the 
 funds be collected without drawing upon the Treasury of the Con- 
 gregation." Messrs. S. Gross Fry, Horace Royer, and Rev. G. Sill, 
 Pastor, were designated as the Committee. 
 
 The success of the Committee in obtaining contributions towards the 
 project was at first in nowise flattering. After addressing a number 
 of those who the Committee supposed would feel a common interest 
 in preserving the Ancient Temple of their Fathers from the destruction 
 that Avas impending, and receiving so little encouragement, it was 
 feared that they would not be warranted in proceeding with the 
 work. 
 
 Finally, an appeal was made to the Rev. Wm, Augustus Muhlenberg, 
 D.D., a great-grandson of the illustrious patriarch, at present the Pas- 
 tor of the Church of the Holy Communion (P.E.) in New York City, 
 and founder of St Luke's Hospital, who generously replied that "he, 
 through his sister, Mrs. Rogers, and other members of the family, would 
 gladly extend to the Committee the aid desired in securing the vene- 
 rable old building from its impending ruin." The work was at once 
 commenced, and the necessary repairs speedily accomplished ; and the 
 venerable structure, having renewed her strength, again stands ready 
 for any service which the congregation may appoint for her, and 
 which will be consistent with her hallowed history. 
 
 The Committee deeming it proper that some formal exercises should 
 be held at the re-opening of the old church, the fifth and sixth days of 
 September were set apart for that purpose, and the Rev. Dr. Muhlen- 
 
berg, who ha<l so cheerfully responded to the request of the Committee, 
 was invited to be present and deliver the lie-opening address. The 
 invitation was accepted, and on Wednesday morning, the fifth of Sep- 
 tember, the excellent and appropriate discourse herein contained was 
 delivered by Dr. Muhlenberg to an immense congregation from the 
 same pulpit filled by his great-grandfather, more than one hundred 
 years ago. 
 
 The German discourse of the occasion was preached from the same 
 pulpit on the morning following, by Rev. Dr. W. Julius Mann, of 
 Philadelphia, President of the Pennsylvania Synod. Interesting 
 exercises were held also in the evening, Rev. Jacob Fry, Pastor of the 
 First Lutheran Church, Carlisle, Pa. (who is from this congregation, 
 and was confirmed in the old church), delivered an address preparatory 
 to the re-opening exercises on the evening of the 4th ; and on the 
 following evening, Rev. E. W. Ilutter, Pastor of St. Matthew's Lutheran 
 Church of Philadelphia, officiated. Besides 'the clergymen already 
 mentioned, there were present on the occasion, Revs. G. F. Miller, 
 C. A. Baer, J. W. llassler, Win. Weaver, II. Wendt and J. F. 
 Wampole of the Lutheran Church, and Rev. Dr. Cruse and Rev. Mr 
 Millett, of the Episcopal Church, and Rev. Messrs. Dechaut and 
 Kooken of the German Reformed Church. 
 
 A brief sketch of the History of the Church was read by the 
 Pastor (Rev. Mr. Sill) on the morning of the fifth, a copy of which 
 is also contained in this publication. 
 
 By the Committee. 
 
 S. Gross Fry, Chairman. 
 
A BRIEF SKETCH 
 
 OF THE HISTORY OF THE OLD " CHURCH OF AUGUSTUS." 
 
 READ TO TIIE CONGREGATION ON THE HORNING OK SEI'TEMUER 5, AS PART 
 OF TIIE EXERCISES, BT TIIE PASTOR, REV. G. SILL. 
 
 Through the mercy of the kind providence of God, we are permitted 
 this day to assemble within the walls of this ancient and venerable 
 temple, where for more than a century the gospel has been proclaimed, 
 to open it again for religious worship. It may not be uninteresting to 
 many present on this occasion, to give a brief historical account of 
 the church, the names of the ministers, when, and how long they 
 served as pastors of the congregation worshipping in this house. 
 
 The corner-stone of the present edifice was laid on the second day 
 of May, a.i). 1743, with the following dedicatory inscription placed 
 in the church wall : "Sub remio-io Christi has axles Societati Augus- 
 tanoe confess: deditae dedicates ex ipso fundamento exstruxit Hcnricus 
 Melchior Muhlenberg, una cum censoribus, J. N. Crossmanno, F. 
 Marstellero, A. Ilcilmano, J. Muellero, H. Ilasio, et G. Kcbnero 
 
 A.I). M.1M C.XLIII." 
 
 The work progressed rapidly, for by the thirty-first of August the 
 building was under roof, and the congregation, heretofore worshipping 
 in a barn, moved into the church, and for the first time held service 
 in it on the twelfth day of September of the same year. 
 
 It was determined not to dedicate the church until entirely finished, 
 which was not effected until a.d. 1745; and on either the last Sun- 
 day in September, or the first in October, of the same year, it was 
 solemnly dedicated to the worship of the Triune God. 
 
 It\\:i> regularly occupied lor divine service until the autumn of 
 1853, when the congregation moved into the large and commodious 
 brick church erected by them on these grounds. From that time up 
 to the present it has been occupied by the Sunday School, with the excep- 
 tion of the two last years, when it was not COnsidi for OCCU- 
 pancy. 
 
8 
 
 The respective ministers who officiated in this church from its com- 
 mencement, were 
 
 First. Dr. Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, the founder of the church. 
 He commenced his labors here in November, 1742, and continued 
 until October, 1761, when he moved with his family to Philadelphia. 
 
 Second. The Rev. Mr. Hartvvig became his successor, but only 
 remained until April, 1762. 
 
 Third. Rev. Jacob Van Buskerk took charge of the congregation 
 in May, 1762, and served for two years, when he dropped this and con- 
 tinued serving the other congregation (New Hanover) connected with 
 this charge for one year, during which time the Trappe congregation 
 was without a settled minister. 
 
 Fourth. In December, 1765, the Rev. John Ludwig Voigt became 
 pastor, and continued his service until about the year 1798. During 
 his ministry in this church, Dr. Muhlenberg moved back again to the 
 Trappe (viz. in 1776), where he remained until his useful and eventful 
 life closed, on the 7th day of October, 1787. 
 
 Fifth. The Rev. Mr. Wei n land succeeded Mr. Voigt, in 1798, and 
 remained pastor of the congregation until 1808, when he was removed 
 from his labors by death. 
 
 Sixth. After Mr. Weinland's death, the congregation was served 
 for several months as a supply by the Rev. Frederick William Geisen- 
 hainer, sen. 
 
 Seventh. The next pastor chosen by the congregation was in the 
 person of Rev. John P. Ilecht, who entered upon his duties in 1808, 
 and continued until about the year a.d. 1814. 
 
 Eighth. Next was elected Rev. Henry Geisenhainer, who for seve- 
 ral years dispensed the Word of Life, from April 15th, 1814, when he 
 was removed from time to eternity. 
 
 Ninth. In April, 1821, his brother Frederick Wm. Geisenhainer, 
 sen., succeeded him, and 
 
 Tenth. In 1823, Frederick Wm. Geisenhainer, jr., son of the former 
 Frederick William, was elected his successor, who officiated until 
 1827. 
 
 Eleventh. July, 1827, Rev. Jacob Wampolc became pastor, who 
 faithfully served this congregation until April, 1834, when the pas- 
 torate being too large for one man, was divided, and he taking the 
 part lying across the Schuylkill, in Chester county, relinquished this 
 part of the charge. 
 
9 
 
 Twelfth. Rev. J. W. Richards was chosen in May of the same year 
 shepherd of tins flock, which relation he sustained for two years, 
 when he accepted a call from the Lutheran Church in Gcrmantown. 
 
 Thirteenth. On the 4th of April, 1880, the Rev. Jacob Wampole 
 
 was re-called to the pastorship of this congregation, vacated by Rev. 
 T. W. Kiclianls's removal. 
 
 He was not permitted to labor long in this charge. lie closed his 
 labors upon earth, and entered upon the reward of the righteous on 
 the third day of January, 1838, making the fourth of the watchmen 
 who fell at their post of duty in this venerable sanctuary of the Most 
 High. 
 
 Fourteenth. In the same year of Mr. Wampole' s decease, the Rev. 
 Henry S. Miller was chosen by the congregation as his successor, who 
 served for fourteen years. 
 
 Fifteenth. In August, 1852, the Rev. G. A. Wenzel entered upon 
 his duties as pastor of this church. During his ministry, the new 
 church edifice was built, and with him closes the history of the 
 ministers who here officiated as pastors. 
 
 And now to the good and blessed object for which it has been 
 repaired and refitted, let it solemnly be devoted, in the name of the 
 Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Amen. 
 
To 
 
 MY DEAR BROTHER IN CHRIST, AND FOR NEAR HALF A CENTURY A FRIEND, 
 
 CHRISTIAN' FREDERICK CRUSlL 
 
 lit ^Htmorti of 
 
 COUNTLESS HOCUS <>F SWEET CONVERSE ON "THINGS PERTAINING TO THE KINQDOM," 
 
 AND IS TESTIMONY OF WISDOM AND LEARNING, ALIKE MEEK AND PEOFOCND, 
 
 DISCLOSED ONLY IN SUCH HOURS, 
 
 Zl)t J'oIIc'ojiitg Snmon is "affectionately CnprnbrlJ. 
 
 A. M. 
 
SERMON. 
 
 Revelation XIX. 10. 
 
 The Testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of prophecy. 
 
 Among the various feelings of this occasion, a very lively 
 one, I am sure, is a grateful approbation of the pious zeal 
 which has not suffered this venerable sanctuary to become 
 only a venerable ruin. They to whom we owe it deserve 
 our cordial thanks. By many it would have been thought 
 a needless undertaking, or one, at most, of mere sentiment; 
 and in the spirit of our utilitarian times, these deserted 
 walls might have been left to the ordinary fate of the use- 
 less and the old. The winds of heaven had unroofed them. 
 It' that was not a warrant, it might have served as an excuse 
 for resiimin^ them to the desolation which the hand of 
 Providence itself had already begun. But you desired no 
 excuse. The old church was too dear and hallowed to be a 
 church no more. Consecrated by the worship of your fathers 
 and their fathers' fathers, vocal so long with their prayer 
 and praise, yon would not allow it to moulder in decay, 
 as if telling the decay also of their memories in your hearts. 
 The storm which laid bare these sacred precincts was only 
 your summons to repair their wastes, and to hand them 
 over to your offspring unspoiled, to be still reverenced by 
 them as one of the first monuments of their ancestors' faith 
 and piety on these Western shor* 1 was glad to learn 
 
14 
 
 your intention, and to aid in procuring the means for car- 
 rying it into effect. ~Ro great amount, indeed, was required, 
 as, very properly, you only wanted the time-honored struc- 
 ture to resume its original plainness and simplicity ; yet it 
 has been a work of genuine devotion, at the completion of 
 which you have done well in calling us together to rejoice 
 with you in opening again this ancient temple of the Lord. 
 
 Its first opening was in the beginning of this same month 
 of September, one hundred and seventeen years ago, when 
 the congregation left the barn in which they had been wor- 
 shipping, and held their first service here. Since then, how 
 many assemblies of worshippers, and among them how 
 many whose names we trace in our family Bibles, have 
 entered and passed away from these walls I AYhat happy 
 Sunday gatherings of parents and children — children in 
 their turn becoming parents, and bringing their children 
 to the same altar— generation after generation of families, 
 whose lineage we should find in the baptismal records of the 
 church. During that period, too, what changes have hap- 
 pened in the history of the country. Could a representa- 
 tive of each of the successive generations appear before 
 us, and tell the tale of his times, with what lively annals 
 should we be entertained — what interesting stories of 
 character and anecdotes of our sires, justifying our reso- 
 lution that this endeared memento of them shall stand, 
 both for the church's and the country's sake. Some of these 
 reminiscences you might expect me to call up in my pre- 
 sent discourse, especially those relating to the men and 
 things of this old sanctuary in its earlier days ; but I must 
 leave that to others of my brethren present, better furnished 
 for the purpose than myself. For my own share in these 
 services, I have chosen another, but not an irrelevant theme 
 
15 
 
 ■ — one not alien from the associations of this church, but 
 intimately belonging i<> the most sacred of those associations 
 — "The Testimony of Jesus, the Spirit of prophecy." For 
 what is the thought which imparts the highest Bacrednesa to 
 
 this place, but that the testimony of Jesus lias here been 
 proclaimed for more than a century of years, with every 
 opening week since lie first stood here, who Lore that 
 timony in his words and deeds alike. A true prophet of 
 th( -pel was he. To testify of Jesus, and win souls to 
 Him, was what brought him from his dear fatherland, to 
 this stramrer and then almost wilderness land. "We are 
 ambassadors for Christ,'' was the first text with which he 
 opened his mouth. What a faithful ambassador he was, 
 how carefully he delivered his Sovereign's instructions, how 
 affectionately he besought his hearers to be reconciled to 
 God, how diligently he discharged his ministry, with what 
 simplicity and godly sincerity, publicly, and from house to 
 house, instant in season ami out of season, and how largely 
 the Lord gave him to see the fruits of his toil, is known to all 
 acquainted with the interesting story of his life, and may be 
 read more in detail in the printed documents of the day.* 
 To these a great deal might be added from the early histoiy 
 of the Lutheran Church in this country, which has always 
 acknowledged him as her founder. Her members of the 
 ; 'it day, nor they alone, assent to his epitaph on the 
 
 marble here — Qualis et quomtus fuerit, ■■■ la fuiunu 
 
 * The reports which he made of ; a, in his journals Bent home to the 
 
 i at Halle, in Germany. It was in honor of the founder of tint 
 
 ^:on, his friend and patron, A.UGU8TUS HeRMANUS FRANCKE, that lie gave thus, 
 
 his first church, the name Augustus. One of the f the 
 
 HaJUach ' is in great part made up of tfo f the " Missionary 
 
 Muhlenberg." 
 
16 
 
 sine lapide, non ignorabunt — " What he was, posterity with- 
 out this stone will know." His best fame is that which will 
 endure beyond the posterity of earth — a devoted mis- 
 sionary of Christ — a true prophet of the testimony. For a 
 sermon, then, at his grave, my text has not been mischosen. 
 I have taken it, however, not for the purpose of a formal 
 discussion of it, but only as a basis and connecting link of 
 what I shall have to say. 
 
 It is in the testimony of Jesus — that is, the testimony to 
 Him — the declaration of all that is revealed concerning: 
 Him ; and in that testimony forming the spirit, the life, 
 the soul of prophesying (using the word in its comprehen- 
 sive sense of preaching, earnest discoursing), the identity 
 of the preacher's office, in all times and places, consists. 
 In this the evangelist of to-day is one with the prophets 
 since the w T orld began. 
 
 The prophets of the Old Testament spake indeed of other 
 things ; they rehearsed the rise and fall of empires, chiefly the 
 fortunes of Jerusalem, as manifesting the government of the 
 One Ruler of nations ; but, amid all, and as the supreme 
 event for which all political changes and national revolutions 
 were preparing the way, they saw the advent of the Lord's 
 Anointed. His glory, discerned through the mists of inter- 
 vening ages, was the rapt vision of their sight, His name the 
 ecstasy of their songs. Thus it was through the series of the 
 greater and the minor prophets, till, after a lapse of centuries, 
 during which no inspired sounds were heard, the archangel 
 prophet broke the silence : " His name shall be called Jesus, 
 and of His kingdom there shall be no end." Then came the 
 voice on the banks of the Jordan — Behold the Lamb of God ; 
 and that followed immediately by the Prophet of prophets, 
 prophesying of Himself, speaking as never man spake, and 
 
17 
 
 then handing over the testimony to His apostles, u Ye shall 
 
 be witnesses of Me," were His last parting word-, ki in 
 Jndea and Samaria, and to the utmost ends of the earth,* 
 Noble witnesses they were after that the Holy Ghost had come 
 
 upon them, and given them the tongues of fire for uttering 
 the testimony in words of light ami flame, which then Hashed 
 in upon men's minds, and kindled their hearts new-horn with 
 the truth. Of their preaching's, that was the one and never 
 exhausted text — Jesus, the Christ. What else had St. Peter to 
 say ? he who once faltered in the testimony, but was after- 
 wards bold as a lion with its spirit. Of John and the 
 others, what was their subject and ever-recurring refrain but 
 the Name for which they were only too happy to sutler, and 
 by their Bcourgingi and dungeons were only moved to tell 
 out more clear. Stephen proclaims it in the synagogue of the 
 
 * The witnessing for Christ by the apostles and first preachers, among people 
 to whom they lirst made llim known, would consist more of statements of the 
 facts of His litf. and of His person and offices, than is qow accessary in congre- 
 gations familiar with the gospel. Still, the preaching of Christ is, in all ages, sub- 
 stantially tin- same. From knowing Him historically men are to be enlightened 
 with a saving knowledge of Him by faith, in order to which He is continually to 
 be set before them, as reveah d in the narratives and teachings of the New Testa- 
 ment. To lead men to behold Jesus Christ in Bis tial nature, and in His 
 relations to them, and in theirs to Him, is the great object of the Christian preacher. 
 This never fails to supply him with a boundless variety of theme. He will km 
 how to make each of his sermons, whether declaratory, doctrinal, ethical, or 
 hortatory, a testimony of Jesus, and the more simply and directly he dees that, 
 the mere he will do the true work of an evangelist. The peculiar work of tho 
 preach . was to lay broad and sure the historic basis of Chi 
 tianity. Preachers of every age are to develop the unsearchable rid Christ, 
 
 of which • P age knows more and more unto the end. 
 
 In • QOn, by the testimony of Jesus. I understand the testimony to or for 
 
 Jesus. It may also mean . ; timony; the testimony which He declar 
 
 of the Father and of Himself, the whole revelation which he came to make — but 
 this is included in all right testimony (v otfof Him. 
 
18 
 
 adversaries, ceases not amid the shower of stones, and with 
 his last breath cries, " I see Jesus standing at the right hand 
 of God." The storm of persecution which then arose was 
 the commission of those who fled before it, to go every- 
 where preaching the Christ. And Paul — Paul, he whom 
 Jesus chose to be the great exponent of Himself, to be a 
 preacher after His own heart, on whom was concentrated 
 more than all the gifts of the rest of the apostolic college, 
 what His testimony to His Lord was — how he bestowed 
 upon it the learning, and knowledge, and eloquence, and 
 reasoning, which would have made him great on any other 
 theme, how it was the one actuating spirit of his heart and 
 mind and soul ; to see that you must read the greater 
 part of the book of the Acts, and his Epistles through and 
 through, glowing in every line with the love of Christ 
 constraining Him, knowing nothing but Christ and Him 
 crucified, laboring under a sense of the unsearchable riches 
 of Christ, " counting all things as dross for the excellency of 
 the knowledge of Christ Jesus His Lord." Their testimony 
 the apostles transmitted to their successors in the hosts of 
 evangelists, bearing it to every part of the world. Wherever 
 they went, whoever were their hearers, peasants or princes, 
 of whatever nation, kindred, or people, or tongue, their word 
 was one and the same — salvation through the Crucified. 
 Their converts learned that first and last. In their wor- 
 shipping assemblies we read, they sang hymns to Christ as to 
 God. In their persecutions for the faith, they looked to 
 no other support than that one Name, the subject of their 
 converse in dens and caves of the earth, their one encourage- 
 ment to be faithful unto death. Martyrs, you know, means 
 witnesses — men bearing their testimony. Unchanged it 
 was heard from amidst the flames. Another and another 
 
19 
 
 Stephen of the noble army died with the prayer — " Lord 
 Ji jus, ive my spirit." That Name of might was the secret 
 
 of their power, as the moral conquerors of the world. Immo- 
 vable in its strength, they felt themselves the LLosts of the 
 Lord. Their enemies joined their rank-. The Jerichos of 
 Heathendom tell before the blasts of their trumpets, and the 
 kingdoms of the world, in an outward submission to the 
 cross, at least, became the kingdoms of God and of His 
 Christ. Glorious was the triumph of the prophets, mighty the 
 spirit of the testimony, when from its first whisper in Eden 
 — "the seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head' 
 — it persisted until it was heard in alleluias to Emmanuel 
 through the empire of the Gesars, and the herald of the 
 Galilean planted his cross on the summit palace of the 
 earth. 
 
 Meanwhile, however, a change had been coming over the 
 evangelic office. The ministry of Jesus did not continue, 
 according to its original institution, a simple ministry of the 
 word. Multitudes, indeed, there were still of the primitive 
 stamp, witin like Paul and John ; and these were from 
 
 among the laity as well as the clergy, until the clerical office 
 proper, or the clerical order, as it had now become, gra- 
 dually assumed the character of a priesthood. Christ's minis- 
 ters, besides being evangelists, pastors, and teachers, also 
 became mediators between Bim and the souls of men. Not 
 only as Hi- ambassadors did they announce pardon to the 
 penitent, ami point out t<> him the way of salvation ; they 
 now began to dispense pardon ami to negotiate salva- 
 tion. They held the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and 
 claimed to bind and unloose souls in a way of which we read 
 
 nothing in Peter or Paul. Thus their office acquired an 
 eccle.-ia-tical worth, but l«»>r in proportion its evangelical 
 
20 
 
 power. As the night of the middle ages set in, bringing 
 with it a return to Jewish darkness, less and less was heard 
 of the pure testimony of Jesus, and in its place were substi- 
 tuted sacerdotal rites and ceremonies, and sacrificial services 
 at altars. For the celebration of these but little knowledge 
 was necessary. The priest could exercise his functions and 
 scarcely know a page of Holy Writ — might be an adept in 
 his craft, yet be unable to read. Among the Greeks, as 
 early as the sixth century, preaching w T as all but extinct. 
 It was much the same with the Latins. Among the latter, 
 those of St. Bernard are the only discourses for a long 
 period ; at least none others are extant. In the ninth cen- 
 tury, Charlemagne assembled all the learned men in Europe 
 to revive the ministry of preaching. Among a thousand 
 priests there was not one able to preach, when a book of 
 Homilies was prepared by order of the emperor, from which 
 the clergy might read to the people. Of course there were 
 exceptions. In the monasteries there must have been many 
 a holy father who loved the precious w r ords which his pen 
 transcribed in the manuscript he loved to adorn, who saw his 
 Saviour in the crucifix, and spake of Him to his brethren of 
 the cell. There must have been many a good pastor who 
 fed his flock as he could amid that famine of the "Word ; 
 for God had then his elect, whom he would not leave to 
 perish for lack of knowledge. Amid that well-nigh Egyp- 
 tian darkness, the souls in His Israel had light in their 
 dwellings. The testimony of Jesus could not wholly be sup- 
 pressed. Here and there a prophet, in a WicklifT, a Huss, 
 and others, with special illumination from on high, spake out. 
 Still, speaking generally, there was an ignorance of every- 
 thing concerning the way of salvation but the power of 
 the clergy to give absolution. The poor sinner, troubled 
 
21 
 
 in conscience »ught peace by paying hie pence at the 
 confessional, not knowing that lie could go at once to liis 
 God for pardon without money and without price. Deep and 
 fearful was the silence of the testimony, when at length, after 
 premonitory notes by others, it came ringing loud and clear 
 in the trumpet tones of the monk of Wittenberg. God's hero- 
 prophet arose to republish the gospel. His thunder-words 
 of truth startled men into audience, and broke up the long 
 night of the Church. "Let there be light," the decree had 
 come from on high, "and there was light." The watchmen 
 who had fallen asleep, woke up and assured by their great 
 leader, mounted their watch-towers and proclaimed the morn- 
 ing. Songs of praise ushered in the day, telling how glad men 
 were to hail the light and to hear the testimony of Jesus 
 again. Once more the Apostle of the gentiles, whose doc- 
 trines had been held in abeyance, or buried under the rub- 
 bish of ecclesiastics, was heard in the Apostle of the Reforma- 
 tion. As the former, with the sword of the spirit, had 
 pierced to the heart the old Roman w r orld; so the latter, 
 wielding the same weapon, struck terror into the second 
 Rome, and set the captive nations free from her chains, even 
 by " the foolishness of preaching," Of the " great company of 
 preachers," then, when the Lord again gave the Word, to 
 be uttered with the power of the Lord, Luther was the fore- 
 most. The arch-evangelist of the day, he did more than any 
 other to restore the Christian ministry to its primitive office 
 as a ministry of the word. As he had struck the most effec- 
 tual blow at the priesthood, so he did the most to bring back 
 the preacherhood. .Nor did he only preach and argue and 
 write, and give to the people the word of God in their 
 mother tongue, in that noblest of all the modern versions of 
 the Bible, next to our own ; like the inspired prophets of 
 
22 
 
 old, lie poured out his prophesyings also in song. Gloriously 
 did he sing forth his Gospel, according the hearts of the mul- 
 titude to his own, in choral strains speeding on the truth in 
 bursts of harmony over the land. In glowing outpourings of 
 the Gospel muse, the testimony of Jesus was borne with new 
 power in the hymns of the Reformation. They stirred hearts 
 then, as they stir them still. They have not worn out ; mul- 
 tiplied, in age after age, by the minstrels of a nation ever 
 vocal in song, full of the richest and sweetest thoughts of the 
 love of God in Christ, a repository of pure theology in melo- 
 dious devotion, they are the peculiar treasure of the Lutheran 
 Church, making her the Choral Church of Christendom. 
 In the lapse of years missionary successors of the Reforma- 
 tion preachers came here with their gospel doctrines and 
 hymns. Here they took up the burden of their prophesyings, 
 the ministers in their sermons, and the people with them in 
 their songs. With this as a central point they gathered 
 congregations and erected churches ; in doing which, it may 
 be well in these days to say, they were true to the testimony 
 as maintained in the old standard of their fathers. They 
 were evangelical, not rationalizing, half-sceptical protestants. 
 Geology had not shed its bewildering light. And that 
 you, my brethren, do not desire to walk in that light, I take 
 to be in part the meaning of your preserving this ancient 
 pile. You declare by this act, that you adhere to the creed 
 of your patriarch and his immediate followers. This landmark 
 which they set you say shall not be removed, but shall stand 
 as a witness of what they believed and taught, and is received 
 and loved by their children. You will have this old Augustus 
 Church still to stand in its antique form, beside your new 
 sanctuary bearing the same name, to remind the minister and 
 congregation, that the old, not the new theology, is the true 
 
23 
 
 testimony of Jesus. Therefore the more cheerfully do I unite 
 in this celebration, happy thus to Bhow myself one with you 
 in tl; reat articles of the faith, in which your communion, 
 
 and that in which I am a minister, arc entirely agreed. Our 
 paration is not in that of doctrine. Between the Church 
 of England and the Lutheran Church, the most intimate 
 relations existed ever since the time they were allies in their 
 common battle against Rome. For the Last half century or 
 upwards, from various causes, there has been more mge- 
 ment, of which, however, there was nothing at the time of 
 the first Lutherans and Episcopalians in this country.* Their 
 
 * In an article. by Professor Stoever. in the ELvang Review, ' I ttys >urg, 
 
 PeniL, April. 1856, there are the following sfc : — 
 
 "I:. :■' R -v. I 
 
 pal Church, Philadelphia, present at the Synodical d g of our Churc] 
 
 •• \\ a ii.' eting of tl - l of North Carolina, in !. a committee 
 
 of the : palian Church was in attendance for the purpose of i on 
 
 some plan by which friendly re'.. a intained between the two 
 
 Ch y Luthi ran □ ild be 
 
 entitled to a Beat in the I J Convention Lina, with the privi- 
 
 _ i all subje I did m pal 
 
 irch, an I 
 The Rev. Dr. Kunze, an eminent theologian of the Lutheran Church, and Pro- 
 nan La . York, in 
 
 ;oli 
 of the inti jlish and Lutl which he 
 
 - : — M 1 ha 
 of divinity for my church, held this and i • them, an i It was ia 
 
 al Lutl ry, 
 
 k, X. V.. on I r, L797, 
 
 intiiii 
 ■ I and ■ and tl he 
 
 their church <\ 
 a i: ran Church, merely Ei 
 
 may partake i i of the said J 'id 
 
mutual friendly attitude appears from many facts that might 
 be stated; a significant one is, that your patriarch was pleased 
 to have one of his sons in the ministry of the Church of Eng- 
 land. From private family tradition I could say much of his 
 affection for the English Lutheran, as he would sometimes 
 call the Episcopal church. When Zion, a German Lutheran 
 church in Philadelphia, was consecrated in the year 1769, 
 " on the second day of the solemnities, the services were 
 according to the liturgy of the Church of England, and a ser- 
 mon was preached by the Rev. Dr. Peters, a clergyman of that 
 church. Several other Episcopal ministers were present on 
 the occasion, at the conclusion of which, the Pector Muhlen- 
 berg, who had delivered the sermon on the first day, returned 
 thanks to the assembled congregation, and in the name of the 
 corporation of Zion church adverted to the many kind proofs of 
 sympathy they had received during the three years in which 
 they had worshipped in a building belonging to the Episcopa- 
 lians, and the additional gratification they had just experi- 
 enced in the services conducted by their Episcopal brethren." 
 Between Bishop White, the patriarch of the American 
 Episcopal Church, and your patriarch — I had almost said 
 your Bishop, he was so in affection and influence, if not in 
 authority — there existed a most cordial intimacy which, in 
 my younger days, I often heard the Bishop refer to, repeating 
 anecdotes showing the Episcopal sympathies of his Lutheran 
 friend and brother. That good and truly great man, it is my 
 privilege to say, was my spiritual father, in nearer than mere 
 ecclesiastical bonds. Well do I recollect (you will pardon 
 this little egotism) the smile with which he said to me, after 
 
 well known that the Society of the Church of England for " Propagating the Gos- 
 pel in foreign parts," until within comparatively recent years, often employed 
 Lutheran missionaries, without requiring from them Episcopal ordination. 
 
20 
 
 my first ordination at his hands, "The Bhade of your great- 
 grandfather lias not frowned, I am suit, on what we have 
 done to-day ;" nor, let me now add, does the sliade of my 
 
 dear spiritual father frown upon his son, in a Lutheran pulpit 
 to-day. 
 
 Had the temper and spirit of moderation of those good 
 men generally prevailed in our two communions, we 
 should have found some way of coming together ere this, 
 instead of remaining apart as we now do, adding to the 
 unhappy divisions of the Christian world. No others of the 
 reformed bodies ought rather to be one, for no others have 
 so much in common. In all the great matters of the testi- 
 mony, we are one. We adhere to the ancient and univer- 
 sal creeds often found in your old Lutheran bibles as well 
 as in our prayer-books. AVe have the same theological 
 doctrines, seeing that your Augsburg Confession was 
 the basis of our XXXIX Articles, which con >n, Bishop 
 
 Bull, one of the great lights of the Church of England, after 
 stating the fact that our articles were framed on it, pro- 
 nounces "the noblest symbol of the Reformed Churches." 
 In the order- of the ministry we differ, though there we 
 might practically agree, were your ministry constituted as it is 
 in the Lutheran churches of some of the northern countries of 
 Europe. A\ r e both have the spirit of ministerial and church 
 order. In the administration of the sacraments we are nearly 
 alike, and in their doctrine also, as il is now received by the 
 majorities in both our communions, and where the Bame 
 diversities of views on the subject are found; high and 
 low Churchmen, high and low Lutherans tolerating one 
 another in the comprehensiveness of the faith. We both have 
 the rite of confirmation as a proper complement of infant 
 baptism. With us it is administered only by the Bishop; 
 
26 
 
 in the case, however, of any one coming into our Church, who 
 had been confirmed by a Lutheran clergyman, Bishop White 
 did not think it necessary to repeat the rite. Together we 
 observe the seasons of the church-year, having the same 
 round of gospels and epistles for the Sundays, festivals, and 
 fasts. In this as well as in other things, our liturgies agree, 
 both having been derived from the same sources. 
 
 True, we have adhered more constantly to our Liturgy — 
 and would it not have been well (allow me to ask, as I do in 
 the most brotherly spirit) if you also had adhered more con- 
 stantly to yours — not to the exclusion of free prayer, but 
 together with that, according to the practice of all the 
 continental churches long after the .Reformation, and to a 
 great extent now, as also, I believe, in many of your 
 congregations. 
 
 It is not simply from partiality for that to which I am 
 accustomed, that I think a scriptural and unchanging service 
 book greatly becomes a church, adoring her unchanging 
 Lord. It secures the uniformity of her worship, and so mani- 
 fests its unity in .all her congregations. The Liturgy is her 
 perpetual testimony of Jesus.* It is a living creed, which, 
 more than any dogmatic formulas, keeps alive the truth in 
 the hearts and minds of the worshippers. Generation after 
 generation takes it up unchanged. The Glorias and Lita- 
 nies, uttered by our remotest ancestors, we repeat to-day, 
 confident they will be the Glorias and Litanies of the ages to 
 come — the present church thus symbolizing and feeling her 
 identity with the future and the past. Never, says Mr. 
 Cecil, do I enter one of our old cathedrals without being 
 
 * The English Liturgy is a grand witness for the objective faith of the whole 
 church, while the Lutheran Hymns are a rich expression of the subjective faiths 
 of individual believers. But each, of course, is more or less of the other. 
 
27 
 
 deeply impressed with the thought, that for ages these vaults 
 have resounded with the acclaim — Thou art the King of 
 Glory, O Christ ! 
 
 Further, let me express my conviction (you will accord me 
 the privil( _ »f years) of the value of a Liturgy as a Bafe- 
 guard of the truth and a protection against lapsing into 
 error. Without such inclosure, I cannot tell how far I 
 might have been enticed by the subtleties of German ration- 
 alistic criticism, and of science falsely so-called, during 
 a period of my ministry, peculiarly exposed to such 
 danger. However it may be with others, I feel it a 
 subject of devout gratitude to God that in the orderings of 
 His providence my lot has been cast in a church, where I 
 must needs confess " the Faith once delivered to the saints" 
 — where it has not been left to my choice whether or not I 
 should make the catholic ascription of glory to the Father, 
 and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost — where it has not been 
 optional with me or my congregation, in offering our prayers, 
 to plead the name of the One mediator between God and 
 man. Thankful am I that it did not rest with me to read or 
 imt a- I pleased a set portion of God's Word to the people. 
 Blessed constraint, if such it was, that whatever was the 
 defect of my own discourses, the testimony of Jesus was 
 proclaimed in the lessons, the psalms, the creeds, and the 
 pray. > that the flock never went away unfed with the 
 
 bread of life. 
 
 In this view of the subject, it is not mere Episcopalian ism 
 t«> maintain that in venerating our Liturgy we have done 
 better than the reformed churches which have laid theirs 
 
 aside. That cannot be, since, in all their important 
 
 parts, the Liturgies are a common heritage from the early 
 church. If you are offended by any among us, talking ui 
 
28 
 
 our Te Deum, our Gloria in excelsis, you should excuse the 
 ignorance occasioned by the disuse of those old treasures, 
 and show by a practical appreciation of them that they are 
 yours as much as ours. 
 
 Thus we see there are many considerations which should 
 foster our sympathies as kindred communions. They show us 
 how nearly we approximate, and must sometimes prompt the 
 desire that we might go on from proximity to union. And 
 why not union ? These walls of division between us, are 
 certainly nothing desirable in themselves. They present the 
 church in her outward aspect in sad contrast to her interior 
 and real unity. For a while, perhaps, they must stand. 
 The time for their removal may not have come. If it be 
 His will, the Lord will bring it about in His own day. In 
 the meanwhile, our distinctive principles, however con- 
 scientiously we maintain them, need be no barrier to a 
 union of hearts. For no reason should they stand in the way 
 of brotherly love and mutual good will. The unity of the 
 Spirit and the bond of peace, lie deep within, and beyond 
 the reach of outward disturbance. And yet can there be no 
 advance towards outward union ? Can there not be some 
 demonstration of our oneness, so far as we are one, which 
 might be seen and known of all men. I dare to think there 
 might. We are united in the testimony of Jesus. We of the 
 clergy (it is the clergy who must be foremost in any efforts 
 for union) are one as prophets of that Testimony. It is 
 the one spirit of our prophesyings. In other w T ords, we are 
 all preachers of the gospel. In that regard our office is 
 the same. Whether Lutherans or Episcopalians we preach the 
 gospel, and we have no difference of opinion as to what the 
 gospel is. We are equally ambassadors for Christ, praying 
 men for His sake to be reconciled to God. In this we have 
 
20 
 
 a common office ; but at the same time we have another office, 
 which i> not common to us, and that is our office as minis- 
 ters of <>ur respective churchi Clirist-ward, our office is 
 
 the Bame; church-ward, it is diverse. A< clergymen we 
 
 have a twofold character — an evangelical and ecclesiastical 
 character. It is in the former character, without at all 
 entrenching upon the latter, that we might make mutual 
 advances. In our capacity as preachers, we might recog- 
 nise one another, not merely in private Bentiment and 
 feeling, but openly and officially. AVhile in our church 
 capacity we can minister acceptably only to our own con- 
 gregations, what should hinder our appearing before one 
 another's congregations, in our common and evangelical 
 capacity as preachers of the Lord Jesus Christ? Making 
 this distinction, there might be union, so far, between us, 
 and that without the least relinquishment, on either side, of 
 any principle of our respective communions. Would that it 
 might be brought about and regulated by some mutual and 
 formal act of consent. 
 
 But I am not here to propose anything. I speak with no 
 authority. I only avail myself of the opportunity for the set- 
 ting forth of views which of late years have been very clear to 
 my mind, and which seem to me to present a ground of union 
 not only between our two bodies (who, indeed, should be the 
 first to recognise and act upon it), but among all the reformed 
 churches which adhere to their confessions. Through the 
 preacherhood let them exhibit their substantial agreement. 
 Let their variously constituted ministries, government, and 
 order, be upheld as strictly as they please, while that which 
 they have in common is declared with equal zeal. Their 
 specific differentia need not interfere with their generic 
 sameness; only in asserting the species, let net the <j be 
 
30 
 
 ignored, but be practically proclaimed. It is high time for 
 such a demonstration. Justice to ourselves, to the gospel, 
 to the glory of our Lord, demands it. Men take our separa- 
 tions as signs of so many creeds. Let us teach them better. 
 Let us show them that these are only signs of so many 
 opinions subordinate to the one creed — only so many species 
 of one genus. Let us show them that the protestantism of 
 the Reformation is not just the aggregation of schisms 
 denounced by Rome, nor of discordant superstitions scorned 
 by infidelity. Let us show them that it has one heart and 
 one mind in all things requisite to salvation, that it drops 
 not one of the catholic verities, that it owns one Lord, one 
 Faith, one Baptism, one God and Father of All — the whole 
 included in the Testimony of Jesus. 
 
 And I do believe, this most desirable demonstration would 
 come to pass, if only the Testimony were, to the extent in 
 which it ought to be, the spirit of our prophesyings. It is in 
 the main, but it should be vastly more. Here we are lacking. 
 Here we are at fault. I say this not of one church more 
 than of another. It may be predicated of some rather than of 
 others, but it attaches in different degrees to us all. The 
 reason why the voice of a united preacherhood might not be 
 welcomed in all our pulpits, is that the great truths which it 
 would proclaim — the testimony in which we are all agreed — 
 is not enough the theme of our discoursings. We are too 
 fond of testifying of our peculiar doctrines, our favorite 
 dogmas, our own systems and institutions, of ourselves dis- 
 guised from ourselves, under.cover of zeal for the truth. In 
 plainer language, we all have too much of the spirit of sect. 
 It is that which, far more than we are aware, stimulates our 
 zeal. It is the Trumpet of the Lord, which we fain think 
 we are so glad to sound or to hear — the sweet, silver trum- 
 
31 
 
 pets of the blessed gospel — aye, bat it is when their note 
 have the Lutheran, or the Episcopal, or the Presbyterian 
 tone, that they have their highest charm. We fondly love 
 our own theologic or ecclesiastic melodies, and believing 
 
 them to he only the pure music of Zion, we claim that all the 
 inhabitants of Zion should love them as well. It is natural 
 — but rather carnal than spiritual — more of the old man than 
 the new. It is akin to the spirit of the Jews in Jeremiah 
 days. Each pointing to his own ecclesiastical structure, 
 cries. Like them, the Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the 
 Lord are these 1 . See, says one, the glory of this Temple of 
 ours — so ancient, so grand and stately without, and within. 
 having " all things made after the pattern of things shown 
 in the Mount." See, says another, our beautiful sanctuary, 
 our goodly order, our sound doctrine, our primitive simpli- 
 city. But mark, cries a third, how God blesses our ministra- 
 tions — see what converts we make — and what holy lives our 
 people lead, (to round about our Zion, calls another and 
 another, mark well her bulwarks and the towers thereof, 
 and say whether this be not the very city of God." No 
 wonder that each prophet, contrary to the proverb, is most 
 popular at home (men always loving to hear themselves be- 
 praised) ami speaks with less acceptance abroad. No wonder, 
 to.., that those without are distracted by the opposite call-, 
 "Lo here," and " lo there," and bid us first settle among 
 
 ourselves which is the Temple of the Lord, ere we are 
 urgent for them to come in. Fee, it is natural. It has 
 always been s«». "I am of Paul — I of Apollos — ] of 
 
 Cephas," began in the apostles' time-. It was the bane of 
 the churches immediately upon the reformation, in the hot 
 strifes which BO unhappily estranged foremost men in that 
 gospel revolution. How rife, alas! in our own land, I need 
 
32 
 
 not say, and in the best of men. Scarce anywhere does 
 the flame of religious zeal burn vigorously, but with 
 marked alloy of this earthly fire. "The times of this 
 ignorance God winked at, but now commandeth his 
 people everywhere to repent," to confess the sin of the 
 bigotry, the sectarian spirit, and narrow-heartedness which 
 have made such havoc in the household of faith, to turn to 
 Him, and seek, not their glory, but His. first and alone. 
 Not the temple of the Lord, be now the cry, but the Lord 
 of the temple, the Lord of all the temples where His 
 name is proclaimed and adored. Concordant then will be 
 the voices of the evangelists, with no dissonance of party 
 sounds, and welcomed everywhere in Zion. No longer will 
 men be distracted by conflicting testimony ; for when we 
 point to the temple's Lord, we shall all point one way — not, 
 lo! here, or lo ! there, but to Christ all and in all. From the 
 goodly fellowship of the prophets, now again in these latter 
 days, as once from the " glorious choir of the apostles," will 
 go forth clear and distinct the theme, varied in endless 
 descant for every genius and every character of mind, yet 
 unchanged — the exhaustless theme, the same borne on " the 
 ages all along:" Jesus Christ, the first and the last, the same 
 yesterday, to-day, and for ever ; Jesus Christ, the root and 
 offspring of David, the Bright and Morning Star ; the Only 
 begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth ; the Desire 
 of all nations ; the First-born among many brethren ; the 
 Author and Finisher of our faith ; the Shepherd and Bishop 
 of our souls ; the Lamb of God, taking away the sin of the 
 world ; the Prophet, Priest, and King ; the Lord our right- 
 eousness ; the Crown of glory and Diadem of beauty unto His 
 people ; the Judge of the quick and the dead ; King of kings 
 and Lord of lords; God over all, blessed for evermore. 
 
32 
 
 Oli, in this chorus of the testimony of Jesus, lift we up, 
 dear brethren of every name, lift we up our voices anew, 
 acknowledging and affectioning all whom the Spirit of the 
 Lord attunes to its strains, joying to unite with them, heart 
 with heart, and voice with voice, pouring forth a grander 
 titan the harmony of tin- spheres, till with one over- 
 powering acclaim, it till the holy church throughout the 
 w«»rld, charming all ear- that can hear, and constraining 
 everywhere the confession, that Jesus Christ is Lobd, to 
 
 THE GLORY OF (tod THE FATHER, 
 
 With the love of Him, and with love to one another in 
 Kim, may our hearts be knit in the fellowship of the Holy 
 Ghost. Then, whatever outward union we may lack, in that 
 heart of true union we shall he one. The note- of our dif- 
 ference will be scarce heard in the blessed concord. Our 
 partition walls will sink beneath the range of our vision, 
 as we look up towards the walls of the city on the ever- 
 lasting hills. In the meanwhile, the Lord, we may be sure, 
 is constructing that kingdom of I lis, which will not fail to 
 be at unity with itself: whether in any outward Organization, 
 in a happy future of our world, we cannot foretell, but cer- 
 tainly, in His temple of living stones, like that of old, reared 
 without the sound of axe or hammer, without the noise of 
 human contrivance, much less of human strife — that Ever 
 lasting Temple of which Jesus Christ is the corner-stone elect 
 
 and precious. On that foundation may we he budded. In 
 
 that structure may we be Bet among the living st « »? 1 For 
 that lei our lives now be a living testimony of Jesus, 
 confessing Mini, presenting our s<»ul> and bodies to Ilim a 
 aving sacrifice, and so following those of our fathers, who in 
 
 their day and generation bore their testimony to Ilim within 
 
 these wall-. They have passed away for their place- within 
 
 3 
 
34 
 
 those other walls which never waste, of crystal and gold, and 
 all manner of precious stones. In our turn we shall pass 
 away. Shall it be to our places with them, in the ISTew Jeru- 
 salem ? Shall it be to join our voices with theirs in the ever- 
 lasting testimony of the elect : " Unto Him that hath loved 
 us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood, be all 
 glory and dominion evermore." 
 
 So grant it, O Father, for the sake of Thy Son, by the 
 Holy Ghost : to Whom be glory, as it was in the beginning, 
 is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen. 
 
POSTSCRIPT. 
 
 \The Committee who requested the publication of the Sermon L ■ 
 knowledge of the contents of this Postscript, which may or map not 
 ///.. I their approbation, I presume on their indulgence, in attaching 
 to the Sermon, what is meant more particularly for members of my 
 own communion.] 
 
 Knowing that many of my Episcopal brethren will have 
 a radical objection to any views towards union, which 
 acknowledge men as preachers who are without Episcopal 
 ordination, 1 have thought well to append an answer to this 
 objection, respectfully submitted to their consideration. 
 
 There is no instance in the New Testament of any one after 
 the apostles being ordained to preach the gospel. The apostles 
 were so ordained by Christ, but it nowhere appears that they 
 ordained others — I mean as preachers. They did not them- 
 selves begin to preach immediately upon their commission by 
 Christ, hut waited, according to His command, until they were 
 endued with power from on high. On the day of Pentecost 
 they were so endued. " Cloven tongues like as of fire sat 
 upon each of them, and they began t<> speak with tongues as 
 the Spirit gave them utterance." This, however, is Baid not of 
 the twelve alone, hut of the whole assembly of whom we read 
 immediately before, that " they were all assembled with one 
 accord in one place." On each of that company of disciples 
 alighted the tongue of tire ; each began to speak as the Spirit 
 gave him utterance. Though we nerd not construe the 
 •• all" bo Btrictly, yet it certainly implies that more than the 
 
 apostles were the subjects of the miracle. A.8 they "-pake 
 
 of the wonderful works of God," their utterances were, pro- 
 bably, as Borne think, a united hurst of praise; but they 
 
 must have been more or less also of the nature of preachin. 
 * See Baumgarten's Apostolic History, and the former p;irt of the 
 
 work generally for an able elucidation of the main poinl here d id. 
 
36 
 
 for St. Peter immediately proceeds to say that then was ful- 
 filled the prediction of the prophet Joel, of an outpouring 
 of the Spirit, whereby all should prophesy.* Accordingly, 
 on Whitsunday we use the psalm in which it is said, 
 "The Lord gave the company of the preachers." Foremost 
 among them were the apostles ; but soon after we find 
 Stephen preaching, to which we have no account of his 
 being appointed by the apostles. He was one of the seven 
 set by them over the daily charitable ministrations of the 
 church, in order that they might be relieved from serv- 
 ing tables, and give themselves wholly to the ministry 
 of the word. But Stephen, in accepting the ministry 
 of the table, had no idea of laying aside the ministry 
 of the word, which he, together with the apostles, had 
 received of the Holy Ghost. We read that he was a man 
 " full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom," " full of faith and 
 power, and that he did great wonders and miracles among 
 the people ;" and further, that " the wisdom and the Spirit 
 with which he spake, his adversaries could not resist ;" 
 and we know how he preached with his dying breath. 
 Thus, the first martyr appears as the first preacher of the 
 gospel after the apostles, but not ordained by them — not 
 commissioned by any human instrumentality — no successor 
 in office of the apostles. The only office which they gave 
 him was one which they declined to hold. 
 
 Next appears (Acts viii. 4) another great company of preach- 
 ers. Whence did they get their commission? In the persecu- 
 tion which began with the murder of Stephen. "Then they 
 that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the 
 word." The apostles remained in Jerusalem firm at their posts 
 amid the rising violence, feeling that if their cause was aban- 
 doned there all hope for it in Judea was gone. But the gospel 
 could not be confined to Jerusalem ; it must go on its errand 
 
 * "Your handmaidens and daughters shall prophesy," says the text. But 
 St. Paul suffers not a woman to speak in the church. If that was a primitive 
 canon, the sphere of the female prophetesses or preachers might have been their 
 own households, or on other occasions than public assemblies of the church. 
 
37 
 
 to "Samaria and the ends of the world." And who should 
 carry it thither bul they who had been charged to do so by 
 the Lord himself in BEis parting words to them \ But th< 
 as yel make the holy city the bounds of their mission. What 
 wider missions they afterwards entered upon we arc not 
 informed in the inspired records, bul gather only from tra- 
 dition. In the meanwhile, do they appoint their delegal 
 for carrying the word beyond Jerusalem 3 We read not of 
 it. We are not told of their laying their hands on evan- 
 lists, as they had done on the ministers of the table. Evan- 
 gelists were already made in men who knew the power of 
 the gospel, and who, from the abundance of the heart with 
 which the mouth Bpeaketh, were ready when the occasion 
 came to publish it. The thunders of the storm which drove 
 them from Jerusalem was their BUmmons to set out on their 
 w«>rk. It will be said they had the approbation of the 
 apostles. Undoubtedly they had — approbation, of course. 
 We cannot imagine these missionaries of the dispersion 
 first waiting upon the twelve for leave, while they were 
 scattered abroad, to go "everywhere preaching the word." 
 Among them was Philip, who had been ordained to the 
 Bame Bervice as Stephen, and who, with Stephen, felt that he 
 had that higher service, in which we find him engaged in one 
 of the chief cities of Samaria, the region in which the Lord 
 had enjoined His apostles to be His witnesses. There Philip 
 is the apostle, there lie preaches the gospel, makes converts, 
 baptize-, and causes great joy in the city. An nnordained 
 missionary founds the church in Samaria. Hearing of it, 
 the apostles in Jerusalem sent two of their number to Biguii 
 their approval of Philip's work, and especially to recognise 
 the new convert.-, by exercising their apostolic prerogative 
 of conferring upon them the extraordinary gifts of the Holy 
 Ghosl In doing this, they put the Samaritan believers on 
 
 a level with the believers in Jerusalem, and so declared 
 them fellow-members of one church. Philip had further 
 
 * Simon could nut have fthe Eoly til. 
 
38 
 
 sanction of his ministry in the voice of an angel sending 
 him to the Ethiopian nobleman, to whom he preaches Christ, 
 baptizes him, and leaves him to go on his way rejoicing to 
 his home in the remotest parts of the then known world. 
 There, tradition tells us, he was the means of widely diffus- 
 ing the gospel. If so, it was not in virtue of any laying on 
 of hands for the purpose. Indeed, for no purpose were 
 hands laid on the eunuch after his baptism. Neither con- 
 firmed nor ordained, his knowing Christ was his warrant for 
 proclaiming Him. to his countrymen. 
 
 From the eleventh chapter of the Acts, we find that some of 
 these preachers of the dispersion had gone as far as Antioch, 
 where, through their ministry, a great number believed and 
 turned to the Lord. Tidings of the gospel in the third city 
 of the Roman empire was great news for the church at 
 Jerusalem, where the twelve still tarried. Forthwith they 
 despatch a brother to Antioch with their salutations. It is 
 not one of their own number that goes, and with apostolic 
 powers, to ratify the new church. Barnabas, the Son of 
 Consolation, we may imagine was eager for an embassy of 
 fellowship and brotherly love. "When he came, we read of 
 his performing no official acts, but only that " he was glad 
 when he saw the grace of God, and exhorted them all 
 that with purpose of heart they should cleave unto the 
 Lord." Thinking that one like Paul was needed for such a 
 field of labor, he looked him up, and brought him to Antioch, 
 where they two continued a year in building up the church, 
 the members of which were first called Christians, and the 
 foundations of which were laid by those whom we should 
 now call, missionary laymen. 
 
 The theory, then, that Christ, at His ascension, committed 
 all authority to preach the gospel only to His apostles, and 
 to those to whom they formally transmitted that authority, 
 and through whom, as their successors, lie would be with 
 the apostles to the end of the world — that He thus established 
 an order of preachers never to be entered by any outside 
 of such a transmitted succession — cannot be maintained in 
 
39 
 
 view .it* such facts from Scripture as those just adduced. It 
 is at variance, too, with the preaching of St. Paul himself. 
 He began without any authority from the twelve. For a 
 while they did not even know him. True, lie had his com- 
 mission immediately from the Lord; but if the Lord had 
 established a fixed and indispensable order for the propaga- 
 tion of His gospel (as is contended), why was not Paul 
 required to conform to it' Of the fact of his commission 
 immediately by Christ, no one had any evidence hut himself. 
 Why was he not directed to go to Jerusalem for ordination 
 by the twelve, instead of being only sent to Ananias (^of 
 whom we read nowhere else; for baptism, and BO be recog- 
 nised by, and have the sanction of the central authority of the 
 church. So far from that, he acted quite independently of 
 the apostolic college. lie had very little connexion with it 
 through the whole of his ministry. There is great Bignifi- 
 cance in the "divine irregularity," as Dr. SchafF calls it, of 
 St. Paul's mission. He gloried that he had received his ap< 
 tleship not from man, but from God; and for the evidence of 
 it, he told his converts. " Ye are the seals of mine apostleship 
 in the Lord." 
 
 But did not St. Paul himself ordain men I Yes — men 
 to be Bishops and Elders. The twelve ordained the seven, 
 whom we call deacons, though the record does not call 
 them so. St. James seems to have presided in the first 
 council, and probably had church jurisdiction in Jerusa- 
 lem. Everything of that kind which we read of in the A< 
 and Epistles relates to the matter of church government, 
 order, discipline, of which I am now saying nothing. I con- 
 line my>elf to the .-ingle point, that we find no example- in 
 
 the New Testament of the formal investment of men, after 
 
 the ap08tles, with the office of preacher.'"' Indeed, it could 
 
 hardly be othcrwi 'Hie preachers of the New Testament 
 take the place of the prophets of the Old Testament, and 
 these latter had no external commission. They belonged 
 
 * The laying of hands on Barnabas and Saul, Act-, xiii. ;>, was at their 
 
 appointment to a special mission, and that was by unurdaincd men. 
 
40 
 
 to no line of succession. They were outside of the priest- 
 hood. " Holy men of old spake as they were moved by the 
 Holy Ghost." Such holy men could not have ceased with 
 the incoming of the gospel, under which the Holy Ghost is 
 given more abundantly. We read, " He gave first apostles, 
 secondarily prophets." Again, the church is " built on the 
 foundation of the apostles and prophets," that is the apostles' 
 and prophets' foundation — that on which they built — hence 
 these must be prophets of the evangelical, not of the legal 
 dispensation. In the apostolic church prophecy was one of 
 the gifts of the Holy Ghost, and that which had been largely 
 bestowed (according to St. Peter's interpretation of Joel, to 
 which we have already referred), on the day of Pentecost, 
 when Moses's wish that " all the Lord's people were pro- 
 phets" was, so far as they were qualified, fulfilled. 
 
 All this, it may be replied, is very true, but no argument 
 can thence be drawn for unordained preachers now. Those 
 times were original and peculiar. The church was just coming 
 into being ; order was not yet established. The work of the 
 church was not yet distributed. The elements of, but not 
 organization itself existed. For the while believers generally 
 might be preachers, especially when the Spirit was so abound- 
 ing, and all were glowing with their first dove impelling 
 them everywhere to tell of the great salvation. Be it so, I 
 answer, but there the Scriptures leave us, and if they leave 
 us without any order established as to the matter in question, 
 then for no subsequent order can we claim scriptural obli- 
 gation or precedent. We may plead antiquity (though 
 that on the point before us is denied), expediency, eccle- 
 siastical enactment, but not divine authority. But the 
 church, in its* earliest stages, was not without order. The 
 community of believers in Jerusalem maintained its fel- 
 lowship with the apostles, and was in due subordination to 
 them. In the ordination of the seven there was an instance 
 of formal induction into office, and the same might, and 
 would have been done in the case of preachers had it been 
 deemed necessary. Seeing it was not done we conclude it 
 
41 
 
 was n<>t i aary- The omission Is not to be explained by 
 referring it to a comparatively chaotic Btate of the Church. 
 Ir i> one of the proofs that the apostles did aothing to restrict 
 the " liberty of prophesying." Their example is precedent 
 for all times. 
 
 "The ages "t' the church,* next succeeding the apostL 
 Bupport, by their practice, this our interpretation of the New 
 Testament. A.monemen aot in holy orders may be reckoned 
 apologists, theologians, and church historians. The learned 
 Origen was a teacher of theology, and a preacher of the g< 
 pel, distinguished for his success in making converts,*)" 'at 
 least seven years before he could be ordained deacon by the 
 canons of the church.'*): lie was permitted by the bishops 
 of Cesarea and Jerusalem to preach publicly in their pre- 
 sence. And lie is defended on this ground : that ,% whenever 
 there are found those qualified to benefit the brethren they 
 were exhorted to address the people,^ — of which several 
 instances are cited. Laymen also became successful mission- 
 arii I might refer to the practice of later ages of the 
 
 Church, to the preaching lay orders of the Church of Rome, 
 and other examples, but that would cany us ton far. 
 
 Returning now to the New Testament, the prophesying of 
 those times was inspired preaching, or as it lias been 
 defined — "Discourse flowing from the impulse and reve- 
 lation of the Spirit, which not being attached to any par- 
 ticular office in the church, but improvised, disclosed the 
 depth- of the human heart and of the divine counsel, and 
 thus was exceedingly effectual for the exhorting:, enlighten- 
 Lng, and consoling of believer-.'" Answering to these v 
 
 ♦From an able pamphlet, entitled, " Lay Co-operation : a Report by a Com- 
 mittee "f tin- Western District Missionary Association of the [Protestant Ki>i>eo- 
 pal Choroh in .V report, in the principles with which it bc r 
 
 its argument, i with my postscript, but its authors, I pn - ild not assent 
 
 to my pi inferences. Their object, thou silent, is a different one. 
 
 f Eue EccL Hist. 15. vi. c. 3. 
 
 \ Bingham's Origines Bodes, li. iii. c. 10, sec 
 
 s. Busebius, EccL Hist 15. vi. c 19, towards the end. 
 
 || Meyer as quoted by A 1 ford on 1 Cor. \ii. 10 
 
42 
 
 have prophesying now in men endowed with high gifts of 
 nature and grace, mighty in the testimony of Jesus, full of 
 zeal for truth and righteousness, with piercing intelligence 
 and fervent spirit, speaking effectually to men's hearts and 
 consciences, rightly applying the divine word to the circum- 
 stances of the times, as if it were spoken just for those times, 
 detecting and portraying in vivid imagery the sins of nations 
 and individuals, ever prophesying of the speedy coming of 
 the Lord. 
 
 Such are the successors of the New Testament prophets. 
 We contend for successors of the apostles, why not of the 
 prophets ? not, however, of any ecclesiastical lineage. The 
 laying on of hands has nothing to do in making them.* They 
 may minister as pastors and teachers in their respective com- 
 munions, but in their higher ministry they are for all com- 
 munions, and so should be received. They believe they are 
 called of God to proclaim His word. They profess that as 
 their warrant for proclaiming it. Surely if they are so called 
 it is no light thing not to acknowledge them. The church 
 which disowns them as prophets of the Lord, simply because 
 they do not conform to her peculiar order, does so to her 
 loss, if not at her peril. 
 
 But how shall we be satisfied that men are called by the 
 Holy Spirit ? I answer, in the same way that we are satis- 
 fied of it in regard to those of whom it is required in order 
 to their ordination to our ministry. We accept their trust, 
 their own persuasion that they are called, provided it be not 
 contradicted by false doctrine or ungodly lives on their part. 
 So, if there be men who trust that they are called to preach 
 Jesus Christ, and who do truly preach Him, whose preach- 
 ing God blesses by making it the means of saving souls, who 
 lead godly, righteous, and sober lives, who stand the Saviour's 
 test, " by their fruits ye shall know them," who can appeal 
 to their converts, like the apostle, for the seals of their minis- 
 try, I see not how we can shut them out from ever appear- 
 
 * "We nowhere find prophets made by ordination." — Hooker. E. P. v. 18.6. 
 
i:: 
 
 ing among u<, for the one reason of their lacking episcopal 
 ordei sing, as [have Bhown,"that in their characters as 
 
 preachers they require no orders at all. This, indeed, applies 
 
 in its full force to those who in their extraordinary gifts and 
 evident tokens of their divine mission, have the Btamp of 
 prophets. But as prophets and preachers are of one gem 
 and neither depend upon ecclesiastical commission, all 
 should he everywhere recognised and welcomed, so far as 
 they are good men and true, ami main test the evangelical 
 and catholic spirit which is indispensable to the profitable- 
 ness of their ministry among Christians at large. 
 
 These views Beem to me so radically true, that I am loth 
 to think there is any positive harrier in our church to their 
 acceptance. She ordains bishops, priests, and deacons, hut 
 none -imply a- preachers. What then becomes of men who 
 confess to no call to he bishops, priests, or deacons, but who are 
 right -ure that they are called to he preachers? Shall they he 
 told that they dare not he the latter, unless they are one or 
 other Mt" the former? That was the grand mistake which the 
 Church of England made with the Methodist preachers. She 
 forgot the prophetical oiHce of the church. She did not own 
 a preacherhood. — The preface to our ordinal forbids the 
 exercise of priestly functions to anyone not having episcopal 
 ordination, and if preaching is necessarily a priestly function, 
 then no man may preach among us without that qualification. 
 But I have Bhown that it is cot. It might seem, indeed, as if 
 the Church wholly merged the prophetical in the priestly office, 
 hut that we cannot suppose. It would he too contrary to 
 ripture. It would he to confine the Spirit's git'; of pro- 
 phecy t<> limit-, to the like of which it never has been con- 
 fined. It would lie to sulfocate divine inspirations— I had 
 almost said to Bmother the Holy Spirit. An Apostle has 
 said, " Quench not the Spirit," which, it is remarkable for 
 our purpose, he says in connexion with "Despise nol pro- 
 phesyings." The church, then, not meaning wholly to merge 
 the prophetical office in the sacerdotal, must admit its exifi 
 ence outside n[' her ordained ministry, and admitting that. 
 
44 
 
 she cannot forbid its exercise within her pale. On the whole, 
 I conclude that the language of the ordinal is irrelevant to 
 the point in hand. 
 
 " He gave some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, 
 and some pastors and teachers, for the work of the ministry ' 
 (Eph. iv. 11, 12). From this distribution it would seem that 
 a person might exercise one of these offices and none of the 
 rest. He might be a prophet or evangelist, and not an apostle 
 or pastor. But with us a clergyman is expected to be more or 
 less of all, except an apostle. Let our church set about this 
 distribution, this division of labor, and if the Holy Ghost be 
 indeed in the midst of her dispensing His manifold gifts, and 
 if she desires, above all things, rightly to use the dispensation 
 of the gospel committed to her, she will find among her mem- 
 bers prophets, evangelists, preachers, exhorters, and teachers, 
 in men qualified to be such, and yet not calculated for, nor 
 desiring admission to, the ranks of her regular ministry. Nor, 
 if the Holy Ghost be in the midst of her, will she fail to 
 discern prophets of the Holy Ghost in communions round 
 about her, holding a faith identical with her own. — Discerning 
 them will she hold no fellowship with them ? Will she 
 refuse to let her people hear them ? Will she utterly ignore 
 them ? Rather will she not hail them as co-workers in spread- 
 ing the gospel? Will she not show that she discriminates 
 between them and others preaching in the name of Christ 
 but not preaching His truth? To treat all prophets beyond 
 her pale, true and false, alike ; to regard the former with no 
 more favor than the latter, may be very prudent, but hardly 
 the dictate of zeal for the truth, or of confidence in its power 
 for good, notwithstanding some admixture of error. It is 
 well to protect the Gospel by our canonical inclosures, but 
 not well to prevent it, on its free course around, from ever 
 coming within. 
 
 ~No church could more consistently pursue the liberal course 
 here pleaded for, than one which is so truly liberal in her 
 spirit, and tolerates every variety of theological sentiment not 
 at variance with the faith. One, too, which from her safe- 
 
45 
 
 guards for the truth has so little to fear from contact with 
 her neighbors. "With her scriptural liturgy, at once her wall 
 of defence, and touchstone for her people to " try the 
 spirits," what damage could they take from a distasteful 
 or erroneous expression by a more zealous than accurate 
 preacher? Should her Arminian members occasionally hear 
 a Calvinistic statement, or vice versd, what more would it 
 
 be than they now hear from her own preachers divided on 
 those theologies 8 As an ancient branch of the Catholic 
 Church, as Evangelical as Catholic, and venerated as Buch by 
 her Protestant sisters, may >he use the advantages of her 
 acknowledged position among them, for a leading pari in a 
 joint advancement of the glory of her Lord and theirs. 
 
 I conclude with answering a practical objection which 
 it is easy to anticipate : " Supposing the theory true, still the 
 acting upon ir would be a serious evil which would out- 
 weigh any possible good. Instead oi' listening for edification 
 to their own pastors, people would be on the look-out fornew 
 preachers. 'What denomination are we to have to-day V 
 would be the question on going to church. It might suit the 
 lovers of religious dissipation, but not grave and earnesl wor- 
 shipper.-.*' All this I grant, and worse, too, mighl follow, 
 were it the custom for preachers, other than our own, to offi- 
 ciate at our regular services. But it is not that which is pro- 
 posed, nor would that he desirable. Nothing Bhould inter- 
 rupt each communion proceeding with its staled rites and 
 usages in its <>wn way. The object is not to do away their 
 differences which consist with their substantial oneness. Their 
 several priesthoods, 1 mean their ministries celebrating the 
 Christian rites after their own modes, exhibit their diversity 
 
 — their owning a common preacherhood would manifest their 
 unity, and their manifestation of this should he on special 
 occasions tor the purpose, and not, or rarely, on the ordinary 
 occasions of public worship. The preacher would then address 
 himself to a congregation who had come to hear the testi- 
 mony from his mouth. It" he delivered it in a right spirit 
 they would have no right to he offended at any peculiarity 
 
46 
 
 lie might fall into of theological dialect. It enlarges our 
 capacity for the truth to hear its notes in the varied tones 
 which it takes in different minds. Congregations of the 
 Testimony, so to call them, might meet at convenient times, 
 in the different houses of worship of the several consenting 
 communions. And why not in our own ? Why might not 
 our churches be opened, at other times than those of their 
 regular services, simply for the preaching of the Gospel, not, 
 indeed, wholly without any acts of devotion, especially such 
 as the singing of hymns, but mainly for the former as the 
 great object in view? It would be on such occasions, when 
 the churches should be free and open to all, mission churches 
 for the time being, that discourses might be delivered, ad 
 popidum, by earnest and acceptable preachers of other 
 churches, as well as by those of our own, at the invitation 
 of the Rectors of the respective churches. Surely no harm 
 could come of it, while the great good would be done of show- 
 ing that underlying our church affection there is a deep 
 affection for the truth by whomsoever proclaimed, and that 
 with all our scrupulous observance of church order, we dare 
 not disown the higher order of Him, who calls whom He 
 wills to be prophets of His word. There would thus be an 
 advance, I have proposed nothing more than an advance, 
 towards union. * If even for that we are not ready, may 
 the Lord, if it be for His glory, hasten it in His time. 
 
 W. A. K 
 
 * The measure proposed in the " Memorial" for a free extension of Episcopal 
 orders, looks to a catholic organization of the Evangelical churches, and is advo- 
 cated in my Exposition of that document on the ground of consistency in our 
 church. What is here pleaded for is independent of that, and might, on our 
 part, be preparatory to it.